After his best performance of the season with a season-high 26 points in the win over the San Antonio Spurs (98-84), Metta World Peace let it be known that he was seriously considering retirement due to a painful back injury before this season began.
It has been fairly obviously over the last couple of years that World Peace has struggled in the athleticism department with almost no lift on his jump and appearing stiff, and one dimensional on the offensive end of the floor. Now it seems that there have been medical reasons for this via Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com:
“I just thought my body was maybe messed up,” World Peace said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, 15 years is a lot of years. I got two more years on my contract and I could potentially be done.'”
World Peace was having trouble getting lift, even on wide-open layup attempts.
“It controls your foot, the downward motion,” World Peace said. “So, if L4 and L5 is not working, or is compressed or inflamed, you might try to jump, but your foot, it’s not going to move. It’s not going to react.”
Obviously, the veteran forward’s career in the NBA is nearing the end. With just two years remaining on his deal with the Lakers, World Peace might be done in the very near future. Fortunately, in the absence of Kobe Bryant recently, the one-time NBA champ has stepped up his game and turned a lot of heads around the league and on the Lakers’ coaching staff as a result.
There still might be some life in those legs of Metta World Peace as the 15-year veteran tries to win at least one more ring before officially calling it a career. Whether or not World Peace can play out the rest of his contract in Los Angeles remains to be seen with some people believing that he might get amnestied in the summer with the Lakers trying to find ways to cut corners to prevent being hit with an enormous luxury tax.
