Magic Johnson Not Impressed With Ron Artest’s Name Change

During an appearance on “The Tonight Show”, Magic Johnson asked that Metta World Peace “come back down to Earth.” Right, good luck with that. From the LA Times: “Figuratively zipping his lips, Magic Johnson laid out a pretty decent reason why he couldn’t talk about the NBA lockout or the current Lakers. ‘Heavy fines if I talk about it,’ Johnson told NBC’s Jay Leno on the ‘Tonight Show,’ since he remains an executive vice president with the Lakers. ‘Like a million dollars.’ Apparently that zipper wasn’t too tight, because it only took a little bit of prodding before Johnson criticized Ron Artest’s decision to legally change his name to Metta World Peace. While Artest’s publicly stated he hopes the name change would bring more awareness to world peace, Johnson sees it as nothing more than a publicity stunt. ‘What is the announcer going to say, Jay?’ Johnson said. ‘How is he going to announce him? Ron, come back down to Earth please.'”