Metta World Peace

Keynote Speaker

Metta World Peace's Biography 

(fka Ron Artest) NBA Champion and All-Star, Coach, Mental Health Advocate and Entrepreneur

Best known for the highs (making the shot that won the 2010 NBA Championship for the Lakers) and lows (the infamous “Malice in the Palace” brawl) of his career and his openness in discussing his struggle with depression and anxiety; Metta World Peace was awarded the “Mental Health Hero” award for his advocacy and activism. An authentic and  inspirational speaker, he shares his journey from the projects in Queensbridge, NY to NBA superstardom. 

Why Metta World Peace?

Long before Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and others brought the mental health struggles of professional athletes out of the shadows, basketball superstar Ron Artest (nka Metta World Peace) publicly thanked his therapist after making the shot that won the 2010 NBA Championship for the Los Angeles Lakers. To this day, fans continue to comment on the impact this public acknowledgement had on them. In turning to therapy, not only did he overcome a long family and personal history of anxiety and depression, he was a key player in breaking down the stigma commonly associated with mental health issues.  Infamously associated with the “Malice in the Palace” incident between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons, Metta went on to find redemption and commit himself to helping others, earning the NBA’s citizenship award. Now an entrepreneur, mental health advocate and inspirational speaker, he shares his very public journey with mental health, as profiled in the award-winning and Emmy-nominated Showtime Sports documentary, Quiet Storm: The Ron Artest Story, featuring teammates Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and other NBA legends.

About Metta World Peace

We have long admired athletes for coming back from injuries, addiction or other hardships, but until NBA champion Ron Artest (nka Metta World Peace), none had so publicly triumphed over mental illness to reach the highpoint of their career. Metta World Peace’s inspirational story, told in the multi-award-winning and Emmy-nominated Showtime Sports documentary, Quiet Storm: The Ron Artest Story, is a moving example of the importance of mental health treatment and its impact on our personal and professional lives.

More about Metta World Peace

Metta World Peace (Ron Artest) played professional basketball for 18 years, becoming an NBA All-Star and earning a world champion ring as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. He also played for the New York Knicks, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls, and internationally with the Chinese Basketball Association’s Sichuan Blue Whales and Italy’s Pallacanestro Cantù. Known for publicly sharing his battles with anxiety and depression, World Peace became a respected advocate for mental health and was honored as a “Mental Health Hero.” At a time when the mental health struggles of professional athletes were rarely acknowledged, he gained acclaim for publicly thanking his therapist after making the championship-winning shot for the Lakers in 2010. He then raffled his championship ring to benefit organizations that provide mental health services to underserved communities and appeared before Congress as a champion of the Mental Health in Schools Act. In 2011, World Peace received the NBA’s citizenship award for confronting his mental health challenges and turning around a career that had previously been known for violence and volatility.

Today, World Peace continues his mission to build awareness for the importance of mental health, particularly in underserved communities like the one that he grew up in in Queensbridge, NY. He is the Chief Impact Director of OOTify, a social impact technology platform that provides mental health infrastructure such as therapy, coaching, education and other innovative mental health solutions to enterprises such as hospitals, corporations, universities and nonprofits. He is the founder and chairman of Artest Management Group, currently raising a $1 billion venture fund to support his portfolio companies with marketing, strategy and other support. 

Metta World Peace appears frequently in the media. He is the author of the 2018 autobiography, No Malice; My Life I Basketball or: How a Kid from Queensbridge Survived the Streets, the Brawls an Himself to Become an NBA Champion, an unvarnished account of his difficult upbringing in a family with mental health issues and a neighborhood immersed in drugs and violence. He also speaks honestly about his volatile life on the court and the “Malice in the Palace” brawl which earned him the longest suspensions in NBA history. World Peace is also the subject of the multi-award-winning and Emmy-nominated Showtime Sports documentary, Quiet Storm: The Ron Artest Story, featuring teammates Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and other NBA legends.

An inspirational speaker, Metta World Peace has appeared before a variety of audiences, including FII in Riyadh, the Milken Institute, SALT, UCLA Health Systems, USC School of Social Work, Claremont Graduate University, and the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

Keynote Pogrammes

BE ON TOP OF YOUR GAME BY TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

Knowing you need to take care of your mental health is a sign of strength these days, however, this was not always the case. Especially in sports, athletes were often afraid to seek help to deal with the pressures of the game and life in general. Perhaps, fearing it would make them look weak, athletes often suffer in silence or if pressures become too much to bear, act out. Metta is one of the first professional athletes to publicly speak out on the topic of mental health and has helped raise awareness and remove the stigmas often associated with mental health issues. Through his persistent advocacy, Metta has been a key player in destigmatizing mental health issues, He speaks from experience and is a living example of  how getting support has helped improve his life and game. In this riveting talk by the former NBA champion, you will learn that  to be on top of your own game, mental health and wellness must be prioritized. Audiences will walk away recognizing the importance of seeking help, learning how to find support when they are in need and how to support others that may be struggling.

TO BE A CHAMPION YOU NEED HUSTLE, REINVENTION, AND TENACITY

It takes more than just desire to become a champion. You need hustle, tenacity, and reinvention to achieve big goals. When Metta Sandiford-Artest was growing up in Queensbridge, he had to overcome many obstacles to reach his goals—from surviving the streets of queens bridge New York in poverty, becoming a parent at 16 years old,  to handling his own mental health issues, all odds were stacked against him.Over the course of his career he went from league-wide disgrace to fan favorite. In this exciting talk by the former NBA champion, Metta will take you from the streets of Queens to his NBA championship with the L.A. Lakers. Audiences will learn that regardless of the circumstances you come from, with hardwork and perseverance, anything can be possible. You need to find your desire, seek good mentors, work harder than everyone else, learn from your mistakes, and never give up.

FIRESIDE CHAT WITH METTA WORLD PEACE

Over his career, Metta Sandiford-Artest has been an NBA champion, actor, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a spokesperson for mental health issues. In this fireside chat, you can enjoy the authentic experience of hearing behind-the-scenes’s stories of Metta’s career from NBA bad boy to being honored with the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Audiences will come away with a deeper understanding of what it takes to be a champion, how to take care of their own mental health, and get business tips from Metta’s life as a venture capitalist.