On Tuesday, Metta World Peace described for reporters (including Janis Carr of the Orange County Register) his role definition in the Los Angeles Lakers' system under new head coach Mike D'Antoni: "The coach said, 'Go do you.' I said, 'OK, no problem. That's not hard.'"
So it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise, then, when World Peace followed up a big fourth-quarter corner 3-pointer that drew his Lakers within one basket of the visiting Brooklyn Nets by offering Brooklyn head coach Avery Johnson — all 5 feet, 10 inches, and (we're guessing) roughly 185 pounds of homespun rambunction — a nice, playful ol' head rub on his way back down the court. That is, after all, a pretty Ron-Ron thing for Ron-Ron to do. Behold:
It sure didn't seem like coach Johnson appreciated World Peace's gesture, which puts the 16-year NBA veteran in the company of fellow point guard Chris Paul, who famously freaked out after World Peace's Laker teammate Pau Gasol tendered a similar tousling late in a game between the Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers last season.
In an offseason interview with GQ magazine, the All-NBA point guard explained that he's still annoyed with the Spaniard for that too-familiar touch:
"We call that sonnin'," [Paul] explains [...] "Like when I take Li'l Chris to the bathroom, I'll walk with my hand on his head. That's my son. You know what I mean? I understand that Gasol is that tall, but don't do to me what I do to my son."
One suspects that "The Little General" doesn't feel all that comfortable with the idea of World Peace being his daddy; it's pretty hard to blame him there.
World Peace finished with 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting, eight rebounds, two steals and one loving head-rub in a team-high 39 minutes as the Lakers scored a 95-90 win on Tuesday night in D'Antoni's first game on the Laker bench. Kobe Bryant (25 points on 8-for-15 shooting, five assists, four rebounds) and Dwight Howard (23 points on 8-for-11 shooting, 15 rebounds, four blocks, three assists) led L.A., who have now won three straight and five of their last six since opening the season with a 1-4 mark that cost Mike Brown his job.
Brook Lopez (23 points on 11-for-18 shooting, seven rebounds, three assists) and Deron Williams (22 points, albeit on 6-for-18 from the field, 10 assists without a turnover in 37 minutes) paced the Nets, who continue a four-game West Coast swing with a trip to the Bay Area to face the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.
Video via nbainfos.
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