Metta World Peace Thinks the NBA Is Too Soft: “It’s Not Really a Grown Man’s Game Anymore”

He calls today's pro basketball players “babies.”

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

Metta World Peace hasn’t actually played in an NBA game in more than a year, but now that he’s back with the Lakers, he’s being reminded of the things he doesn’t like about the league. Specifically, World Peace isn’t a big fan of all the ticky-tack fouls that guys get called for. When he came into the NBA back in the late 1990s, the game was, in his mind, “a little more rough.” But these days, NBA players have turned into “babies.”

“The game now is more for kids,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s not really a grown man’s game anymore. The parents are really protective of their children. They cry to their AAU coaches. They cry to the refs, ‘That’s a foul. That’s a foul.’ Sometimes, I wish those parents would just stay home, don’t come to the game, and now translated, these same AAU kids whose parents came to the game—‘That’s a foul’—these kids are in the NBA. So now we have a problem. You’ve got a bunch of babies professionally around the world. It’s no longer a man’s game. It’s a baby’s game. There’s softies everywhere. Everybody’s soft. Nobody’s hard no more. So you just deal with it, you adjust, and that’s it.”

World Peace isn’t the first player to bring these issues up. But are you really allowed to complain about guys who want to keep the peace on the court when your name is World Peace? Pick a side!

Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.

[via For The Win]

Latest in Sports