Metta World Peace gets bounced in Big3 return to Detroit

Rod Beard
The Detroit News

Basketball fans have seen this show before.

The last time, it was much more serious; this time, it was more funny than anything else.

Metta World Peace — formerly Ron Artest in his earlier NBA days with the Indiana Pacers — made a return to Detroit with the Big3 on Friday night in the 3-on-3 pro basketball league.

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Peace, known for the "Malice at the Palace" brawl against the Pistons on Nov. 19, 2004, made another spectacle of himself. This time, he was ejected from the game and kicked a ball in the stands at Little Caesars Arena after he thought officials missed a foul call.

 

“(The officials) missed the call and they were trying to get it situated,” said Killer 3’s captain Chauncey Billups, a former Piston. “Ron just stole the basketball from the referee — and kicked it. I told him in the locker room: if you were going to kick it, you should have put it in the top row – it was a weak kick.”

The referees assessed two technical fouls and ejected Peace, within a minute or two after the game began. Peace’s team, the Killer 3’s, lost to Trilogy, 52-39.

Artest was suspended for the remainder of the season (73 regular-season games) and all of the playoffs for his involvement in the melee with fans at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

This time, the situation was a little more lighthearted.

“He can’t control himself when he comes in this city,” Trilogy’s Al Harrington joked. “At least it was a ball this time and not a fan.”

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