The Pandas Friend: Why Metta World Peace AKA Ron Artest Changed His Name, Again

Metta World Peace, formerly known as Ron Artest, now wants to change his name to “The Pandas Friend.” It was first thought the basketball player wanted to be known as “Panda Friend,” as reported by China’s English-language China Daily, but he took to his official Twitter account to set the record straight.

There was no explanation for the lack of an apostrophe (nor for the previous misspelling of "meta").

The athlete, 34, used to play for the New York Knicks before going to the Chinese Basketball Association's Sichuan Blue Whales. He was paid $1.43 million to play another season on the team, which makes him the highest-paid player in the league, according to China Daily.

So why does Metta World Peace want to go by “The Pandas Friend” (without an apostrophe)? He said it's all in honor of China.

Twitter users couldn’t help but comment on the name change, with many taking to the 140-character social media site to share memes about Metta's new name. Some of their posts have been listed below:

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