Free agent forward Metta World Peace is close to signing a contract to play for the Sichuan Blue Whales of the Chinese Basketball Association, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (Twitter link).
The 34-year-old forward last played for the Knicks in 2013/14 but was waived in late February. In March, World Peace sought a return to New York not too long after the team hired Phil Jackson as president of basketball operations; the latest we heard was that the Knicks were only mulling a training camp invite on a non-guaranteed deal. We also passed along that the Queensbridge native also had interest in returning to Los Angeles to play for the Clippers or Lakers, although talks about re-joining the purple-and-gold weren’t considered to be serious.
The Marc Cornstein client statistically had his worst season to date last year in a handful of categories, averaging a career low in points (4.8), rebounds (2.0), steals (0.8), and minutes (13.4) through 29 games. It’s interesting to wonder just how much World Peace has left in the tank after not playing much last season, especially considering his productive stat line when he was a mainstay in the Lakers’ rotation under Mike D’Antoni in 2012/13 (12.4/5.0/1.6/33.7).