Metta: I was asked to throw SJU games
Metta World Peace is going to war against abusive sports gamblers.
World Peace revealed in an interview with Yahoo! Sports he was hounded by sports gamblers to fix games while at St. John’s, including even being offered $35,000 on one occasion to throw a game.
“I see the issues with betting,” World Peace, 38, said. “I’ve been approached in college. I got approached a couple times to throw games. The one interesting time, they come to me in my neighborhood and say, ‘Hey, you know, I got 35,000 for you. I’m like, ‘All right, that’s cool. I’ll take 35,000.’ They say, ‘Hey, we need you to throw a game.’ And that’s when I’m like, ‘You a--hole.’ ”
While World Peace, who starred at St. John’s from 1997-1999, said he ultimately turned down overtures to fix games, he admitted he was certainly tempted to do so.
“It crossed my mind. $35,000 just to throw a game. Not bad,” the Queensbridge native said. “But that’s the problem when you don’t have no money. They find these kids that don’t have no money and attack them. But it’s like, what if I was some kid who was like a little scared. It’s like, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’”
World Peace, formerly known as Ron Artest, believes the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling paving the way for legalized sports gambling could have a harmful effect on the well-being of young athletes. The former La Salle Academy star said legalized sports betting will only further increase the likelihood of gamblers manipulating unpaid college athletes for a guaranteed score.
“That’s the problem I have with betting because these guys that are betting are — they’re bullies, some of them are bullies,” World Peace said. “And they’ll force a kid into a situation, and then when the kid is trying to go to the NBA, they hold it against the kid.”
The NCAA, which is already dealing with the FBI’s investigation into corruption in college basketball recruiting, said they are “reviewing” the potential fallout from the Supreme Court’s ruling.
— Ari Gilberg
BOSOX POUND O’S
David Price took a shutout into the ninth inning and held the Orioles to five hits in his first complete game this season, leading Boston past Baltimore, 6-2, at Fenway Park.
J.D. Martinez hit a two-run homer in the first, and Xander Bogaerts homered with two on during a four-run fifth, giving Price more than enough cushion against the struggling Orioles.
Price (4-4) struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter while winning consecutive starts for the first time this season.
l Justin Turner tied a career high with five RBI and Kenta Maeda pitched eight innings to help the Los Angeles Dodgers beat host Miami, 7-0, and end a streak of six consecutive losses, all against last-place teams. With the win, the defending National League champions climbed out of the cellar themselves in the NL West.
Turner, who broke his left wrist in spring training and made his season debut Tuesday, hit a three-run double for the Dodgers’ first hit in the third inning. He added a two-run double in the fourth and also singled to finish 6-for-13 in the series (.462).
BOLTS EVEN SERIES
Alex Killorn scored the tiebreaker with about eight minutes left, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 36 saves, and Tampa Bay weathered the equivalent of more than a period without a shot on goal to edge Washington, 4-2, evening the Eastern Conference final at two games apiece. The Lightning host Game 5 on Saturday night, with Game 6 back in Washington on Monday. The road team has won every game in the series so far.
l Captain Patrick Kane scored two goals to lift the United States to a 3-2 win over the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the ice hockey world championship in Herning, Denmark. Kane netted the third-period winner to take the outright lead in the scoring table on 19 points, a U.S. record, with eight goals and 11 assists and set up a semifinal against Sweden on Saturday.