World peace is coming to China this fall, in this case in the form of Metta World Peace, the star basketball player who legally changed his name from Ron Artest in 2011.

Speaking to Larry King on his new Web show, the talented, and often controversial, World Peace said he had signed a one-year, USD$1.43 million contract for the 2014-2015 season making him the highest paid player in the Chinese Basketball Association, or CBA. World Peace negotiated with four Chinese teams before deciding on the Sichuan Blue Whales.

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The Chinese contract exceeds the NBA veteran minimum salary analysts expected World Peace to earn should he have stayed in the U.S. He was rumored to want to remain with the New York Knicks and re-unite with his former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson, now the Knicks general manager and former Lakers teammate Derek Fisher, now Knicks coach.

Knicks officials earlier this summer reportedly discussed giving World Peace a tryout following his career lows of fewer than 5 points and two rebounds he generated during a 29-game stint with the team last season. However, he was injured at the time and appears to have recovered.

World Peace has another incentive for signing with the Blue Whales and it has nothing to do with achieving world peace. The CBA season ends long before the NBA season ends. Presumably this would enable World Peace to latch on with an NBA team during its stretch run into the playoffs.

A Queens, N.Y. native who played collegiately at St. John's University, World Peace, 34, has been known as one of the NBA's top defenders through a career that also included stops with the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings and Houston Rockets. He won a championship with the Lakers in 2010 and was an all-star in 2004 when he was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

World Peace has been known as anything but peaceful during his turbulent career. He has been involved in a series of highly publicized confrontations over the years including a brawl in Detroit when he charged a fan in the stands who threw beer on him precipitating a full-blown donnybrook.

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