Metta Sandiford-Artest on Knicks, Nets, and intentions to become head coach in NBA

Metta Sandiford -Artest has lived in Los Angeles for a while now, but his heart is still in New York.

He’s involved in several New York-based initiatives, including the Court Of Dreams Foundation. He also still roots passionately for the Knicks.

"I'm always optimistic about the Knicks because I'm from New York City," Sandiford-Artest, a Queensbridge native, says. "I would love to see them win a championship one day."

SNY caught up with Sandiford-Artest last week to talk about the Courts Of Dreams Foundation, a non-profit that restores rundown basketball courts across New York City. Sandiford-Artest -- who’s focused on investing in companies that can provide positive change like Planet Based Foods, Charge Enterprises and EZCareLink -- also talked about the Knicks, Nets and Lakers.

SNY: Courts Of Dreams is holding a ticketed fundraiser on Saturday. Why are you passionate about the work?

Sandiford-Artest: It’s so important for the community. Kids in the community need these courts. If we can refurbish one of them, we’re helping so many kids. They get a chance to play on the court. I think it's just super important. 

[Danny Cornstein, head of the foundation’s junior advisory board and the son of founder Marc Cornstein] is 16 years old and he really has a passion for philanthropy and basketball. So now he's giving back and kind of following in his dad's footsteps, staying close to the game. I think it's important to start early giving back versus starting late. You build a little character, have some substance about you. That’s part of why I like [the foundation’s work]. I like understanding a little bit about what it takes logistically and see how we could bring on more courts, refurbish more courts. That's really what's interesting to me. Even doing one (court) is incredible. That's an incredible thing to do. Maybe we can do 10, maybe we can do 100. That would be great.

SNY: What are your thoughts on the Nets this season?

Sandiford-Artest: You can't really control sometimes how players get injured. An NBA season just has a brain of its own. Obviously Kyrie [Irving], he couldn't play because he didn't wanna take the vaccine and he felt strongly about it. I know a lot of people didn’t agree with him and a lot of people did. I think he did what’s best for himself. 

I took the vaccine, but I understood where Kyrie was coming from because of the fear factor. Not only Kyrie, but a lot of people were fearful of taking the vaccine. I took the vaccine, but I was very fearful of taking it. The Tuskegee experiment. And if you don’t know a lot of African-American doctors or scientists that are making vaccines, sometimes you don’t trust whatever is being presented to you. I thought he was brave to take that on. That’s just my opinion. Everybody has an option. I’m not about to debate [that] because everybody’s entitled to their opinion.

But when Kyrie came back there was no chemistry. You can't build chemistry in 30 games, that’s impossible. And you got Ben Simmons’ injury and he’s got to get right in terms of emotionally, mentally and kind of get that in order, and I think the Nets will be fine, honestly. I think the Nets will be fine, It was a real unique year. I heard they lost a lot of money so that sucks.

But you have Steve Nash as a coach and you have these three amazing players and you still have Blake Griffin, who I would like to see him come in better shape next year. I would like to see him come in the best shape of his life next year. These guys have an opportunity right now. I think when you got Kevin [Durant] on your team, everybody else should be working on their body, working on their game. Kevin's gonna take you far, but sometimes he might need a little assistance, right. So you gotta be in shape.

SNY: What were your thoughts on the Knicks this season?

Sandiford-Artest: I'm always optimistic about the Knicks because I'm from New York City. I would love to see them win a championship one day. So I'm always just trying to figure out ways to be supportive versus looking at all the problems. Like, what's the solution?

It's a tough crowd. We know that. The city's tough, the media's tough. That's why I felt, you had somebody like myself who wanted to come back to New York City who embraces that pressure, but that's another story.

The league is full of competition, so I would just encourage the fans to stay off the owner’s back, stay off the organization’s back -- irresponsible quotes and irresponsible responses just because you’re emotional one day and you wanna attack the Knicks. Really just trust the process. The Knick fans, the real fans, kind of need to take a step back and just be supportive. Because with that support, when you feel that energy – I don’t care how long it takes – but with that support, I think it would be easier to bring a championship to New York.

A lot of times, the fans, they bite themselves in their own ass because they’re putting so much pressure on everything all the time. And everybody's different, right? Every human being is different. Everybody can't be like Michael Jordan or Kobe [Bryant] or like myself, where I was getting booted in my own arenas and I'll still shoot. Not everybody's like that. So as a fan, if your objective is to win a title, then you gotta really take a step back [and be patient].

I think once we get that combination, then you'll see more consistency. That old school New York team with Patrick Ewing, all those guys were tough. Those guys were tough mentally so they didn't really care about the boos. They didn't care about the writing in the paper. Those guys came to work, you know what I'm saying?

And I don't know if in this day and age, we have those type of players. The current situation probably is not ideal, but I'm just like, okay, what can we do to potentially win a title? That’s what I think about." 

I'm New York City, Queensbridge from the gutter. I stayed at La Salle, St. John’s, fought for the city. I don’t have a [strong] tie to the organization. I'm from New York. I'm the streets. You’re talking about someone that at the draft had the New York jersey under his suit. This is different. This is personal, you know what I'm saying? It’s very, very personal that we win a title. This is irrationally personal that we win a title.

SNY: What are your thoughts on the Lakers this season?

Sandiford-Artest: Frank Vogel, I think he did a great job. But it was tough. Lakers are a tough city, you gotta win.

And he wasn't able to get this crew together like fans would've liked. So they did what they had to do. So now I think the Lakers will be fine if [Anthony Davis] comes back better. LeBron [James] is fine. LeBron is incredible. And then [Russell] Westbrook, not the greatest season, but I believe in him. I think that all his issues are fixable to me, honestly. Every single one of them. He’s someone who I would definitely love to coach. A player like that, someone who you can help get out of a rut, that’s a real challenge.

SNY: You’ve talked about wanting to coach in the past. Is that still a goal?

Sandiford-Artest: I'm definitely trying to be a head coach one day in the NBA. I'm not really forcing it. I do have a couple people reaching out to different teams. But one day, I would love to be a head coach in the NBA. I still got a lot of unfinished business in terms of winning. Because of how I got suspended, I missed out on All-Star Games, I missed out on All-Defensive First Teams, I missed out on more championships. So I’m still motivated. ... I'm just as motivated as I was when I was a 15-year-old kid in the streets.

One day I do wanna win a title as an NBA head coach. That's my intentions.