We can’t bring ourselves to casually refer to him by this name yet, but legally, Ron Artest is now Metta World Peace. That’s what announcers have to call him now. And as you’ll see after the jump, that can be a good thing.

We wrote about a fantastic series of tweets from Lakers forward Ron Artest Metta World Peace not long ago, so going to that well again so soon feels a little strange. But you will soon understand why we did – actually, more than that. You’ll understand why we had to.

The NBA lockout is still ongoing, and that makes a lot of people upset. One of those people: the Lakers’ Metta World Peace (formerly known, of course, as Ron Artest). Today, he let us all know just how much he wants to get back to work.

Starting today, Ronald William Artest, Jr. is no more. This morning, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge commissioner approved Artest’s request to be called “Metta World Peace,” a name change that Artest wanted to do last month but couldn’t because he had unpaid parking tickets.

With all of that ugly business out of the way, World Peace now reigns supreme. Celebrate with this ridiculous photo.

Yesterday was supposed to be the big day – the day Ron Artest’s name officially changed to Metta World Peace. Artest/World Peace even changed his Twitter name, and everything. But not so fast: the change isn’t official just yet, for a very Artestian reason.

If you’re a especially devoted Ron Artest/Metta World Peace acolyte, you might remember an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last year in which Artest mentioned that Celine Dion is his favorite singer, but he’d never met her. Last night, he fixed that.

After having a public declaration of his proposed name change published in the L.A. Daily Commerce for four consecutive weeks, Ron Artest is all set to become Metta World Peace at the end of the month.

According to the L.A. Times, Ron Artest is still unsure about whether he’ll appear on Dancing With the Stars. He does, however, plan to remarry his ex-wife. … “I haven’t thought about it yet. I like the show. Obviously, you have to dance. I play defense. I don’t know if I dance.” … And as far as his ex-wife, Kimsha, is concerned: “We’ve been together for 14 years. It doesn’t matter what our status is. We’re together. But we’re going to get married again. We’re planning to get married again. A nice big wedding. We’re good though.” [I am a GM]

Ron Artest can’t stay out of the news. Scarcely a day removed from him becoming the latest athlete mired in a cell phone penis photo controversy, we get a TMZ report on him. Fortunately for Artest, though, this one’s much less salacious.