While the basketball world was focused on Inglewood during this weekend, something dramatic happened down under. Australia apparently didn’t want World Peace. Metta World Peace that is. The highly anticipated Summer Jam streetball festival in St. Kilda will take place from February 20 to 22. It was supposed to be headlined by NBA legends Metta Sandiford-Artest and Lance Stephenson. While the festival was apparently keen, the country seemingly was not welcoming to a former champion and longtime teammate of the late Kobe Bryant.

Ron Artest, as he also goes by, posted one of his many outdoor lives. Since the days he was campaigning to be the Knicks coach last year, when he’s walking in the neighborhood recording a social media post, it’s never a minor thing.

“So sad that the future Nobel peace prize winner can not go to Australia,” he captioned that video where he announced that he won’t be at the festival and it’s not by his own choice. He says he’s been barred from travelling to Australia for this weekend’s Summer Jam streetball festival in St Kilda.

He claims that it’s the 22-year-old lingering fallout from the infamous 2004 “Malice at the Palace” brawl that broke out between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons.

It’s unclear if Australia has issued a lifetime ban on him or this is some bureaucratic glitch. According to Australian media outlets, the country has a “character test” under the Migration Act that can deny entry to individuals with a prior criminal record.

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Artest was charged with misdemeanour assault and battery to which he pled no contest and didn’t do any prison time. He, and most NBA players, however, have repeatedly claimed that they were unfairly stereotyped in that altercation.

Before Kobe Bryant was pushing Metta World Peace to lean into his tough persona, his aggressive style came under the microscope in that 2004 incident. Even though he was not the only one involved but it shows that the fallout still remains.

Palace brawl haunts Ron Artest beyond $11 Million consequence

In a separate, now-deleted post, Ron Artest said, “So because of the Malice in Palace and those manipulated edits by @espn editors, I cannot travel to Australia. A fan hits me, Detroit police and ESPN announcer blames the fan, whom is now a friend of mine, and I can not travel to certain parts of the world. All because I got hit in my work place and one person suspended me and 28 others agreed. Because someone hit me in the face with beer in my work place.”

What he’s referring to stemmed from what happened on November 19, 2004. The financial fallout was staggering; the ensuing suspensions led to a combined $11 million in lost salary for the players involved. Artest served a record-breaking 86-game suspension that cost him nearly $5 million individually and effectively altered the trajectory of the Pacers’ championship window.

Beyond the Netflix Untold documentary on the Malice at the Palace, the players involved expressed they felt it was unfair the NBA only punished the players involved. While the media portrayed this as aggressive NBA players losing control, NBA players cite it as an example of when hecklers go too far.

When Artest came to LA, he tried to reshape his image from a volatile player to a Metta World Peace, the mental health advocate. We can’t speak about a future Nobel, but he did win the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in the 2010-11 season for his community outreach.

Bryant didn’t always like it. The Black Mamba pushed him to abandon the passive mindset on the court for defensive toughness.

The defensive specialist, who was a cornerstone of the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2010 championship run, could’ve been scheduled to appear as a marquee guest for the streetball event. However, despite his transition into a mental health advocate and a businessman investing in international projects, his past continues to haunt his travel privileges.