Metta World Peace
NBA player Metta World Peace poses at the IMAGINE Ball LA Benefit Concert in West Hollywood, California August 6, 2014. Reuters

Former NBA player Metta World Peace, formerly known as Ron Artest and now goes by the name of The Panda’s Friend, is bringing his weird antics to China. World Peace will be playing for Chinese Basketball Association’s (CBA) Sichuan Blue Whales but he’s already showing his A-game— at least, in basketball fashion.

The always controversial and constantly strange basketball player took to Twitter to show the fans his latest venture:

Here are the shoes I'm playing in this season."The Panda's Friend" performance shoe. Available in… http://t.co/v63e6j8Jws

— mettaworldpeace.com (@MettaWorldPeace) September 22, 2014

courtsideaccess.com posted the images of the new basketball shoes which features a panda head on the tongue and panda arms on the side. Fans and basketball shoe fashionistas were excited about the new release, albeit some are sarcastic or plain mean:

Should I get in line now? Where can I get them?? RT @TheSportsDude: I love the new @MettaWorldPeace Panda Shoes pic.twitter.com/EXmbPxxUn1 — Dave Sanchez (@kroqkom) September 22, 2014

Hey, @MettaWorldPeace, where can I buy these? pic.twitter.com/L6aFDH4WDn — Aubrey Nicole (@heeeyitsaubrey) September 23, 2014
“@bassistloaded: @BleacherReport @MettaWorldPeace looks like they just put a bear head on some Payless classics” Lol — mettaworldpeace.com (@MettaWorldPeace) September 23, 2014

“…before every game, I will be wearing the white or black shoes. The top part of the shoe has a panda on it. I will be throwing it to a friend in the crowd. The person who catches it will be the Panda’s Friend of the day,” World Peace said in the same courtsideaccess article.

However, a Twitter post by World Peace retracted that statement:

The bear is not detachable. The Teddy bear is a permanent and is the pandas friend! The ears on the side are also not detachable. Enjoy

— mettaworldpeace.com (@MettaWorldPeace) September 22, 2014

There is no official news if indeed Metta World Peace will be wearing the basketball shoes for actual games for the Sichuan Blue Whales. But for the sake of his team’s chances in the upcoming CBA season, Chinese fans are hoping that World Peace will be taking basketball more seriously than how the former NBA player treats his basketball shoes.