Metta World Peace is the newest assistant coach for the Lakers' G-League team

Metta World Peace is finally into coaching.

On Monday evening, the South Bay Lakers announced they hired him as a player development coach, effectively calling it a career.

This was a long time coming for Metta World Peace. He’s had a thing for coaching over the last few years and coached a high school basketball team back in 2015.

The South Bay Lakers are the Los Angeles Lakers’ G-League affiliate. The team is coached by Coby Karl, the son of former NBA head coach George Karl.

Why this matters

The Lakers wanted to offer him a coaching job after training camp last season, but he preferred to continue his playing career and serve as a mentor to players in the league.

This officially puts a bow on a 17-year career for Metta World Peace. He’ll certainly be a Hall of Famer with a championship, a Defensive Player of the Year award, and four selections to the NBA’s All-Defensive team.

Now he’ll get his chance to grow as a coach and a mentor to young players in the Lakers’ organization. In a 2016 interview, World Peace told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that his goal was to someday be a professional coach.

“When you get a chance to be around something that you're going to watch on TV anyway, I mean, that's just a great opportunity,” he said in the interview. “I'm going to watch basketball regardless of whether I coach or watch it on TV. Same thing with boxing and same thing with football. When you get a chance to be up and close to it, when you get a chance to contribute, that's just what's really fun about it.”

Now he’ll get the chance he was looking for.