Ron Artest: Why LA Lakers' Metta World Peace Won't Rally from Sorry DWTS Start

The 13th season of Dancing With The Stars premiered last night, and the one of the two athletes on the show fell flat on their face. 

No, Ron Artest, excuse me, Metta World Peace did not literally fall, but he did post the lowest score of the night at 14 out of 30, and it's going to be hard to recover from that.  

If you're a huge Artest fan then you might be naïve and blame it on his partner, first year pro Petra Murgatroyd, but the reality is that Artest just can't dance well. 

The LA Lakers' star is a great basketball player and one of the best lockdown defenders in the league, but his dancing skills are lacking. 

Give him credit for doing something during this NBA lockout, but unfortunately, he didn't start off so well. 

Artest needed to really shine on the first night because of his bad reputation on the court, and even though the viewers will feel for him and his story of how he is motivated by his daughter's survival from cancer at the age of four, he still has to dance well to move on. 

He danced the cha-cha-cha, and all the judges claimed he was entertaining but lacked technique.

It's no surprise that Artest's dance was entertaining because he is a funny guy, but I don't see him picking up better technique to really wow the judges. 

Gaining the viewers interest and getting votes will be difficult for Artest because he has to convince the non-NBA watchers that are so enthralled with Dancing With The Stars to vote for him, and last night he didn't give them any reason to. 

The name change isn't going to help as it will just confuse viewers, and it would appear Artest might be the first person voted off.

He should escape past the first round of elimination because of his attitude and approach to the competition, but there is very little chance he wins it all.

Artest is a true competitor, and I commend him for saying he thought his score of 14 should have been lower, and because of that, it will help keep him around.

He needed to show the audience he was serious about the show, as well as show people he could really dance. It's clear he's dedicated to the show, but his dancing needs to drastically improve for him to be a worthwhile contestant on Dancing With The Stars.