Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton believes that 36-year-old veteran Metta World Peace is having a profound effect on the team’s younger players.

Walton recently revealed that the historically unpredictable forward is a positive influence in the Lakers' locker room, as per Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report:

“He's part of the culture we're trying to build,” Walton said earlier in the season. “It's about having good people around [the team].”

World Peace has had an eventful career that includes the most high-profile brawl in NBA history when he played for the Indiana Pacers and random acts of aggression, such as elbowing James Harden during his first stint in L.A.

The New York native has his career back on track after testing times throughout his tenure in the league, which he accredits to cutting out alcohol:

“[I drank less] in Indiana, we were trying to make the playoffs. We had more things that were at stake,” World Peace said. “But in Chicago [with the Bulls], we were just plain losing.

“I would still drink but I didn't know how bad drinking was until my first season here. I didn't realize how bad the alcohol was,” he continued. “You can have casual drinks but one casual drink, that can cost you a game. If I went out, it was to the max, every single time. And we went out a lot.”

World Peace actually went on to state that he believes he is healthier now than he ever was in his youth, because he doesn’t drink.

“When I was 25, I felt worse than I do now,” he said. “I was still balling. You're young, you're going to be able to ball. But as far as my body? Everything was sore. Everything hurt. Every morning I had to get up and it takes a little while because [my body] hurts.

“Now I can get right up and just go,” he continued. “Nowadays I just chill in my room, maybe write a couple of songs or something. I'm doing three books right now, maybe four. I'm doing a sci-fi erotica. I'm doing a thriller and an autobiography.”

While we all wait with baited breath for World Peace’s sci-fi erotica novel, Lakers fans will be glad to know that the veteran is making good use of his career’s final chapters.