NBA

Metta predicts NBA Finals appearance … for Lakers

Metta World Peace made an NBA Finals prediction, but it didn’t have anything to do with the Knicks.

The always-interesting forward sees the Lakers, who amnestied him this offseason, making it out of the Western Conference.

“I think the Lakers are going to go to the NBA Finals,” World Peace told ESPN.com on Wednesday at a book signing for “Metta’s Bedtime Stories.”

“I think Kobe [Bryant’s] gonna be healthy, they’re gonna get Pau [Gasol]. The Lakers are gonna make a big trade like they always do. They’re gonna get another good player, boom, boom, and they’re gonna go to the Finals. I believe it. Kobe’s gonna come back, he’s gonna play team ball, and Pau’s gonna play well.”

World Peace’s bold call goes against what most pundits are foreseeing. Most don’t think the Lakers will reach the playoffs, let alone the Finals, in a loaded Western Conference after failing to sign Dwight Howard. Bryant tore his Achilles tendon at the end of last season, and his status for the start of this season is unknown.

World Peace, a Queensbridge native, signed a two-year deal with the Knicks after the Lakers let him go, but he had less to say about his current team’s budding rivalry with the Nets.

“I just want apple pie. I don’t feel like talking,” World Peace told the website. “I want to go to Whole Foods, enjoy my Whole Foods and play with my teammates. I don’t have the energy to go back and forth with words because there’s just too many great things happening in New York City for me to be going back and forth.”

World Peace was asked about Brooklyn’s additions of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Andrei Kirilenko.

“Honestly, I don’t even know who’s on their team,” he said. “I’m not going to lie. I’m just happy to be a Knick. That’s it.”