Metta World Peace has been voted off 'Dancing With The Stars'.

The basketball player - who was formerly known as Ron Artest - and partner Peta Mergatroyd departed the celebrity ballroom contest last night (20.09.11) after failing to impress with their Cha Cha on Monday (19.09.11).

Metta said afterwards: "I had a great, great time ... It was awesome.

"All I want to know is who's coming with me? Peta was great. Everybody give a round of applause for Peta, she was awesome!

"Well, first I want to say thank you to ABC, thank you to Peta. I had a great time. It was awesome!"

The pair had scored 14 points out of a possible 30 for their performance, with judge Len Goodman slamming his footwork as "atrocious" and Bruno Tonioli advising him to work harder on his technique.

However, Carrie Anne Inaba praised his style, saying after his dance: "Now we know who the wild one is gonna be. You're sort of eccentric, and yet, kind of sexy. It works.

"Cha cha's a sexy dance, and I thought that worked, but it was kind of wrong for all the technical reasons."

The Los Angeles Lakers star's elimination came as a relief to fellow contestants Nancy Grace and Rob Kardashian who, along with their professional partners Tristan MacManus and Cheryl Burke, had been the final contestants to be told whether or not they would return to the contest next week.