Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace achieved a fairly incredible feat on Tuesday night, playing 15 minutes of his team's 104-96 win over the New Orleans Hornets just 12 days after surgery on his left knee. With the Lakers needing every win possible to grab a spot in the playoffs, MWP has returned ahead of even the most optimistic timelines to help his team. He's not at his best, but he thinks the cause is important enough to play through pain.

Of course, that decision also probably means that he needs painkillers to deal with the discomfort, and in his postgame interview, we may have seen some of their side effects. Because, um, Mr. World Peace explained his ability to come back from injury with one repeated phrase: "I'm too sexy for my cat."

Watch the video above, and check out the transcript below (via The Point Forward):

“Well, you know, I’m just too sexy for my cat. I’m too sexy for my cat. My cat. I’m just too sexy for my cat. If I wasn’t as sexy for my cat, I probably wouldn’t have came back. I’m so sexy, I came back. Too sexy for my cat, too sexy to wear a sleeve or a bracelet [on my knee], so I had to come back. I felt sexy, I felt like my team was working, I felt like we wanted it. We just wanted to come together collectively. Play hard, do it together. … I’m definitely too sexy for my cat, definitely, we know that. I’m also too tough to let a meniscus surgery keep me out for six weeks. I’m too sexy for the cat.”

For now, let's put aside the amazing fact that Metta is charismatic enough to make those words sound merely eccentric instead of evidence that he is not fit to be a public figure. We must note that this phrase is not utter nonsense — it's actually a line from one-hit wonder Right Said Fred's 1991 smash "I'm Too Sexy." For those too young to remember, the song is about a man so sexy that he cannot function in the world. Also, as the song's music video proves, sexiness in the early '90s was defined primarily by mesh shirts and ill-fitting tank tops.

[Watch: NBA stars on the move]

I have no idea why World Peace would quote this line repeatedly. Maybe he listens to the song to get pumped up for games, thinks it's an unjustly mocked classic, or was hired for guerrilla marketing of the group's newest single. The world may never know.

At any rate, we wish MWP luck as he attempts to play through pain. We also will not complain if he runs through other early '90s superhits in future press conferences. May we suggest "End of the Road" after the next loss?

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