@KwameBrownBustLife Roasts Up Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson....AND GUESS WHO IS MAD?

@KwameBrownBustLife Roasts Up Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson....AND GUESS WHO IS MAD?

It’s totally understandable if you’d moved the name “Kwame Brown” to the archival part of your memory along with your college address, the zip code of your parents’ house, or the old door code of a building you long since moved from. I had as well, until this week, and I promise you that you’re not ready for what’s going on. Brown, now 39 years old and almost a decade removed from playing in the NBA, is back in the headlines again after a beef started from a podcast. It’s led to people unpacking Brown’s online life, which is full of old stories and conspiracy theories. It all kicked off because of a podcast. The “All The Smoke” podcast is a long-running show hosted by former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. Last week Gilbert Arenas was on the show on as a guest, and he began sharing stories from his time as the star of the Wizards in the early 2000s. Brown’s name came up during a section discussing how Arenas helped turn the woeful early ‘00s Washington Wizards into a contender. Now, to be fair, Arenas began by seeming extremely sympathetic to Brown’s entry into the NBA, highlighting how difficult it was to be entering the league as a teenager, being drafted by Michael Jordan who had unrealistic demands of Brown as a rookie, even bullying him in front of teammates, and pointing out that Brown had the tools to be great, even comparing him to Anthony Davis — but circumstance got in the way. However, in making his point, Arenas used two phrases that served as a flash point for this beef. He called Brown a “man child,” as well as a “show pony.” Two terms that were innocuous enough considering the conversation, but seemed extremely disrespectful considering the conversation launched off with Stephen Jackson clowning on Brown, mockingly saying he was “the best No. 1 pick of all time,” then immediately laughing at his own statement. Then Brown responded ... A few days later Brown listened to the podcast, and he exploded. Taking to his Instagram account to drop a tirade aimed not only at Arenas, but Jackson too. The two minute clip was full of insults hurled at the two, but also a promise: That he would take the time to set the record straight. Brown did just that on YouTube, and the world was not ready. Much of his ire wasn’t directed at Arenas, but rather Jackson — who seemed to be poking fun at him the most on the podcast. The video, which was over an hour, unloaded. “It’s okay to have an opinion, but it’s another thing to do what you guys are doing and then be in my face. Stephen Jackson — we was teammates and I seen you crying every time Charles Oakley ‘bout to slap the s*** out you, so I know you.” He went on to call Jackson an embarrassment, and said that he “quit on the team” when Jackson and Brown were playing together in Charlotte. Brown also took exception to Arenas, not so much the direct phrases he used this time, but rather the softness of tone, and acting like he defended Brown when they were teammates on the Wizards. “[Gilbert] he’s a little boy on the inside. He ain’t no man. He was at a draft camp, he was in our pre-draft camp and they asked him “What are your goals after basketball?” and he said “I wanna be a motherf***** pimp.” This boy had a child’s mind. So that’s why the guns, and all the dumb s***. He’d been doing dumb s*** the entire time.” Brown also went in on Barnes for goading Jackson into talking trash using some pretty off-color racial remarks about him “not being black enough to hang with the black folks, but too dark to kick it with the whites.” Whether or not the trio from the podcast deserved the response from Brown, he took offense at them talking about him at all, and had enough. Brown’s history with the NBA is complicated Perhaps the most interesting footnote of Brown’s response came early, when he rejected the widely-held assertion that he was drafted to be the face of the Wizards, and move the team on from the Michael Jordan era. On the contrary, Brown asserts that Washington had a trade in place on draft night to trade Brown to the Chicago Bulls for Elton Brand. https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2021/5/19/22442425/kwame-brown-beef-gilbert-arenas-stephen-jackson-matt-barnes

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