I’ve always wondered what it must feel like to be Kwame Brown.
Most people would take tremendous pride in having a 12-year career in the NBA while collecting over $62 million along the way, but the former No. 1 overall draft pick is universally derided as one of the biggest busts in NBA history. And when you become the laughing stock of an entire sport, presumably, that has to weight on you.
For over two decades, the former Washington Wizard has endured an endless deluge of everything from light-hearted jabs to outright cruelty. His name has become synonymous with catastrophic failure, and he’s been dragged through more mud than a jeep tire. Nobody enjoys being bullied; we all have a breaking point. So after years of relentless harassment and disrespect, the former target of Michael Jordan’s ire has finally had enough.
See, what had happened was...
On the latest episode of Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s podcast, All of the Smoke, guest Gilbert Arenas does what he does best: talk shit. Only this time, he says some rather unflattering things about his former teammate Kwame Brown’s lack of confidence during their playing days and compares Brown to a “show pony”:
For whatever reason, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Because in response, Brown took to his YouTube and Instagram pages to tear Arenas, Barnes, and Jackson a wide assortment of brand spanking new, limited edition assholes for over an hour.
He dismisses Barnes as “Becky with the Good Hair,” calls Jackson a “fake Black Lives Matter activist,” and accuses Arenas of being a sell-out who stole “millions” from him—among other insults—as he empties the entire clip.
“You the right-hand arm of them white boys,” Brown sneers. “Nigga, you took millions out my mouth, nigga. You the whitest Black boy I’ve ever known.”
He continues, “I think you guys need to focus and channel that energy to some more real problems. And Stephen Jackson, maybe you can put that motherfucking blunt out and pull your pants up on your ass and put that rag down and act like a grown-ass man instead of a little ass boy.”
Once Jackson and Barnes got wind of Brown channeling Nas’ “Ether” with his response, they each waved the white flag on social media and insisted they meant no harm.
In a since-deleted video, Jackson outright accuses Brown of clout chasing.
“Everybody wants attention,” he said. “Say Kwame Brown, bruh, I love you to death. I don’t want no smoke with you. […] I wish you the best, little bro. Keep doing your thing. But we’re not gonna put you on. You had your opportunity when you was the No. 1 draft pick and laid an egg.”
Barnes, however, admitted that he knew where Brown was coming from on ESPN’s The Jump while insisting that Brown’s ire was misdirected: “Your anger is directed at me when I didn’t say nothing or do nothing. If you wanna be mad at anyone, be mad at [Michael Jordan] for taking you No. 1.”
Bruh.
This, of course, led to Brown taking to IG Live to sound off yet again on Barnes and take personal digs at his mixed heritage.
“You done stepped in that goddamn quicksand, boy. I ain’t gotta lie and make up shit,” Brown says. “When is this basketball joke gonna run out? You keep hitting me with basketball jokes. I keep hitting you with your real, soft-ass, punk-ass life.”
Look, man, I get it. If people were on my head non-stop for 20 years, I’d get fed up and spazz out too. Hell, I’m surprised he held out this long. But one thing is for sure: Y’all might wanna pump the brakes on those Kwame Brown jokes from now on because it’s abundantly clear that Brown is over that shit and he’s taking no prisoners henceforth.