Kwame Brown had time this week.
And to many NBA Twitter heads, it was time well spent.
The former No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 Draft let loose on Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes, and Gilbert Arenas after an All The Smoke podcast that Brown took offense to.
So let’s break down the beef.
THE CONTEXT
Brown is a former No. 1 pick who was labeled as one of the biggest busts in NBA history despite making it to the league from absolutely nothing. He’s been mainly quiet since he stopped playing in 2012. Barnes and Jackson also played in the league for a while and were known as two of the toughest players in the NBA. Now, they are all over the media landscape and have one of the most successful sports podcasts right now.
THE CONFLICT
On a few podcast episodes, Brown’s name has come up and on the latest one with Arenas, Brown became the subject of conversation again when Arenas said that Michael Jordan killed Brown’s confidence and compared him to a “show pony.”
THE AFTERMATH
Brown went scorched earth on everyone in sight. The big man brought up past women, their playing careers, and even their personal struggles.
Just look at these videos:
Barnes and Jackson responded to Brown’s comments by sort of kinda taking the high road while still throwing jabs.
Even after both Jackson and Barnes responded, Brown didn’t stop. He unleashed even more fire and threw Stephen A. Smith’s name into the mix for good measure as well.
THE RESOLUTION
There does not seem to be any resolution in the works.
If you are like most people, you didn’t have Kwame Brown emerging as the face of NBA beef right before the 2021 postseason on your bingo card for this year. So seeing this man completely detonate on these people was definitely a shocker.
As Black men in this country, I hope all these guys can resolve their differences amicably. It’s too much going on for us to be beefing over the internet with each other, especially Black men as rich as those three.
We have no idea what will happen going forward but we do know that the tension is up.