When it comes to the NBA, it is not always about happy moments between players. Sometimes players might be good friends but turn into rivals towards the end of their careers. That seems to be the case for former NBA stars Gilbert Arenas and Richard Jefferson.
The two players were great friends during their college days, but when they were drafted to the NBA, things changed. Although both of them have now retired from the league, they have some sort of a rivalry going on right now.
It began when Arenas revealed that he was shocked that Jefferson was drafted ahead of him in the 2001 NBA Draft. Following that Jefferson clapped back at Agent Zero on TikTok.
Well, Arenas gave an answer to those accusations by Jefferson in a recent interview. However, that’s not where the story ends. In the same interview, Arenas was also shown a clip of his former college teammate questioning what he did before the Final Four game in college? Arenas answered:
“You know so funny? He really got me with that one because I got hurt. So during the Final Four I was going for steal, uh Hudson, was playing Michigan state, Hudson and Zebo closed in the screen I was trying to jump through and tore a soft tissue in my chest. Like the rumor was I wasn’t playing the championship game because I couldn’t move my right arm. … Everyone there so I’m not doing nothing, that was the point. Who’s gonna believe that I didn’t do anything before the championship game? … I asked everybody and it was like you didn’t do anything and I was like clever ba***rd. If I actually said I didn’t do anything, with my personality no one was gonna believe it. So that means for me to match who I am, I gotta come out with some extreme s**t.”
(starts at 18:15)
As Arenas revealed, he was simply injured before the 2001 Championship game. But due to his personality, he was forced to come up with something to cover that.
Hopefully, that answers Jefferson’s accusations about Arenas and it will at least settle one sort of beef between the two.
