Gilbert Arenas recently took a jab at a former college teammate, and he may wish now that he hadn’t.
Richard Jefferson, who played with Arenas at the University of Arizona, roasted his former teammate in a TikTok video Tuesday in response to Arenas saying that he should’ve been drafted ahead of Jefferson in the 2001 NBA draft. Jefferson, now an analyst for ESPN, said that Arenas fell in the draft because he was an “immature a—hole.”
“Let’s talk about why Gilbert went from first round to second round,” Jefferson said. “It wasn’t because of his talent, because that man is a bad man. … But Gilbert was an immature a—hole. That’s just who he was.”
Jefferson was responding to Arenas’ comments about his entrance to the association during his Fubo Sports podcast, “No Chill.” Despite Arenas outproducing Jefferson at Arizona, the future Wizards star wasn’t selected until the 31st pick of the second round by the Warriors, while Jefferson was taken No. 13 overall by the Rockets.
“I was like, ‘How did they pick Richard Jefferson [ahead of me]? I’m the No. 1 scorer, I’m the best player on our team. He was option three or four,” Arenas said.
Jefferson, who played 17 seasons in the NBA and won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016, didn’t hold back when responding in a two-minute video.
Richard Jefferson absolutely eviscerated Gilbert Arenas in 2 minutes flat. pic.twitter.com/MwhcA6dEy9
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) February 23, 2022
He told two stories about stunts Arenas pulled during the pre-draft process, calling them “red flags.” The first was when Arenas declined to take a stress test because it would ruin his Chuck Taylor sneaks. The following day, Arenas said during a symposium with prospective draftees and teams that he wanted to be an “international pimp.”
“All of these things are the reasons why Gilbert just kept dropping — because he’s an idiot,” Jefferson said. “The fact that his brain still doesn’t process why he dropped down just lets you know who Gilbert is. And I love my guy, but he’s a little bit special.”
Arenas reposted Jefferson’s video to his Instagram story on Wednesday, adding laughing emojis and saying “I’m one of a kind.”
While Jefferson was the fourth option on the 2000-2001 Arizona team, he made sure to note that he outplayed Arenas in the national championship, which the Wildcats lost to the Duke Blue Devils. Jefferson scored 19 points on 7-of-13 from the field, while Arenas scored only 10 points on an abysmal 4-of-17 shooting.
Jefferson then ended his video with a reminder for Arenas that he may have even more unseemly information in his back pocket.
“And for extra credit, do you want to tell everybody what you were doing the night before the national championship game — the biggest game of our lives and looking back the biggest game you ever played in? You want to tell anybody? No,” Jefferson said.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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