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Richard Jefferson: "His stretch of eight years was on par with Shai's years. Shai's going to get a statue in OKC. It's on par with Jokic. But somehow in LA, people are like, they glad that he's gone. Did you all forget what it looked like before he got there? It was boo-boo. And so that's to me when I start to see all these people, especially Lakers and LA people, because there's Lakers fans and then there's Kobe fans. There's LeBron fans and then there's Lakers fans. And that's where the clash in my opinion. The Kobe fans wanted nothing to do with Bron being in LA wearing that purple and gold because Kobe was their guy."
A recent, rapidly deleted post from two-time All-Star Stephon Marbury has ignited a brand new feud. In an overnight video that sent shockwaves through the basketball world before being abruptly scrubbed from his profile, Marbury directly targeted former NBA Champion and current ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson. The clip, though short-lived, made Marbury’s grievances loud, clear, and intensely personal.
According to Marbury, the tension stems from a recent face-to-face interaction that felt hollow. In the deleted video, Marbury stared directly into the camera to deliver a pointed message to the 2016 NBA Champion. “This message is for Richard Jefferson. You walked by me and you shook my hand. Now you gotta tell everybody why you don’t like me.” Marbury didn’t stop with the video. He took the confrontation a step further in the comments section of his own post, suggesting that Jefferson’s high-profile media gig won’t shield him from a real confrontation. “ESPN cannot gatekeep for you. We will make you come out and play, boy!” Marbury wrote.
In 2017, while working as a sideline reporter in Cleveland, she started the podcast Road Trippin’ alongside then-active Cavaliers players Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye. Ex-NBA center and ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins later became an official cohost in 2024. Road Trippin’ is considered one of the first and longest-running player-led podcasts. “It changed the trajectory of my career,” Clifton told Front Office Sports about the podcast. “For a long time, that was what people recognized me for. It was: ‘You’re Allie Clifton from Road Trippin’.’ It wasn’t the five years that I had done with the Cleveland Cavaliers as a sideline [reporter]. It wasn’t even my first couple of years in Los Angeles being a host for the Los Angeles Lakers. … When I’m able to kind of take a step back now and just understand kind of the fuel and the drive behind that and what it has served in terms of my career so far, it’s right at the top.”
Hosted by LeBron James, the luxury multi-country vacation featured core members of the historic 2015–16 roster, including Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, and Tristan Thompson, with Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova joining the group later. Despite playing in 13 games during that legendary postseason run, the 39-year-old Russian big was completely omitted from the planning. Speaking with the Russian outlet Sport Express on Friday, Timofey Mozgov revealed that nobody from the title-winning squad text messaged or called him to join the summer trip. “Yes, I saw the video of that party. No one wrote or called me. If I’d been invited, I’d have gladly joined. Of course, I’d have loved to be there too, to drink some wine,” he answered when asked if an invitation had been extended.
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Richard Jefferson on thhe group chat dynamics of the 2016 Cavs: "When we talk about the group chat from the team, there's like six of us, and it's been the same six. There was the full team group chat, then there was the guys that were J.R., Swish, Tristan, Kevin, Channing, and Bron. So that's the group of us. And then we start doing, hey guys, we should get together, do some golf and go do this, and then a conversation kind of got started is, and like, hey, it would be wrong if we didn't invite some of the other guys because it's going to look like, we're calling it this championship. No, it was the group chat from the championship team, not the championship team group chat."
The quips were references to a motorcycle accident that prematurely ended Williams’ playing career. The Duke phenom enjoyed a promising rookie year, but played only one season before the accident derailed his career. Although the comments may have been meant as playful jabs at Williams, they created an awkward moment that the internet quickly seized on. “For me, it was extremely uncomfortable,” Williams tells Front Office Sports. He says there was “no real tension,” but it was “awkward.”
Williams takes pride in the second career he has built in broadcast media over the last two decades as an ESPN analyst who is a regular panelist on shows like Get Up and First Take. “It’s about what you do after something like that happens,” he says. He and Jefferson go way back, having played against each other in the 2001 NCAA national championship game. Williams chose not to get into a back-and-forth with his fellow analysts in real time, but there was no stopping social media accounts from clipping the moment and websites from running stories about it. “One of the things I hated about the moment is that, you know, a lot of times things get said and it becomes a viral moment, but I don’t like when the viral moment becomes about me when I’m there talking about these young people where the moment was about them,” he says.
Williams takes pride in the second career he has built in broadcast media over the last two decades as an ESPN analyst who is a regular panelist on shows like Get Up and First Take. “It’s about what you do after something like that happens,” he says. He and Richard Jefferson go way back, having played against each other in the 2001 NCAA national championship game. Williams chose not to get into a back-and-forth with his fellow analysts in real time, but there was no stopping social media accounts from clipping the moment and websites from running stories about it. “One of the things I hated about the moment is that, you know, a lot of times things get said and it becomes a viral moment, but I don’t like when the viral moment becomes about me when I’m there talking about these young people where the moment was about them,” he says.
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Oh No He Didn't: Richard Jefferson on Jaylen Brown's name being mentioned in trade rumors: "If Luka comes up that's a compliment. If Giannis comes up that's a compliment, Jokic, if Shai, if those names come up you are a part of that class.
In a joint Instagram post Wednesday between James, Smith, Thompson and Frye, the caption read: "The group chat finally linked up." Another joint post between Jefferson, Love, Thompson and Frye included a video of Thompson delivering drinks to the group on the course, captioned: "We all have roles."
