- What's up, GQ.
I'm Richard Jefferson.
And today we're going undercover on the internet.
It's actually me.
Here we go.
Twitter, what's the password?
Did you say twinkle or tinkle?
I guess it's not tinkle.
"I love Richard Jefferson
"on ESPN and commentating.
"Am I a minority in this?"
Yes, you are a minority 1000%.
Maybe not at my job,
I think they kind of like me a little bit,
but for the most part, people on the internet
and television don't really like me.
I don't know how I have my job.
Posted.
"Was Richard Jefferson born bald?"
Ah, yeah, I think a lot of people are born bald,
male, female, whatever, Jerk.
"How does Richard Jefferson stay so bald?
"I don't understand the science behind this
"and I'd like the answers."
It's called genetics.
And I tell my kids all the time
when they ask why I don't have hair.
I'm like, "You're gonna find out, give it a few years,
'cause I went bald at 21."
So yeah, that's my story.
Thanks for bringing that up.
"How many weird, funny Jason Kidd stories
"do you think R Jeff has that he won't share on air?"
Well, we played together for eight years
and there were some relationships,
there were some breakups,
there were lots of things that happened.
So let's just say when you're teammates with someone
for eight years, you definitely have a lot of stories.
Was it eight years?
Maybe it was six.
There's a lot of stories.
And I bet you, he has more stories about me
that we cannot share on air.
That's part of being a good teammate.
"Richard Jefferson, ah,
"was on the Dream Team, right?"
I wouldn't quite call it the Dream Team,
but yes, I was on an Olympic team
and I am a proud bronze medalist.
So for all you Olympians out there, bronze is fine.
Don't let anybody minimize that.
Replied.
"People forget Richard Jefferson
"is in the bad tattoo hall of fame."
Okay, so first of all, let's talk about this.
The bad tattoo hall of fame, while it might be true,
there's a lot of people with bad tattoos.
They just hide them with sleeves.
Did I get this in a back alley when I was 17
on my visit to University of Arizona?
That is true, but I feel like there are far worse tattoos.
DeShawn Stevenson has Abraham Lincoln
and a $5 bill tattooed on his neck.
If they want to cut to that shit.
I'm not the worst, but it's definitely up there.
And let me say, just 'cause you guys can see that one,
doesn't mean it's the worst tattoo I have.
I have far worse.
All right.
"Who's best in the NBA right now, LeBron or Steph?"
Neither of those fuckers are the best.
There's guys that are far better
than both of them.
Maybe not far,
but you would go Giannis, Jokic, Embiid.
It all depends on season.
Who's a better player right now?
Well, look, LeBron James is still a force,
but he's been bawling and his team keeps losing.
So these guys are old.
These guys are dated.
These guys are so like five years ago.
Who was better to play with?
Well, LeBron 'cause I won a championship.
Steph is definitely a lot nicer.
There's always like this little fear
that if I don't play well, that LeBron's gonna trade me,
which is true.
Steph, you never have to worry about Steph being GM also.
Oh, Wikipedia.
When the world gets to pick how they want to talk about you.
Jefferson was born Los Angeles,
raised in Phoenix.
Both his parents are Christian missionaries.
True.
Moved the around frequently growing up.
Kinda.
He attended Moon Valley High School in West Phoenix.
West side, gotta love Phoenix.
He is an integral part
of the varsity basketball team that...
Integral? No.
I was the fucking reason.
That's not like LeBron James is the reason the Cavs won.
Well, I'm not the brag, but yeah, I was the LeBron James
of Phoenix for a basketball in Glendale, Arizona.
I guess most of that is true.
Quora.
What is Quora?
"What type of NBA player was Richard Jefferson?"
Funny fact , if you google my name,
the third word is stats, the next is like,
"Was he any good?"
I think it's 'cause a lot of the younger generation
doesn't understand that I was halfway decent
when I was younger.
So now they only view me as a guy
that averaged five points off the bench for LeBron.
"Do Kendrick Perkins and Richard Jefferson
really not like each other?"
Yes, in a way that there's like a sibling rivalry
or like we just wanna one up each other
and we wanna be better.
Personally, he thinks all of his quips
and the carry on and all of that stuff is funnier than me.
Meanwhile, I think all of my sarcasm
and like side jokes are a lot funnier.
But at the end of the day, one thing you remember,
everybody has that work friend that you crack joke with
and you have fun with and you have your inside jokes.
Well, he's my one work friend.
Reddit.
Don't let me down Reddit, because I feel like Reddit.
I've heard that Reddit doesn't mind me nearly as much,
but I could be wrong.
Here we go.
"How good was Richard Jefferson in his prime?"
See, a lot of these questions stem
from the fact that I talk like I'm a Hall of Famer,
but I was never a Hall of Famer.
I was never even an All-Star.
I'm not even that good,
but I was slightly above average in my prime.
"Where would he rank today?
"Where would he rank back in the day?"
I don't fucking know where I would rank.
It's not my job, but I was a lot better than most.
It depends on who you ask.
You compare me to Michael Jordan, I'm trash.
You compare me to Kendrick Perkins,
I was a fucking superstar.
"Why doesn't Richard Jefferson
"have a comedy special Netflix?"
See, thank you guys for pulling
some quality stuff from Reddit.
I feel like Reddit doesn't mind me that much.
"This guy's fucking hilarious.
"Every time he speaks I almost lose consciousness
"from laughing so hard.
"My favorite is when he says,
'Nice,' after a team scores 69."
It's not just scoring 69.
It could be he's shooting 69% from the field.
Nice.
And the only reason why I do it
and even though it's immature and it's sophomoric,
I think that's the right use of that word.
I'm not sure, I'm using context clues.
The 69 is just funny.
Life is too short.
Who gives a shit?
So I like to make that joke at any point in time,
even when some people are like, "Just a shade under 70."
And you're like, "Nice."
Either way, we're gonna get to the point.
"Is Richard Jefferson one of the most
"underrated players in the NBA over his career?
"Been listening to Road Tripping again while watching
"highlights and surprised at how good RJ was during his time
"with the NBA considering he was never an All-Star.
"What are your thoughts?'
Okay, let me tell you why I was never an All-Star,
outside of the fact that I wasn't really that good.
The reason why I wasn't an All-Star is because
I always played with two All-Stars most of the time.
I played with Jay Kidd, I played with Vince,
and I played with Kenyon Martin.
So Vince, even if hypothetically one of the few years
I was playing with him,
if I was having a statistically better season
or more impactful season,
he was gonna get voted in by the fans
'cause he is one of the most popular players in NBA history.
So coaches would look and like,
"They got Jason Kidd, they got Vince Carter.
We're not going to give him a third All-Star
unless their team is number one."
So I was always the first guy out of the All-Star team,
and they were never gonna give us three All-Stars
mainly because I was playing with two other All-Stars.
So was I good?
Yes, I averaged 20 points a game for playoff teams.
That's pretty damn good.
- [Interviewer] Would you say this was
a big three situation?
- Yeah, 100% it was a big three
because me and Jay Kidd would guard everybody
and Vince would just score.
So yeah, we did all the dirty work.
Love my guy, Vince, to death,
but he was more of like a scorer, not a defender.
So we kind of underrated this team.
We were really good and we lost LeBron James
on his way to lose in the San Antonio Spur in the finals.
So Bron pretty much dismantled the three of us
when he was 22 years old, still hurts to this day.
But I'm glad it helped build up his confidence
because I ultimately won a championship with the idiot.
Instagram.
I don't fucking know. It's Instagram.
Oh, this is me in high school.
Again, "You look like Giannis in this picture."
"Anyone see a little Giannis?"
Why do they keep thinking I look like Giannis?
I guess I could be one of his nine brothers
that he apparently has that all play in the NBA.
Let me tell you about this shoot really quickly.
So this shoot right here,
I was an unknown kid out of nowhere.
So if you remember Tracy McGrady back in the 90s,
Tracy McGrady came out of where.
No one had ever heard of him.
You know this pre-internet days.
So Tracy McGrady basically became the number one player
in the country and went on to be a top 10 pick.
So the following summer, which was my class,
everybody was like, "Who's the next Tracy McGrady?
Who's the guy that no one's ever heard of?"
Well, I'm from Glendale, Arizona.
I didn't play in 80 AAU tournaments.
So they were like, "Hey, that kid's come outta nowhere.
Who is that kid?"
So ultimately Sports Illustrated followed me around
for an entire summer to see how I was going to play.
And ultimately, I came outta nowhere
and ended up playing well, making McDonald's all American.
So this picture is from that shoot.
Random note, the person that did this is Seth Davis.
He's one of the huge guys on CBS College Sports.
So the first article he ever wrote was on me in high school.
And now he's one of the biggest guys.
You see him all the time during the NCAA tournaments.
Lives in my neighborhood, great guy.
TikTok.
Now we're getting into my shit.
Let's go.
Oh.
"Do you ever get the inside scoop directly
"from the source or is it always Woj?"
I get my information from Woj as he tweets
it just like everybody else.
Look, there are different type of analysts.
There are people that do all the navigating.
Like Perk is really good on this
where he wants to talk to agents and players and GMs.
That's Perks thing because he is really good.
I just enjoy watching it, absorbing it
and figuring out ways to make fun of whatever's going on.
So everybody's different,
but I get most of my information from Woj when he tweets it.
Because this is the thing about Woj and Sham,
is both of these guys, they keep it close to their chest.
They don't want me to do it.
That actually didn't really text somebody
or accidentally say something.
So their entire information, their entire existence
is based off of keeping stuff secret until it's time.
So I get my information from Woj the same time you guys do,
maybe a minute or two before.
"Richard, how come you can't grow a beard?"
First of all, fuck you.
I can grow a beard.
I choose not to grow a beard.
Why? Because...
Let me again, we're gonna go backstory here.
My dad is half black, half white.
So whenever he would grow out of beard,
it would turn red, right?
My kids got brown hair.
So when I tried to grow out of goatee when I was younger,
it would start turning auburn
and it would start turning red.
Then everybody would fucking talk about it.
So I was like, "Yo, fuck this.
Let me shave this off."
And then I'm just naturally bald.
So my whole head, I was just like, "You know what?
"After a while, it just becomes my look.
"And then it stays my look because everyone's like,
"'Yo, you've never changed.'"
It was like, "Well, because I went balded at 12.
And so now I look the same
from basically pictures at 22 up until right now."
Was that a good enough answer?
Why do I love TikTok?
One, because I'm awesome and I think I have a lot of funny,
awesome shit to say and other people like it too.
So I typically try and do it.
I didn't join any social media when I was playing,
because I'm somewhat of a crazy person
if you guys haven't figured out from this internet.
I'm a little special, so the last thing that I wanted
in my life is to have my content pushed out.
I started doing Snapchat, no big deal.
Snapchatter of the year at 35 at 2016.
It's part of my story, but...
So I was like, "Hey, listen if I start doing social media,
I think I can do it pretty well."
So I joined Instagram, I joined Twitter.
Don't really like either of 'em, but TikTok, that's my shit.
Once I get on there and I'm like,
"Oh, we just get to act weird and interact
with the community 'cause there's a very strong community."
And I'm like, "I'm a hundred percent in."
That's literally the only app I even open
at this point in time.
Okay. That's it.
I'm signing off the internet.
I've seen enough.
Thank you, GQ, for helping us go through all of the comments
of people that kind of like me, don't like me,
whatever, they have to deal with me.