Few people in the history of the NBA are funnier than Richard Jefferson. From his active refereeing career to his comedic Instagram content, RJ knows how to make people laugh. What people forget, however, is that before he was a pundit and part time comedian, Jefferson was an NBA player, and a quite good one at that!
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However, even good players get traded, and RJ knows that all too well. Recently, Jefferson had an opportunity to face the man that traded him, as former New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets general manager Bobby Marks made a guest appearance on Get Up.
“I have one man on your [Mike Greenberg] left that traded me from New Jersey, and another man that sent me to New Jersey,” he said, completely deadpan while Marks forced out chuckles.
It’s understandable why Jefferson has some bad blood as after being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in 2009, Jefferson would bounce from team to team before retiring in 2018. He played for the San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Denver Nuggets, and won a title with the Cavs in 2016.
It’s not that Jefferson changed his mind on being shipped out of New Jersey. He was pretty clear about it back then as well.
“It wasn’t about Milwaukee,” Jefferson said during his Bucks introductory press conference. “I could have been traded to Boston, I could have been traded to L.A. There’s not a place that I could have been traded to that I would have been happy.”
Jefferson did eventually settle in to life in Milwaukee, averaging a shade under 20 points per game at a strong 19.6. He and Michael Redd played quite well together and formed a solid pairing. In fact, it was RJ’s appreciation of Redd that eventually led to him enjoying his time as a Buck more.
“I don’t think there’s as much need for me to score 25 points a night. ‘Hey, if you can go and stop their best player and give us 18, 19 or 20,’ that’s where I’d like to be.” Becoming a three and D role player was what the Bucks had asked Jefferson to do.
“That’s probably going to be my focus now with a guy like Michael Redd,” Jefferson said, with a smile on his face.
