Brandon Jennings instigated a short-lived back-and-forth with Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum back in January. This time, the former NBA guard is targeting two-time champion Jrue Holiday instead.
âJrue Holidayâs never been better than me,â Jennings said during a live stream with Gilbert Arenas. âJrue Holiday has never been better than me. He has a better career. They have better careers than me. Are you (expletive) crazy? They ended up becoming better but youâre not better than me.â
Jennings, better known for his high school career as one of Californiaâs most hyped point guards, lasted nine NBA seasons before retiring in 2018. Unlike Holiday, Jennings never made an All-Star Game, never made an All-Defensive First or Second Team â Holiday did so three times each â and Jennings never won a title. His biggest claim to fame as a former professional was scoring 55 points in his rookie season for a 46-36 Milwaukee Bucks team that got bounced in the first round of the playoffs.
Still, Jennings is adamant that fellow 2009 draft class member Holiday â along with Jeff Teague, Ty Lawson, Danny Green and Ricky Rubio â arenât better than him.
âThird year, (Holiday) made (the All-Star Game) over me because he had Doug Collins as his coach, and Doug Collins was (expletive),â Jennings said during a follow-up stream. â⊠Doug Collins was over here sending everybody fruit baskets, vote for Jrue Holiday. The (expletive). That sounds like a (expletive).â
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Jennings continued: âIâm a franchise guy. People in Milwaukee came to watch me play. They had my jerseys, bobbleheads. They have none of that (expletive) for none of yâall thatâs talking they was better than me. ⊠Bro, I had a signature shoe. I had a signature shoe, dog. I wasnât an All-Star player but I had a signature shoe. Letâs stop this (expletive).â
Milwaukee selected Jennings with the 10th overall pick. He claims when he criticized Rubio for not attending pre-draft workouts with others from the â09 draft, it unfairly impacted his stock value. Itâs an interesting theory â nothing more, nothing less. Jennings skipped the collegiate level, meanwhile, Rubio debuted in the Spanish ACB League at 14 years old, the youngest player ever to do so.
Jennings intentionally neglects context to strengthen his argument points, easily debunkable with a basic Google search.
Teague, another retired member of the â09 class, understood where Jennings was coming from, from a competitive standpoint. But logically, Teague couldnât see eye-to-eye with Jennings, particularly with Holiday dragged into the conversation.
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âBrandon was cold, but Jrue Holiday can guard him,â Teague said on the âClub 520 Podcast.â âHe canât guard Jrue Holiday. Heâs too little. Heâs too little.â
Teague spent his final season, first with the Celtics â in 2020-21 â and then with the Bucks, playing alongside Holiday during their championship run. The 2015 All-Star was caught off guard hearing his name brought up and continued to offer Jennings a greater dose of honesty regarding his career.
âI donât know why he said my name. I was like, âDamn.’â Teague said. âYou should kill. You didnât play with no killers. ⊠You ainât ever played with no killers. You didnât have to pass the ball to Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford. And then when you got Josh Smith and them, yâall was ass.â