Serge Ibaka Becomes Latest NBA Player To Show Softness, Gets Offended By Very Tame Joke
NBA players are notoriously soft. They're soft physically -- I'm looking at you Mr. "DNP - Load Management" -- and soft emotionally -- I'm looking at you, Serge Ibaka! But we'll get to you in a minute.
Now, before I get comments like "Say it to their face! They would kick your ass!" let me address the obvious.
When I saw they're soft, physically, that's not in comparison to average humans, like myself. That's in comparison to other professional athletes. Hockey players get teeth knocked out and finish their shifts in mostly meaningless December games.
Matthew Stafford once separated his shoulder on one play and came back into the game to throw the game-winning touchdown on the next. That game occurred in the regular season when the Lions were 1-8 at the time, mind you.
NBA players don't play the second night of a back-to-back contests because they have to rest their legs from the previous night of jogging for 40 minutes. There are plenty of soccer moms who jog more than 40 minutes, daily, and you don't hear them talking about "load management."
In the NBA, you have stuff like this:
NBA players are soft emotionally, too
I don't want to focus too much on the physical part and ignore the emotional component. These dudes are soft emotionally. And this time, I mean compared to the average human.
Draymond Green couldn't handle a little heckling and had a Milwaukee Bucks fan ejected from a game in recent weeks. Green claims he got "death threats." That's interesting since the Bucks have since apologized to the fan and offered him tickets to a future game.
Even the NBA reporters are soft. Adrian Wojnarowski famously responded to an email from an elected US official by writing "F**k you" because he didn't agree with it.
Former NBA players frequently comment on today's players. Shaq once said today's players are "soft as pudding." Richard Jefferson says they are "coddled."
Serge Ibaka helps prove the softness point
ESPN's Kendrick Perkins made a very tame joke about Serge Ibaka on Monday. And Ibaka couldn't handle it.
"Spreading misinformation." Hahahahahahah. Too perfect. Firstly, he probably doesn't see the irony in labeling something misinformation since nearly all COVID "misinformation" turned out to be the truth.
So maybe Ibaka really is old. But, more importantly, this is clearly a joke.
Ibaka says that he and Perkins were teammates, and thus that's what makes this so disrespectful. I would argue that's exactly what proves that it's a JOKE.
Perhaps Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins aren't the friends Perkins thought they were. (Photos courtesy Getty Images)
Any guy who has guy friends understands a very simple concept: making fun of your friends is how you show them you care. Does it make any sense? Nope, but it doesn't have to.
That's just the way that it is. So, when I saw Ibaka's tweet saying they were teammates, my first thought was "oh, so Perkins thinks they're friends."
That's why he felt comfortable busting Ibaka's balls. That's dude friendship at work.
But instead, Ibaka takes to social media to accuse Perkins of chasing clout. I've got news for you Serge, no one is making jokes about you for clout.
If Perkins were clout-chasing, he would pick a player more familiar to casual fans. Not someone who people are Googling as they read this to see who he plays for (I purposefully haven't written it. He plays for the Bucks, by the way.)
It's not Ibaka's fault, though. He's only playing 11 minutes per night, according to his stat page.
He has plenty of time to hop on his phone and look for things to be offended about.