The sports media landscape has changed now that freshly retired players are being featured on ESPN, CBS, and other platforms, while others have opted to start their own podcasts. Usually, they’re only a few years removed from the league, so that competitive fire is still there, as is the trash-talking.
Enter former players Lance Stephenson and Michael Beasley, who took it beyond the podcast mics and suited up for a game of one-on-one for $100,000 that was pay-per-view as part of a TNC 02 basketball event. It took place in Miami on June 6, and Beasley came out on top 31-21, which is actually when he dialed up the trash talk.
After his hard-fought loss, Stephenson congratulated Beasley on his Instagram stories, writing, “Great game bro.”
Instead of simply reposting the message with a few muscle-flexing emojis, Beasley decided to be more descriptive, referencing Kim Kardashian’s sextape.
“I love you to the moon and back… Now grab a cigarette and a towel… We made a sex tape Kim K would envy,” he wrote with some crying laughing emojis.
The game started with a pair of threes from Stephenson before Beasley woke up and started sinking his midrange shots and some fadeaway jumpers. From there, Stephenson had some lockdown defense —and some hacks—, but Beasley got hot, leading to an easy victory.
Beasley’s outlandish response isn’t surprising because he was on freaky timing during their pregame face-off. He warned Stephenson how he’d maneuver out of whatever defensive moves he had in mind.
“If you stop, I’m spinning. I’m gonna teach you while I’m sexing you the f-ck up,” he said. “This is consensual. Get a bigger shirt because I’m gonna be in that mfer.”
Stephenson interjected by saying he would be shirtless, to which Beasley welcomed, saying, “Cool, better. Get to them nipples.”
The game was entertaining, so hopefully the one-on-one concept takes off and we get to see more players live out their NBA 2K simulator dreams
See how social media is reacting to the competition below.