For someone to play 12 seasons in the NBA, that individual must possess serious basketball talent. In the case of Kwame Brown, whatever it was that he had to survive that long in the grown man’s league was overshadowed by his unfortunate ‘bust’ label.

After being drafted number one overall by Michael Jordan and the Washington Wizards, things never panned out as expected for the 6-foot-11 big man out of high school.

Negative news, or allegations, followed Brown throughout his career, and in a recent interview with HoopsHype.com’s Alex Kennedy, he took the opportunity to finally take a defensive stance on all the bad press.

“Someone wrote that my dad caused my scar with cigarettes, but that’s not true. My dad was in prison when I got the scar. A friend showed me that if you search for my full name on the internet, it said my name is Kwame James Brown. My middle name is Hasani. There’s so much misinformation out there that they can’t even get a name right! There was a report that Michael Jordan would make me cry in the front of the team (laughs). A guy who grew up like I grew up don’t really cry much. The report about him calling me a homophobic slur isn’t true.”

“The funny thing is, all the people who write this stuff were never there so that means they were either making these things up to sell papers or hearing it from someone else who was wrong or who made it up. That’s just plain old gossip, and it’s sad that media outlets would write things they have no clue about. But I guess I get it. Sometimes a lie sounds better than the truth and it sells more papers or magazines. But it’s at someone else’s expense.”

Kwame Brown’s NBA career might be infamous for negativity, but he is now looking to bounce back and earn the respect he had long sought in his second chance at basketball — this time, in Ice Cube’s BIG3 pro-league.