Rudy Gay was having none of Stephen Jackson's criticism after the latter called him a “brown-noser” for coming into the defense of the San Antonio Spurs following their trade of Kawhi Leonard for DeMar DeRozan.
While Gay gave an answer that could have been suited for a Spurs public relations handout, his words were actually sincere — even if that caused some doubt for Stack.
“The best part about San Antonio, they do right by you,” Gay said in an interview with The Hartford Courant (via Jeff Garcia of News 4 San Antonio). “They do right by their players, do right by their staff. That doesn’t happen much in the NBA, to be honest with you. It doesn’t happen much. On one side, there was [Leonard] that was trying to get out, get to a bigger market, and they were totally being up front with him, and then they trade him for a guy [DeRozan] where, that organization wasn’t being up front with him at all.”
Jackson didn't buy into it, immediately calling him out during a guest appearance in Fox Sports 1's Undisputed:
“You trying to say that you're welcoming DeMar DeRozan, really you're not. You're trying to make it better for yourself in San Antonio. It's a bad time for saying that because they (Spurs) are fresh off of handling everything Kawhi has been through wrong.
So Rudy Gay, I think you just brown-nosing and trying to make it better for yourself because you still in this situation and trying to cover up what happened with Kawhi.”
Gay responded in a civil, yet sharp manner, holding Jackson accountable for his statements.
The comments I made was in reference to my brother Demar. Brown nosing ain’t in my DNA. Ask around
— Rudy Gay (@RudyGay) August 9, 2018
Gay and DeRozan have been close since playing for the Raptors for part of two seasons and have remained in touch ever since. DeRozan notably called Gay right after he found out he was traded and even played alongside him recently in the popular Drew League — making his rapport with DeRozan one that is entirely believable.
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