“You expect him [Bronny James] to learn something from greats. But you had three greats, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Phil f—-ing Jackson teaching you how to play the game and you didn’t learn s–t.” Former Wizards star Gilbert Arenas slammed Kwame Brown and his scathing opinions on LeBron James’ oldest son. Brown’s journey didn’t pan out as many envisioned, including MJ, and another teammate explained its possible reason.

“He’s still in the gym before everybody. I mean, he’s there with Tim Grover lifting early, getting up shots like footwork is impeccable.” Brendan Haywood candidly spoke about the work ethic of a relatively older 6x NBA champion during his run with the nation’s capital side.

During that conversation with co-hosts Theo Pinson and AJ Richardson, Haywood revealed which rookie would MJ train. “Had a young dude on our team by the name of Bobby Simmons.”

The former NBA Champion continued, “Bob used just all the footwork stuff that MJ was teaching. ‘Yo, read him this way. Like when you jab this way.’ Everything he (Michael Jordan) did was calculated.” That’s when the 45-year-old explained that even he wasn’t training alongside His Airness, despite being a UNC graduate. Unlike Kwame Brown, who was selected as the first overall draft pick, Haywood and Simmons were trade selections by the Wizards.

“I was watching when he was teaching Bobby. Obviously, he wasn’t teaching me none of that stuff,” via Run Your Race podcast. Brown, in comparison to Simmons, played two more years in the league. But the latter has the Most Improved Player accolade to prove his abilities and also had more average points than the former. Yes, Simmons scored in double-digits twice in the league and ended up with an average of 9 points per game.

Meanwhile, Brown scored in double digits once in 12 years of his career and ended up with 6.6 points per game. And over the years, it has been a lot of back and forth between former players of the Wizards. But Brown pointed out his experience during that period.

Kwame Brown recalls Michael Jordan favoring another rookie

“If you draft me, you’ll never regret it.” Back in 2001, after the draft, Brown made an emphatic statement. However, he only started in 3 games that season, so one could say not enough for a rookie to be judged. During that time, he faced ‘hazing’ from some of the veterans, and once was ready to fight one of them.

As per Brown, he didn’t mind hazing since it was part of sports. “Everybody on my team got rookie hazing, except Brendan Haywood, because he went to North Carolina.”

It didn’t bother him much, because he only cared about the checks he would receive at the time on the 1st and 15th of every month. But it’s interesting to note that Haywood being from Tar Heels did not suffer what other rookies faced.

But when it came to training, Michael Jordan was particular only to train Bobby Simmons. So, favored or not, both Simmons and Haywood had some hardware to show their success in the league. Meanwhile, Brown couldn’t hit the heights he once promised.