Richard Jefferson claps back at Chandler Parsons for supporting controversial take on Deion Sanders’ Colorado squad

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Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

Richard Jefferson used social media to clap back at former NBA teammate Chandler Parsons over his support of remarks made by a college football coach this past weekend.

University of Oregon head football coach Dan Lanning was fired up before the Ducks defeated the University of Colorado and highly publicized head coach Deion Sanders in easy fashion on Saturday.

Parsons, who played four seasons of basketball at the University of Florida, seemed to support Lanning’s comments on winning versus fighting for clicks. Jefferson, a University of Arizona product, implied that the locker room speech being done in front of cameras was obviously going to generate clicks.

Jefferson and Parsons played together on the Dallas Mavericks during the 2014-15 NBA season. Parsons last played in the NBA for the Atlanta Hawks in the 2019-20 campaign and is a somewhat regular commenter on sports events on social media.

Jefferson played two seasons for the Cavaliers during his 17-season NBA career, winning a championship with them in 2016. He has since gone on to become a high-profile analyst for ESPN, which coincidentally posted the video that Parsons was commenting on.

Now 43 years old, Jefferson consistently finds himself in exchanges regarding NBA topics. He recently said that current Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell needs to turn teammate Evan Mobley into an All-Star as part of the next step of his career and the team’s development.

Jefferson also weighed in on a recent debate about Stephen Curry and Magic Johnson, and during the 2023 playoffs, he playfully ribbed former teammate Tristan Thompson after his team was swept by the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 Western Conference Finals.

Sanders and his Colorado team have been omnipresent in the media so far during this college football season, so they have been difficult for people like Parsons and Jefferson to avoid. The exchange was likely just banter between two former teammates — or maybe Jefferson has some kind of grudge against Oregon, a former conference foe of his, for some reason.

Meanwhile, Sanders and Colorado will look to get back on track this coming weekend against the University of Southern California.

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Mike is a veteran journalist who has covered the NBA for almost three decades. One of his favorite sports memories is the Cavaliers-Nets playoff series from 1993.