What’s beef? Deshawn Stevenson has some words for ex-teammate Deron Williams

One critique a lot of old school NBA enthusiasts have about the “new” NBA is that the players are too friendly with each other. That the players don’t have those intense rivalries like they did back in the day. I like to call it a byproduct of the current free agency set up, it makes more sense for lower tier guys to switch teams and teams to trade players in order to pay superstars. But that’s a topic for another day…

Two former teammates you won’t have to worry about exchange Christmas cards, Hawks guard DeShawn Stevenson and Nets Deron Williams. In a recent article for ESPN the magazine, Williams discussed the toll being in a losing environment had on him and indicated that “some” teammates took losing as a joke.

“It was hard. I’ve never been in that position before,” Williams told reporters. “So at times, I’ve showed frustration, but I think anybody would have. I think no matter who it is, if you were there every day and you saw what was going on in the locker room you’d be pissed off too sometimes. You’re getting your asses kicked and then you’re in the locker room laughing about the game afterwards.

“I don’t think that stuff is funny. That’s what we had to deal with last year. But I don’t think we’re going to deal with it this year, because just talking to the guys, that’s not what we’re about. We’re talking about not losing two games in a row. We were just trying to fight to win two games in a row last year.”

Apparently DeShawn took those statements rather personal. He fired back on Twitter:

Clearly there was a lot going on in that locker room last season.