S. Samuel
Rap mogul Jay-Z is catching some heat heading into the weekend as new footage shows the Brooklyn Nets minority owner having trouble pronouncing one of his star player's names correctly.
Despite his love for Nets point guard Deron Williams, Jigga mis-pronounced his name at his inaugural Barclays Center concert series.
Jay-Z owns 0.067 percent of the Nets and less than 0.2 percent of the Barclays Center but it’s hard not to bring up the music mogul when you talk about anything even remotely involving the Nets these days. So it came as a bit of a shock when Hova incorrectly pronounced the name of Nets superstar PG Deron Williams at his christening of the Barclays Center. Williams has talked openly about how this has irked him throughout his career from college to the pros, and partially blames his mom because of the spelling of the name. Maybe others who have no TV, radio, or any other contacts with the modern world couldn’t be blamed for butchering the pronunciation, but not the owner and biggest public supporter of the team. This is a “c’mon son” moment if we’ve ever seen one, this reminds us of last postseason when the mayor of Boston called his two best players “KJ and Hondo.” (Complex)
Jay reportedly helped Williams find a suitable place to live when he joined the Nets a couple years ago.
“When Deron Williams was making his decision [about whether or not he wanted to resign with the Nets], he was struggling for a place to live,” King said. “Jay-Z goes, ‘Tell him I’ll call him tomorrow and I’ll help.’ It’s a lot about being able to relate to being wealthy, being young, being African-American. He can relate to them, where maybe I can’t or [Nets owner] Mikhail [Prokhorov] can’t.” (New York Times)
The rap star recently discussed his influence in designing the Nets’ new logo.
With this new Nets move, Jay-Z and Nets brass looked to the past in order to ensure the team’s place in the future. Vintage New York transit system signage served as their chief inspiration. “It was really a take off the old subway signs, if you look at the old subway signs they were in black and white. It was that strong, beautiful, iconic black and white,” Jay said. “I wanted to pick something that would stand the test of time and be here forever.” (MTV)
During one of his Barclays Center earlier in the week, Jay addressed his critics.
“Don’t let anybody diminish your accomplishments,” Jay told the fans. “It’s our motherf*cking time now.” (YouTube)
Check out Jay-Z mis-pronouncing Deron Williams’ name below:
