The Rush: NBA star Meyers Leonard promises that Jimmy Butler is not an a**hole
NBA star Meyers Leonard stops by to discuss his prospects as an NBA free agent, why Jimmy Butler isn’t an a**hole and Big Face Coffee is actually pretty good, the post-game beer ritual he and his teammates started in the NBA bubble, and what price a Whizzinator once used by Mike Tyson might fetch at auction. PLUS: Meyers parlayed his beer-chugging skills into a cross-country trip in the Coors Light Chillstream, an RV stocked with plenty of ice-cold Coors Light.
Video Transcript
MEYERS LEONARD: I don't really need, you know, the glitz and the glamour. I don't need the publicity. I don't-- honestly, I don't give a [BLEEP]. I don't care about numbers. I care about winning.
JARED QUAY: I'm here with NBA baller Meyers Leonard. Man, Myers, how are you doing, brother?
MEYERS LEONARD: I am blessed. I'm doing well. Long road trip with Coors Light but now I'm in LA ready to start my off-season training. So yeah, just hanging out.
JARED QUAY: And you recently got out of the NBA bubble, and you must have loved that life because you immediately went right into another one. You took a road trip across the country and a Coors Light Chilled Stream. Tell me about the trip, brother.
MEYERS LEONARD: It was a long trip, but it was amazing. We made a lot of memories. Again, it was great to see family, and it's been a bucket list item actually for me. So to do with Coors Light was really unique and a really awesome experience.
JARED QUAY: And what's crazy is all this kind of happened after you went viral chugging a bear in the NBA bubble.
[GULPING]
MEYERS LEONARD: I guess it's just a talent of mine. I've never been smoked in a shotgun. I never smoked at a beer chug. It's just, I guess if people are going to call me The Hammer, I got to live by that nickname.
JARED QUAY: Also, you may be the first person to shotgun a beer in Disney World. Think so?
MEYERS LEONARD: If parents have to take their kids all over the amusement park and stuff and then they get back to the resort-- now, nobody's touching my record. I mean, it's not close. But I'm thinking somebody else might have.
- Probability 100%.
JARED QUAY: You were in the bubble. You were drinking Coors Light and also Big Face Coffee. Be honest with me now. You know, you're not obligated because you're not on the Heat technically right now. Was-- was Big Face Coffee any good?
MEYERS LEONARD: It's really good. The thing about Jimmy is, first of all, he obviously completely destroyed any and all narratives about him being an [BLEEP] and a bad teammate. Let me tell you something. I've been in the league eight years. That's a good dude right there and a good teammate, by the way-- like, really cares about people.
JB's coffee's good, man. Anything that he's going to put like his name behind, he's going to take and do with immense pride. When Jimmy did his Michelob deal, he and Goran-- after our first playoff win-- went to the lobby and had a beer together. And I like, caught wind of it. I was like, wait a minute, my teammates are drinking beer, and I wasn't there? This is nonsense.
So for everyone after that, we actually ended up with a small group of like, a couple of performance trainers, Jimmy, Goran, myself, and then some other players that'd show up after every playoff win. So that was a super dope tradition that we ended up having. Obviously, we had a-- had a lot of those nights because we won a lot of games. But make no mistake, although Jimmy was loyal to Michelob because he has that deal, you bet your ass I was drinking Coors Light.
JARED QUAY: You're currently a free agent, which I imagine is possibly exciting but also a little stressful. How's it going for you right now with that?
MEYERS LEONARD: I'd say I'm-- I have about five or six teams that are pursuing me, which is a good feeling, by the way. I think there's there's mutual interest between myself and the Heat now that I've shown that I can play that they're coming after me. Whereas when I was younger, it's like, I'm trying to sell myself.
JARED QUAY: And then the last question isn't about the NBA, but this is just a wild story. So I had to bring it out. Really important, all right? Earlier this week, Mike Tyson admitted that he once passed drug tests by using a prosthetic penis-- a fake penis called the Whizzinator. Have you heard about this?
MEYERS LEONARD: Have I heard of the Whizzinator?
JARED QUAY: Yeah.
MEYERS LEONARD: No, but I also don't do drugs, never been interested in drugs. I drink Coors Light, and I drink red wine. And that's about all I'm interested in. So I guess that's pretty slick if he was able to pull that one out.
JARED QUAY: 15 years ago, a former NFL player Onterrio Smith was caught using one, and it got auctioned off for like $750. How much do you think Mike Tyson could sell for that?
MEYERS LEONARD: Mike Tyson is an absolute legend. And I, for one, think it's incredible that he's coming back to fight. I mean, I'll literally before some basketball games watch Mike Tyson highlights. I mean, the guy is unbelievable. Like, he was a megastar, of course.
Mike Tyson fake Johnson. Let's go with the Whizzinator at-- I don't know-- $2,500, $5,000?
JARED QUAY: Yeah.
MEYERS LEONARD: I mean, people will pay crazy. About $10 G's? Maybe? I don't know.
JARED QUAY: [LAUGHS]