Wrestling legend Ric Flair says he loves sports but still insists that today’s NBA players are wimps compared to players back in the day.
The two-time WWE Hall of Famer says that his interest in pro basketball is starting to flag because the players don’t seem to have the stuff that players once did.
“These basketball players that whine and b—h, it’s taken a lot of the sport away from me,” Flair said, according to Fox News.
John McCoy/Getty Images
The league has renewed its focus on the safety of the players and that focus, and according to Flair, that focus on safety has made the players less hardy.
He compared the “bitching” from NBA players to wrestlers who often play through their pain.
“They go to work hurt,” Flair said of wrestlers. “That’s what pisses me off today about these basketball players that stub their toe. No s–t. How do you think I feel about that, knowing I wrestled six months after I broke my back in a f—ing airplane crash? ‘I got a torn thumbnail. Whoa, whoa, whoa.’”
Injured LeBron James of the Miami Heat is carried off the court during Game Four of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder on June 19, 2012, at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida. (DON EMMERT/AFP/GettyImages)
Still, he also finds fault with modern wrestlers because they aren’t paying their dues the way he and the wrestlers of his era did.
“All they do now is go over there, practice, and make money,” he said. “I don’t know what else they do. No one’s paying the price anymore, I will say that. Traveling 3,000 miles a week for 50 bucks a night and a hard-boiled egg and a pig’s foot. Forget it,” he added.
Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair in action during his Hulkamania Tour at the Burswood Dome on November 24, 2009, in Perth, Australia. (Matt Jelonek/WireImage)
“They don’t have to do what I did in the ‘70s and all that bulls–t. I mean, nobody should’ve been treated like that. But they’ve got to live it, they’ve got to sacrifice it,” Flair said.
Flair is putting much of his time toward selling his Wooooo! Energy drinks these days. The key ingredient is the inclusion of seven different mushrooms that he and his partners call “functional mushrooms.”
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