The tragic and sudden death of Kobe Bryant has elicited tons of sadness from the basketball community and the rest of the world. The Los Angeles Lakers legend was a hero to many, spreading wisdom and confidence with the entire globe. Kobe was a household name in every continent, which makes his death that much more difficult to process. Comedian Ari Shaffir struck a major nerve when he reacted to the tragic news, tweeting that the baller “died 23 years too late.” Of course, he was referring to the 2003 rape case in Denver, Colorado. The disgusting comments have been picked apart by several sources, including Bryan Callen and Brendan Schaub, who discussed the remarks on their podcast The Fighter and the Kid.
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The actor and the former MMA fighter spoke at length about the comments Ari Shaffir made during a new episode of their show. Bryan Callen said that he is mildly associated with Shaffir through comedy and, after seeing his messages about Bryant, he reached out to the man to see why he would stoop so low. “I sent him a long text about how I just found it really offensive and I regretted sending the text — I even said to him, because we got into it a little, and I said ‘I don’t know you that well.’ What am I doing? Am I scolding Ari? It’s not my place to even say this to Ari but I didn’t wanna talk behind his back, I wanted to talk to him,” said Callen.
Brendan Schaub says that he’s just so confused about the intention behind the messages since, in his words, he can’t find the humor in what was posted. They then go on to speak about Shaffir’s character, which has always been on the friendlier side during their interactions. “If Ari was an asshole, I wouldn’t care,” adds Callen. “I don’t know Ari well but I know people who know Ari very well. My experience up until now with Ari has always been that he’s actually a very kind-hearted human being who means all the best.” Schaub agreed.
The two discuss Shaffir’s comments for over ten minutes, offering great insight into the situation, which begins at the 12-minute mark.
