The exploits of youth come with one ironclad rule: As time passes, the tales grow taller.
On the other hand, when the exploits involve world-class athletes, the impressive truth often needs no embellishment.
Appearing last week on Bleacher Report’s “The Edge” podcast with host Micah Parsons, Houston Texans rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud — a devoted Christian — told a slightly exaggerated version of the truth when he recalled scoring 40 points in a high-school basketball game against Jaime Jaquez Jr., now a star rookie with the NBA’s Miami Heat and a player whom Stroud described as an “NBA-level talent” in high school.
“That game I scored 40 points was on him,” Stroud said of Jaquez.
The quarterback also claimed to have hit a game-winning 3-point shot that resulted in joyous people rushing the court.
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Parsons, a star linebacker with the Dallas Cowboys, good-naturedly acted as if he did not believe Stroud.
In fact, the undertone of the podcast’s entire basketball-related discussion was one of trash talk. On Friday evening, Parsons and Stroud will participate in the NBA’s All-Star Weekend Celebrity Game. It starts at 7 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN.
They will play on different teams. Hence the trash talk.
Stroud capped his spectacular 2023 NFL season with a playoff victory and an Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
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Parsons, a three-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro, won Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2021. He also recently finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
For several minutes, however, both men forgot about their decorated football careers and instead bandied basketball challenges.
“Pull the JV highlights up,” Parsons joked, insinuating that Stroud did not make the varsity basketball team in high school.
Then, with the highlights on screen, Stroud pointed to Jaquez, who played center for Camarillo High School in California. Stroud starred as a junior at Rancho Cucamonga High School, which won the game, 86-83.
Parsons, of course, had to remain dutifully unimpressed.
“What is this, freshman basketball?” he asked.
Stroud pointed again to Jaquez, who wore jersey No. 24.
“Bro, he was probably a bum then,” Parsons replied, maintaining the trash talk.
Stroud then turned the tables and asked if Parsons had any video evidence of his own basketball career.
“Where’s the clip? Where’s the film? Are you Wilt Chamberlain? What are we doing? Did you score 100 points, too?” the quarterback asked.
On March 2, 1962, Chamberlain famously scored 100 points in a game as a member of the NBA’s Philadelphia Warriors. But the game had no television broadcast and thus no surviving video, which explains Stroud’s hilarious dig at Parsons.
“You can ask my teammates about me,” the quarterback said.
“I don’t want to,” Parsons responded. “I want to see myself.”
As it turned out, Stroud told a passable version of the truth.
On the exaggerated side, he actually scored 28 points in that high school basketball game, not 40. According to Sporting News, longtime Rancho Cucamonga head basketball coach Bill Burke preserved the game’s score sheet in his records.
Furthermore, anyone who watches Stroud’s highlights will see that, in the strictest sense, he did not score the majority of his points “on” Jaquez. The NBA rookie played center in that game, and Stroud made most of his shots from the perimeter.
In fact, a highlight clip showed nine of Stroud’s made shots in the game, and Jaquez did not appear as the primary defender on any of them.
Still, within the parameters of old-fashioned trash talk, Stroud told the truth about the game and his basketball abilities.
Readers may view the highlight clip below. The beginning of the play that resulted in Stroud’s game-winning 3-point shot occurred around the 56-second mark.
WARNING: The audio track with the following video contains vulgar language that some viewers may find offensive.
“He was on fire that game,” Burke said, according to Sporting News.
“If he had just played basketball, he was a DI basketball kid,” the coach added.
Jaquez starred in college at UCLA. Perhaps Stroud, too, could have enjoyed success at the highest level of college basketball. Instead, he chose to focus on football at Ohio State and became a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist.
Now the young quarterback looks like he will be one of the NFL’s best players for many years. He could win league MVP someday and maybe even a Super Bowl.
Better yet, Stroud has made no secret of his Christian faith. Last week, for instance, after winning Rookie of the Year, he gave credit to Jesus.
Best of all, he comes across as likable — and God could do incredible work through an accomplished, high-profile and likable Christian such as Stroud.
