KU’s Hunter Dickinson will ‘bite the bullet’ to avoid war of words with famous actor

While Hunter Dickinson does not agree with actor Samuel L. Jackson’s recent post on X accusing the 7-footer of flopping during college basketball games, the Kansas Jayhawks’ senior center says he’s reluctant to engage the 2022 Honorary Oscar winner on social media.

“I thought about a couple of things, but I might just have to bite the bullet on that one,” Dickinson said this week on Marty Mush’s Barstool Roundball Podcast. “It’s kind of tough. I’ll let Samuel have his moment.”

Jackson felt compelled to comment on X, formerly known as Twitter, while watching what he believed were flops by Dickinson in KU’s 69-60 victory over Tennessee on Wednesday in the third-place game at the Maui Invitational in Honolulu.

“Damn, this Dickinson MF on @KUHoops flops like he’s on a Soccer Pitch!!!” Jackson wrote while watching KU defeat the Vols.

“If you see all the replies (to Jackson’s post), it’s all like Kentucky, Michigan State, Illinois, Marquette … it’s a lot of fan bases coming together to rejoice,” Dickinson, a former Michigan center, said of enemy fan bases calling him a flopper.

“The tweet I was going to tweet out (to Jackson) is, ‘All publicity is good publicity.’ You’ve got to take the good with the bad I guess,” Dickinson added.

Dickinson, who had 17 points and 20 rebounds in 30 minutes versus the Vols, said he’s given some thought to flopping allegations.

“I really don’t know. I was trying to remember the instances. There was only one instance that was kind of with Dalton Knecht (of UT). We got tangled up. Personally I felt (he) grabbed my arm in a way where it was warranted for me to fall down,” Dickinson said on the Wednesday podcast.

“A couple of the other ones … I feel like two of them I dove for the ball so I wasn’t flopping. The other time I hit the ground I got pushed by like three different people, so I don’t know how that one was a flop either. The one I was talking about with Dalton I feel was the only one that people could really say I was flopping.”

Dickinson initially was disappointed when a reporter told him after the Tennessee game that veteran actor Jackson — who can ever forget his compelling performance in Pulp Fiction? — had posted something negative, not positive, about the KU big man.

“Here I was thinking maybe it was something good, but no it was about me potentially flopping,” Dickinson said. “That one was kind of hard because it’s really hard to give a reply to that one.”

The 7-foot-2, 260-pound Dickinson was interviewed for the podcast by his friend, Mush, as Dickinson watched the end of the Maui championship game — Purdue’s 78-75 win over Marquette — Wednesday on TV in his Honolulu hotel room.

“Just watching Zach Edey (Purdue’s 7-4, 300 pound center) … they let you get away with it a little bit more when you are guarding him,” Dickinson said. “Like I get the same thing. They would allow you to push him a little more than normal people. The one foul today I got against the Tennessee guy, if I would have done that to Zach Edey, they are not calling that a foul.

“People do get away with a little extra against him. That is a real thing. Just watching him out there in the games, he does get fouled pretty much every possession. It’s pretty impressive how he’s able to play through all those, the extra bumping and stuff. ... I do commend him for that.”

Barstool podcast host Mush asked Dickinson if he’d be willing to appear on a podcast with Samuel L. Jackson to discuss the post on X and the topic of flopping.

“I would like to hash this out with Samuel,” Dickinson said. “I feel we can find some common ground, unless it’s just built up. I guess he might just be another hater at that point. I didn’t feel I flopped this game. Maybe if somebody wants to tag me the video I could (look at it).”

Dickinson said he’s used to being in the spotlight for issues such as the Jackson X post.

“A lot of people like to see my downfall. A lot of Twitter fan bases came together after the Marquette loss,” Dickinson said of (5-1) KU’s first loss of the season, a 73-59 defeat on Tuesday in the semifinals.

“I think we have so much room to grow. The best days are definitely ahead of us. We’re a very young team. Once we get our young guys up to speed I think we really can be dangerous. Today (against Tennessee), the contributions from some of the bench players were super key. Like Jamari. I think he was the X-factor today.”

Freshman Jamari McDowell scored seven points to lead a KU bench that totaled 16 points in the third-place game.

“We’re getting more contributions from our bench. Coach (Bill Self) is getting more guys up to speed,” Dickinson said. “Obviously we were disheartened by the loss. Any loss is not good, but it was also like, ‘We’re fine. We’ll be OK as long as we just keep getting better and better.’ That’s what coach said. ... We’re not trying to stack the losses. That’s why today was a big win for us (over Vols).”

Dickinson said he’s ready for the usual scrutiny from the outside the rest of the season.

“The spotlight is definitely on here,” Dickinsson said, “because you have a Hall of Fame head coach. You’ve got six national championships, a blue-blood (program). I feel like I’m used to it because I’m usually in the spotlight for some good, some bad, but it can be unique for the young guys coming from high school not being used to it. But for me I think I’m pretty used to it.”

Dickinson — he was named to the Maui Invitational all-tournament team with Knecht (Tennessee), Oso Ighodaro (Marquette), Braden Smith (Purdue) and Anton Watson (Gonzaga) with Edey the MVP — said the tourney “was fun. It was my first time in Hawaii in general, also the first time in the tournament. It was crazy. The field in general was nuts, having so many good teams in it.”

He continued.

“My body definitely is very sore, extremely sore right now,” Dickinson said. “Playing three back-to-back games, the last one being 14 hours after you played (the semifinal), it was tough. I woke up at 5:45 local time today (for Tennessee game Wednesday). But it was a ton of fun to be able to play against these teams, I’m very thankful we were able to end it all 2-1 (wins over UT and Chaminade, loss to Marquette).”

KU will play host to Eastern Illinois at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse, then meet UConn at 8 p.m. Friday at Allen.