Alex Rodriguez is making entertainment headline news today for an interview he did in Sports Illustrated because he told a story about a celebrity – and that celebrity is not Jennifer Lopez, it’s Kylie Jenner. ARod f-cked up the details, but before we get to that, I want to underline the fact that he did an interview with SI, which would not normally make its way over to E! News, if not for his namedropping. Which is kinda the point of namedropping, right?

So here’s the paragraph in question:

Rodriguez is still buzzing from last night’s Met Gala, to which he wore a different dinner jacket, this one pink. “We had a great table,” he says. “The black guy from The Wire—Idris Elba, yeah, and his new wife. Some famous singer next to me, I don’t know what her name is. Versace—Donatella. We had Kylie and Kendall. And we had an Asian gentleman from Rich Asians, the lead. Kylie was talking about Instagram and her lipstick, and how rich she is.”

Can you picture him saying all this? ARod is wealthy. He’s famous. He’s engaged to Jennifer Lopez. And he’s still out here bragging like we would to our friends if we found ourselves at the Met Gala. I wonder if that’s how he was trying to come across – because this entire profile is about how ARod wants to come across: the comeback is complete. Five years ago he was disgraced, suspended from baseball. By 2017 he was linked to JLo and it’s been good times ever since, to the point that this piece is about as slamdunk as it gets for ARod, the brand. Intended takeaways: he’s contrite, he’s humble, he’s dedicated, he’s smart, everything is going great! Until Kylie Jenner called him out:

Here’s how he responded:

So ARod is (still?) that guy – he’s on his private jet speaking to a journalist about winning after adversity and he can’t help but brag about how he spent the night before in the company of some big stars… although he can’t remember the names of half the people who were at the table with him. And the cynic in me wonders if that’s because he had no use for him. Heads up, Henry Golding, if you’re reading this – ARod doesn’t know your name.

Isn’t that, a little, why there’s been in the gossip world some side-eyeing of his relationship with JLo since they first started dating? No doubt, they are perfectly matched on many levels. And they have gone about building their joint brand quite skillfully. Not taking anything away from that effort. But still, and it’s not just because her picker has been broken in the past, despite all the accomplishments and praise heaped on him in his Sports Illustrated article, people are still skeptical where Alex Rodriguez is concerned. He must know this, hence the whole point of this piece. The Kylie Jenner comment isn’t necessarily a backfire – overall, it probably still counts as a win – but as much as he says he’s changed, some things about ARod have stayed the same, non?