Brett Okamoto sees nothing wrong with Dana White spending over $1 million birthday party for his son’s birthday party.
The ESPN reporter shares his thoughts on the UFC President’s extravagant event for his 16-year-old son Aidan. This interview took place on the Pull No Punches podcast.
White, 49, booked Drai’s nightclub in Las Vegas and scheduled musical performances by Migos, A$AP Rocky, DJ Carnage and Everlast, not to mention purchasing a custom Land Rover Defender as a present.
Instead of focusing on White specifically, Okamoto tackles the question: to what degree should parents spoil their children?
The following quotes have been condensed for clarity and concision.
Do Not Judge A Book By Its Cover
“I would say sure, I don’t see anything wrong with it. If you have the means and you want to give your kid those types of experiences,” he said. “I am personally not the type of person who would sit around and say ‘you shouldn’t do that’ or ‘that’s wrong.’”
“The one thing I think about parenting, not being a parent myself, is that there is no perfect way to do it. What I would say is showering your children with life experiences is a positive,” Okamoto continued. “Part of life experiences is working for you and earning things yourself and finding out that life isn’t always easy. So as long as Dana White is hopefully doing that for his kids – or any other rich parent – as long as they’re doing that in addition to pampering them a little bit, I see nothing wrong with that.”
Okamoto insists it is not as simple as using one particular circumstance to label someone: “There are a lot of rich kids who don’t have perspective on what’s going on around the world.”
“Quite frankly, I didn’t either until I grew up,” he noted. “It’s tough because you’re talking relative to ‘this kid was born into this family,’ it’s hard to consolidate it into one conversation about a kid having a lavish birthday party.”
Brett Okamoto Knows Very Little About Hip-Hop
On the note of Aidan’s birthday party, Okamoto reveals which gift he would most like to receive for his birthday. The choices are as follows: one of the performing artists, a night at Drai’s or the Land Rover Defender.
“I don’t want to embarrass myself, but I don’t know any of those performers,” the ESPN reporter confesses. “I’ve heard of Everlast, but the other ones mean nothing to me.”
“The car itself, I also have to be honest with myself on this one, personally it’s not for me. It’s not my taste,” he notes. “So to answer your question, I think I would want the big blowout bash. I would want the night at Drai’s with all my friends.”
Okamoto joined ESPN in 2010 and works as one of the publication’s premiere breaking news reporters.
The Pull No Punches podcast publishes every Thursday on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube, Facebook Video and most major podcasting networks.
Subscribe
