Iran's ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has some hot takes on NCAA basketball

Some might call Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a Holocaust denier. He prefers the term "student athlete."

The former leader of Iran has spent his post-presidential years on (what else?) Twitter, and it's not too surprising that he used it to share unsolicited advice for the U.S. government. What's a little more confusing are his sports opinions — most recently a Monday tweet calling for college athletes to be paid.

While the ex-president — or should we say "soccer player," as his Twitter bio touts — doesn't seem to have a reason for this unprompted tweet, it's far from his first out-of-the-blue sports take. Ahmadinejad defended Serena Williams after the French Open banned her catsuit and shared a string of predictions during football season. He's even mixed the personal with the political in calling for President Trump to "love all" athletes, even those who call him a "bum."

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Ahmadinejad's liberal athletic takes prompted criticism from those who wondered why he'd defend Williams' outfit given his country's requirement that women wear headscarves. And as The Atlantic puts it, there's a good chance this is all a ruse to "deflect attention from his nation's record on human rights."