Known ESPN debate connoisseur Stephen A. Smith was irate at his own network's NBA player rankings, which released at the beginning of the week and had the likes of Carmelo Anthony sitting in No. 64 among the likes of Marcus Smart a spot below him and Lonzo Ball one ahead.
The longtime journalist prefaced his argument by saying he's in his right to disagree with the rankings, despite being offered by his own employer.
“This poll is a disgrace, it's an embarrassment — and as far as I'm concerned, the damn network should be ashamed for having a poll,” said a livid Smith in the set of First Take. “Who the hell came up with this list, because they clearly know nothing about the game of basketball.”
“I don't wanna hear some garbage about some nonsense criteria that you can come up with. There are 30 teams in the NBA, by putting 63 players ahead of Carmelo Anthony, you are saying that at least two players on every team is better than Carmelo Anthony, a career 25-point-per-game scorer, who's repeatedly a No. 1 option, who's a scoring machine and one of the most prolific scorers of the modern era.”
Smith continued to make his argument, noting Anthony's fall from being one of the league's elite in recent years.
“Has he slipped in recent memory? Of course he has, primarily due to injury and we get all of that,” added Smith. “But even then — last year 22 points, the year before that 21 points, the year before that 24 points.”
“This dude can score on anybody, he's 6'8”, he's about 240, he can score from the inside and the outside. He's got a mid-range game, he's got a long-range game, he can hit free throws. Offensively he can do it all. Don't give me some metrics, don't give me some analytics, don't give me some garbage nonsense about ‘oh my goodness, who contributes to winning' or whatever. I'll tell you who contributes to losing — people who can't score.”
A native New Yorker, Smith has been supportive and critical of Anthony when he's had to be, but this ESPN ranking system has surely not worked for him and neither has it for Melo, who after this summer seems more motivated than ever to put the past behind him and make the best of what's to come.
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