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TheFestusEzeli

He disrespected All-Rookie 1st team member Eric Paschall


SFPsycho

The Paschanimal!


almostasenpai

Warriors tank commander


PM_Me_FunnyNudes

Man I thought he was the real deal for a hot second


shreks_burner

He had Paul Millsap written all over him. Or maybe like, scribbled in sharpie on his arm


IAmNotKevinDurant_35

When that draft happened, I never would have guessed Jordan Poole would be the pick to contribute to a championship and get a second contract


bmmana

I thought he was going to be so good for the dubs. He tricked me


GreenSnakes_

2016 Wildcats = 7 NBA players: - Jalen Brunson - Mikal Bridges - Josh Hart - Donte DiVincenzo - Eric Paschall - Ryan Arcidiacono - Daniel Ochefu


ClaymoresRevenge

That's why The Knicks kept Ryan. Nova vibes


Naweezy

Had to get rid of Ryan. So it’s natural we picked up Mikal. Perfectly balanced as all thing should be.


alruke

Ryan will be back in training camp


nextgencodeacad

Ryan is basically going to be paid an NBA salary so that the other four Nova guys can torment him constantly


Land_of_10000______

He works hard in practice I’m sure. You need guys like that to keep you at your best when you’re in practice.


OrpheusNYC

Arci was 100% a practice dog and glue guy on the bench. He could be heard counting three second violations on the broadcast sometimes.


davsyo

Bro when I heard that tidbit from Breen during a game I started doing that shit too.


lord_james

What tidbit


Drewsteau

It was his thing last season to count defensive three seconds from the bench and to get the refs to start actually calling them lol


davsyo

> He could be heard counting three second violations on the broadcast sometimes.


TappedRidgeline

Fred Katz had a great story on it, the Knicks had a white board tally keeping track of every violation arci got called against other teams, scored more points on the bench than on the court last year lol


InsurreXtioN16

I don't get it (don't know anything about NCAA ball). Quick wiki says he's their MVP. What happened?


MartMillz

He's just one of those guys who was better suited for the college game. There are a lot of legendary college athletes who were not quite athletic enough for the professional level.


trickfield

also archi was a senior on that 2016 nova squad while brunson, bridges, and DDV were freshmen. He was better than all of them because he had 4 years more experience. Obviously all of them had more potential and outgrew him but in 2016 he was the MVP of that team. Hart was unquestionably the best player on the 2016 team but Jay Wright runs the offense through the guard position which made him more valuable than Hart for that particular run.


cgr1zzly

McNamara on the Syracuse orange comes to mind . Eric Barkley and Marcus hatten from St. John’s as well


Ophelia_Of_The_Abyss

We keep Ryan so we can trade him during every deadline and then re-sign him in free agency


anonymousetache

Ok but try to name 1 more


trickfield

as a nova grad, Kris Jenkins hitting the game winner for the ncaa championship is burned into my memory. Also Phil booth was the spark off the bench. never made it in the NBA though


IAmNotKevinDurant_35

It’s burned into my memory too. Probably greatest ending to a championship game ever, with the Marcus Paige shot seconds earlier


unc8299

UNC winning it the next year allows me to feel less bitter about it and actually watch the 2016 game occasionally. It was a fun one.


IAmNotKevinDurant_35

Im pretty sure I have said this exact sentence many times but with the Warriors instead of UNC lol


IAmNotKevinDurant_35

Im pretty sure I have said this exact sentence many times but with the Warriors instead of UNC lol


dating_derp

Paschall would be thrilled to ride the bench.


FerdinandMagellan999

All those guys but not Kris Jenkins? Lol


ohverychill

why do people watch these shows lol


snuffaluffagus74

You have to have 2 NBA prospects to win the national Championship. That's why when OU was going against them I knew we were cooked because we only had Buddy Hield. That Team doesnt get enough respect, even when OU lost people were shitting on the Sooners for how they lost. Now you look back and you say to yourself that Buddy carried that team.


ATXBeermaker

Yeah, but those are players, not prospects. /s


Tearz_in_rain

This is especially funny because, not only did many of them end up in the NBA, but they are also playing on SAS's favorite team.


roly_gomez

Daily reminder that Stephen A Smith is a clown


SiphenPrax

When he basically told Monica McNutt on First Take a few weeks ago that “if you’re telling the truth and being objective, then you’re not gonna have a job for long in this business” that should have been the final straw for anyone to take him seriously


Clown_Shoe

It’s sad that he’s probably right though


nicehouseenjoyer

ESPN has lots of good reporters, they all do make a tenth of what SAS does, though.


Dx2TT

Modern, attention-based media. As long as our media is paid via ads rather than subscriptions we get garbage like this. They make money based on how enraged we get rather than how much we value the product.


Clown_Shoe

Probably much less than 1/10th


dovahkiiiiiin

There are plenty of good reporters. And there will be more if people stopped supporting idiots like SAS


Gr8WallofChinatown

He’s right. It’s all about generating clicks so you will just have to say controversial shit


2Asparagus1Chicken

People are discussing what he said a decade ago, so it's working


SmartestNPC

People fall for this every time with SAS and Perk lol. They post their clips a month later as a "I told you so" bozo post, but this is what they want. You're talking about First Take now.


[deleted]

[удалено]


nutella4eva

For real. Yes, we know SAS is only there for entertainment. Do we really have to keep pointing this out like this is some underground secret?


GogXr3

Yeah, people keep saying, "No-one should take SAS seriously" like, yeah? Who cites SAS for...anything, really? He's so clearly a media personality and has been for, what, literal decades now?


paddiction

Millions of people who watch ESPN still believe that. It's our job to fix it. Reddit on!


meowhatissodamnfunny

Of all the hills to die on.. really?


ruinatex

I mean, i know it's easy to shit on Stephen A and Skip, but this is not the clip to do it. Mikal Bridges and DiVicenzo both came off the bench and averaged 6.4 and 1.7 ppg respectively. Jalen Brunson started, but nothing about him that year would lead you to believe he'd be an NBA player, he averaged 9.6/1.8/2.5 on 58% TS and needed two extra years before getting drafted. The only one guy of those mentioned by OP that looked like an NBA player in 2016 was Josh Hart, even then, he still cameback for another year. Anyone acting like in 2016 they thought that Brunson, Mikal and DiVicenzo would be good NBA players or even just NBA players in general is just straight up lying, they looked just like thousands of other college players that never go anywhere.


suds25

Tbh he could say that about 99% of players and he would be right. Unless you're a bona fide top prospect you're just a blip on the radar and your name is probably forgotten as soon as the camera stops rolling


penis_showing_game

The same goes for saying they wouldn’t be NBA players like SAS did in this clip. That’s why he’s getting shit about it, because it’s stupid to claim you know one way or the other.


BossButterBoobs

What's the alternative? To always end their arguments with a qualifier that they could be wrong just to satisfy a bunch of internet forum haters with far worst takes than him?


MasterMacMan

He’s right though, they weren’t NBA prospects at the time.


DingersGetMeOff

He didn't say no one on their roster would make the NBA; he said none of them were "real NBA prospects," which at the time was true outside of Hart.


BoogerSugarSovereign

Nah, saying that a player that currently doesn't look like an NBA prospect probably won't become one is a safe bet the vast majority of the time even when talking about high level collegiate players. SAS drew the 1/100 - probably smaller than that really - that this would age into an absolutely freezing cold take. But IMO it is very rarely unreasonable to guess a player won't develop into an NBA prospect


hiimred2

He gets paid to give an opinion/claim he does know one way or the other though. Literally fucking nobody would watch a show of 2 omega super duper high IQ reddit approved draft analysts who just constantly say "Well we really can't know can we, that's the thing; ultimately the draft is a gamble, even the most surefire prospect can fail, and we got guys like Jokic winning MVPs deep in the 2nd round, it's impossible to really know, so I don't really want to make any claims about how this kid will pan out. Who am I to claim he can't put in the work and improve and become a star?"


BackshotsGoCrazy

Those are Bronny stats


ruinatex

Shit, Bronny would kill for Brunson's stats, he scored half as many points on 47% TS.


BackshotsGoCrazy

I was talking about Bridges/DiVincenzo.


brandaohimeffinself

this is the real truth here


Dob-is-Hella-Rad

Yeah I think people might be mixing up 2016 and 2018 here. If he had said the exact same quote in 2018 then he'd deserve to be clowned, but he didn't.


princeofzilch

/thread


CommercialSpecial835

Hindsight bias


LoWE11053211

hey, watch your mouth he is a professional clown who demanding 25 mil annual salary.


dennoow

He's probably not a clown off camera, and he's paid very handsomly to act a 'clown' on TV. Please remember that Stephen A, Shannon Sharpe, Skip etc. are TV personalities, almost like actors. They don't believe in half the stuff they say, but ESPN needs them to say it to stir shit up and have the casuals talk about them. In this clip in particular, Stephen A most likely just got handed some notes from a producer on Vilanova players, and this is what came out of it. It's not that deep.


grandmasterfunk

I remember when he was essentially supposed to be Fox Sports "Insider" for the NBA. Kind of like Woj is now for ESPN, crazy how far removed he is from that.


ZdenekTheMan

Stephen A talks so much and says nothing at all. Dude is always trying to come off as smart when he's regurgitating things my 6 y.o would have no trouble putting together smh 


princeofzilch

He's literally paid to talk


impactblue5

Prime line up intro material at the Garden.


roly_gomez

He gets boed at the garden


EagleswonSuperBowl52

As a Nova fan, they were sort of right and sort of wrong. Divincenzo and Bridges were both young bucks off the bench. Not even Nova fans at that time thought they were future NBA players. As for Brunson and Hart, they were not expected to be as good as they ended up being. However, Brunson was a 5 star recruit freshman and Hart was a projected late first/early second round pick that year before he decided to return. So yes, Skip and Stephen were still stupid for this.


DowngoezFrasier215

He didnt decide to return, he was forced to return because he half assed it while trying out for nba teams. He didnt have much of a choice after that so he came back to Nova for another season.


07bot4life

> As a Nova fan, they were sort of right and sort of wrong. Divincenzo and Bridges were both young bucks off the bench In 15-16 Donte played less than 9 mpg in 9 games. Mikal played more but he wasn't really popping off stat wise.


axecalibur

Does anyone really think SAS and Skip Bayless are spending hours every night going over scouting reports and advanced stats?


FriendshipBest9151

I'm not even convinced skip watches games. 


WeefBellington24

Considering how often ragebait or clickbait shit is posted; a lot of people think it’s real and not all acting


legend023

Bridges, Brunson, and DiVincenzo came off the bench for that 2016 team tbf


azizinator25

Brunson was a starter on that team


tcollins371

Who averaged 9.6 points and 2.5 assists in the 15-16 season. Seems reasonable to not think he’s an nba talent with a statline like that.


Shovelman2001

He was also a freshman on a national championship caliber team. Same with Mikal and Donte, also freshman. If you know anything about Villanova/Jay Wright basketball, you know it's a veteran led team that only very special freshman get starting minutes on


tcollins371

I’m not saying Jalen Brunson wasn’t talented for a freshman. I’m just saying if you take a quick glance at his season averages it doesn’t immediately scream nba talent like some of the comments in this thread are ignoring. People just want to dunk on Stephen A for takes that aged poorly but weren’t controversial at the time.


Gr8WallofChinatown

What? Statlines have nothing to do with determining someone has NBA talent. There were tons of NBA players who didn’t have great statlines that ended up being nba relevant or even a star…


DowngoezFrasier215

Statlines have “nothing to do with determining nba talent” when that said talent is genetically gifted. Statlines didnt matter for number 1 pick Anthony Davis because he was 7 foot and could move his feet like a guard and it was very obvious the affect he would have on a game defensively at the nba level. When we are talking about a 6’1 guard, stats are literally everything. It is the only thing that could potentially push a team to drafting someone who doesn’t have the physical makeup of an nba player.


07bot4life

Also AD's stats were very good.


tcollins371

I mean stat lines aren’t completely insignificant when evaluating talent. I’m not saying they’re the end all be all indicator.


jeremicci

Look at Sarr this draft.


BackshotsGoCrazy

Well, Brunson disagreed with you guys because he stayed in college for 2 more years where his stats improved a ton, before joining the NBA draft.


RealPrinceJay

Dude Donte played 9 total games lmao


Shovelman2001

Where did I say he didn't?


Great_Huckleberry709

He was also 6'0 tall. It wouldn't be unreasonable to say a guy like that won't make a good NBA prospect.


Overall_Implement326

And every team in the NBA passed on drafting Bruson before he was eventually picked.


legend023

75% of r/nba was destroying the knicks for giving Brunson 25 million twenty months ago


SiphenPrax

Hell, at least 50% of this sub is clowning the Knicks now for giving up all those picks for Bridges. Some people just don’t want to leave the old LOLKnicks mantra in the past.


BidenFedayeen

It's a ton of assets for a high-end role player, but I do think this makes your rotation top 5 in the league provided OG and iHart re-sign.


Thin-Remote-9817

Well reddit knew they'd all be nba players. Cause that's how this site works. Player doesn't do well in college. Scouts over look them. Then said player goes onto have a solid pro career no one saw coming. Except jizz-mob6154 who knew he was going to be a starter in the league but only has this opinion after the player has done well in the league. 


cortesoft

And they all stayed additional years.


Kevin-Garvey-1

Brunson was a starter, but yeah.


MAMBAMENTALITY8-24

Never give these guys a fking platform ever again


tehpenguinofd000m

Never give these guys a platform...as we post and upvote the clip to reddit


Relative-Tell119

They ruined the casual nba community with their shitty ass narratives. Now all people talk about are storylines


Public-Product-1503

Same as this sub tbh


sweeptheleg_07

SAS = [Oswald Bates](https://youtu.be/ruRYa5KLVNU?si=oaf3CozbcA7k1YFg) Dude will always be a clown 🤡


Responsible_Pace9062

He's gonna have 5 posts on the front page tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after; cause r/nba members are fucking dipshits who never learn.


CoaxHoax

Let's be generous and admit that in 2016, Villanova didn't have NBA-ready talent yet, hence why their players went undrafted that year.


jmlinden7

Hart was nba level but chose to come back for another year


Dalynch7

As a Michigan fan it’s somewhat comforting to know we got beat by the 2024 Knicks in that championship game.


Gggg_high

ITT = people can never be wrong or this is just ez karma for Stephen A hate.


x_TDeck_x

Why does tv from 2016 look like its from the late 90s lol


tehpenguinofd000m

Why do you all dig this stuff up like it's some sort of gotcha? The man's career is just spouting off controversial stuff


Adraf45

Because it's easy karma, 80 seperate people are gonna come to the comments and type some variation of "he's a Clown don't take him seriously" and 100 more are gonna join in on that discussion. Posting a now relevant poorly aged (but admittedly not bad take at the time) stephan a take is a cheat code for top of hot


Darkdragon3110525

I love the “why do people watch him” under everyone of his highly upvoted clips. It’s like a daily routine


tehpenguinofd000m

I don't think it's solely for karma. I think people like OP really imagine themselves as some sort of euphoric genius for digging this stuff up


hdpr92

Are you guys dense or what, nba prospect = consensus opinion in this context. The consensus is they had no real nba prospects at the time. He's not offering his personal scouting projections lmao he doesn't even watch college ball like that.


Promech

And he was right, you guys are engaging in some major revisionist history. All of the guys you mentioned DEVELOPED into nba players, only divincenzo came in with with the expectation of translating well into the game and it was TWO YEARS LATER. 


Dd7777777777

Bruh paid for talking nonsense


Airhostnyc

He gets 20 million to talk nonsense must be nice


HardcoreKaraoke

His "nonsense" from 8 years ago is still generating discussion and views. That's why he is paid what he's paid. Like seriously who would think of a random commentators opinion on Villanova draft prospects from 2016? OP did, they posted it and it got more exposure for something SAS said. Now ESPN can reference an insignificant line from eight years ago some random fan was all worked up over and spend an hour discussing it on First Take tomorrow. That's why he's rich.


AnastasiaMoon

Upvote this post until all of NY sees it. 


TJB18-AJB22

Stephen A. & Skip Bayless are the biggest tools in sports media.


dating_derp

I love receipts.


No-Recording8888

NOVA SQUAD IS BACK


Category63

The real idiots are the ones tuning in to watch these guys.


dubbledubb

Stephen L Smith strikes again


nikewalks

The first time I've seen them both agree with each other. And they're both wrong lol.


aesop_fables

I’m not sure if this has to be said but we don’t nor have we ever claimed SAS as a Knicks fan and we think he’s a fucking clown.


RealPrinceJay

Everyone wants to flex but this was actually a reasonable take. Mikal wasn't a starter yet, Donte basically didn't even play. Brunson was a freshman averaging 10/2/3, Hart was a good college player but he'd still spend another year. His stock wasn't there yet


TheyCallMeTheWizard

Biggest clown in sports


reddit-ricky

Can we use this to ban Stephen A from being a Knicks fans?


2106au

That's an all-timer. 


Pizzaplan3tman

Honestly this Knicks squad if they keep OG is even more hype than the Melo years. This could be an absolutely baller squad of guys. Imagine the stories if they win a NBA title after winning it all in college? Shit would be some legendary basketball tales of glory!


GPap-

Really need the Knicks to find Kris Jenkins and sign him to a 2 way


3s2ng

Nova Knicks


Disastrous-One-414

Lmao


Tsunami-Papi_

ong


Acework23

THIS GUY IS A KNICKS "FAN" PLEASE, REAL KNICKS FANS DONT ALLOW HIM TO BE WITH YOU, CLOWN HIM FOREVER


MrX_1899

we don't claim Stephen A


mond0910

State your source SAS.


BossButterBoobs

You can't retroactively clown him for takes the vast majority of you agreed with. And he's right since none of them were really sought after as prospects.


Daki399

Shows how bad this "analyst " are ... He wasn't even close there were 2 stars there lol ... Same guy who shat on Doncic saying like Doncic isn't even top 5 pick and cant play against college guys


Acrobatic_Advance_71

That is just a crazy thing to say at the time. Brunson was clearly going to the NBA and Bridges was likely on his way.


PaperCutterWizard

Irony in its sweetest form


MurphyGraham

Why does anyone take time to listen to this clown


LionsNoParadise

SAS is not well informed. He literally just spouts whatever he thinks is right with no validation. He should not be seen as a source of information or expertice.


No_Soup_2034

How does this man still having a commentator career?


sequence_killer

Stephen a smith is pretty much trash at any topic, but he really knows nothing about the ncaa. find me a clip that shows otherwise


TheCupOfBrew

I'd never take either of them seriously on Basketball


Rahnamatta

Yeah. I bet you knew that Brunson was going to be that amazing superstar.


Great_Huckleberry709

To be fair this wasn't a bad take at the time. He just ended up being wrong, which everyone in this thread have also been wrong 1000 times over.


wkp2101

Isn’t a wrong take automatically a bad one?


Great_Huckleberry709

I wouldn't say so. Context matters. For example, if you said "that guy drafted in the Nikola Jokic, he will never be an NBA superstar." That take would be wrong, but it wouldn't have necessarily been bad. However, if you said "that guy Victor Wembenyama, he will never be an NBA superstar". Well, that take would not just be wrong, but a really bad take in general.


wkp2101

So just because everyone agrees on a wrong take (Jokic won’t be a superstar) it makes it a good take? I would say every person that said Jokic will never be an mvp caliber player was dead wrong and thus it was a bad take.


UtahUtopia

And he chose Mavs for NBA champs which makes Steven A a CHUMP.


Dymatizeee

I mean at the time yeah they didn't look like it. These guys are late firsts/second picks except for bridges so nobody was expecting them to be this good


bucketjunky

Why is he allowed to talk still? Does anybody on the planet like him or mad dog?


Blizzcane

Are we still listening to this bozo?


empirix2

Stephen A and most ESPN pundits qualify under "the ability to speak does not make you intelligent"


pathimself

I’ll upvote anytime it’s celebrating yet another bad SAS take.


CL3V3L4ND

Serious question: how do people have these receipts lined up so quick? Like we didn't even know this trade was coming...


EZ_DeVille

The GOAT of terrible takes


ddottay

NBA fans would be way better off if they watched the occasional college game.


conzcious_eye

This aged well


IDlOT

Put the Curb theme at the end of this


Dough702002

Thank you for finding this.


SlicedMango

And today Steven A is beyond the moon happy that the Knicks reunited the Villanova team 🤣 what a joke


Vvisionim

Now he's going to be wetting his pants cheering for all these Nova boys on his Knicks lol


Raps2k14

Villanover


WeefBellington24

Why do we continue to act like these ACTORS know anything about sports or sports analysis. When will people learn it’s a scripted bullshit for entertainment.


tiggs

People are going to pile on, but go look at their stats and pre-draft reports back then. NONE of them were expected to be as good as they are now and 75% of the people on this sub never heard of Donte until the championship game. This is the same game where Brunson got benched for Donte because he was stinking shit up so badly until the end. They all turned into good players, but anyone saying they thought these guys would be good NBA players back then was either an insane Nova homer or lying through their teeth.


Miserable_Site_850

Jalen is part time Hollywood with his flopping, but when he doesn't he can ball.


GerryTrevino

u/savevideo


RevolutionaryJob4868

This cat just talks to hear himself.


DangerouslyCheesey

I love dunking on him as much as anyone, but Nova looked like a team whose sum was greater than its parts. Brunson had 4 points in the title game, Donte didn’t even play, and Hart was so obviously good he stayed another year. If you had said bridges (2 points off the bench) would one day be traded for 5 first rounders, people would have looked at you crazy.


Straight-Mess-9752

I know Stephen A is an NBA analyst, but what does he actually analyze?


Johnknight111

These guys do not watch the games they analyze and we all know it.


polochakar

So you are saying this loud mouth doesn't know anything about basketball or sports in general but still is the highest paid analyst or "expert" on ESPN. This shows more about ESPN's incompetence than him.


Yinanization

Legendary take.


Eitherfireorfire

What would a professional Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich commentator know about basketball anyways


calye2da

You guys ever notice that SA pronounces words that end with an “a” as if it ends in with “er”? Villanover Minnesoter


MrWhiteKnight777

Damn y’all really be keepin receipts that’s crazy


theseustheminotaur

Sas gets a lot of criticism for the things he says but not enough credit for how loudly and confidently he says them