So last week we all had a great laugh about Ryan Hollins.
The tall, lanky dude who kinda played in the NBA and kinda wants to look cool as a basketball
analyst now but in the eyes of many
is a Stephen A Wannabe.
As hard as he tries he can’t really be better than the original.
So today we take a look at the original.
Yo guys.
Hope you are doing awesome.
PRPLPRNCH here.
And today let’s look at our beloved Stephen A Smith and just try to imagine what his basketball
career could have looked like.
Stephen A. The workhorse of ESPN.
One of the most popular if not the most popular TV show host and sports personality who isn’t
actually an athlete.
His facial expressions and short-temper when it comes to the Knicks has really captured
our attention.
He’s a great TV personality.
I love him.
But.
We’re not here to bloat about what he does right now.
We’re here to see how he did as a basketball player.
So.
I have to start with this.
Do you recognize who is this?
The proper hairline in the picture might have confused you a bit, but yes, that is Stephen
A Smith.
There’s not much known about his basketball career except the fact that he played at Winston
Salem State University.
And that is a known fact.
Unfortunately at least I wasn’t able to find any stats of his which is kinda weird
cause by that time I think you would have a journal or something or at least a paper
and a pen to write some stats down.
Anyway, since we don’t have any basics, we’ll have to imagine what kind of a player
he could’ve been.
Standing tall and talented at 6 foot 1 inches tall Stephen A was supposedly playing the
point guard/shooting guard position.
So if we strictly think about the height, he could’ve been the next John Stockton.
I don’t know how good was his passing, but let’s assume he was as good at passing if
not better.
Ok.
So what we know is that his basketball career was ultimately ended because of a knee injury.
Stephen A. Smith has said that himself on multiple occasions, but his coach Clarence
“Big House” Gaines said that the unfortunate end of his career was not only because of
the injury.
He also had a suspect shot.
Ok.
A suspect shot.
Is it possible it looked like this?
Or maybe this?
Or maybe, like this?
Maybe by suspect shot coach Gaines meant not the form of the shot, but just the fact that
he wasn’t consistent with his shot.
Hey, as far as we know, there are 2 cool NBA players who struggled with their shot in the
early years of their career.
Both bigger point guards - Jason Kidd in the past and Lonzo Ball now.
But, we’re looking at the player of same size, so the best choice here would be Isiah
Thomas.
He shot 42% from the field and close to 29% from the three in his rookie year which could
be exactly what coach Gaines meant by a suspect shot.
Ok, so we have a combination of John Stockton and Isiah Thomas.
Not bad.
Since it was a knee injury that forced him to leave a game of basketball I have another
player in mind whose knees effectively derailed his NBA career and that’s Brandon Roy.
A bigger guard no doubt, but the one that shares a similar health issue with our friend
Stephen A.
Ok.
We have his profile now.
A combo of Stockton, Isiah and Brandon Roy.
Stephen A Smith graduated from college in 1991.
That means he would’ve been one of the picks in the 1991 NBA Draft.
With his skills and profile Stephen A. would definitely be a lottery pick.
He wouldn’t be the Number 1 pick as Charlotte who picked no1 that year didn’t really need
a point guard.
It would make sense for Portland to draft a guy with knee problems but they didn’t
have a lottery pick that year.
He could’ve went to the New Jersey Nets though with the 2nd pick.
They chose a point guard Kenny Anderson originally but we all know who would’ve been a better
choice.
As for the perfect team.
Well.
There is only one team that would fit Stephen A. And that’s his beloved NY Knicks.
:)
Imagine if Stephen A would be partly responsible for all the shortcomings of the NY Knicks
franchise.
All of the things he’s complained about.
All brand and no talent :)
So what type of stats he could actually give us?
I’ll leave that to you guys.
Even though we didn’t have the chance to see Stephen A play professionally we can find
some clips of him shooting the ball.
Doesn’t that look smooth?
That doesn’t look suspect at all.
And couple of years ago he had that interview with James Harden where they were on the basketball
court and he shot some threes.
That didn’t look so good.
He missed a lot of them.
Anyways. only god knows what could have been.
All we’re left with is our imagination and what we have at the moment is a combination
of John Stockton,Isiah Thomas and Brandon Roy in a NY Knicks uniform somewhere down
the line.
Oh well.
That was it for this one.
Thanks for watching guys.
Can you predict Stephen A Smith’s possible statline?
Would he make the NBA Hall of Fame?
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Thanks for everything.
This was PRPLPRNCH and I’m out!