Villanova’s men’s basketball team won its first of two championships in three seasons on April 4, 2016, when Kris Jenkins drilled a long three at the buzzer to beat North Carolina. And on the eight-year anniversary of that game, Jenkins called out two prominent people who doubted Villanova’s chances.
Earlier that day, Stephen A. Smith was on First Take and opined “Villanova doesn’t have a real NBA prospect on this squad.” Skip Bayless, Smith’s then co-host, agreed.
On the eight-year anniversary, Jenkins quote tweeted a video that the New York Basketball Twitter/X account shared in August. The video was of Smith and Bayless’ conversation. The caption noted that seven players from that Villanova team — Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, Eric Paschall, Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu — all played, or are still playing, in the NBA.
Jenkins quote tweeted the video saying “Imagine being this bad at your job and still keeping it sheesh.”
There are other variables that make this miss even funnier.
One, we’re generally not talking about guys who briefly played in the NBA. Four of the players, Brunson, Bridges, Hart and DiVincenzo are currently in the NBA. Arcidiacono, meanwhile, presently plays for the Windy City Bulls of the NBA G League but played 20 games for the New York Knicks this season. And that leads us to the second funny variable.
Not only do Brunson, Hart and DiVincenzo all presently play in the NBA, but they all play for the Knicks — a team Smith is an unabashed fan of. All have been integral in helping lead the franchise back to prominence and respectability. Brunson was an all star this season.
So, eight years after the comment, we can probably assume that it falls into the “Happy I was wrong” category for Smith. Still, we can’t blame Jenkins for keeping receipts.
[New York Basketball on Twitter/X, Photo Credit: Kris Jenkins on Twitter/X]
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