The NBA season came to its conclusion as the Denver Nuggets celebrated its first NBA championship in the streets with hundreds of thousands of fans. NBA Finals MVP and all-star center Nikola Jokić called the championship parade the best day of his life, and all of the Nuggets players, personnel and fans reveled in the jubilation. Shortly thereafter, preparation turned to the NBA Draft, which took place Thursday night from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the unofficial start to the new season. Before moving past the year in its entirety though, podcast host and ESPN basketball analyst JJ Redick unearthed less than stellar takes from various media personalities over the course of the 2022-23 season.
In a segment on his podcast, The Old Man and the Three, produced through Redick’s company ThreeFourTwo Productions, Redick repeated statements made by Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, Skip Bayless, Taylor Rooks, Colin Cowherd and Stephen A. Smith among others. Through this, he brought back memories of Kawhi Leonard being called on to retire (Smith); Pat Riley firing Erik Spoelstra (Russo) and the aforementioned Jokić playing like he was “one big tub of Crisco” (Bayless).
A portion of the video was replayed on Friday morning’s edition of First Take, leading show host Molly Qerim to ask Smith to assert what he thought was his worst take of the past NBA season. After briefly thinking it over, Smith concluded by saying it was thinking the Brooklyn Nets would make the NBA Finals with Kyrie Irving as a leading MVP candidate and Ben Simmons having potential to win the Comeback Player of the Year distinction. Before he divulged his point further though, Smith made sure to warn Redick what he had just catalyzed.
“I’m the worst person in the world to mess with,” Smith said, prefacing it by saying Redick, like Qerim had, would learn of this. “I’ve got my own podcast too – The Stephen A. Smith Show – I’m going to get you for this. I’m going to wait, [but] I’m going to get you for this one.”
Some of the other takes Redick promulgated Smith as making included conveying that Jokić did not have a dominant style of play in the post, along with Aaron Gordon not being able to shift the Nuggets’ championship odds – in any universe whatsoever. Smith was, by far, the commentator featured the most in the video, perhaps in part that Redick works with him at ESPN on First Take.
Smith was enigmatic towards just how he would exact his revenge on Redick, but inconspicuously pointed out how Redick indeed exposed him for some of his thinking. Qerim then told Redick that reminiscing on the worst takes from throughout the NBA season was a good idea, leading Smith, clearly flabbergasted, to chime in again.
“It was a great idea,” Smith said, “….and it breeds other great ideas. I’m going to get you for that one. You got me today…. You’re not getting away with that, JJ Redick.”
