Never one to mince words, Stephen A. Smith let loose on the Washington Wizards on ESPN’s “First Take” Thursday, the morning after the Wizards suffered a disappointing 107-104 loss to the 17-24 Utah Jazz.
Smith called Washington his biggest disappointment of the 2017-18 NBA season so far, criticizing the Wizards for their 11-10 record against sub-.500 teams.
“You play up to your competition, you play down to your competition,” Smith said. “You know what that means … you think you have arrived. What the hell have the Washington Wizards done to think they have arrived?”
“I root for them, I picked them to go to the conference finals last year,” Smith continued. “I was hoping they would do something this year. Y’all right now are looking like straight garbage.”
Smith concluded his rant by singling out Bradley Beal, who is averaging a career high 23.6 points per game, for poor performances at the end of games. In “clutch situations,” the Florida product has a 30.2 field goal percentage, 21.1 percent from three-point range.
“This is a guy … I’m thinking ’All-Star, All-Star, All-Star,’” Smith said of Beal. “And then I watch the next few games, and some of my peeps remind me, ’Hey, he ain’t clutch’ … him and John Wall are big time, but y’all ain’t playing like it when it counts.”
• Josh Luckenbaugh can be reached at jluckenbaugh@washingtontimes.com.
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