Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green went on a historic scoring streak late in his rookie season, and his head coach, Stephen Silas, is quite convinced that Green belongs on the 2021-22 All-Rookie First Team.
Whether Green actually receives that honor, however, is an open question. Based on media ballots thus far, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham, Cleveland’s Evan Mobley, Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, and Orlando’s Franz Wagner appear to be locks, with the fifth spot contested between Green, Oklahoma City’s Josh Giddey, and Herb Jones of the Pelicans.
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, who actually has an NBA awards vote, went with Jones and explicitly attacked Green on his podcast.
“F–k Jalen Green,” Simmons said on the episode. “I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team’s 19-60. Congratulations. Herb Jones is like guarding dudes in real games. Now, the Houston people are going to be mad at me. I’m sorry. I like winning players, I’m sorry. Jalen Green will get there, it’s just that team was 21-61 this year or whatever.”
Bill Simmons saying F*ck Jalen Green. pic.twitter.com/2PVZyQjK7A
— J. Dubb (@TheMindOfJDubb) April 13, 2022
There are a number of problems with this argument, of course. For starters, Green doesn’t have a veteran next to him in Houston anywhere near the caliber of Brandon Ingram (a recent All-Star) or CJ McCollum — and it’s not as though the Pelicans (36-46) were a “winning team,” either. Furthermore, Simmons doesn’t seem to be using that same “record” standard for rookies from the Pistons (23-59) or Magic (22-60).
As a result, Rockets fans on Twitter pushed back strongly against Simmons after Wednesday’s show went live. Scroll on for the best replies.
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