Bill Simmons of The Ringer had Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green on the latest edition of his podcast and the two discussed the recent NBA All-Rookie voting results.
Of course, Simmons made headlines after profanely revealing he did not vote Green to the first team on his end-of-season awards ballot. He felt there were more deserving candidates and instead voted for Herb Jones since the New Orleans Pelicans made the playoffs.
“(Expletive) Jalen Green!” Simmons said on April 13. “I don’t care you’re scoring 40 points and your team is 19-60. Congratulations. Herb Jones is 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.”
The NBA unveiled the All-Rookie results with Green earning a first-team placement, receiving 58 first-team votes and 42 second-team votes for 158 total points. He was the fifth-leading vote-getter, topping the 123 points received by Jones, who headlined the second team.
Once the final voting results were revealed, Green took to social media and gave Simmons a shoutout, which seemed a bit sarcastic in nature after finishing on the first team.
shoutout bill simmons my dawg fr🙏🏽
— Jalen Green🤍 (@JalenGreen) May 19, 2022
However, any supposed beef between the two was squashed when Green joined Simmons and addressed the situation. The two mostly talked about the current state of basketball with Green eventually weighing in on Simmons’ comments.
Green: When I saw it, I was like, ‘Damn, I don’t know him. What did I do to him? I don’t know where this is coming from.’ But, everybody’s going to talk. I’m used to it, seeing things like that, people talking in general. I never took it too personal. I started making a joke out of it on Twitter. Laughed about it. It’s all good. I’m glad we got to get on (the podcast) and talk about that.
Simmons: When it happened, I was like, ‘This is your classic, stupid social media thing but then somebody tried to write some piece about it.’ I was like, ‘Alright!’ I did this tweet and said we were joking the whole time. I felt like the facts were on my side but then the way this goes, it kept popping up.
Your class was really good. I had trouble figuring out who my five guys were. For me, I’ve always had this strategy with the voting that the team record stuff matters to me and you guys had 20 (wins). I looked at the stuff Herb Jones was doing in New Orleans and I rewarded that.
Simmons addressed the backlash and downplayed the situation after his initial comments, adding that they were in jest. Green agreed with him and the two moved on from the incident as Simmons wished the best for him next season and beyond.
In the end, though, Simmons’ vote didn’t prevent Green from a first-team selection and the two now appear to be cool with each other moving forward.
This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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