The Brooklyn Nets started their season against the New Orleans Pelicans earlier this week, which resulted in an embarrassing loss, sports analyst Stephen A. Smith is disappointed in the franchise’s start and sounds off on why.
Smith discussed Brooklyn’s regular-season debut and how bad it made the organization look. “I’m disappointed in what I saw from them Brooklyn Nets, ’cause you know, they got their butts whooped.”
“New Orleans is my sleeper, I think they can go as far as the Western Conference finals, I’m not surprised in how good they looked. I’m just shocked that it’s at the expense of the Brooklyn Nets in a lopsided fashion. Kyrie was absolutely right in terms of it being a grown man’s league,” said Smith. “I like how he slickly and adroitly alluded to the fact that it’s a grown man league, and what have you, and there’s a physicality that comes with it, and the Nets don’t have it. They got a lot of talent, but they don’t have a lot of girth… The only person who showed up offensively was Kevin Durant, who started off the game wrong ’cause he had more turnovers than baskets.”
Despite Smith’s disappointment he still believes in the organization’s ability to make a playoff push. “I still believe in this team, I still believe in this franchise, but last night was not a good showing.”
Smith said he’d be “nice” to Ben Simmons in reviewing his first game back – but he called Simmons’ performance “awful.”
“Ben Simmons was awful last night too. No factor whatsoever. Plagued by foul trouble to some degree. Didn’t seem ready to go, OK, and only attempted one shot in the first three quarters which also didn’t help matters at all. You don’t have to shoot jump shots, but damn, you’re supposed to be a playmaker. You weren’t doing that.”
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