Boston Celtics star swingman Jayson Tatum’s big leap in 2019-20 wasn’t a surprise to ESPN’s Jay Williams.
NBA analyst and fellow Duke alumni Jay Williams recently shared his initial assessment of former Blue Devil and current Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum speaking with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on the “Heavy on Lakers with Scoop B” podcast.
The fellow former Blue Devil holds Tatum in high regard, but isn’t surprised by the leap forward the St. Louis native took in 2019-20.
“Four years ago, he was a freshman in college, coming in at Duke,” Williams began.
“Jabari Parker was doing his thing in the league around that time with Milwaukee. I watched [Tatum] give [Parker] the business for an hour straight. I’m not talking about college moves. I’m talking about the same moves he’s doing right now.”
“He was doing as a 17-year-old. I remember walking away [thinking] this dude is special,” he added.
For many, Tatum’s jump came out of the blue, but for those who have followed his career as Williams has, it’s much less of a surprise.
“The way he was playing before the pandemic, the way he’s playing right now, he’s going to be in MVP conversation in years to come. He may be one of the best players we will ever have that has donned a Duke uniform.”
“He’s not that athletic, but his skill set reminds of Grant Hill,” added Williams.
That’s a pretty solid comparison overall, and no small praise coming from Williams given the long line of outstanding players coming from the school most NCAA fans love to hate.
More than a few people have reflected on the things Kyrie Irving had to say about the issues with the NBA restarting 2019-21.
Many were critical of Kyrie Irving before the NBA restarted the 2019-20 season in the Disney bubble in late July. But there has been a recent shift in the perception of Brooklyn Nets point guard’s comments because of the Milwaukee Bucks’ protest of Game 5 of their first-round series against the Orlando Magic which led to a brief pause of the 2020 NBA Playoffs as the rest of the playoff teams met to reflect on their decision to play basketball while social injustice is still a forefront issue in the country.
ESPN analyst Jay Williams is among those who believe Irving was right about his concerns over resuming the season while players were helping the Black Lives Matter movement.
But, Williams understands why there were issues between the Nets superstar and those who wanted to play, which the ESPN analyst explained to Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson of Heavy.com:
Ky has always been extremely smart. Extremely smart. What I try to talk about when I’m on-air is people have talents in different aspects. Incredibly talented basketball player. Incredibly smart individual. I don’t think the message always translates from here (Williams points to his head) to here (Williams points to his mouth) the right way sometimes. I think, sometimes, that gets lost. I think one of the things that makes it difficult for Ky is we have a hard time of letting go of your past history. We take, ‘Well, he wasn’t a leader in Boston and looks what happened in Boston, or look what happened in Cleveland and LeBron [James],’ and all these different things. One of the things I get frustrated about [with] the way the public perceives Kyrie is we don’t allow him the opportunity to grow. I think Kyrie Irving has grown tremendously over the last couple of years of his life, and it’s not easy.
I do ultimately think that Kyrie was correct. Unfortunately, I think sometimes about how you communicate those thoughts and the position that CP3 was in, that lack of communication I think that sometimes those are the things that hurt, ultimately, the perception of Kyrie.
Were Montrezl Harrell’s comments a big deal? Or was it normal trash talk?
Jay Williams went after Montrezl Harrell for what he appeared to say to Luka Doncic after the two got into a dustup in Saturday night’s playoff game between the Dallas Mavericks and the L.A. Clippers.
Harrell and Doncic got into a scuffle after the two players tripped each other at the Clippers’ defense end, and Harrell ended up on the court. Doncic told Harrell: “Stop flopping man.” That didn’t sit well with Harrell, who had to be separated from Doncic. After Harrell scored on Doncic later in the game, he appeared to hurl a racially-charged insult at Doncic.
Clippers player Montrezl Harrell called Mavericks player Luka Doncic a "b*tch a** white boy" during an NBA playoff game tonight. I’m sure the @NBA will level the same type of consequences as if Luka said the reverse to Montrezl right? pic.twitter.com/aFPnfnvfeu
Williams, a retired NBA star and ESPN analyst, put Harrell on blast.
“I am no lip-reader, but damn Trez. Damn Montrezl,” Williams said in a video he posted to Twitter Sunday. “I can only imagine if Luka Doncic had said something like that to you and it got caught on tape. I can only imagine during Black Lives Matter how much of a big deal that would have been, considering today’s climate and state. It would’ve been a massive story, and Luka would’ve lost all credibility in this space. Everybody would’ve been commenting on it. People would’ve asked LeBron (James) about it. People would’ve asked Kawhi (Leonard) about it. Everyone would’ve had some kind of statement about it.
“But it’s not that big of a story, because Trez said it to a caucasian person. It should be a big story, because that’s not acceptable man. Look, I’m a hooper. I talk trash. I cuss people out. We can get into the nuances of whether that’s right or wrong, too, but what you said, involving race into it. And I’ve heard that being said in basketball scenarios and playing hoops in the inner cities. I still didn’t find it acceptable then. I don’t find it acceptable now, especially when cameras are on you 24/7. Get lost in your battle, man. But don’t get lost in saying things like that.”
Here’s a look at the initial exchange between Harrell and Doncic, when the Mavericks guard accused the Clippers forward of flopping after their legs got tangled in transition.
The incident hasn’t made many headlines. In fact, CBS Sports’ Doug Gottlieb brushed off Harrell’s comments by saying “this is not racist. It’s just basketball.” It’s a tough line to draw: Is it normal trash talk, or did Harrell cross the line?
Despite his strong middle of the season in New Orleans, Lonzo Ball’s finish to his third year inside the bubble may have a lasting impact heading into the off-season.
More rumors began circulating on Friday that Ball may be included in trade talks this off-season after Jay Williams reported as such on his radio show.
“…I’m hearing things around New Orleans that Lonzo may be used as a trading asset in New Orleans…”
For a variety of reasons, which we discussed in an article last week, Ball will likely not be traded. But if there was an argument to be made as to why the Pelicans would trade Ball, it would be based largely around his impending free agency.
Ball may have broken out at with the Pelicans last season but that only came after two underwhelming seasons in Los Angeles. Those seasons are largely what led to the Lakers including him in the trade to the Pelicans.
“My NBA brothers, you cannot be tone-deaf right now in this current environment.”
Since arriving in the NBA bubble near Orlando, some NBA players — certainly, not all — have shared their complaints about the food provided, as well as their accommodations.
Setting aside the fact that the food players have received so far won’t be the norm for their extended stay in the bubble, USA TODAY Sports reported Thursday, they still shouldn’t be complaining, ESPN broadcaster Jay Williams said.
In a video he tweeted Sunday, the former Duke star encouraged NBA players to not be so “tone-deaf” while living in a “billion-dollar bubble,” as everyday people are struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is ravaging parts of the U.S., including and especially Florida.
We all have the right to complain but doing it publicly is different issue. I don’t need some of my #NBA brothers complaining publicly about quality of living & food accomodations in a billion dollar bubble during a pandemic. Tell me your thoughts. pic.twitter.com/cm9JARkmO0
“NBA players cannot be tone-deaf. My NBA brothers, you cannot be tone-deaf right now in this current environment. We all know the life that NBA players live. You are blessed. You get a chance to be on private planes, you get a chance to have millions of dollars in your bank account, you live a different level of life. But that is drastically different than what real, everyday, working Americans are going through right now.
“Now, you’re in a billion-dollar bubble. If you want to complain about the anxieties you have from COVID-related issues, I get it. Complain about that. We all have the right to complain about that. But when I hear NBA guys complaining about living facilities, food that they have being delivered to them, it is tone-deaf. It is tone-deaf. We need to think about people who are everyday, working people who are making minimum wage, trying to make ends meet, that are going to factories, that are going to really harsh working environments, where, if anything, maybe their employers are doing less to ensure their safety because they’re trying to increase the bottom line. They’re trying to earn and make money back from all the money that they lost during the times that a lot of these states, individually governed, have been dealing with this issue.
“So when I see guys that are going into a billion-dollar bubble — a billion-dollar bubble — and are getting food delivered to them, that have beds to sleep in, you can’t complain about that. Not while you’re making millions of dollars, not while your employer is going through drastic measures to protect you while they’re still paying you when that’s not the case for everyday, real working Americans. That bothers me.”
Williams added that as the NBA is trying to finish its season — which, like that of nearly every other pro sport, was totally upended by the pandemic in March — teams’ public relations departments should work with players to ensure the end of these tone-deaf complaints.
Later on Twitter, Williams also gave credit to Memphis Grizzlies rookie Ja Morant for his comments about the accommodations in the NBA bubble.
“My room is fine, my food is fine. I’m not a silver spoon guy so I know how to live in the conditions,” Morant said Friday, “People complaining but I’m doing good.”
He also brought his own stash of snacks as if to say it doesn’t matter what they’ll be served as the NBA prepares to restart its season. He’ll be good keeping it simple.
“I’m a Ramen noodles guy so I’m used to this,” Morant said.
ESPN analyst Jay Williams doesn’t seem to think Brooklyn Nets fans will get to see Kevin Durant suit up in 2019-20.
Much like at the beginning of the 2019-20 NBA season, whether or not Kevin Durant will suit up for the Brooklyn Nets this season has become a major question. The only reason it’s up for debate is even though the NBA’s hiatus has lasted longer than initially anticipated, the league’s front office continues to indicate it does not want to cancel the season.
Initially, Durant had ruled himself out for the remainder of the year with the playoffs set to start in April. But now the NBA’s hiatus has carried into May and could go longer — and, again, it appears the league is willing to wait in order to crown a champion.
Nets general manager Sean Marks hasn’t ruled out Durant making his debut in a Brooklyn uniform after the break.
Durant’s business manager Rich Kleiman doesn’t think the league will resume play — as much as he’s tried to change his tune — so he hasn’t talked with the superstar about a possible return. Again, that’s not a “no.”
ESPN analyst Jay Williams doesn’t have a yes or no answer on the matter, either, but he did tell Marc Berman of the New York Post that it’s unfair to expect Durant to jump right into postseason action after having missed the entire season:
I think everybody’s antsy. As it relates to Kevin, it depends on the timetable of those games and how condensed it is. It’s one thing to come back and start the beginning of next season where there’s time and space between games and [you can] keep your body ramped up the right way. But someone coming back off an injury and go right into a playoff scenario, I don’t think it’s feasible or fair on Kevin himself. But Kevin is his own man. He’ll do what he wants to do.
Though, Williams did add Durant “is working out and feels great which is really good to hear,” he still has concerns:
There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered. Someone can have great individual workouts and pickup games but until you play in full live-game situation with teammates, I don’t know the answer.
The NBA was the first major U.S. sports league to suspend its season amid the global coronavirus pandemic, making the decision to stop play after Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
It’s been three weeks since the NBA made that decision to suspend the season, and there is no end to the sports stoppage in sight. And even as the pandemic hasn’t yet reached the projected late April/early May peak, leagues and sports personalities have floated some awful ideas to get back to playing games now.
We can add ESPN’s Jay Williams to that list.
During an appearance on Golic and Wingo, Williams suggested that the NBA take over a couple cruise ships, build basketball courts, isolate the players (and their families) and hold the playoffs on the cruise ships. It wasn’t quite as bad as the idea of the NFL building an isolated city in Nebraska, but it was close.
“You have an Eastern Conference cruise ship and a Western Conference cruise ship… You have the championship game on a cruise ship.”
“I think if the NBA, if you are trying to find a way this happens in May or June, we’re still not in a great, great place, but maybe we’re in a better place. Maybe you can take two of those massive cruise ships, and there’s testing before everybody goes on the ship. You allow the player and their immediate family — their wife or their kids are allowed to go with them. And you have an Eastern Conference cruise ship and a Western Conference cruise ship. Obviously, everything is sterilized all the time.
“You have the media companies are able to drop their equipment in, you never really go to shore, you stay out on the cruise ships. And you build two courts on those cruise ships. And now I know fans may not be allowed to go, but still, broadcasting companies could actually broadcast these games. The team members and their family members could be isolated to a degree for that span if that’s 40 days — whatever it may be. And then you’re allowed to potentially have these games, the Eastern Conference finals. You go right into the playoffs, maybe give a week for each team to prepare, but you go right in there with the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. And then you have a championship game on a cruise ship.”
Like any of these “let’s play games in isolation” ideas, it would take one COVID-positive case to derail the entire project — especially when you consider how quickly the virus has spread on cruise ships.
While, in theory, the idea could seem feasible, the execution of a project on that scale would take around 8-12 months of planning under ideal conditions — not six weeks. Here, Williams would be asking the NBA to use an enormous amount of testing, sanitation and medical resources — in a time when those are limited — all to hold basketball games on a cruise ship.
What happens when the East and West have to go on the same ship for the NBA Finals? It would seem like a logistical and liability nightmare for the league.
And optically, it would look awful for the NBA to be playing games during the worst of this pandemic.
We all want sports back, but right now, it’s just not the time.
Ty Lue has been rumored as a possible candidate to take over as the head coach of the Nets after 2019-20, but there are other options.
Jacque Vaughn hasn’t even been head coach of the Nets for a week and everyone is already speculating who will be the person to take over for him at the end of the season — which is the timetable Brooklyn set for his reign, at this stage.
Multiple names have been thrown around since the Nets announced on Saturday that the organization and Kenny Atkinson have mutually parted ways. Some feel Vaughn could hold onto the job.
Jay Williams didn’t list Vaughn as one of his two candidates on ESPN’s “Get Up!” on Monday, though he didn’t rule him out:
I think you need somebody who can manage egos. And I think a guy Ty Lue is an option. I think a guy like Jason Kidd is an option. I think you need somebody that both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving can look at and say, ‘This guy is in tune with this game. This guy has won championships before.’ He’s been around [the right] caliber of players that he’s been able to lead them.
In the course of discussing Atkinson’s departure, Williams also made it a point to stress he believes the Nets, as an organization, decided on this change in direction — not specific players:
I ultimately think that this team — team — has decided [Atkinson] wasn’t the right fit to get them to where they wanted to go.
Everyone agrees Silvio De Sousa should be suspended, but for how long?
Depending on who you ask, Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa should be suspended for a few games or for the rest of the college basketball season for one very specific moment in an all-out brawl at the end of the Kansas-Kansas State game Tuesday night.
With only a few seconds left in Kansas’ 81-60 win in Lawrence, Kansas State guard DaJuan Gordon stole the ball from De Sousa, who was dribbling out the clock. Gordon went in for a meaningless layup, De Sousa blocked the shot and Gordon landed on the court, where De Sousa taunted him.
Seconds later, dozens of people surrounded them for a scuffle that spilled into the stands.
But at one point amid all the chaos, De Sousa picked up a stool and had it over his head as if he was ready to swing it at someone. Before he could, what appeared to be an assistant coach standing behind him pulled the stool out of his hands.
Kansas coach Bill Self said he saw that moment in person and called it a “terrible image” and guaranteed consequences. But what should those be?
ESPN analysts Jay Williams and Richard Jefferson were among those who weighed in.
“This is not acceptable,” Williams said Wednesday on ESPN’s Get Up. “This is wrong. There shouldn’t be fights. But I also want to put this in perspective: This is a rivalry game. This is a rivalry game. And look, the kid made a play at the end. He stole the ball and got his shot blocked. This is a bigger issue with Silvio De Sousa. I think he will be suspended — and should be suspended.”
Tuesday night after the brawl, ESPN’s Dick Vitale called for a much harsher punishment for De Sousa for picking up the stool and raising it over his head, ready to hit someone with it.
Calling the brawl “absolutely sickening and unbelievable,” Vitale said:
“In 40 years I’m on TV, I haven’t seen anything like that, unless you go to the NBA and look at the Pistons brawl that took place in the Palace. I think there’s no doubt in my mind that De Sousa never, ever should put a uniform on again in college basketball. None. As Seth [Greenberg] said — and I couldn’t agree more — he’s holding a chair! I mean, that’s criminal. He’s going to hurt somebody.
“I don’t want to hear any excuse that they stole the ball with time running out, should have never done such. Give me a break. That was ugly! Where were the coaches, the assistants keeping their team on the bench? That’s the first rule: One assistant should take charge and make sure that no one gets there. It is sickening. There’s no place in the game. That was almost criminal what De Sousa has done. I’ll be shocked if he ever wears a [Kansas] uniform again.”
However, when discussing Vitale’s comments Wednesday on Get Up, Williams and Jefferson agreed that suspending De Sousa — who also did not play during the 2018-19 season because of a possible NCAA violation — for the remainder of the season is too severe of a punishment.
Williams called Vitale’s suggestion “a little bit extreme,” while Jefferson said, “That’s a little much,” and emphasized De Sousa should be reprimanded for his intent by picking up the stool in the first place.
Jefferson suggested up to 20 games with 13 regular-season matchups remaining on the Jayhawks’ schedule. He said:
“Even though he didn’t get a chance to use the chair, it wasn’t because he individually decided to put it down. It’s because someone took the chair out of his hand. He actually turned over his shoulder [as if to say,] ‘Who took my weapon?’ Right? He should be suspended for 15 to 20 games.”
Williams said “maybe 10 games” is a better suspension length:
“You know what’s really funny? We’re not allowed to be very harsh and critical on kids because they’re in college, and then also we are. The thing about being a kid is you’re going to make mistakes in the heat of the moment. There’s a learning opportunity there for Silvio De Sousa, and I don’t want to take away the whole season. Maybe, 10 games.”
No word yet on whether Kansas and Kansas State, the Big 12 or the NCAA — or a combination of all of the above — will deal out the suspensions or other penalties to De Sousa and others involved in Tuesday night’s brawl.
Williams defended Durant’s response to Kendrick Perkins on ESPN’s Get Up Friday morning. KD and Perkins beefed on Twitter on Thursday night.
[jwplayer AfGhY1Bx-z6KDnl0B]
There is at least one national media personality that is decidedly Team Kevin after last night’s beef between Durant and his former teammate, Kendrick Perkins.
Jay Williams of ESPN defended Durant jumping into a conversation about Russell Westbrook being the “best to ever put on an Oklahoma City Jersey” as well as being “Mr. Thunder”, which Williams said are actually two different things.
While Williams agrees that Westbrook is “Mr. Thunder”, he said there is no denying that Durant is one of the best to play the game.
And when it comes to Durant weighing in on the conversation, Williams said simply, “everyone can get the smoke”, adding “I don’t care of you’re Kendrick Perkins or Kenny 246, if you’re going to bring the heat.”
The situation started when Perkins said he was jumping on SportsCenter to talk about why Westbrook was the greatest in OKC history. Others suggested that the title might belong instead to Durant.
In about 30 minutes I’m going to give my opinion on @SportsCenter on why Believe that Russell Westbrook is the best player to have ever put on a Oklahoma City Thunder Jersey!!! He is MR. THUNDER!!!
Perkins said that Durant “left that door open” when he left Oklahoma City for the Warriors, mentioning KD by name. Of course, that’s when Durant did what Durant does, and responded.
Yea and our starting center @KendrickPerkins averaged a whopping 2 and 3 during that series. U played hard tho champ lol
The two went back and forth, trading barbs, with Perkins eventually saying Durant took the “coward way out” by joining Golden State.
That’s fine!!! You worked that hard and still had to go join a 73-9 team. Truth be told you don’t even feel like a real Champ, you have hard time sleeping at night huh knowing that you took the coward way out!!!
