Stephen A. Smith is siding with Isaiah Thomas.
The Boston Celtics point guard set off quite the debate on national and local talk shows Tuesday after his postgame comments following the C’s 116-102 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers the previous night.
Thomas, who also appeared to criticize teammate Jae Crowder after Boston’s shocking loss to the lowly Phoenix Suns on Sunday, was pretty frustrated after the Celtics blew a lead in L.A. Thomas was pretty blunt in his assessment of everyone, including coach Brad Stevens and the team “experimenting” with its rotations.
And Smith seemed to agree on ESPN’s “First Take.”
“Why are the Boston Celtics 40-24? What’s the No. 1 reason?” Smith asked.
“There you go,” Smith added after co-host Max Kellerman said Thomas’ name. “He’s the No. 1 reason. So regardless of defensive liability — sometimes when folks are brilliant, Max, they’re highly intellectual and stuff like that, they tend to overthink things at times, Max Kellerman. These are the kind of things that happen. The simplistic things in the world they make far more complicated than it needs to be.
“Brad Stevens is a brilliant guy, a brilliant young coach. By the way, what level of brilliance is required to sit up there and look on the bench and say, ‘Huh, Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder, Al Horford or do I take that guy right there that’s averaging 29.5 points a game for me? Maybe I should — should I put him on the floor?’ Duh. It’s not that complicated. It’s not that complicated.”
Things appear to be getting a bit testy in Boston. Time will tell if it becomes a complicated situation or not.
Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
