Utah Jazz

Scoring was up in the NBA this season, to a level not seen in more than a half-century.
NBA teams averaged 114.7 points per game. That&rsquo;s the ninth-highest figure in the league&rsquo;s 77 seasons and the most since teams averaged 116.7 per game in 1969-70.
It represents a jump of 3.7% over last season.
A record 282,127 points were scored this season, smashing the previous mark of 273,573 set in 2018-19.
FREE THROW RECORD
The NBA has never had a better season from the foul line. Again.
The league-wide record for accuracy will fall for the third time in the last four seasons. Teams have combined to shoot 78.2% from the line this season.
That topped the 77.8% mark from two seasons ago. And while that difference &mdash; a mere 0.4% &mdash; doesn&rsquo;t look like much, it is. NBA teams could have combined to miss their first 200 free throws on Sunday when the regular season was ending and still have been on pace to set a season record.
A BOSTON FIRST
When you&rsquo;ve done something that&rsquo;s never been done before in Boston Celtics history, that&rsquo;s impressive.
So, take a bow, Jayson Tatum.
The forward averaged 30.1 points per game this season &mdash; the most ever by a Celtics player. John Havlicek and Isaiah Thomas each averaged 28.9 in their best seasons in Boston, and Larry Bird averaged 29.9 in 1987-88, but Tatum is the first to average 30.
Bird technically averaged 29.93 points that season, and two more points would have given him 29.95, which many would have rounded up to 30.0. He was five points shy that season of averaging exactly 30 per game.
BRIDGES&rsquo; STREAK
Brooklyn&rsquo;s Mikal Bridges technically missed a game this season, but his consecutive games-played streak &mdash; now 392 games and counting &mdash; lives on because he wasn&rsquo;t eligible to play while the Nets were completing the process of acquiring him in a trade with the Phoenix Suns.
Regardless, he still played in a league-best 83 games this season. It&rsquo;s quirky, since a season is 82 games, but the Nets had more games to play than the Suns did when the trade happened. And it lived on in Sunday&rsquo;s season finale because Bridges appeared for the first 4 seconds to extend the streak, then checked out for the day.
Bridges didn&rsquo;t miss a game at Villanova, either. His last missed game was in high school.
Bridges is the first player to appear in 83 games in a season since Josh Smith in 2014-15. Bridges was one of 10 players to not miss a game this season &mdash; Houston&rsquo;s Tari Eason and Kenyon Martin Jr., Chicago&rsquo;s Nikola Vucevic and Patrick Williams, Boston&rsquo;s Derrick White, Golden State teammates Kevon Looney and Jordan Poole, New York&rsquo;s Isaiah Hartenstein and Sacramento&rsquo;s Harrison Barnes also played in all 82 for their clubs this season.
The NBA&rsquo;s all-time record for games in a season probably is one of those records that&rsquo;ll never be broken. Walt Bellamy played in 88 games in 1968-69 &mdash; 35 with New York, then 53 with Detroit.
SCORING MARGIN
San Antonio was outscored by just over 10 points per game this season &mdash; the worst margin in Spurs history.
It was the 20th time in NBA history that a team had been outscored, on average, by double digits for an entire season.
3&rsquo;s DOWN
For nine straight seasons &mdash; 2012-13 through 2020-21 &mdash; the NBA saw a record set annually for 3-pointers made per game.
It seems the growth era from beyond the arc has plateaued.
For the second consecutive year, 3-pointers made dropped this season, albeit slightly. The league saw an average of 24.7 3s per game this season, down from 24.9 per game last season and the record 25.4 per game in 2020-21.
The league finished the regular season with 30,359 3s made &mdash; just off the record total of 30,598 last season. But teams also attempted, on average, about 3% fewer 3-pointers this season than they did a year ago.
3s UP
That said, there were more highly prolific 3-point shooters this season than ever before. The league finished with 20 players with at least 200 3-pointers &mdash; the most ever, just ahead of the 18 who made at least 200 3s last season.
The 20 in the 200 Club this year: Golden State&rsquo;s Klay Thompson, Indiana&rsquo;s Buddy Hield, Golden State&rsquo;s Stephen Curry, Cleveland&rsquo;s Donovan Mitchell, Portland&rsquo;s Damian Lillard, Boston&rsquo;s Jayson Tatum, Brooklyn&rsquo;s Malik Beasley, New York&rsquo;s Julius Randle, Dallas&rsquo; Tim Hardaway Jr., Portland&rsquo;s Anfernee Simons, New Orleans&rsquo; CJ McCollum, Golden State&rsquo;s Jordan Poole, Toronto&rsquo;s Fred VanVleet, Minnesota&rsquo;s Anthony Edwards, Sacramento&rsquo;s Keegan Murray, Miami&rsquo;s Tyler Herro, Sacramento&rsquo;s Kevin Huerter, Chicago&rsquo;s Zach LaVine, New Orleans&rsquo; Trey Murphy III and Utah&rsquo;s Lauri Markkanen.
AND 3s RECORDS
The Warriors finished with 1,363 3-pointers as a team, the most by any team in an NBA season. The previous record was 1,323 by the 2018-19 Houston Rockets.
Four of the six most prolific 3-point seasons in NBA history happened this season: The Warriors broke the record for a team, Boston (1,315) finished eight behind Houston&rsquo;s 2018-19 mark, Dallas (1,246) made the fifth-most in a season and Milwaukee (1,217) made the sixth-most in a season.
Golden State, Boston, Dallas and Milwaukee obviously also set their franchise single-season record for total 3s made. So did Brooklyn, Indiana, the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Sacramento.
BETTING STATS
Those who bet the Oklahoma City Thunder all season long probably did quite well.
The Thunder covered the spread a league-best 58.5% of the time this season, just ahead of Orlando and Philadelphia (57.3%).
The Los Angeles Lakers were a perfect 50% against the spread &mdash; 41 times covering, 41 times not.
Dallas and San Antonio bettors likely weren&rsquo;t happy. Those clubs both covered only 39% of the time, just a bit worse than Miami and Detroit (both 40.5%).
ONE OF EACH
Golden State&rsquo;s 56-point win over Portland on Sunday was the biggest of the season. The biggest rout going into the season&rsquo;s final day was a 45-point win by New Orleans on Nov. 21 &mdash; against the Warriors.
That made the Warriors the first team since the 1997-98 Trail Blazers to win a game by at least 45, and lose a game by at least 45, in the same season.
Portland beat Dallas 120-75 on Nov. 17, 1998. The Blazers lost to Indiana 124-59 on Feb. 27, 1998.

Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press breaks down the 2022-23 NBA season by the numbers.

Inside the NBA numbers: A look at the season’s stats

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) &mdash; Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, Julius Randle made six free throws in the final minute and the New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers 109-106 on Sunday for their NBA-best seventh consecutive victory.
The 19th and final lead change came in the final minute, when Randle made two foul shots with 45.6 seconds remaining for a 105-104 lead. After the teams exchanged turnovers, Randle hit four more free throws in the final two possessions. The Pacers missed a shot from just inside half-court at the buzzer.
Randle finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds. RJ Barrett added 24 points.
Brunson, who was 11 of 22 from the field with three 3-pointers, started a fourth-quarter comeback from a 104-98 holet with a 3-pointer and then a steal and a layup in a span of 24 seconds.
Randle and Barrett have carried the Knicks during the winning streak. Randle averaged 27 points, 11 rebounds and 4.2 assists in the previous six games. Barrett averaged 22 points and 6.8 rebounds.
Buddy Hield and Aaron Nesmith each had 23 points for Indiana. Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Haliburton each added 15.
The Pacers, No. 1 in bench scoring at 41.9 points per game, had a 35-14 edge in reserves points.
A first half with seven lead changes and five ties ended with the Knicks ahead 54-53 after the Pacers' Buddy Hield had a last-minute 3-pointer changed to two points. By the end of the third quarter, there were 13 lead changes with the Pacers ahead 85-84.
TIP-INS
Knicks: Randle's second 3-pointer moved him past Nate Robinson for ninth on the team's career list at 415. He also passed Walt Bellamy for 28th on the scoring list with 5,083 points. ... Since Dec. 4, the Knicks lead the league in fewest points allowed at 97 per game.
Pacers: PF Jalen Smith, a 27-game starter, came off the bench for the third time in two weeks as coach Rick Carlisle went with a smaller, quicker lineup. ... Reserve G Chris Duarte (left ankle sprain) saw his first action since Nov. 4. ... Mathurin received his Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month award before the game.
&nbsp;

Jalen Brunson scored 30 points and the New York Knicks beat the Indiana Pacers 109-106 for their seventh consecutive victory.

Knicks rally to beat Pacers 109-106 for 7th straight victory

Officially, NBA players began participating in games that were scheduled to celebrate and honor the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1986 when the federal holiday commemorating the civil-rights leader was observed for the first time.
Oscar Robertson knows the tradition dates long before that.
King was shot and killed while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. A day later, Robertson began planning a benefit game in King&rsquo;s memory &mdash; and on Aug. 15 of that year, on an outdoor court in New York, he was among 27 NBA players who wound up taking part.
Among those on the court that night: Wilt Chamberlain, Lenny Wilkens, Dave Bing, Dave DeBusschere, Willis Reed, Walt Bellamy and many others.
&ldquo;What happened years ago with Dr. King is still part of our social fiber,&rdquo; the 83-year-old Robertson said.
The annual reminder of that comes Monday, on the annual celebration of the King holiday. The NBA has scheduled 12 games &mdash; including the traditional home games in King&rsquo;s birthplace of Atlanta and in Memphis, where he was killed at 39.
Memphis hosts Chicago in a matchup of two of the league&rsquo;s biggest surprises so far this season, while Atlanta will host reigning NBA champion Milwaukee. And Robertson believes it&rsquo;s critical players in this generation are reminded of what those who preceded them in the game had to endure as the <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/nba-at-75">NBA celebrates its 75th anniversary</a>.
&ldquo;When I was younger there were so many things couldn&rsquo;t do,&rdquo; Robertson said. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t go here or there, had to ride in the back of the bus when I went back to see my grandparents in Tennessee, and all these types of things. But these things, you become aware of them. The players today didn&rsquo;t have to go through any of that. They&rsquo;ve only read about it.&rdquo;
NBA teams have been paying tribute to King in many ways in recent days. Teams have been warming up in shirts bearing the message &ldquo;Now is the time to make justice a reality for all," a nod to a line he used in his famous &ldquo;I Have A Dream" speech in 1963.
Some teams are also taking part in other ways; 10 clubs are planning youth events in their cities as part of the &ldquo;Team Up For Change" initiative that focuses on &ldquo;uniting, inspiring and activating around a shared commitment and call for racial equality and social justice." The Washington Wizards held a roundtable discussion late last week on how King still impacts the push for social change &mdash; and Wizards forward Daniel Gafford said it's important for even pro athletes to find time to help their communities.
&ldquo;There's 24 hours in a day," Gafford said. &ldquo;There's always time you can put in."
Robertson still has vivid memories of a college tournament he played in, the 1958 Dixie Classic in North Carolina, an event that featured his Cincinnati team and Michigan State, among others.
And he recalls how he and Michigan State&rsquo;s Johnny Green stood out in that event.
&ldquo;We might have been the only two Black guys in the arena,&rdquo; Robertson said. &ldquo;That was the way things progressed. I&rsquo;m so glad it&rsquo;s gotten better.&rdquo;
Robertson was the third president &mdash; and first Black president &mdash; of the National Basketball Players Association, and he urged players to participate in that August 1968 exhibition that doubled as a two-hour telethon. It was broadcast on television in New York and raised around $90,000, some of that going to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that King championed.
He said he&rsquo;s proud to see how players have continued using their platforms, such has speaking out against injustices and the decision by the Milwaukee Bucks to not take the floor for a playoff game at the NBA&rsquo;s restart bubble in 2020 in response to a Black man from Wisconsin being shot by police.
&ldquo;I think players today are more informed about what&rsquo;s going on, and also they have a great advantage of getting their voices out to people because of the social media and whatnot,&rdquo; Robertson said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so glad that the NBA and the players association have gotten together to try to confront all these issues.&rdquo;

“What happened years ago with Dr. King is still part of our social fiber,” the 83-year-old Robertson said.

As NBA prepares to celebrate King, Robertson also remembers

The 2021-22 NBA MVP race figures to be a dynamic one throughout the regular season. In Las Vegas, five players stand out from the rest with realistic odds to stay in discussions from October through April: Luka Doncic, Joel Embiid, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Stephen Curry. These five categorize into the same group who hold odds under +1000. It&rsquo;s a tier signifying not only their projected individual accolades, but also team success in the upcoming year.
Diving deeper into the numbers, which of these five would be the smartest to wager on as we get closer to the regular-season opener in six weeks? Let&rsquo;s dive into it all below.
LUKA DONCIC: +380
Entering his fourth season, Doncic is head-and-shoulders above the entire pack in MVP odds. Nearly doubling whoever is behind him, there&rsquo;s plenty of buzz about an upcoming leap from Doncic in 2021-22. After averaging 27.7 points, 8.6 assists and 8.0 rebounds on a 58.7% True Shooting percentage, Doncic could be in line to increase those numbers across the board.
Dallas made no splashy moves, unless you consider re-signing Tim Hardaway Jr. and veteran wing Reggie Bullock on a three-year deal as such. Hardaway and Bullock will help Doncic make magic happen, and further the case of why he&rsquo;s such a triple-double threat on a nightly basis. Having adequate floor-spacers and versatile defenders around Doncic makes his job much easier. The Mavericks have those tools at their disposal, plus the obvious wildcard in Kristaps Porzingis. If Porzingis can improve under new head coach Jason Kidd to be a No. 2 option, the burden on Doncic lessens to where he won't wear out late in the season.
If Dallas flirts with a 50-win count, Doncic will stay at the top of MVP odds throughout the season. Doncic stocks for seasonal awards are going to the moon right now, and it shouldn&rsquo;t be a surprise if the Slovenian phenom averages a 30-point triple-double throughout the upcoming campaign. Just for reference, the only player in NBA history to average that historic threshold was Oscar Robertson in 1961-62.
JOEL EMBIID: +700
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_16291047_lg.jpg" alt="" width="524" height="349" />
How the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/ben-simmons-sixers-destined-for-a-rare-winwin-breakup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben Simmons situation</a> sorts itself out over the next few months will directly coincide with Embiid&rsquo;s MVP candidacy. At this point of his career, Embiid is one of the most dominant bigs in the game. Seemingly taking over games on both ends whenever he pleases, Embiid has mastered the art of modern-day bully ball.
What makes the +700 odds enticing is how Embiid operated without Simmons in the lineup last season. In the nine games Embiid played without Simmons, he averaged 31.6 points and 10.0 rebounds. When Simmons was alongside Embiid for the other 42 outings, Embiid&rsquo;s points average dipped to 27.8. Simmons clogs the painted area for Embiid, who has shown to thrive even with the lack of floor spacing from his young co-star. If Philadelphia trades Simmons for more three-point shooting, Embiid is destined to put up some monster MVP-esque numbers.
Similarly to Doncic, Embiid averaging 30-plus points shouldn&rsquo;t be ruled out. And for centers, it&rsquo;s a truly rare feat. The last big man to average at least 30 points over a full season was Moses Malone in 1981-82. Overall, here&rsquo;s the entire list of bigs to pull of this absurd statistic: Wilt Chamberlain, Walt Bellamy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob McAdoo and Malone. If Embiid puts his name on the list 40 years later while also piloting the Sixers to an impressive season, he&rsquo;s actually a really solid MVP bet at +700.
KEVIN DURANT: +700
The one factor working against Durant in the MVP discussion, who I think once again proved he&rsquo;s the best player in the NBA during the playoffs, is his age. Nowadays, players over age-30 to win the MVP is a rare occurrence. Since 1990, here&rsquo;s the shortlist for 30 or above MVP winners: Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Steve Nash. Durant is one of the best scorers in the modern era, and he&rsquo;s nowhere close to exiting his prime even after a potential career-altering torn Achilles suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals.
If Durant continues the positive momentum we saw during the Brooklyn Nets&rsquo; playoff run, where he almost singlehandedly defeated the future NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks without James Harden and Kyrie Irving, he&rsquo;s a prime candidate to buck the trend and bring home his second MVP award.
Brooklyn figures to be the best team in the league when it comes to overall season record. If the Nets dominate their competition en route to a 60-plus win campaign, the narrative is there for Durant to claim the top individual accolade in the Association.
GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO: +800
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_16429436-1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="524" height="349" />
The resume already in place for Antetokounmpo entering his age-27 season is absolutely incredible: NBA champion, Finals MVP, two-time MVP, five-time All-Star, five-time All-NBA member, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player &mdash; the list continues to get longer. Just now entering his prime, Giannis could eventually put together one of the most illustrious careers we&rsquo;ve ever seen in basketball. And with the Bucks reloading to chase back-to-back championships, everything is in place for Antetokounmpo to make a significant push for this year's MVP.
The Bucks and Nets will battle atop the Eastern Conference this season. Whoever ends up finishing as the No. 1 seed could directly correlate to who has the MVP edge between Durant and Antetokounmpo.
From an all-around standpoint, there might not be a better player in the league right now than Giannis. Stuffing the stat sheet with dominant fashion for an elite team will always keep him in the MVP discussion. Over the last three years, Giannis&rsquo; averages are why he&rsquo;s become one of the best players in the NBA today: 28.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.8 steals, 1.2 blocks, 63.0 TS%.
It&rsquo;s a super risky idea to rule out the Greek Freak in season-long awards. There&rsquo;s a probable outcome where he continues his future Hall-of=Fame trajectory to even higher levels we&rsquo;ve never seen before.
STEPHEN CURRY: +800
Last season&rsquo;s leading scorer finally has a healthy team surrounding him. Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors figure to be a factor once again in the loaded Western Conference &mdash; thanks in large part to the long-awaited return of his Splash Brothers compadre Klay Thompson.
If the Warriors can take the leap back to elite status in the West in 2021-22, it will likely be due to Curry going supernova once again. Curry averaged 32.0 points, 5.8 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals on an incredible 65.5 TS% last season. It shows just how unique Curry is, and why he&rsquo;s changed the way the modern era operates. Curry helped change the game as it is today. In order to topple MVP favorites like Doncic, Embiid, Durant and Antetokounmpo, he will need to repeat that brilliance on an even higher level. It&rsquo;s a tall task to ask of Curry, but doubting his ability to pull it off as he ages is a foolish exercise.
A Golden State bounce-back campaign will keep Curry in the MVP chatter throughout the 2021-22 season.

How do the top-five MVP candidates for the 2021-22 season stack up? Evan Sidery analyzes which favorite is the best bet to wager on.

NBA MVP Odds: Analyzing the top-5 candidates in 2021-22

If your game warrants the spotlight early in your career, chances are the lights will gleam brighter, and with that comes expectations. Some college players lived up to the hype that surrounded them at the next level, but there are quite a few whose success didn't translate to the NBA.
In our latest Roundtable, we asked our BasketballNews.com writers the following question:
Who is the best college player that never became a star in the NBA?
Alex Kennedy: Jimmer Fredette became a household name while at BYU, averaging 28.9 points and 4.3 assists. In 2011, he was the Consensus National College Player of the Year and led the nation in scoring. His games were must-watch TV due to his seemingly unlimited three-point range. He even transcended the sports world and briefly became part of the pop culture lexicon; for example, at the height of Jimmer Mania, Lil Wayne name-dropped him in a song (&ldquo;I got a chopper and a trimmer shootin&rsquo; like Jimmer&rdquo;). He was the 10th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft (ahead of Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Nikola Vucevic, Jimmy Butler, etc.), but he never averaged more than 7.6 points in the NBA. Fortunately for Jimmer, he&rsquo;s thriving in China, where he&rsquo;s dropped 75 points, averaged 37.6 points and made three All-Star appearances.
Spencer Davies: In my lifetime, I&rsquo;m picking two: Michael Beasley and Emeka Okafor. People have to understand just how dominant Beasley was in his lone season at Kansas State, collecting accolade after accolade as a freshman for the Wildcats, as he averaged over 26 points and 12 rebounds per game on 53% from the field! He showed flashes of greatness in the NBA early in his career, but not the kind of superstardom that followed him in the NCAA. As for my other pick, it&rsquo;s crazy remembering how the big question in 2004 was who would be the No. 1 pick: Okafor or Dwight Howard? While the latter was a high-school phenom, the former outworked every big man on the national stage for Jim Calhoun&rsquo;s UConn Huskies en route to an NCAA championship in his junior year prior to entering the draft. Okafor had imposing size and was a walking double-double who blocked every freaking shot in sight. In the NBA, he had his moments; none like Howard, though, who now has an NBA championship on his laundry list of achievements and just passed Walt Bellamy to move up to No. 11 on the league's all-time rebounding list.
Chris Sheridan: The best college player who never became a star in the league was Hank Gathers, who died while playing for Loyola Marymount. He was the No. 1 draft prospect and one of just three players in NCAA history to lead the nation in scoring and rebounding in the same season (the others were Xavier McDaniel and Kurt Thomas). He averaged 32.7 points and 13.7 rebounds. He once had 48 points and 13 rebounds against LSU&rsquo;s Shaquille O'Neal and Stanley Roberts. He collapsed after dunking in a game and passed away due to a heart issue.&nbsp;
Jannelle Moore: The best college player who never became a star in the NBA is, tragically, Len Bias. He had the athleticism and skill. He gave Michael Jordan fits in college and would have been his biggest rival in the pros.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/usatsi_2079728_lg.jpg" alt="" />
Imman Adan: Compared to Larry Bird entering the league and described as a &ldquo;very good scorer with [a] complete offensive repertoire,&rdquo; Adam Morrison was none of that in the NBA. In college, the 6-foot-8 forward out of Gonzaga was a star, averaging 28 points on 43% from three in his final year, making him a finalist for the Naismith Trophy. The NBA did not come as easily to the slow-footed Morrison, who struggled to adapt to the speed of the league. The effortless shooting stroke he had in college seemed to dissipate as well, as he never averaged more than 11 points or shot better than 34% from deep. After tearing his ACL in his left knee and missing his entire sophomore year, what little burst of athleticism he did have vanished, making his NBA career a short (but eventful) one, winning two rings while riding the Lakers&rsquo; bench before retiring at 28.
Ethan Fuller: I'm going to play with a looser definition of "star" for this one and rule out guys like Christian Laettner and Marcus Camby, who did win NBA league awards. Instead, let's go with Joe Smith, who won Naismith Player of the Year at Maryland in 1995. The 6-foot-10 Smith obliterated teams, averaging 20.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game as a sophomore. He then went first overall to the Golden State Warriors in the 1995 NBA Draft. But Smith never found his footing and ended up playing for 11 NBA teams.
Jonathan Concool: Adam Morrison. Morrison averaged over 28 points per game as a junior at Gonzaga University, and led the Bulldogs to the Sweet 16 before suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Bruins in the final seconds. Morrison took home five awards that season with Gonzaga, including WCC Player of the Year, but that&rsquo;s just about where the positives stop for Morrison&rsquo;s basketball career. He went on to get drafted third overall by the Charlotte Bobcats in 2006 and was out of the league by 2010, with career averages of 7.5 points per game on 37.3% shooting from the field.
Nekias Duncan: I&rsquo;d go with Jimmer Fredette. He absolutely lit it up for BYU &mdash; Mormon Steph, if you will &mdash; and almost none of it translated to the NBA across multiple stints.
Kelsea O&rsquo;Brien: People forget just how small the NBA is, and how good the end-of-bench players were in college and high school. These guys were monsters. They still are! Their only downfall is that they are playing against and alongside even bigger monsters. I&rsquo;m going to go in a different direction here, though, and choose Cheryl Miller. One of the greatest women&rsquo;s basketball players of all-time, and because of ACL injuries, she never got the chance to go pro. Her professional career will always be one of the biggest &ldquo;what ifs&rdquo; in sports history.

Who is the best college player that never became a star in the NBA? We asked our BasketballNews.com staff to weigh in.

Roundtable: Who's the best college player that never became a star in the NBA?

After NBA players decided collectively to use their voices and platforms to take a unified stand against police brutality following the horrific police shooting of Jacob Blake, praise came from across the nation. Politicians, actors, musicians, journalists and many others expressed their support for NBA players and commended them for demanding justice.&nbsp;
ESPN&rsquo;s Stephen A. Smith <a href="https://twitter.com/stephenasmith/status/1298731743395147789?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined in on this</a>, saying that he was so proud of the players.&nbsp;
While Smith is praising the players now, let&rsquo;s not forget that just two months ago, he said that Kyrie Irving, Dwight Howard and Avery Bradley &ldquo;sound foolish&rdquo; for even suggesting that players should take a stand against police brutality and refuse to enter the bubble. He went on one of his overdramatic rants and ridiculed them <a href="https://youtu.be/OcNEqq-U0Nk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on First Take</a>, acting as if he was personally offended that they had the audacity to suggest something so &ldquo;utterly ridiculous.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Here were Smith&rsquo;s exact words:&nbsp;
&ldquo;I absolutely do not agree with them. As a matter of fact, I&rsquo;ll go so far as to say that their position has been foolish, as far as I am concerned. I respect the fact &mdash; and I want to make sure that I&rsquo;m clear about this &mdash; I am not talking about if you&rsquo;re not going back to work because of the coronavirus; I totally understand that. If you choose to make that decision for the well-being of yourself and the family members who you are near, then obviously that has a profound impact and I totally respect and understand that. But that&rsquo;s not what Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard are talking about. What they are talking about is [not playing] because of the protests&hellip; Well, I'm sorry, if that's a reason not to go to work, black folks wouldn't have been employed for centuries now. That is utterly ridiculous. The fact that racial oppression or racial inequality, brutality on the part of police officers and all of that stuff exists is not an excuse not to show up to work&hellip; 
"If you have the LeBron James&rsquo;, the Kyrie Irving&rsquo;s and others playing their role in bringing attention to these issues, then you hand it off to people that know what to do with that attention and that elevated level of awareness to really provoke the kind of change that we&rsquo;re talking about here. We seem to think that, excuse me, just protesting and raising holy hell is going to get done what we need to get done. That is not the answer, and certainly it&rsquo;s not refusing to show up because of that issue. &hellip;&nbsp; It makes no sense for somebody to sit up there and say, 'Don't show up to work because of that.' No! I totally disagree with Dwight Howard and Kyrie Irving and I suspect that I&rsquo;m not alone, that a lot of people agree with what I&rsquo;m saying.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Max Kellerman tried to break it down for Smith, showing him the error of his ways, but he still wouldn&rsquo;t budge. How ironic is it that a white man tried to explain to a Black man the significance of what Irving, Howard and Bradley were trying to do? Kellerman talked about how this was connected to the bigger picture of Black entertainment being used in the history of this country while conditions for Black people were not improved, specifically as it relates to police brutality. He said that he respected their position that they didn&rsquo;t want to be a distraction and take away from the movement gaining momentum across the country after the gruesome murder of George Floyd.&nbsp;
A white man shouldn&rsquo;t have to break that down for Stephen A. Smith. But after Kellerman made his eloquent points, he still didn&rsquo;t get it. Smith immediately pivoted to discussing the money that they were giving up and seemingly missed the entire point. He repeated that what Irving was doing just &ldquo;didn&rsquo;t make sense,&rdquo; despite Kellerman&rsquo;s detailed explanation.&nbsp;
Then, Smith attempted to shift the focus to Irving somehow undermining Chris Paul and LeBron James by forming a separate Players Coalition and not going along with the Players&rsquo; Association vote to start the season. Because Smith disagreed with Irving&rsquo;s position, he attempted to pit him against his NBA brothers.
Then, Smith said (<a href="https://youtu.be/KgQV0khEOnA?t=310" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and I quote</a>): &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about making sure you know what you&rsquo;re talking about before you open your mouth.&rdquo;&nbsp;
When you disagree with someone, that is the most insulting response you can give. It&rsquo;s demeaning. Belittling. Rather than acknowledging that they just have a different opinion than you, this suggests that they need to be educated so that they can fully understand how ridiculous their position is. How dismissive and insulting was that?&nbsp;
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/SAS1_lg.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="AUTO" />
But it wasn&rsquo;t just you.&nbsp;
Charles Barkley is also guilty of publicly ridiculing Irving and Howard for their stance.
&ldquo;I think it would be stupid to not play,&rdquo; Barkley said on <a href="https://twitter.com/getupespn/status/1272558639241445377?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESPN&rsquo;s Get Up</a>. &ldquo;LeBron [James] is probably the most famous athlete in the United States. He won&rsquo;t be visible anywhere [if they don&rsquo;t play]. So out of sight, out of mind. Also, these guys have got to realize, this money ain&rsquo;t gonna come back and they&rsquo;re gonna lose billions of dollars that the players can use to go into their own communities and do some great stuff. It&rsquo;s not good on any front. I have no idea what Kyrie and Dwight are talking about, but it&rsquo;ll be a catastrophic mistake not to play.&rdquo;
Many others were completely dismissive of their positions and used specific language to drive home the point that this stance was misguided, ridiculous and absurd. These people didn&rsquo;t say &ldquo;shut up and dribble&rdquo; like Laura Ingraham did to LeBron, but the dismissiveness was similar.
Before the 1968 Olympics, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar elected to not play. When Abdul-Jabbar recently joined me on <a href="https://www.fli.tv/rematch-w-etan-thomas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">my show, The Rematch</a>, he specifically explained why he chose to not participate in the Olympics and instead opted to work and save money for school.
"I was going to pursue my goals and I wasn't going to pursue the goals of a country that, at that point, still didn't respect my citizenship," Abdul-Jabbar told me. "I wanted to get my degree and I had a job, so I made the money that I needed to have a comfortable year at school. That was my agenda and that's what I pursued. And I left UCLA with a degree in my pocket."
Would Smith or Barkley have criticized him for that?&nbsp;
John Carlos and Tommie Smith participated in the &lsquo;68 Olympics and made a statement that resonates even today, raising their Black Power fist on the podium after their race. They chose different ways to send a message, and both are equally deserving of respect.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s important to note that past NBA players (who were activist pioneers) utilized boycotting as a way to push the NBA to use its collective power to adopt policy change and recognize the players&rsquo; union, so there is a precedent here.
Prior to the 1964 NBA All-Star Game, players threatened to boycott. This was the first All-Star Game to be televised, so Hall Of Famers such as Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Jerry Lucas, Tommy Heinsohn, Hal Greer, Sam Jones, Chet Walker, Jerry West, Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, Walt Bellamy, Wilt Chamberlain and Lenny Wilkens recognized the leverage that they had.&nbsp;
The players took a vote on whether they would refuse to play if the NBA didn&rsquo;t recognize the players&rsquo; union and implement a pension plan. The vote was reportedly 11-9 in favor of a strike.
&ldquo;Fifteen minutes before tipoff, NBA commissioner Walter Kennedy agreed to the pension demands, and pro sports had its biggest union victory by far,&rdquo; <a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/1856287-181/1964-stars-threatened-to-boycott" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> Robert Rubino of The Press Democrat.
These are the footsteps the players are following in.&nbsp;
The NBA has scheduled a special Board of Governors meeting on Thursday morning, <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1298778627669143558?s=21" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to ESPN&rsquo;s</a> Adrian Wojnarowski.
What if the NBA players - now that they have everyone&rsquo;s attention - demanded that NBA owners like Marc Lasry, Wes Edens and Jamie Dinan (Bucks), Ted Leonsis (Wizards), Steve Ballmer (Clippers), Jeanie Buss (Lakers) and even James Dolan (Knicks) use their influence to pressure cities to threaten to cut the funding of police departments if they don&rsquo;t adopt tangible police reform and police accountability measures? I bet you would see results immediately. If they can pressure cities to fund the building of new arenas, I&rsquo;m sure they can do this. That would create tangible change through the power of the NBA that Congress hasn&rsquo;t been able to bring about, that no politician has been able to bring about. That would change the entire country.&nbsp;
I respect Kyrie Irving, Dwight Howard and Avery Bradley for what they expressed then, and I respect what the NBA and WNBA players are doing now. And, no, they didn&rsquo;t sound foolish and their idea wasn&rsquo;t &ldquo;ridiculous&rdquo; or &ldquo;absurd.&rdquo; No, they weren&rsquo;t looking for a reason not to show up to work like you disrespectfully claimed, and their suggestion definitely wasn&rsquo;t &ldquo;stupid&rdquo; (like Charles Barkley said). They simply didn&rsquo;t want to divert attention away from everything that was going on. This is a special movement that&rsquo;s taking place right now. It&rsquo;s an awakening. And they wanted (and want) the focus to remain on that.&nbsp;
With everything going on, basketball was the furthest thing from their minds. LeBron James recently admitted the same thing.
&ldquo;I got half my brain locked on the playoffs, the other half on how I can help Black people,&rdquo; James <a href="https://twitter.com/melissarohlin/status/1298115880610435072" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
You can see why Stephen A Smith suddenly praising NBA players for boycotting can be seen as problematic.&nbsp;
He and Barkley (and everyone else who publicly ridiculed them) owe Irving, Howard and Bradley a public apology. Not a personal text or call; be as loud and demonstrative on your national ESPN platform with your apology as you were with your criticism.&nbsp;
And PS: Stephen A. Smith, you also owe Colin Kaepernick an apology for <a href="https://youtu.be/_y7fzEHKI9Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">publicly lambasting him</a> and saying that he wants to be a martyr and doesn&rsquo;t want to play football after the tryout hoax put on by the NFL.

Stephen A. Smith praised NBA players for boycotting games. Now, he owes Kyrie Irving, Dwight Howard and Avery Bradley an apology, writes Etan Thomas.