Kenny Smith's comments about Sabrina Ionescu ruin an otherwise great 3-point game moment
The simple problem with Kenny Smith's comments on TNT during the best moment of All-Star Saturday was that they made no sense.
What Smith said when the Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry defeated the New York Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu in a three-point match made for great TV was distracting because of its lack of logic and timing. We were looking at a nice sports Picasso, and strangely all Smith could say was that the canvas wasn't quite right in his eyes.
Curry, considered by most to be the greatest shooter of all time, narrowly defeated Ionescu 29-26, shooting from beyond the NBA three-point line.
“She should have shot from the woman's line,” Smith said immediately after Curry's clutch shots. “That would have been a fair game.”
Reggie Miller, TNT's other analyst at the event, tried to get the broadcast back on track.
'Why are you imposing those boundaries on her? She wanted to shoot from there,” Miller said.
Smith continued, adding: “She should have shot from the line. There is a women's T-shirt in golf and there is a men's T-shirt for a reason.”
Everyone watching was more than willing to drop out of this conversation, but then things got extra weird when Miller added, “I think you want her to play with dolls.”
Smith said, “No, I want her to shoot from where you're shooting. And there's nothing wrong with playing with dolls.”
It is not outlandish to suggest that every shooter should shoot within the guidelines of his league's rules. But this is pre-match chatter, not something in the middle of a fun moment. And Ionescu himself wanted to shoot from NBA range.
What Smith said demeaned Ionescu's excellent performance. Had she just competed in the regular NBA three-point contest on Saturday night, her 26-point performance would have tied champion Damian Lillard's score in the final round.
If that had happened, the immediate response wouldn't have been, “Should she have shot from closer?”
The Smith and TNT issue was too much all night Statler and Waldorf and not enough party.
We're all for criticism, but this was a fun event, and every moment doesn't need to be compared as if it were up to some standard of the past. We are all looking forward to the event. A broadcast isn't Twitter/X, where you complain about everything (although Smith and Miller disagreed about the legendarily bad dunk contest judges).
Smith is a key part of the most iconic studio show of all time, “Inside the NBA.” What makes it the best — well, aside from Charles Barkley — is that the panelists will only say something curious about the NBA, or about each other, or about the world. It works because a studio show is a blank slate for creating sports TV art.
Saturday evening we all enjoyed the photos on our screen. While women's hoops was having a renaissance moment, led by Caitlin Clark, here we were on the biggest professional stage, with the man considered the greatest shooter of all time taking on Ionescu.
It was a great moment for basketball. That was what Smith was missing.
At that moment, when Ionescu went shot for shot with the king, the commentary should have reflected the competition. Smith's intentions may not have been bad, but unlike Ionescu, he just missed the moment.
(Photo of Kenny Smith: Jamie Schwaberow/NBAE via Getty Images)