Longtime NBA player and current TNT basketball analyst Kenny Smith received a lot of heat during the Steph Curry vs. Sabrina Ionescu three-point contest at the NBA's All-Star Weekend, when he said that Ionescu, "should have shot from the women's line," because that, "would have been a fair contest."
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Sucks that Kenny Smith tainted a really special moment in basketball historypic.twitter.com/6ijjqUnmKS
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) February 18, 2024
Smith was referring to the WNBA's three-point line being over 1.5 feet closer to the basket than the one used in the NBA. Yet, while Ionescu was offered the option to use the WNBA line, she declined that advantage, and instead elected to shoot from the exact same spots as Curry.
While Smith did also say that he was still rooting for Sabrina, most people who were watching the event or saw his comment afterwards agree that the take was tone deaf, sexist, and ruined what should been a wholesome moment that portrayed the game's growth — as Ionescu alluded to last week, before the contest took place.
Although that didn't stop Smith from doubling down on his comments during an appearance on "The Stephen A. Smith Show" earlier this week, where he said the backlash to his words was, "much ado about nothing."
Kenny Smith on criticism of his Sabrina Ionescu comments:
"Much ado about nothing honestly. Most people who know basketball understood…I was advocating for her more than anything else…
…
"My…track record speaks for itself"Full SAS talk at 22m30s: https://t.co/YunKZ9gQy5 pic.twitter.com/Bnn7xama5t
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) February 20, 2024
"Most people who know basketball understood what I was talking about," Smith said. "Actually, I was advocating for her more than anything else, because basketball is muscle memory. So he practices from one range, she practices from another."
