With years of experience, Stephen A. Smith knows exactly how to keep listeners and viewers on their toes. With his ever-controversial and viral takes, the sports personality has carved out a living for himself and is still going strong.
After the recent status flurry, starting from Kobe Bryant to Allen Iverson, the portfolio needed for such a sculptured honor is the talk of the town. Following LeBron James’ massive milestone, Gilbert Arenas promptly shut down the idea of LBJ’s statue and Stephen A. Smith has also jumped into it without any delay.
Stephen A. Smith suggests multiple LeBron James statues
A topic of conversation sparked from Kendrick Perkins’ statement, that the Lakers should build LeBron James a statue after Bron reached the 40k career points milestone. This led to Stephen A. Smith providing a comprehensive list of NBA stars who deserve a statue.
Smith recently shared on ESPN the top five players, who, according to him, deserved statues outside their respective playing arenas. The person who earned the position at the top of his list is one of the greatest sharpshooters and his namesake, Stephen Curry. The Golden State Warriors’ loyal star has been an integral part of the franchise and has greatly impacted winning their four championship titles.
As per Smith, NBA superstar LeBron James deserves the second and third positions on his list, along with former franchises, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat. Gilbert Arenas, who recently said that LeBron doesn’t have enough accolades to deserve a statue with the LA Lakers, might agree with the TV personality this time.
There are two joint names in fourth place: Warriors duo Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Steph Curry has admitted earlier that both teammates have played major roles in winning the franchise’s four titles and helped in molding the team.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, who also found his place on the list, has had an incredible influence on the Milwaukee Bucks. Currently, his future with the Bucks is under speculation but if he decides to stay, he might have his legacy cemented much like the former legendary players.
Fans react to Stephen A. Smith’s list of legends
Stephen A. Smith’s list soon grabbed the attention of the NBA community on social media and it quickly became a hot topic of discussion. While some fans agreed with him, others had different and hilarious perceptions.
Here are some of the reactions of NBA fans to ‘Stephen A. Smith’s NBA players most deserving of a statue’ list:
Agreeing with the majority of the list, a fan wrote, “1. Yes. 2. Sure. 3. Maybe. 4. Really? 5. Likely.”
Like most of the fans, someone commented, criticizing the fourth option on the list: “This man said klay and draymond”
While another fan jokingly wrote, “Give me one of Draymond hitting Nurkic or choking Golbert then we got a deal,” addressing the violence that Green had shown on court multiple times.
A person, who disagreed with Giannis being on the list, claimed that he is still a budding star and has a long way to go, “Giannis changed the culture forsure, but statues are for legends, and he’s not a legend YET. He needs to write more of his story.”
With the 2023–24 season approaching its conclusion, the list can have a drastic shake-up but knowing Stephen A., his updated list will surely create the same level of ripple among the masses, if not more.
