Mike Greenberg enraged the basketball community with his latest take regarding the UConn Huskies being able to not just compete in the NBA but also advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. Carmelo Anthony was the latest individual from the basketball world to react to the ESPN analyst’s horrendous take. During an episode of his 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, while conversing with Kid Mero, Melo dismissed the notion.
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Right off the bat, Carmelo Anthony and Kid Mero seemed to be in disbelief as they rejected the possibility of the UConn Huskies defeating any team in the NBA. With regards to the Eastern Conference Finals point that Greenberg made, Melo rhetorically asked if UConn would be successful in clinching 35-40 wins in the regular season.
“UConn can win 40 some games in the NBA? You think they can win 35 games in the NBA? That’s crazy,” Anthony said.
Despite denying the fact that the Huskies could hypothetically defeat an NBA team, the NBA legend tipped his hat to Dan Hurley and co. for being a “phenomenal team”. After giving the collegiate team the credit they deserve, Melo reiterated that the Chicago Bulls, who are currently in the play-in territory, would “punish” the Huskies.
“UConn is a phenomenal team. None of these (college) teams are coming to the NBA. Chicago would punish them… But I respect what UConn is doing, but f**k outta here. They ain’t making it to no playoffs,” Anthony said.
Other personalities from the basketball community as well, such as Lou Williams and Chandler Parsons, were also of the same opinion as Carmelo Anthony. On an episode of FanDuel TV’s Run It Back, the two former NBA stars didn’t mince their words as they constantly attacked the analyst.
“He’s full of s***,” Williams said. “So as it stands, Greeny, UConn can beat the Atlanta Hawks tonight? Can they compete with the Chicago Bulls right now? Can they beat the Miami Heat? They might not even win the NCAA championship, let alone compete for a Play-In spot in the National Basketball Association. This is crazy.”
“The best player on UConn wouldn’t play on the Detroit Pistons right now,” the former SEC Player of the Year stated. “So how the hell would this college basketball team beat any of these teams that are in contention to make the NBA playoffs? It’s just stupid,” Lou said.
Throughout his career, Mike Greenberg has made some controversial takes. For this specific one, Greenberg received a lot of backlash. The trolls were so extreme that the 56-year-old backtracked on his comments soon after. Admitting that his take was illogical, he said, per Awful Announcing:
“I’m more than willing to admit that I’ve said more than a million stupid things. It just bothered me yesterday because I knew I was kidding.
And maybe — look, I grant, if it wasn’t obvious enough that I was kidding, that’s on me, that’s not on anybody else… for what it was worth, if I need to say this out loud, I do not believe that UConn would make the playoffs in the NBA.”
The fact that a college team was even compared to an NBA franchise is disrespectful. Yes, the likes of the Detroit Pistons, the Washington Wizards, and the San Antonio Spurs are amongst the worst-performing teams in the NBA, but they too consist of world-class athletes that a college team wouldn’t be able to upset.
With that being said, the NBA and the NCAA have an incredible opportunity to entertain basketball enthusiasts by orchestrating a series of exhibition games between college and professional teams.
