Jay Williams, Stephen A. Smith Talk Cooper Flagg's Skin Color And The 'America First' Crowd
With Thursday's edition of ‘First Take’ airing just hours before the first round of the NCAA Tournament tipped off, it would have been egregious to not discuss a few March Madness storylines. While Stephen A. Smith and company did just that, they did so in their own unique style with some race-focused flavor.
When asked which team winning it all would make for the biggest story, Jay Williams picked his alma mater, Duke. Many believe the Blue Devils are the best team in the country and they have a one beside their name in the bracket, which makes Williams' answer quite ridiculous from the get-go, but then he focused in on Cooper Flagg, and things got strange in a hurry.
Williams immediately bypassed the topic at hand - Duke potentially winning a national title - and turned his attention to the NBA and how Flagg cutting down the nets in April could result in him becoming the face of the NBA.
"Think about all the conversations that we have, regardless of whether players like it or not, I hate it, but it’s a real thing about, who is gonna be the face of the league?" Williams asked.
"Cooper Flagg now. There are pictures of him in college basketball with his face and the American flag behind it. Think about everything happening in our country right now. About what it means to be America. ‘America first.’ Okay? He’s from Maine. He’s not like from one of these cities, he’s from Maine, representing the bigger grand stage of the country.
If Duke wins and Cooper Flagg wins, it becomes way bigger than just basketball. And then it becomes, could he be the face of the league moving forward?"
Duke could lose its first-round game to sixteen-seed Mt. St. Mary's on Friday and Flagg will still be the first-overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, sign an infinite number of brand deals, and be plastered all over our screens because he's the best draft prospect on Earth.
Williams is fully aware of that reality, but couldn't help himself from making the "America first" comment.
For those who weren't aware, being a proud American, wanting America to succeed in every way imaginable, and loving the United States is the ultimate sin in 2025. The ‘America first’ crowd Williams brought up is portrayed as the enemy these days, in large part because that crowd and the man occupying the Oval Office share plenty of the same beliefs.
It wouldn't be fair to say that Williams was insinuating something about Flagg being white, because he never once mentioned the color of his skin, but Stephen A. Smith sure did.
"I love what you brought up. Cooper Flagg, the American flag, and let's call it what it is, white," Smith said in response to Williams. "We see some of these European brothers, but again, European is not American. When you look at it from that standpoint, the marketability."
The back-and-forth between Williams and Smith wasn't necessarily ridiculous, and it certainly wasn't surprising to see talking heads on ESPN not-so-subtly dance around race and politics.
It was all just weird, really weird. Going from ‘Duke winning the title would be a big story' to ‘a white Cooper Flagg with a ring will be the face of the NBA’ doesn't exactly correlate.