NBA Playoffs: Colin Cowherd vs. John Wall

Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Ex-University of Kentucky star John Wall has led his Washington Wizards to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. For the first time since the Wizards were in Baltimore and playing under the “Bullets” banner, the Wizards’ franchise swept an opponent out of the playoffs by sending the Raptors back to Toronto. In the four games against the Raptors, Wall averaged 17.3 points, 12.5 assists and 4 rebounds. Not bad numbers, considering he averaged 17.6, 10.0 and 4.2, respectively, during the regular season and was once again named an NBA All Star. By all accounts, John Wall is everything you would want your franchise point guard to be.

ESPN, whose journalistic standards are consistently being undermined by their opinion based personalities, still allows Colin Cowherd to continue on his now 5 year crusade against John Wall. If you’re unfamiliar with the situation, it boils down to this: In his first game in the NBA, Wall did the Dougie dance during pregame introductions. After that first game, Cowherd took to his radio show and flatly stated that Wall wouldn’t succeed in the NBA because of the dance and the fact that his father wasn’t involved in his life. While not focusing on the racial subtext of his diatribe, it’s telling that Cowherd’s fellow ESPN employees are calling him out about it.

The problem with Colin Cowherd and similarly opinionated talking heads is that they make these loud and definitive declarations and never back down despite evidence to the contrary. Despite John Wall being the key component to the turnaround of the moribund Wizards franchise and generally keeping his nose clean and out of trouble and befriending sick kids, Cowherd will not admit he was wrong. All he’s ever said is that he’s paid to have strong opinions.

Mandatory Credit: Peter Llewellyn-USA TODAY Sports

And Cowherd is right. This is what sports media specifically and the media in general has become. There’s no room for nuance. There’s no room for subtlety. If you have to take a stand or have a strong opinion and stick to it until there’s no rational or reasonable way to maintain your position. We need to have good guys and bad buys. We need narratives to tell us who to root for. We need to have “clutch” performers and failures that can’t stand the spotlight. What we need to understand is that athletes are, in fact, just like us. They’re far more complicated than we give them credit for.

To his credit, John Wall has never engaged Colin Cowherd in a public debate. Wall has never called Cowherd out. Wall has done his talking on the basketball court and in the court of public opinion. Even though John Wall only played one year at Kentucky, he’s forever a Wildcat and it has been a pleasure watching him grow and mature and become one of the best players in the league. If Anthony Davis is going to be “That Dude,” John Wall is going to be an annual All Star on a playoff team. Not bad for someone that Colin Cowherd told us was doomed to failure.

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