With the NCAA Tournament on the go, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith provided his top five most exciting college basketball players of all time on “First Take.”
Pearl Washington (Syracuse) (G: 95, PPG: 15.7, APG: 6.7, RPG: 2.7, FG: 52.6%)
Kenny Anderson (Georgia Tech) (G: 65, PPG: 23.0, APG: 7.0, RPG: 5.6, FG: 47.3%)
Michael Jordan (North Carolina) (G: 101, PPG: 17.7, APG: 1.8, RPG: 5.0, FG: 54.0%)
Chris Jackson, now known as Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (LSU) (G: 64, PPG: 29.0, APG: 3.6, RPG: 3.0, FG: 47.4%)
Allen Iverson (Georgetown) (G: 67, PPG: 23.0, APG: 4.6, RPG: 3.6, FG: 44.0%)
Smith talked about why he chose his peculiar No. 1 pick:
“No hops whatsoever, not a great jump shot at all. But the brother danced on everybody!” Smith said. “He was a showstopper. You packed the Garden, you packed the Carrier Dome, you packed everywhere just to see this brother dance on people.
“Oh, and by the way, every time I brought this up, whether it was Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Roy Williams, nobody has denied.”
While Smith left out some significant names, he also had others that were his personal favorites.
“Let’s talk about the names that I struggled to take off the list,” Smith said. “I could have put Vince Carter on here. I could have put Mark Price from Georgia Tech on here. Walter Berry, St. John’s!”
With Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe picks his top five
While Stephen A. Smith had his personal top five, Shannon Sharpe chose Steph Curry, Pete Maravich, Zion Williamson, Michael Jordan and Trae Young.
Smith replied to Sharpe’s list by saying:
“You should be banned from talking about college basketball.”
Which players make your all-time, top five college basketball team?
