Becky Hammon, Candace Parker and When Criticism Becomes Misogyny

As a Knicks fan, I am fully aware of my favorite team’s reputation. Since the 2000s, the Knicks have been run by a neanderthal who simply doesn’t understand the sport of basketball. But when he handed the keys to Phil Jackson in 2014, James Dolan essentially wiped his hands clean of all meddling and intervening with the day-to-day basketball operations. Unfortunately, Phil Jackson had no desire to actually do the job he was hired for but it marked an important change in the organization.

Fast forward to the Leon Rose era and the Knicks have consistently been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.

Yet for some reason, people keep going on TV and instantly dismissing them and the weirdest reason they have is Jalen Brunson’s height.

Here’s WNBA legend, Becky Hammon, explaining why the Knicks don’t have a shot at winning the championship:

Becky Hammon: [The Knicks] don’t have a dude… you got to have a 1A dude.”

Kendrick Perkins: “They do have that dude.”

B: “Who?”

K: “Jalen Brunson.”

B: “He too small. If your best player is small, you’re not winning… Steph Curry is the only dude.”pic.twitter.com/XWhJHZXpxT

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 21, 2023

I don’t even think Becky Hammon is incorrect here.

Over the history of the entire NBA, there have only been a handful of guys who can just carry a team on their back and will them to a championship parade. Right now in the league, there are only 5: Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antentokoumpo, LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kawhi Leonard. I’m feeling generous today so I’ll even add Jimmy Butler to this list.

But as an optimistic Knicks fan, I’d say that no one is that guy until they become that guy. Jalen Brunson isn’t yet a guy who has accomplished this tremendous feat but I believe he is more than prepared to carry that burden.

And if I can squeeze even the teeniest bit of objectivity from my mind, I’d say Jalen Brunson has already proven he is a MONSTER in the postseason.

In 2022 when on the Mavs, Jalen Brunson averaged 28 points in Dallas’s 6-game second-round victory over the Utah Jazz including a 41-point Game 2 with Luka Doncic nursing an injury on the sidelines.

Last season, Brunson averaged 31 points in the Knicks 2nd round 6-game loss to the Miami Heat, also once again including a 41-point game Game 6. Put a gigantic fucking pin in this, we’ll get to it soon.

Jalen has proven he can reach an entirely new level when the lights are brightest.

None of these playoff exits belong on his shoulders. While Brunson was scoring 41 in Game 6 against the Heat, Julius Randle scored 15 on 3-for-14 shooting. Brunson’s teammates let him down. I have no reason to believe Brunson can’t be the best player on a championship team.

And sure, Becky Hammon is right in saying smaller guys have historically struggled to get their teams to the mountaintop but that was then and this is now.

The NBA used to be played in the paint. Michael Jordan was the first to succeed by moving the scoring out to the midrange and Steph Curry expanded it to the 3-point line.

So when Becky says Steph Curry is the last small guy to carry a team, it’s without the context that the 2024 NBA is not the one where Kareem dominated.

Naturally, Knicks fans felt a way about Becky’s comments.

I think we have seen these analysts mock the team for so long—and often, deservedly so—that it feels as though the continued dismissiveness of this current version of the squad as if they are the same Stephon Marbury-led team of the early 2000s is the result of lazy, uninspired TV broadcasters who don’t even bother to watch the games and formulate fresh, nuanced opinions of a New York team that almost made the Eastern Conference Finals last year.

Perhaps fans got a little carried away online attacking Becky Hammon but I always understood where the reflex to fight back against her comments comes from.

Anddd Jalen Brunson went under attack again this week by another WNBA legend.

Here’s Candace Parker talking about Jalen Brunson

Candace Parker questions Jalen Brunson’s playoff performances, saying he did a good job in the first round last year, but not the second.

2023 First Round: 24 PPG, 4.8 APG, 4.2 RPG
2023 Second Round: 31 PPG, 6.3 APG, 5.5 RPG pic.twitter.com/rFFRBHySro

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 24, 2024

She first says we’ve seen Jalen Brunson in the playoffs with the Mavs as a third option. Reminder: he scored 41 and led the team while Luka wasn’t even playing.

She then says he had a good first round last season but not a good second round. Reminder: he scored 41 in an elimination game and was arguably the best player on the floor every single game.

So either Candace Parker doesn’t actually watch the games or she was too lazy to research for her job in which she talks about the league for an audience of millions. Either way, I understand Knicks fans’ frustrations with this nonstop slander.

The wildest thing about these WNBA Hall of Famers rolling their eyes at Brunson is Brunson has the exact type of game that dominates their league. He’s an earthbound, short guard who shoots well, can handle the ball and has insane footwork. All skills the women’s game celebrates.

Perhaps that’s the problem.

Even if Becky and Candace do appreciate Brunson’s game, when women enter these male-dominated TV spaces, they try to fit in instead of standing out so they rely on things like how small guys have historically struggled as opposed to standing on a ledge and feeling as though the men on the sets with them will think they ‘don’t know ball’.

Shit, I’m a guy who hates being around a bunch of guys. I always feel like I have to pretend to really care about cars or hooking up with girls when in reality, I’d rather sit around talking about The Simpsons or debate my unmovable stance of boneless wings better far superior to bone-in.

In a way, it sucks for these two women. They’re in environments where they already feel like their opinions will be instantly invalidated because they have wombs. It’s a lose-lose situation, I reckon.

It’s unfair women in the sports world feel like they need to tiptoe or just go with the popular opinion in order to reduce potential harm.

Look at how that Candace Parker clip starts. The first thing she says is how she agrees with Becky Hammon. I mean, it probably helps that Becky is her head coach and they just won a championship together but it feels like Becky could’ve said Brunson is a little bitch boy and Candace would’ve looked directly into TNT cameras and said ‘I agree with Becky’ and I totally understand why.

At the end of the day, nothing they said was particularly inflammatory. It is hard to win a title when your best player is the smallest guy on the court. And yes, Candace made a mistake but god, how often do these bums on TV completely fabricate talking points or misremember facts or flat-out lie?

And as a Knicks fan, I understand feeling like a victim of a national assault against my favorite team and it’s difficult to not want to attack back in honor of my GUYS but there are so few women in this space that the optics of going after them feels specifically gross or inappropriate.

I guess I just want Knicks fans to be a little cognisant of how their criticism of Becky Hammon and Candace Parker might look and feel compared to like, the same criticisms of Stephen A. Smith.The more venom we throw at Becky and Candace, the more we scare away women from participating in these sports conversations in fear they will receive an exaggerated amount of backlash compared to their male peers.

All I know for certain is Jalen Brunson is astronomically better than anyone in the media seems willing to admit and Becky Hammon and Candace Parker are not unique in their skepticism of him yet it feels like they’re being treated as if they have outlying opinions when in reality, their takes are super safe and boring. And wrong.

But it’s up to Brunson to lead the Knicks to a Finals and we won’t ever have to deal with any of this bullshit again.

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