ESPN's Jay Williams Wins "Emmy" For Inane Commentary on Clark's Legacy

The good news for ESPN is that the network won't have to conduct another Emmy scam (returned 37 Emmys for using fake names in 13-year scheme to get awards for ineligible on-air "talent"). After all, Jay Williams already clinched award for dumbest basketball commentary of the year on College GameDay by saying "I am unwilling to say she is great yet (needs to win championship)" after Iowa scoring sensation Caitlan Clark became the most prolific major-college point producer in women's basketball history. Caitlan also paces nation in assists and doesn't one from us, but Williams' lame performance was nearly as feeble an effort as exhibited by "great" players in a listless NBA All-Star Game and as incisive as pap from ex-colleague Jemelle Hill.

The bad news is Williams' wisdom is as memoir moronic as anyone claiming colleague Screamin' A. Stiff was a regal recruit for Hall of Fame coach Clarence "Bighouse" Gaines at Winston-Salem State and bound to become the next Earl "The Pearl" Monroe (only Jason Whitlock knows for certain whether Stephen A. Smith incurred a severe knee injury). By any measure, Clark is easily the most compelling - yes greatest - story in all of college basketball this season, making Williams' comment on her more idiotic than an ill-advised motorcycle jaunt. After a mediocre rookie season with the Chicago Bulls in 2002-03, second pick overall in NBA draft incurred career-ending injuries crashing his Yamaha R6 into a utility pole (not wearing a helmet and not licensed to ride in Illinois).

Sounding like the Claudine Gay of hoop analysts, let's hope "diversity" doesn't have anything to do with Williams' assessment as Harvard-like doubt lingers he would say similar thing about college careers of Lisa Leslie and Sylvia Fowles. Brain damage or not, something must have happened to his cognitive ability leaving him impaired almost like Plagiarist Biledumb conducting unethical business with son hideous Hunter comparable to Williams' suspect stint toiling for a sports agency. "Legal Title" argument from Williams makes virtually no sense and leaves impression he must be related to anal attorneys Alvin Bragg, Letitia James and Fani Willis. You're also more piker than biker in role as analyst if you don't acknowledge more than 125 male All-Americans never participated in both the NCAA playoffs and NIT - let alone capture a crown - since the introduction of national postseason competition in the late 1930s. Were none of them "great" college players (including two-time Duke All-American Dick Groat before becoming eight-time MLB All-Star shortstop)?

Upon disrespecting Clark, does Williams - leader in scoring and assists for Duke's 2001 titlist while also pacing NCAA in turnovers with 154 - also bang the floor 154 times looking down with a scowl when evaluating Pete Maravich, the all-time leading men's scorer? Maravich is a prime example regarding the specter of tourney trials. Maravich's star, shining so brightly as the NCAA's all-time leading men's scorer (3,667 points), faded before some cynics questioning whether he was a team player because LSU was only two games above .500 against SEC competition and didn't participate in the NCAA Tournament while he was in college. He is the only three-time first-team All-American failing to appear in the NCAA playoffs. Don't seek to Pistol-whip anyone, but Maravich's college career scoring average (44.2 ppg) is significantly higher than Williams' single-game career-high in scoring (38 against Kentucky in OT). In the NBA, Pistol Pete provided a career-high of 68 points while HG for Williams was 26 (one of only three of more than 20).

How about "great" collegians proceeding to have infinitely more success at the NBA level than Williams' brief underachieving pro career? Let us get this straight regarding Williams' oral turnover. If comprehending his logic, Charles Barkley never was "great" in college (lost only NCAA playoff game in three seasons with Auburn) or the NBA (11-time All-Star scored 23,757 points but earned no championship ring in 16-year career). Despite a college crown, did Williams' nondescript rookie campaign give any indication he was going to be a "greater" pro guard than Joe Dumars, Damian Lillard, Jeff Malone, Maravich, John Stockton and Dick Van Arsdale (each of whom scored more than 15,000 NBA points)?

How about Hall of Famer Julius Erving, the first former major-college player to become NBA Most Valuable Player (1980-81 with the Philadelphia 76ers) after never participating in the NCAA tourney? Erving (Massachusetts) is the lone major-college player in history to average more than 25 points and 20 rebounds in a career. Although many of Jaded Jay's not-so-great-in-college pro stalwarts resembled Erving and participated in the NIT, following are more than 20 of the highest scorers in NBA and ABA history to play at least two years of varsity basketball for a major college but never have opportunity to capture an NCAA title because they didn't appear in the Division I playoffs at all (less-than-great member Klay Thompson recently surpassed 15,000-point threshold):

*Lillard, George and Thompson are active NBA players.

NOTES: Stockton and fellow guard Bill Sharman (Southern California) join Erving, Barry and Wilkins on the list of major-college players to never appear in the NCAA Tournament before selection to an All-NBA Team at least six times. . . . Centenary has never participated in the NCAA playoffs. . . . Walker-led Bradley won the 1960 NIT with an 88-72 title game victory over Wilkens-led Providence. . . . Cincinnati (first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1958), Georgia (1983), Minnesota (1972), Mississippi State (1963) and Providence (1964) didn't reach the NCAA playoffs for the first time until the college playing careers of Twyman, Wilkins, Hudson, Howell and Wilkens had ended, respectively. . . . Bellamy, Hudson, Maravich, Twyman and Wilkins never participated in the NBA championship series. . . . Erving (Philadelphia 76ers '83), Barry (Golden State Warriors '75), Parish (Celtics '81, '84 and '86), Walker (76ers '67), Howell (Celtics '68 and '69), McHale (Celtics '81, '84 and '86), Cunningham (76ers '67) and Klay Thompson played on NBA championship teams. . . . The only individual to become NBA Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player to participate in the NCAA Tournament but never be on a team to win an NCAA playoff game was Dave Cowens, who managed just 11 points and four rebounds as a sophomore for Florida State in 1968 when the Seminoles lost in the first round of the Mideast Regional against East Tennessee State (79-69). . . . In addition to Hudson and McHale, three other Minnesota alums scored more than 10,000 points in the NBA after never participating in the NCAA Tournament - Mychal Thompson (12,810), Archie Clark (11,819) and Ray Williams (10,158). . . . Spencer Haywood (1968-69 with Detroit) and George McGinnis (1970-71 with Indiana) both scored more than 17,000 points in the pros after averaging at least 30 points per game in their only year in college before entering the ABA. . . . Bellamy, McGinnis, Van Arsdale and Van Arsdale's twin brother, Tom, combine to make Indiana the only school to have as many as four of its players score more than 14,000 points in the pros after never appearing in the NCAA playoffs or NIT. Tom Van Arsdale, finishing his 12-year pro career with 14,232 points after playing for five different teams, is the highest scorer in NBA history to never participate in the NBA playoffs. . . . Barkley, Lillard, Maravich, Stockton, Wilkens and Wilkins are joined by luminaries Carmelo Anthony, Elgin Baylor, Patrick Ewing, James Harden, Allen Iverson, Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Nate Thurmond and Russell Westbrook in never earning an NBA championship ring.