Hasan Minhaj has never been shy about his status as a Sacramento Kings fan. He was recently a guest host on ESPN’s First Take, and was asked by Stephen A Smith who was the second best player of all time behind Michael Jordan. His answer: Mitch Richmond.
“Who’s the second best player ever?”
Kings superfan @hasanminhaj keeps it ð¯(via @firsttake) ð¥ pic.twitter.com/tODFssCsE8 Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) April 21, 2020
My favorite part of this is that Stephen A Smith is left completely speechless. Minhaj clarifies that he has no factual basis but that he loved Mitch Richmond and wanted to rep him. To which Smith replies with a very subdued and defeated, “Ok”.
While most of us would agree that LeBron James would be the second greatest player in NBA history (if you accept the premise that Jordan is the greatest), it is worth noting that although Richmond doesn’t have a resume suggesting 2nd GOAT status, he does have a strong case that he’s an underrated player in the annals of NBA history.
Michael Jordan said Richmond was the toughest player to defend. In the first year of Jordan’s retirement, Richmond took home All-Star MVP honors. He’s a Naismith Hall of Fame inductee. He was a deadly shooter from deep, with a career average of 38.8% beyond the arc, with multiple seasons over 40% during his time in Sacramento. He was also one of the league’s premier perimeter defenders. Richmond’s biggest shortcoming was spending so much of his career stuck with lackluster Kings teams, and playing at the same time that Michael Jordan also played shooting guard.
Was ESPN expecting a deeper analysis from a professional comedian? Perhaps, but that’s their folly. But was it the worst answer Hasan Minhaj could have given? Absolutely not. Mitch Richmond should be remembered as the great player he was. Minhaj was simply paying homage to The Rock and raising awareness among the general public.
Mitch Richmond was a shining light for me growing up as a Sacramento Kings fan.I have a fond memory of him hitting a game winner at Arco and feeling the buzz as everyone was departing the arena. 😎
Does anyone have tips on how to enjoy Discord? I can’t seem to figure out what it is all about (even after watching some youtube tutorials), but it seems like it’ll be an interesting experience!
Taking the right precautions I see, Cheezburger Cat.
Not crazy to say he was the 2nd best SG of the 90s. Either Mitch, Drexler, or Reggie Miller right? Latter two were on much better teams clearly.
I wonder what his 3 point percentage would be if we counted those ones that had his toe on the line… 😉
Me and my best friend growing up used to always mimic the toe on the line 3 playing hoops in the driveway, for no reason other than Mitch did it lol.
Morning TKH fam! Glad to see y’all!
Mitch Richmond is a blind spot for me.
I became a Kings fan right when his run here was over, but his numbers are prettttttttty good though.
Same here, kind of. I actually remember him from Run TMC on the Warriors when I was a kid, and then I didn’t really pay attention while he was a King. Probably a combination of Michael Jordan and teen angst, or something.
Agree with Tony. I moved here right after Mitch and unfortunately y’all were NEVER on tv in those days, so I don’t think I saw him play one time while living in other markets.
I remember stealing my Dad’s sports page every morning so I could see how Mitch Richmond and the Kings did the night before. I grew up in the Fresno area so the games weren’t ever on TV or really covered much at all so the paper was all I had. I just remember looking at Mitch’s box score and assuming he must be one of the best players ever.
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard fans chanting ‘Animal’ over and over trying to motivate a really bad FT shooter at the line in a playoff clinching game.
Then hearing the entire arena explode when Michael Smith hits both. That encapsulates the Rich Mitchmond era rather perfectly.
There is not one redeemable quality about Stephen A. Smith.
Not. One.
He’s turrrrible.
I can’t stop laughing that the welcome thread has alone has like 230 more comments than that other site has had, period.
Also, is there a way to skip through comments that I’ve already read to see just the new ones? Still trying to figure everything out.
Also, Hasan is fantastic
Hmmm, what is this other site you speak of?
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well, who besides the obvious suckers like me would want to interact over on troll town? Now that the real community and writers are back online, let’s leave trolls to their underside of a bridge in that other place
It’s no doubt that the new comment functionality at StR was second to none. It takes a lot of programming to get something like that set up. We have spent a lot of time trying to figure things like that out in the months leading up to our launch and we instead decided to prioritize other areas for now so we can get things going. We want to eventually try to beef things up but it might take a while, we’re already stretched pretty thin right now.
Makes sense, a lot of things like this have things kind of built in to it(for example, the auto coding when you paste an image link), I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything
You miss everything John. It’s one of your charms. Or anti-charms, as it were.
I’ve resorted to using post-it notes stuck to my screen for all of the comments I’ve already read.
One suggestion Aykis,
If y’all could push your fancy-pants website programming work off to the side for a minute, and figure out how someone can delete their membership to a specific SBNation site, that would be great. Asking for 10,000 friends.
Just wait until they grab a couple of quotes from an original TKH article and create their own original article from it, like they’re doing with Jason Jones and James Ham’s content right now. #fullcircle
At the top of the comments section you can choose how to sort comments. Default is oldest comments first, but you can switch to newest, or you can sort by the top upvoted.
Greg,
Which of those three views are you, or others, finding most useful?
Right now I’ve still been sticking mostly to the default with oldest comments first, but I’ve switched it around some too. On the welcome post with 200+ comments, it was nice to sort by new and quickly get caught up on comments I hadn’t seen yet.
I second this.
Ya, I am leaning towards switching to newest first. In these long thread because of how big each comment actually is, it’s a lot of scrolling
Anytime SAS is left speechless is a good time, imo. He’s a blowhard that just talks louder than anyone else with nothing to say. There are several on sports tv/radio that are like that who I think we’d all agree need to go away.
As for Richmond, I grew up a fan on his later years on the Kings and only have watched highlights sadly, but very underrated for what he contributed to some awful Kings teams.
I’m pretty sure Jordan gave him some love at one point and said that Mitch was his toughest defender
It took me a minute,why are the San Antonio Spurs speachless I thought…
If your answer leaves Stephen A speechless, it was likely the correct answer.
Mitch was awesome. His back probably still hurts from carrying so many bad teams.
Side conversation (based on the Jordan-LeBron thing): I don’t agree at all with the current growing “consensus” that Better Call Saul is a superior show to Breaking Bad. Agree that it is a tremendous show, with great acting, great casting, one of the all-time great shows, maybe second best ever (LeBron).
But better than BB (Jordan)? Please.
I love Better Call Saul and agree that it hasn’t surpassed Breaking Bad yet. But I think the showrunners are more skilled and confident in their craft now and this latest season was absolutely on par with some of the best Breaking Bad put out there. I’m very much looking forward to season 6, even if it’s not going to be out for another couple years probably.
Wait one effing second here. You can edit comments beyond a couple of seconds?
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Ah screw it. Tried to put up another Tommy Boy gif but I’m not doing it right. Figure it out later.
I don’t know why I keep bouncing off of Better Call Saul. I watched the first season and thought it was masterful, and then just… stopped. And haven’t been able to get back in it. And yet I keep subjecting myself to much worse shows. Hmm.
It’s definitely a much slower burn than Breaking Bad (until this season at least)
No half measures this season
Did you watch the 2nd season? It was good, but not amazing like the 1st season. I’ve been watching it sporadically since the 2nd season.
I thoroughly enjoy the show, but thought it was better before Chuck’s “departure”. Although more Rhea Seehorn is never a bad thing.
Reppin the Rock. Good man Hasan.
Mitch Richmond gave it his all from baseline to baseline during his tenure here, in spite of being banished to basketball hell. And without him and his trade value that fetched Chris Webber, the golden era likely never takes place.
Richmond is the greatest Sacramento King, in my humble opinion, with Chris Webber #2. Big thanks to Mitch for years of making Sacramento Kings basketball watchable, even after he was gone.
Love this take. Webber was the biggest star the Kings ever had, Jason Williams the most culturally relevant, Divac the heart and soul of the franchise, but I can ride with Mitch as the GKOAT.
“And without him and his trade value that fetched Chris Webber, the golden era likely never takes place.”
He truly was a gift that kept on giving.
This is a good argument for the most important. But absolute GOAT? I’m going Webber personally.
Great draftee ever will be an interesting discussion in a few years.
Yeah, Webber had the most impact on team success, so I still go with him as the best NBA basketball player to play for the Sacramento Kings.
I’d consider CWebb a better King than Mitch, but I was pretty young for much of Mitch’s tenure. I remember him as a great player, but I remember CWebb as a better player.
Way to go, Hasan
Kings Herald is live! Awesome blossom!
Also that was pretty cool that Hassan chose Mitch Richmond as his second favorite player
Do you have a PMP or am I misreading your name?
Can you feel me?
https://youtu.be/qq0PCXzOjTU
LOL @ Hasan for exploiting how broken ESPN is that it actually broke SAS too.
Mitch was fantastic.
But he wasn’t the GOAT Part B. That was Wayman Tisdale!
Wayman Tisdale’s daughter was actually in the same Kindergarten grade class as my older brother at Merryhill School in Pocket. My Dad tells me that when they had the graduation ceremony for the Kindergartners he saw Wayman sitting in the audience with the other parents holding a camcorder recording.
I know he wasn’t the best, but he is by far my favorite Sacramento King of all time. Part of that is historically personal for me and part of it is that he was by all accounts a perfectly remarkable human.
My favorite (in hindsight) Mitch memory was him banking a 3 point shot in to beat the GSW to win the Kings into the 8th seed of the playoffs way back in the day. I was living in GSW territory at the time and was rooting GSW, so it’s a fun one to relive nowadays.
Oddly enough, I was too (Vacaville) and remember this game specifically from that season. We had just returned from a dinner at “Original Pete’s” and I turned it on just in time for the end! If I recall correctly a few days later, I remember they briefly turned the lights out in the GS arena after the were eliminated from the playoffs by a Kings win to some other team.
The STR Masthead still lists Aykis, Greg, and everyone else. That ain’t right.
LOL. Whatever. Maybe in a few months someone over there will pay enough attention to update it.
I wouldn’t count on that….
The Lakers fans running that site probably think that is the Kings’ roster.
It’s always a little sad when amazing athletes get no love because they played on an below average team in a small market.
Cool move of Hasan to go on ESPN and give Mitch some love.
I laughed so hard when I saw Stephen A. Smith’s reaction.
Hasan is truly one of us ð
Also, just deleted STR off my bookmarks and added the Herald. Thank you guys so much.
Mitch was the reason I wasn’t a Jordan fan
Mitch Richmond was a bad, bad, bad man on the court. Wish the team could have had some more success so that he could have received more recognition.
I think if I recall correctly from readings, in 1996 playoffs, after the Kings beat Seattle in Game 2 of Round 1, when they were warming up at ARCO for Game 3, the crowd was absolutely nuts even before the game started.
That was the game that convinced George Karl and the NBA whistles couldn’t be allowed inside an arena.
I think.
Wow, I didn’t even have to do my daily jump rope exercises–this gave my heart a workout!
Jump Rope Gang! I incorporated 15 minutes into my daily Quarkout, and I love it. Trying to win sexiest calves at the annual TKH beauty pageant this year.
Hasan Minhaj: Kings fan to the core! Awesome.
Hey its nice in here boys! Wish we had current hoops to banter about and what not but, but i guess we can like pick on each other. 😈
I personally put Mitch ahead of Webber when it comes to who was the best Sac King of all time. Webber gets more hype(rightfully) for being on good teams. Mitch’s best teammates were…? A guy who wanted to be a cop even though he wasn’t a cop, Walt Williams, Spud Webb and..? Michael Smith for most of his tenure here? Wasn’t really until that final year that he had something that resembled an NBA rotation.
Can you imagine the pre 99 Kings without Mitch Richmond on the team? Brutal… It would almost be as bad as the Kings we have been watching since 2008 to present.
I’ll never forget the way Fred Anderson (longtime PA announcer before Moak) would say Mitch Richmond for threeeeeeeeee.
yup
Badge Legend