FS1’s Nick Wright has been one of the most prominent detractors against the style of modern NBA basketball. Which is to say that he has been one of the most prominent detractors against the Boston Celtics.
The reigning champions are a shining example of how to engineer basketball by dominating from behind the three-point line and winning the possession battle. Suddenly both of those reliable Celtics X-factors have flipped, and they are down 0-2 in the second round to the New York Knicks.
Breaking down the series so far on his What’s Wright podcast, Wright made the case for why Boston’s approach being dismantled would be a good thing “for the health of basketball.”
“It has the potential to be an all-time loss,” Wright said. “It also has the potential to maybe stem the tide a bit against professional basketball simply being a 3-point shooting contest.”
As he came up through the ranks at Fox Sports and ultimately became host of First Things First, Wright was known predominantly as an NBA analyst.
But on the eve of the new season, Wright put on his fan hat and explained why he was no longer as giddy for the return of hoops. He said the NBA was “alienating the customer” and pled for the NBA to learn from Major League Baseball and change the rules. Without changes, Wright argued, the league was getting worse as an “entertainment product.”
With the Celtics getting punked at home this week, Wright sees hope for a different future.
“The Boston Celtics breaking every record for 3-point attempts, if they ended up cruising to a championship, then until the rules change, everyone’s an idiot for not playing that way,” he explained.
“But if in the small sample size of a series, the Celtics get whacked by what most people agree is a clearly inferior team … whether it should or shouldn’t change teams’ philosophies and approaches, pro sports are reactionary. And I think it will. So yeah, I’ll say it. For the health of basketball, it’s good if this doesn’t work for Boston.”
To Wright’s point, these ugly Celtics’ performances have brought up many of the same bad headlines that have plagued the league for years. ESPN analyst Tim Legler called the team’s offensive approach in Game 1 an “insult to basketball.” The Ringer’s Zach Lowe sarcastically asked “What the hell happened to your team?” in a podcast rant on Thursday.
The league follows the direction of the best teams, and the Celtics’ style has not been popular among national media. Fans continued to flock to LeBron James and Steph Curry over Jayson Tatum and Co. despite Boston’s dominance.
The Celtics could come back and win the series and even repeat as champions. Or, Boston could fall and the league could still move toward a three-point heavy style. But Nick Wright is, at the very least, identifying a very clear inflection point for the big-picture conversation around the NBA that hinges on whether the Knicks can get the job done in Game 3 and beyond.
