Stephen A. Smith: College basketball ‘more compelling’ than NBA

Stephen A. Smith knows the talent might be better in the NBA, but that doesn’t discount college basketball from having the better product.

Earlier this month, ESPN’s Jay Williams garnered attention by claiming college basketball is currently a better product than the NBA. With Williams appearing on First Take this week, Smith weighed in on the debate, and he didn’t disagree.

The crew debates men’s college hoops vs. the NBA 🍿

Which product is better? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/57wZ9340Eg

— First Take (@FirstTake) February 19, 2026

“The talent in pro basketball is obviously exponentially better. The game itself, that is, college basketball, is more intriguing, more compelling,” Smith said.

Smith cited college basketball ratings being up 30% across all networks this season, but he dismissed the NBA being up 16% on NBC, ESPN/ABC, and Prime Video as compared to its old media deals with ESPN/ABC and TNT a year ago. But ratings aside, Smith preached the different styles of play offered in college as win over the NBA.

“When we look at the NBA game, if it ain’t heavy pick-and-roll, it’s three-point shooting. They’re launching three-point shots at 37 attempts per team, per game,” Smith argued. “In college basketball, what do you got? You got true post-play, you got zone defense, you got mid-range games, you got all this other stuff going on.”

“You’re not seeing enough post-play, you’re not seeing enough of a mid-range game from these cats, you’re not seeing a lot of those things,” Smith continued of the NBA. “And by the way, that’s when you see them, because of load management…you ain’t seeing that in college basketball for the most part. The talent is exponentially better in the NBA, of course it is, no doubt about that. But there’s an urgency with college basketball that makes it more interesting than the NBA.”

College basketball having more urgency might be Smith’s best argument. And that’s one of the problems with an 82-game season. There isn’t much urgency in the regular season for the NBA, which is why we see the best teams rest their stars for load management and the worst teams rest their better players in an effort to tank.

The quality of play on the court, however, remains a better product in the NBA than in college. That doesn’t mean every fan will prefer the overall product at the pro level. Many fans still prefer the environment, urgency, and system offenses that college basketball offers. But when two good NBA teams are playing each other in a game that matters, the quality of basketball remains immeasurably better than college.