Mike Greenberg Said UConn Would Make The NBA Playoffs But Now Says He Was "Just Kidding" And They'd Go 0-82 Because Everyone Ripped Him Apart
As a proud, card-carrying member of the media for the last 2.5 weeks, there's nothing that makes me more upset than seeing people with a large platform make outrageous claims with no other purpose than to get clicks and get people talking. So while I chose not to blog this when he initially said it, because the last thing I want to do is give Greenie what he wants, I can't stand by and quietly watch what is now unfolding.
So obviously, the internet completely disagreed. UConn would unequivocally NOT make the NBA playoffs, and just to make sure I wasn't barking up the wrong tree, I first went to our College Basketball Guy on the blog:
Then, to make the point more clear, I went to our resident UConn guy:
* Reminder: the Pistons are 12-60. So if they're handling UConn, I wonder what the play-in teams like Heat and 76ers would do to them. I mean, Jack literally went on to say that UConn's season long win total Over/Under at 5.5 if he were the oddsmaker. And it wasn't just these two disagreeing with Greeny, it was the entire world, including NBA players like Chandler Parsons.
Well, they're both wrong. UConn is not an NBA team, could potentially go 0-82 if they played a full schedule, but they do have a few guys that would log some minutes for the 12-60 Pistons right now.
…..but Greeny being flat out wrong is not my beef with him this morning. He's trying to catch fire, throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. But what I'm annoyed with is that when the entire world called him on his bullshit, he completely backtracked and flipped course. He didn't even say he was going for conversation / clicks though. His excuses was he was JOKING!
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Kidding? 0-82? Buddy, let me give you some advice that the great Kirk Minihane once gave me: don't delete tweets. Don't go with what the commenters say. If you have a take, and people don't like it, stand by it. Who gives a fuck!
** Additionally, I don't think he was joking. I'm not saying he truly felt UConn would make the NBA playoffs, but to go from Playoffs to 0-82 is also quite the stretch.