Money may have been the driving force behind the NBA’s globalization efforts, but Stephen A. Smith believes “whitening” the sport was an ancillary motive.
Durant recently confirmed his plans of playing in the 2028 Summer Olympics to ESPN. And in doing so, Durant took issue with the narrative that European basketball is better than American basketball.
“I just don’t like the talk around the USA versus European style of how you approach the game,” Durant told ESPN. “All I hear is, ‘AAU is destroying the game; the Euros do it right while the Americans do it wrong.’
“It’s a lot of bullsh*t with that. I can read between the lines on that. It’s a shot at Black Americans. We’re controlling the sport. They’re tired of us controlling the sport.”
Tuesday morning on ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith said Durant is 1000% right, and challenged “white America” to “throw the heat in my direction” if they have an issue with it. Smith noted that the NBA has always been supportive of Black athletes, specifically citing past and current league executives, including David Stern and Adam Silver.
“Globalizing your brand is whitening the sport too…Because you didn’t have enough white American players to excel on a level that could make the sport more profitable, and you had to rely on the brothers.” Stephen A. Smith reacts to Kevin Durant’s comments on the NBA pic.twitter.com/dmaUDjDl7j
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 24, 2026
“These men have supported these brothers,” Smith said. “But America hasn’t always done so. America, when you talk about globalizing the sport, certainly, money has a lot to do with it. But the other part in globalizing your brand is whitening the sport too.”
“Because you didn’t have enough white American players to excel on a level that could make the sport more profitable, and you had to rely on the brothers, it’s why Magic Johnson was so important because of that magnetic smile that invited you into the living room, but even still, you still paired him with Larry Bird to promote the sport…so to globalize the sport, to have guys who were white European superstars is something that the NBA might have capitalized off of lovingly so because of profitability issues. But America and the world as a whole, ingratiated itself with the NBA product because you saw folks who were white, even though they weren’t from America.”
The obvious counter to Smith’s point is that it’s taken a very long time for NBA fans to truly embrace and respect European basketball players. Even Smith has claimed that an international player still can’t be the face of the NBA. Tony Kukoč and Detlef Schrempf were never amongst the league’s most popular players, even though they were white in a league dominated by Black athletes. And white NBA fans never tried to make Darko Miličić out to be the second coming.
Jalen Brunson reached a level of popularity in New York that Kristaps Porzingis would have struggled to attain because Brunson is more relatable than Porzingis, even to white American NBA fans. Brunson is a foot shorter than Porzingis; he grew up a Knicks fan; he went to school in the United States; he embodies an underdog mentality; and he doesn’t have elite athleticism. Many Knicks fans will relate to those qualities, regardless of complexion.
That’s not to say there aren’t people who might be more apt to watch the NBA if its rosters looked like the ones in Major League Baseball or the NHL. But those same people probably would never be satisfied with white European players either.