After the Nuggets defeated the Pistons on Wednesday night, 89-79, Kenneth Faried said “Josh Smith…shot them out of the game.” While Smith struggled after a great first quarter, his ensuing overreaction to Faried’s comments yesterday shows how much Faried’s words must have stung.
After Smith started Wednesday’s game by going 6-for-10 from the field, he was just 3-for-12 in the last three quarters, but still scored a game-high 25 points. The rest of the Pistons failed to chip in, which is what led to Faried saying it was Denver’s intention all along to let Smith get his buckets, since it was to the detriment of everyone else.
Meanwhile, Faried was 8-for-12 from the field for a team-high 22 points, 17 rebounds and four assists in the win.
After a friend told Smith about Faried’s comments on Thursday, Smith tells MLive.com’s David Mayo, “I just laughed…” and it’s “amusing” because “he didn’t say two words to me” during Wednesday’s game.
That’s not all Smith said. Here’s most of his reaction to Mayo even as he prefaces the Faried diatribe by saying he doesn’t respond to someone with dreadlocks who plays basketball.
“I don’t respond to nobody that has dreadlocks and plays basketball,” Smith said. “I don’t respond to people like that. The man’s a clown, man. Quote me on that, too…
“He knows it’s coming,” Smith said. “In order to make comments like that, you’ve got to be able to back it up, man. And we’re going to see what happens next time.
“I’m gonna have some words while I’m bustin’ his ass, you know what I’m saying? While I’m bustin’ his ass. I back up what I talk. So it’s going to be a pretty good matchup…
“Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion but just do it while the game is being played, not after the game, to see what kind of outcome the score’s going to be, to run your mouth like that,” Smith said.
[…]
“He fears me,” Smith said. “He’s scared of me. So of course he’s going to talk about me in the newspaper. He’s not going to do it to my face. If you’ve got to hide behind a smart phone or a microphone or a recorder, so be it.”
First off, Faried’s comments obviously hurt Smith’s professional pride. Any time someone says their team’s whole strategy is to let someone shoot, that someone is gonna be pissed off. But Smith goes way too far in his response, twice mentioning his intention to bust Faried’s “ass” in the next Denver-Detroit game. That doesn’t make much sense: the two teams don’t face off again until February 6, and we doubt many — aside from Smith, and possibly Faried — will even remember this war of words by that time.
Still, maybe mark this date on your calendars because it might get interesting the next time these two forwards share the court.
Will Smith bust Faried’s ass the next time they play?
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