Stephen A. HITS BACK at Rick Carlisle’s ‘SMALL-MARKET’ claims?! | First Take 

He may be right but that doesn’t fix your teams defense it’s been atrocious all season long

The bias against the small markets have been very obvious over the years... ESPN and the other sports networks ALWAYS speak about wanting key players to move to large markets, and many of them pay the NBA to show games and coverage. Watch a regular season game on TV, almost always large market teams. Follow the revenue... its about the money first.

ESPN is located on Connecticut, so OF COURSE they’re biased for their local team (Knicks)

As a Sacramento kings fan, Rick’s right. Especially when you play the lakers. Look at the free throw disparity. It gets old.

drink a shot everytime Stephen a smith says that he has known every people for long time

ESPN is never gonna side with small market teams lmao

These guys can’t openly cheer for NY, LA and Miami, then pretend there’s nothing there. We all know it’s there.

Tim Donahue the NBA ref was imprisoned for fixing games was right about the NBA wanting certain teams in the Finals versus small market teams . The league wants to see Boston or New York against the Nuggets.

Pay attention to ESPN showing their favoritism to these leagues. These same ESPN pundits won’t bring up the fact that past players have come out and said these exact things, Rasheed Wallace, Teague, the entire early 2000s kings team, etc. Usually ESPN has these pundits take opposing positions but for some reason all 4 of them are in lock step agreement that he was wrong, why is that?

Rick Carlisle is right. Bigger markets get a favorable whistle and ESPN is saying he’s wrong cause they make their money through talking about the bigger market teams

Anyone who has watched the NBA for 20 years plus knows he is right. Kings vs Lakers series in 2002 for a reference if you need one that is blatantly obvious.

“Max almost seems blacker than you Stephen A.” T.O

Stephen A has to protect that hundred billion dollar deal that ESPN have with the NBA

People wonder why nba tv ratings have been tanking over the last 10-15 years. This is a major part why. No other sport really calls into question the refs and league’s calls, biases, and motivation for them. No other league has had a ref popped for gambling who gave a behind the curtain peek into the nba. No other league has to beg and incentive its stars to play. No other league attacks its fans the way the nba does. The nba has a lot of work to do to keep the fans it currently has and to bring back some of the many who have already left.

SAS: I’ve not Rick Carlisle for decades. He’s a good man…in fact, he and I are very close friends. I’ll call him after the show.

SAS has a bias. He’s a knicks fan

4:00 the last game this whole broadcast team was insinuating the league influenced by the knicks to win but when he Rick says it nah it’s crazy like what😂

Jay Will dismissing that the NBA wants a specific outcome but then also raging on about how the league helped Jamal Murray and Nuggets by not suspending him.

Rick wasnt complaining when they was up 12 😂😂😂

The NBA only favors the Lost Plastic Fakers for decades.

ESPN is mad because Carlisle spoke the truth!

When any NBA team that's small market is playing against a larger maket team, and the fix is in, the small market team has to have great defense and flawless offense. Point-blank, don't give the league any extra advantage, after the rigged officiating. You have rebound and make your shots.

If you think Rick doesn't have a point, take a look at the foul statistics surrounding the Lakers

The refs like traveling to big markets.

I think Rick has a point with the small market issue. Small markets have a tough time getting star players so they’re already disadvantaged. It adds onto the game difficulty when disadvantaged teams have a tough time getting calls, while larger markets don’t have as much of the same issue.

You can make a legit argument about why in game 1 they didnt overturn the kickball which was obviously wrong but overchanged the double dribble call which was also wrong

Bro Carlisle u didn’t play Obi Toppin in the 4th.. he had 20 points on 7/10 shooting.. and TJ Mcconell had a double double n was playing good defense .. u didn’t play him in the stretch fohh

Obviously espn wouldn't put light on this, why would they call out the nba when they work for them. Pacers defense also has to be a lot better cause that plays a part too, but carlisle wasnt wrong and if you cant see that by watching the games you're just a knicks fan or a casual 🤷‍♂

Stephen A trying to criticize Rick while also proving his point 😂

Refs definitely call game different on both ends, but they blew game 2. Game 1 they cheated Pacers terribly

Carlisle reminds me of an old Jim Carey

Mainstream media has gotta quit saying Minnesota is a small market team. They aint. Theyre close to a top 10 market lmaoo

jim carey look hella mad lol

Stephen A is the wrong person to ask this. He is a Knicks fan. He openly prays for teams like the Lakers and Heat to make the finals so he can go to these cities in June. His way of thinking lines up with the way most NBA execs think. The NBAs most egregious plots were helping avoid an Indiana vs Portland finals in 2000 and Sacramento vs New Jersey finals in 2002. Unfortunately small market teams are the farm teams of the NBA

Coach has a point overall from my experience in watching any sport all my life but, I can not speak on this series but what I can say from my experience watching the NBA is that when you are known for being a physical defensive team all season long most of the time that can translate to the playoffs. We’ve seen not so talented small market teams get away with this in the past. Example the Bucks’ Chip all the way back to the Pistons 2004last Chip (from my experience)im 34. Even when the Grizzles Grit n Grind Era got to the WCF thats a good example. But the Pacers havent been known for playing D all year so……

To insinuate that the league wants a particular outcome? I cannot believe Jay William said that when you know sports are exactly that they are already decided on what happens. Of course New York and Boston conference finals is going to be huge for ratings two big markets while on the other side, you have two smaller markets, possibly on a collision course in the thunder and wolves. Amazing how these analysts protect the league at all cost by not saying it’s rigged.

Knicks got 2 playoff wins off ref mistakes they admitted. The NBA & media want new york-boston ECF for ratings. This is the same league where 1 ref openly called out betting on the games

I would’t call it corruption or anything. But when a small market teams wins the NBA championship they simply had to work harder for it, including overcoming refs.

This is absolutely HILARIOUS!!! The IRONY of this "perspective" 😂

Stephen A talkin bout how “we” were excited about this postseason cuz of the new faces yet up until like a week ago all ESPN was doing was speculating if the Lakers or the Warriors could make a deep playoff run.

we all know the NBA has favorites... Rick is absolutely right

He should've said this after game one, because they did get robbed in that game. Now last night they just threw up all over themselves in that 3rd quarter.

How can you say it's not true the 4 of the top 5 teams in the free throw differential are big market teams. Free throws are from fouls called. Not to mention non shooting fouls. TOP 5 TEAMS IN FREE THROW DIFFERENTIAL OVER THE LAST TWO SEASONS. Los Angeles Lakers (+1017) New York Knicks (+358) Milwaukee Bucks (+344) Orlando Magic (+311) Boston Celtics (+271)

Carlyle is right. Embiids gets 12 free throws a game and Jokic gets 5. If you put Jokic in New York or Philadelphia he get at least 10 ft a game.

So your team’s defense has nothing to do with the loss? How about Donte being left wide open for most of his 3’s? This guy is nuts…

New York is a big Market!!! The NBA ALWAYS wants at least 1 big market team in the playoffs! Carlisle is 10000% correct on his comment!

ESPN is oblivious. Knicks have been getting calls in they favor since the regular season

It’s not a small market argument it’s a star player the amount of things players like Curry, Lebron even now wemby gets away with on the court. If the same thing happens game three then the pacers can use the small,market reason this whole thing reminds me of the lakers vs kings in 2002. The league wanted the lakers to win while the kings were the better team

Miami is A big Market Stephan

Lmao 😂🤣😂 SAS “he can miss me with that”

"how many years I been complaining about New York" 😂

He's 💯 % correct! It's the same way in baseball and especially the NFL! Small market teams aren't "exciting" enough and don't bring the money teams like New York does. It's no secret the leagues favor bigger market teams. It's just most don't talk about it.

Even as a Pacers fan SAS talking about where he wants to be in the finals, cracked me up.

Well OKC, and the T'Wolves don't seem to have this problem 🤔 last time I checked they are small market teams.

Did yall really expect ESPN was going to agree with those claims we all know throughout all sports large market teams are just going to be favored for the amount of attention and money

When players and coaches start insinuating that the officials are corrupt without any evidence, it's a dark time for the NBA. Accusing the officials of missing calls is one thing, implying that they're on the take is another.

Rick is 100% right. NBA every year tries to get certain teams in position to make a run

Coach aint lying

Whenever they are just yapping and not pulling out the numbers you know something is up. Bottom 5 teams in personal fouls committed are Lakers/ Boston/ MIA/ Spurs and NY... Indiana is #1... I have no dog in this fight, but I cant recall anytime a small market team was getting favorable calls left and right consistently. We ALL have seen favorable calls for the larger market / larger fan base teams in basically every sport. Also, they need to stop bringing up MN. The numbers dont lie and MN has been winning in spite of being on the wrong side of questionable of calls all year long. ANT called it out, Rudy was fined... Even in this Denver series with the lack of techs and questionable whistle blowing at times. MN is far from getting fair calls.

Teams in the bigger half of the NBA markets have over double the number of championships more than the smaller half of the market.

Minnesota and OKC are dominating the west rn. Stfu Carlisle.

So you didn’t respond to the main point. It’s obvious the nba wants Boston vs ny

Love the depth the Ladies came with. Wasn’t just fluff . Nice

A bunch of people who spent all year shilling for the Lakers and Warriors getting defensive because someone said the quite part out loud. Ratings are down because the NBA treats small market teams the way European soccer leagues treat theirs

Minnesota doesn’t get a good whistle😂

The nba does want the Knicks to advance.

I agree with Carlisle! As a wolves fan, I've seen time and time again the calls going agains the Wolves for the most part. Now the Wolves are so good that even the REFs calls are not affecting them but it is a fact that small markets are given short end of the stick.

"we know where I want to be in June" 😂

lol well he’s right. The nba doesn’t want Indiana, OKC, Minnesota, etc to move on. This has been obvious for years. That’s why the lakers and knicks have the largest margin in free throw differential year after year

The Knicks won fair and square as they get plenty of calls against them and non calls, especially home at MSG. This coach is whining because they down 2-0 to a 6-7 player rotation Knicks.

Same thing happened last year when they played the Cavs. Knicks get all the more favorable calls. The NBA wants the Knicks to go as far as possible with no golden state and no LA teams. They need the tv viewers

Stephen A basically said: “I wish it was rigged for the big markets!” 😂😂😇

He's right. The NBA needs to quit playing favorites. We all know they screwed Portland out of Wembanyama.

Fix Is in for new york.

It’s over for the Pacers. Referees watching like alright watch this

As a Knicks fan I already expect the Pacers to get all the calls in game 3 now

No one said anything about Brunson, being beat up as he was bringing the ball up-court. 😮

Im a knicks fan and i love my team but i literally been telling my friends at work that the refs been helping us since round one 🤦

New York been getting lopsided calls all playoffs honestly. Philly got screwed too. Refs been worse than ever this year.

It's so obvious that big markets and superstars get favorable calls. Steven A. is a Knicks fan. He shouldn't even speak on this. ESPN has adam silver's nuts in their mouth

lol pacers coaching staff can’t admit they getting out coached this series so he has to blame it on something else

coach 100% spittin its been happening for DECADES dont let em fool you

He’s absolutely correct. The league is pushing the knicks and the refs got the memo.

The coach said the quiet part out loud….. the NBA always wants big markets

They choked and gave the Knicks a chance to comeback and win 😂😂😂

Y'all are full of 💩 if Y'all are trying to tell me that you've watched the same game that I've watched and thought both teams were getting the same amount of fair calls. Pure 💩.

What is the deal with wanting to "Fine" people? We know Stephen A will be biased because his team is the Knicks.

No LeBron, Curry, or KD in the playoffs… the nba is trying their hardest to keep a New York team in the playoffs

The league definitely want Knicks in the ECF.

"Smalll market teams!" 😂😂😂

"If there's any proof" 30 calls from game 1 40 game 2 😂 bro i watched that and its obvious. New York is HEAVILY favored by the refs. Same with Denver. Ant gets smacked held and grabbed every single play its wild

He did put the league on blast.

It’s has been happening to the TORONTO RAPTORS for decades and only now other teams complaining..good for them 😂😂😂😂

Last time I checked, Dallas is a bigger market than OKC and OKC is beating Dallas. The Twin Cities are a smaller market than Denver and the T Wolves are up 2 - 0 on Denver, winning both games IN DENVER. Those two series debunk what Carlisle said. But I think Indiana ×ins at least one game st home, if not both.

Every Pacers fan understands that they are getting hosed over based on the ratings being in the tank. Haliburton gets shoved directly in the back and nothing called. They call a kickball in game 1 that got touched by his hand and not reviewable, but a double dribble gets overturned last night. Carlisle is exactly right. These refs are awful. Every commentator complained that the calls went against Indiana after game 1, and it continued in game 2.

Small market is definitely a thing bc why dont REFS ever get punished for bad calls or stupid techs theres got to be a quota or something that requires certain calls be made each game

The kicks have been allowed to play physical in both series while both teams have not period

The Pacers can’t stop anybody is the reason they lost those games in NY. Gave up over 70 points in the 2nd half of gm 1 and gave up nearly 70 in the 2nd half last night. The Knicks are a good team, but they aren’t that good.

ESPN is going to back the NBA but Carlisle is right and it’s all about the money. Years ago David Stern was asked what his dream finals matchup was and he replied Lakers vs Lakers. NBA hated Pistons v Spurs finals and the famous rigged lakers Kings is proof.

There are open discussions about having big markets being better for the league. Don’t demean him for saying the quiet part out loud.