There are hundreds of thousands of basketball takes that can be heard and seen all day, every day, from television shows to podcasts and even short-form content on social media.

Most takes are doom-scrolling noise at best and toxic click-bait at worst. Some are legitimate analysis that can either be right or wrong.

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon was providing the latter on a segment of ESPN’s NBA Today back in 2023.

In what has, for some reason, become a take heard around the world, Hammon went viral for saying the New York Knicks didn’t have a top-tier superstar and that Jalen Brunson wasn’t that No. 1 option, citing his height as a problem.

This comment has led to a vitriolic reaction to Hammon that can be interpreted, at best, as a strong disagreement from some fans, but, at worst, feels like it’s filled with toxic misogyny that only intends to tear Hammon down rather than listen to her perspective.

In the end, Brunson did prove Hammon—along with the many other who doubted him—wrong by winning a title as the clearcut No. 1 option for the now-NBA champion Knicks.

Now that Brunson and the Knicks have a chip, there have been loud calls—from social media grifters to Knicks fans to Knicks players–that Hammon apologize to Brunson. On Tuesday, before her Aces played the New York Liberty, Hammon admitted her take was wrong—but she didn’t offer an apology.

Frankly, she has no reason to.

What Hammon’s biggest critics fail to accept is that two things can be true: A take can be wrong, but it can still be a legitimate perspective grounded in a wealth of basketball knowledge.

Often, we complicate basketball. It’s actually a simple sport. The hoop is 10 feet high, and having players who are both skilled and tall gives you an advantage.

I’ve covered this game at the high school, college and pro levels for boys, girls, men and women. I can’t remember a single instance where a coach, agent, scout or front-office person at any level ever advocated for building a team around shorter players.

Team building in basketball always been about getting the most skilled players, with size being preferred.

And yes, Brunson proved he could do it. But, as Hammon indicated, he is the exception to the rule. Unless the height of the rim changes to level the playing field for short kings, size will always matter in basketball. And if Brunson were, say, six inches taller, he’d be a better basketball player because of it.

Becky Hammon (and all women in sports) has the right to be wrong, too

To play devil’s advocate, let’s say Hammon’s take was absolutely awful. It was an opinion so bad that it made everyone chuckle and wonder why she was getting paid to talk basketball.

So what? Men are allowed to be loud and wrong, and are well compensated for doing so.

Less than a week ago, Stephen A. Smith went on ESPN’s First Take and asked if this was the year that France could finally win the World Cup. Mind you, they won the World Cup in 2018.

Is anyone asking for his job? Will there be millions of soccer fans who berate him on this for years on end? The good money is on the answer being no.

So go ahead and quote-tweet Hammon, and get some jokes off if you must.

But there is no need to cross the line of respect. And, considering the Knicks won it all over a week ago, it’s time to stop obsessing over the opinion of one woman, especially since her opinion is one that the vast majority of people in the basketball world live by.

A small backcourt gives you a disadvantage and requires one of the great guards in the history of the sport to overcome it. Brunson is one of those guys, along with the Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry and Detroit Pistons’ Isiah Thomas.

And Hammon was wrong when thinking Brunson couldn’t reach that exclusive echelon. But she wasn’t alone. Many others also doubted Brunson, by the way. Bruson was the 33rd pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and, when he first came up for his second contract, the Dallas Mavericks chose not to commit to him. So, let’s not pretend the basketball world believed he would become a championship-winning supstar.

It seems like the only one getting any smoke for doubting Brunson is Hammon–and the only difference between her and the others is that she is a woman.

Again, it’s time to move on. Brunson is a champion, Hammon is too, as the head coach of the Aces dynasty. The beauty of sports is that we get answers to questions.

Brunson is a winner, but that doesn’t make Hammon a loser. It just makes her someone who had a take that didn’t age well. And that’s a club, I think, we can all admit we’re a part of.