Jay Williams, an NBA analyst for ESPN who starred on Duke in college, took issue with the sports world for using the term «Mount Rushmore» to describe the best of the best.
Williams rejected Stephen A. Smith’s claim that if Stephen Curry were to defeat LeBron James in their playoff series this year, then the Golden State Warriors star could topple James off the NBA’s Mount Rushmore. However, he was not happy with the Mount Rushmore verbiage for the most part.
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Jay Williams looks on during the 2020 NBA Draft on November 18, 2020 in Bristol, Connecticut at the ESPN headquarters. (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
“Can we first stop with the Mount Rushmore talk?” he said, via Awful Anounceing. «That’s not even the four best presidents this country has ever had. Everybody in this room couldn’t even vote. I just want to say that from the top. Is that our metric for success? Is that our king?»
Williams’s colleague, Jalen Rose, gave a similar opinion in August.
FLASHBACK: TERM ‘MOUNT RUSHMORE’ IS ‘OFFENSIVE’ AND SHOULD BE ‘REMOVED,’ SAYS ESPN’S JALEN ROSE
Rose went so far as to say that using «Mount Rushmore» is «offensive». She said she wanted to cancel the term because the monument was built «over dead bodies» of Native Americans whose land was taken from them.
ESPN analyst Jay Williams smiles before the game between the Phoenix Suns and the Milwaukee Bucks during Game 3 of the 2021 NBA Finals on July 11, 2021 at the Fiserv Forum Center in Milwaukee. (Kena Krutsinger/NBAE via Getty Images)
«Can we retreat using Mount Rushmore? That should be offensive to all of us, especially Native Americans, the indigenous people who were the first here before Christopher Columbus,» Rose said in a video she tweeted. “That land was stolen from them when it was discovered to contain gold.
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Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, #30, celebrates with forward Draymond Green after the Warriors defeated the Sacramento Kings in Game 4 of the first round of the NBA basketball playoffs in San Francisco, on Sunday April 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
«And 25 years later, to add insult to injury, four American presidents were placed on what we call Mount Rushmore on top of the corpses that are buried just below. So, I call for you and myself: I own this too: let’s stop to use the term Mount Rushmore when talking about our favorite rappers, our favorite movies, our favorite players.»
Fox News’ Ryan Morik contributed to this report.