NBA reporter Mark Stein is no stranger to the English language, having been a sports journalist for over two decades, and yet showed on Friday that English can make fools of the best of us when it comes to season-locked James Wiseman.
Stein, a former NBA reporter for ESPN and the New York Times who covers the league on his own Substack page, shared the news that the Golden State Warriors have ruled out James Wiseman for the remainder of the season as the center continues to rebuild his right knee. . But he did it in such a strange manner that he immediately attacked the more learned grammarians.
“Kawai Leonard, Zion Williamson, Ben Simmons, Jamal Murray and now James Wiseman is out for the rest of the 2021-2022 campaign…too many good players who haven’t been on the floor for a single minute all season.” Stein tweeted.
This caused confusion among some fans, who wondered if any of the other names listed next to Wiseman had been dropped from the season or if this was breaking news. Stein cleared things up quickly blaming the reader.
Only Wiseman was out for the remainder of the season. That’s why these words only appear after Wiseman’s name.
Please try to slow down, calm down and read from time to time. https://t.co/ExCc1vCF0y
— Mark Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 25, 2022
Of course, the fault lies not with the people who misinterpreted what was written. If I were to write a sentence like “Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, now Donald Trump has lost his re-election campaign,” you’d realize that that snippet at the end applies to all three guys. If I wrote Lyndon B. Johnson instead of Carter, it wouldn’t make sense since he never lost a re-election campaign, nor did the defense of the phrase “Only Trump lost a re-election campaign. That’s why these words only appear after Trump’s name.” That’s how lists work.
Fortunately for Stein, he realized that for the third time, the charm and left us with a much clearer explanation.
Let’s try again:
Kawhi didn’t play a single minute the entire season.
As is Zion.
So does Ben Simmons.
So does Jamal Murray.
James Wiseman didn’t play a minute the entire season and is now out of the season.
They are all in a group that has played zero minutes this season. https://t.co/0HbFGMinOj
— Mark Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 25, 2022
Now Warriors fans — and NBA fans in general — can move on to bigger issues like whether Wiseman is Greg Oden version 2.0 or if he can pull himself out of this two-year injury slump like Joel did. Embiid.