Judge the Game, Not the Skin: WNBA Star Sophie Cunningham Laughs Off Stephen A. Smith's Race Take on Luka's Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers have given their fans plenty to argue about this fall, and most of it is good news. The team is off to an 11-2 start, the New York Post reported this week, even as analyst and former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins says the Lakers have not yet done enough to prove they are true title contenders.

That is a basketball argument, and a fair one. Stephen A. Smith's argument is something else.

The ESPN personality has been making the same case for months: that the Lakers cannot win a championship with a top three of Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler, a trio Fox News' OutKick summarized in Smith's words as "three White dudes". Earlier, Awful Announcing reported, Smith questioned the Lakers loading up on white stars with the line, "This ain't golf".

He has not backed off as the wins have piled up. This week, Smith repeated that he has never seen a team whose top three players are white win an NBA title, Yardbarker reported.

Sophie Cunningham, the WNBA star who has never been shy about speaking her mind, took it on directly. On her "No Hesitation" podcast, she laughed at the claim, according to OutKick, and said Dončić is "killing it" on the court this season, Basketball Network reported.

Her point was simple. Look at what the players are doing, not what they look like. Coverage of the episode noted that she treated Smith's framing as something closer to a punchline than a serious scouting report.

OutKick's own analysis made the basketball case alongside her, arguing that the Lakers' top three compare favorably with the leading trios on most rosters around the league, whatever anyone's background.

I cover this league because I love the game, and the game has never once asked a player what color he is. The rim is 10 feet high for everybody. A defender who slides his feet and a guard who sees the floor two passes ahead are valuable in any skin.

That is not a new idea. It is one of the best ideas this country ever agreed on: that people should be judged by their character and their work, not by the color of their skin. Christians hold it for an even deeper reason, because Scripture teaches that every person is made in the image of God. When we start sorting athletes by race to predict who can win, we walk away from something worth keeping.

Smith is a gifted broadcaster, and big takes are part of his job. But there is a difference between a big take and a bad premise. If you want to doubt the Lakers, there is plenty of real material. Perkins' question about whether a hot start means anything in May is a legitimate one. So is any question about depth, defense, health or how a team built around one superstar holds up in a seven-game series. Those are the debates that make the sport fun.

Saying a roster is doomed because of its racial makeup is not analysis. It is a stereotype, and it would be called one immediately if it were aimed the other way.

Cunningham deserves credit for saying so with a laugh instead of a lecture. She is a women's basketball player standing up for NBA players she does not play with or against, simply because the argument was unfair. That is sportsmanship, and it crosses every line the critics want to draw.

The good news is that this argument has an expiration date. Basketball settles its debates on the court. If the Lakers keep winning, Dončić keeps producing and the supporting cast holds up, the only question left in the spring will be whether they are good enough, not whether they look right.

Smith has shown no sign of changing his mind. The standings will have the final word, and so far they are not on his side.