Colin Cowherd claims Joe Ingles can’t defend a bar stool (among other Utah Jazz slander)

Colin Cowherd made some ridiculously inaccurate statements about the Utah Jazz, including a borderline blasphemous claim about Joe Ingles.

National sports media pundit Colin Cowherd isn’t doing himself any favors with Utah Jazz fans. It wasn’t all that long ago that he referred to Donovan Mitchell as the next Russell Westbrook type player, and no, he didn’t mean it as a compliment. Essentially he was saying that Mitchell was an athletic kind of player that could wow fans but couldn’t produce winning basketball. It was clear he hadn’t followed Mitchell or the Jazz all that closely.

But in case you needed any reassurance of that assumption, Cowherd made it even more obvious that he has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to the Utah Jazz. In a recent segment in which he argued that the LeBron James experiment in Los Angeles is going to work out just fine, rather than talk much about how The King would fit in LA, he instead decided to slander the Jazz.

Essentially this came about because Vegas picked both LA and Utah to finish with 48.5 wins next season, pinning the two teams as the fourth and fifth seeds next season that would face off in the first round of the playoffs. *Side note* – a Jazz-Lakers first-round series against LeBron James would be wildly entertaining.

From there, Cowherd went on to essentially say that James and Co. would wipe the floor with Utah, and belittled the Jazz roster from head to toe, calling names such as Ricky Rubio, Derrick Favors, Joe Ingles, Donovan Mitchell and Jae Crowder, stating “Who would you rather have, (insert Jazz player here) or LeBron James?” (You can check out the clip in its entirety via the tweet below.)

His point was that LeBron was better than the entire Jazz roster, thus the Jazz’s chances of winning were slim to none. Ironic that similar statements have been made the past two years about the likes of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin before the Jazz defeated the LA Clippers in the playoffs as well as Paul George and Russell Westbrook before the Jazz defeated the OKC Thunder.

You could easily argue that all of those players were better than anyone on Utah’s roster, yet the Jazz still prevailed. In other words, sure, LeBron is better than any individual Jazzman. You can argue he’s better than anyone on any roster. But Utah’s team approach has defeated top talent before, so Cowherd’s argument is pretty weak.

But it became even weaker when he started spouting idiotic falsehoods about the Jazz. The most atrocious of which was when he claimed that Joe Ingles can’t defend a bar stool. Cowherd may want to apologize to the likes of Paul George and JJ Redick about that statement, as he essentially called them lesser players than a common piece of kitchen furniture.

Anyone watching the playoffs the last two seasons would know that Ingles’ tenacious and relentless defense was an enormous contributor to Utah’s victories as he shut down PG, Redick and others that he guarded. As known Joe Ingles defender Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report quickly stated after this atrocious Cowherd statement, opponents have put up a worse field goal percentage when defended by Ingles during each of his four NBA seasons.

For more awesome tidbits about Ingles’ underrated defense, be sure to hop on over to Andy’s Twitter as he came to a swift defense of the beleaguered Aussie. I’ve included a few of my favorites here below–

But Cowherd’s ridiculous statements didn’t end there. He also was smugly critical of each Jazzman he mentioned, essentially belittling each and every one of them and also mentioned that Rudy Gobert “can’t stay healthy.” Well, freak accidents are what have hampered Gobert in each of his injury incidents, yet he just so happened to appear in 81 games in 2016-17 – an incredible figure.

Once he recovered from his second knee injury last season, which was caused by his own player rolling into his leg, he was a monster for the remainder of the season and into the playoffs. If Cowherd can’t see that, he’s more lost than I thought.

I’m level-headed enough to realize that there’s truly no telling how good or bad the Jazz will be next season. We’d all like to see them perform exceptionally well and finish in the top three of the West and advance to at least the second round, but the West is daunting, and a lower finish or first-round exit are entirely plausible.

Still, the fact that Colin Cowherd and other national media types similar to him get away with such blatant ignorance when it comes to the Jazz makes my blood boil. Ingles has proven to be a phenomenal defender time and time again. Mitchell may be a second-year player, but he vastly overachieved as a rookie and who’s to doubt he can’t continue to rise? All things considered, Gobert has actually remained extremely healthy.

And guys like Favors, Rubio and Crowder had terrific finishes to last season, and the overall chemistry and cohesion that role players like them create is a huge reason why the Jazz have defeated arguably more talented players and teams the past two years in the playoffs. The strength of the team is the team. As great as LeBron is, he can’t win 1-on-5.

Not only that, but I’m sure Cowherd is completely unaware of how much LeBron has struggled in Salt Lake City, as he’s posted seven consecutive losses there. LeBron is about to find just how tough the West really is, and while his greatness will be enough to likely elevate the Lakers into the playoffs, it should come as little surprise when they struggle against daunting teams that are often overlooked such as the Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans, Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers, to name a few. Not to mention the juggernauts like Golden State and Houston.

I think it’s safe to say that Cowherd has essentially lost his fanbase in Utah (if he ever had one to begin with). It’s one thing to criticize a team, it’s another entirely to spew blatant, idiotic and ignorant lies about a team.

All I can say is, now I really hope the Jazz and Lakers face off against one another in the first round as he surmised. And I hope Utah pulls off the upset once again, just as they have two years running.

Keep on sleeping on Utah.