Even Dylan Harper's most stubborn denier finally sees the light after masterclass

Spurs fans defended their favorite basketball organization from some of the most horrendous takes imaginable during the regular season. One of the most egregious examples is Yahoo! Sports' NBA writer Kevin O'Connor claiming San Antonio would have been better off drafting Kon Knueppel over Dylan Harper. Well, guess who just moonwalked on his comments like Michael Jackson?

I get it (kinda). I like Knueppel, too. He was having an impressive season with the Charlotte Hornets, but most observers understood that the only reason Harper wasn't going to end the year as a finalist for Rookie of the Year was because of the role he was playing on a stacked team. Having a higher usage rate doesn't equate to being the better prospect now or in the future.

Harper was the consensus No. 2 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft for a reason

How quickly we forget that the former Rutgers star would have been the unquestioned number one pick in the draft if Cooper Flagg didn't reclassify. That class having two number one-caliber prospects was a popular opinion among scouts. It's nice to see that O'Connor has seen the light Spurs fans were trying to open his eyes to ever since he first made these claims.

Be careful if you dive into that comment section. You'll see plenty of Harper defenders, but you'll also see some of the most mind-numbing basic takes imaginable. The argument they were truly making was the philosophic differences between drafting a player at a position of need vs. taking the best available prospect.

Teams have been bitten time and time again because they prioritized filling holes over stacking talent. The truth of sports is that talent is what wins big. The more you have, the more likely you are to overwhelm your opponents in high-leverage moments. Portland is learning that the hard way for the second time.

In 1984, the Trail Blazers were on the clock with the second overall pick in the draft. Houston took Hakeem Olajuwon at number one, and nobody to this day will blink too much at that. The Dream is a legend's legend. However, Portland took Sam Bowie when Michael Jordan was sitting there because they already had Clyde Drexler playing shooting guard. So, MJ went to Chicago instead, and the rest is history.

They should have taken the talent. That decision probably still haunts that organization and its fans. Their present-day lesson on how important having the better players is comes via Dylan Harper's display. Between De'Aaron Fox's lackluster performance and Jrue Holiday's firestorm, you know they expected to win that game, but the Slash Bros took over instead and just said, "No."

No disrespect to Knueppel, but he couldn't have done what Harper just did on the road with his team down and the pressure mounting. Kon proved that with his terrible outings in Charlotte's two Play-In Tournament games. Now that we're all on the same page, let's not ever get it twisted again.

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