'No team in hell should draft Darryn Peterson No. 1!' 🗣️ - Stephen A. | First Take

Well, we've had it more than a couple of times and I didn't anticipate that tonight at all. I thought he was good to go. Uh, but obviously we only got 18 minutes out of him. Uh, you know, that's disappointing because he could have had a really big

night.

Yeah. So despite the sitting out issues, ESPN's Jeremy Wu is Darren Peterson going first overall in the 2026 NBA Draft Peterson is averaging 20 points per game, but has missed 11 games for the Jayhawks this season. What in the world is going on here?

Anybody got Jeremy Wu number?

I heard y'all the only reason I want to go first on this because I heard y'all don't get up Let me say this. There is no team in hell that should grab Darren Peterson number one. You cannot do it. The first ability is availability.

You pull yourself out, pull it, you made a J and then looked at the coach. I want to get out of here. And it ain't the first time he's done it. And these games that he's missing. Cramps? Flu? What? What? I can't believe what I'm seeing from this guy.

This guy is a sensational player. Talent wise, I'm an A.J. DeBonza fan. Talent wise though, I understand why everybody's looking at Darren Peterson and saying that brother is something special. He could be number one. This is business. I can't trust him. I cannot. I'm looking at him on the camera. You cannot be trusted. It's sitting there shaking his head. I thought we were passing.

I don't know what to say. He don't know. If he don't know, how an NBA team gonna know? How the evaluators gonna know? How teammates gonna, could you imagine if he's on an NBA squad and you dropped 20 points

in the first half and you hit a J right in front of you in the bench and then turn around and look at your coach they pull me give me out why crap and this ain't the first time I'm gonna tell you it's a problem it's a he can't he can't listen boys talent is big-time I wish him nothing but the best I ain't rooting against him I'm saying damn this is some flagrantly obvious stuff that's going on where there's a dereliction of duty a lack of the best, I ain't rooting against him. I'm saying, damn, this is some flagrantly obvious stuff that's going on where there's a dereliction of duty,

a lack of commitment, something, it ain't just health. Come on now, you ain't taking care of yourself. How many cramps can you have?

No, it's not about him not taking care of himself. It's that, one, he has an agenda, and his agenda is not playing college basketball. Right? Okay. He took the money. Okay, cool. The next part of it is from a former athlete, I started to question whether or not you love the damn game. Yeah. Because if you got real love for basketball, you not pulling these type of stunts. Because at this point, he's unpredictable. We're approaching March Madness. We're approaching March Madness.

He got, what, 12, 13 other guys in that locker room

that actually believe. And beat the number-one team in the nation without him.

When he checked out five minutes to go into the game. I mean, before the game. Before the game. Before the game. And so, at this point, you gotta worry about your program. This season is almost over. You gotta worry about what's next, who's coming in next,

because I'm gonna tell you something. The competition is real.

John Calipari just signed, what, three more J-Will?

Top 15 players.

Top 15 players to come to Arkansas. You don't want that over your head and you don't want to make it that it's okay You could come here and this is acceptable because somebody if you let him continue to get get away with this

Somebody else go try

Here's my only thing and I'll be quick because you guys have both summed up how I already feel This is the number one show on TV and we are talking about Darren Peterson. Steven A. Smith has just addressed the camera talking about the negatives of Darren Peterson. Our young people got to stop messing up their money. You're losing money. So when the narrative becomes not about

all the crazy things that you do well on the court, but all the things that you don't do because you're not available, you're messing up your bag.

And that's all I gotta say about that.

So unfortunate.

Just a perks point really quick. If this was gonna happen, and maybe there's some issue we don't know about that's going on behind the scenes. I don't know his mom. I don't know but if he was gonna do this. Why didn't he just sit? Why didn't he?

but that's the whole point because

Because but that's what we're lamenting you making sure you getting some paper along the way Oh, yeah, you know and you don't seem to have enough of a conscience to recognize Yo, man, it's cats on this bench that's relying on me. It's a coach who's a national championship multiple times. This man, Bill Self, is one of the great coaches. Future Hall of Famer. That's coaching me. We paid them, they paid me too.

And it doesn't, it's not about, I mean, listen. When I get, I ain't gonna bring up nobody's NBA names because there ain't nothing comparable to this. We haven't seen this on a collegiate level. We saw Cooper Flagg last year balling, you know what I'm saying, and being out there, okay. We've seen many guys, most guys, you see DeBondza right now at BYU, balling, but I'm saying wanting to be out there, you know what I'm saying, having out to game. When you go out a game, what you wanna do is you wanna see a cat hobbling. You wanna see them hurt.

You wanna see the frustration and the pain in their face that gives you an indication. Damn it, I'm mad, I wanna be on the court. I wanna be out there. It doesn't seem to be something that, optics, to piggyback off what Jason,

optics matter. To see his face, to see him, it's like it don't seem to be a big deal to him that he's missing games and he's missing time. You can't invest in your franchise with a number one, number two overall pick. Could you imagine you pick the brother

and then half the time he out and you don't even know why? Could you imagine that? You'll lose your mind.

Well, the last thing, Shay, real quick, is that it's alarming because you pick this brother, he's getting advice from somewhere. And now you gotta deal with whoever his reputation is. If you're a GM. Nobody wanna deal with headaches.

Nobody wanna deal with headaches. I'm telling you this a GM. Nobody wanna deal with headaches. Nobody wanna deal with headaches. I'm telling you this straight up. We nobody in the NBA, general managers are going away from headaches because we have a new set of guys, the game is global, and we're watching,

and I'm pointing out, we're watching the international guys, they coming in, they ain't giving franchises headaches.

I gotta say, it's very important I say this. I had somebody text me about Darren Peterson, right? Little while ago. And they brought up Kyrie Irving. In terms of when Kyrie Irving was that dude.

Played 11 games.

Played 11 games, he was hurt.

He was hurt.

He was hurt. It wasn't one of those situations where you pulling yourself from games. Kyrie Irving was hurt. You understand? He showed you he could score, how electrifying he could be if healthy,

which is what Darren Peterson is doing. But the difference is, Darren Peterson is pulling himself from games. And the coach is like, I thought we were past this. I thought he was OK. I thought, nah. Nah, there's something else going on that's showing an untrustworthiness when it comes to him. That's different

The college hoops now Alabama pulled out a win in double overtime against Arkansas last night overcoming a 49 point performance from Arkansas freshman Darius a cuff a cuff played all 50 minutes while shooting just under 60% from the field and his 49 points were his second most scored in college basketball this season. His performance fired up perk who posted this on X last night. Like I said, he's the best college guard the Calipari has ever coached. His name is Darius Hiccup Jr. Carry the hell on. You agree with Perk J. Well,

I think when you start looking at guys like John Wall or D Rose, you want to start comparing what they've done in the pros. Like D Rose played with another dude called CDR, Chris Douglas Roberts. That was a mean boy.

Okay.

Um, you know, I watched John Wall play with Boogie and some others, Eric Bledsoe. They had a real squad. They got after it. From a production perspective, I gotta ride with Perk on this one. I'm not saying it's gonna equate

to having a type of NBA career like a D-Rose, or like others, but from John Calipari's perspective, I don't think he's had a guard like this that's given him this level of production in his freshman year that way. I'm with you, Pert.

I'm willing to say Darius Acuff is the best guard

to play for John Kyle Perry in college.

In college.

Not saying who he's projected to be at the next level.

In college.

He ain't on.

Go to the national championship and then we'll talk.

Go ahead, Steven Angle. But that's a team, though. You're talking about a team. You're talking about a team effort.

So what if he's going to carry this team on his back?

Well, let Steven Angle.

I genuinely do not know the answer to this question, because I never watched the kid until last night. In one game, I'm not going to look at somebody over one game Derek Rose at Memphis was special and fatigue was what hit fatigue along with a key big-time shot by Mario Chalmers was what cost him a national championship but I don't disagree with perk I'm just saying perk I'm not as informed as you but I don't disagree with perk I'm just saying perk I'm not as informed as you

are well about this on this particular subject I haven't seen don't worry about