We like Jared Dudley for his ability to shoot threes and be the consummate team defender, but we love Jared Dudley for his intelligence, humor and willingness to say whatever's on his mind off the court.
The rest of the country saw the latter up close and personal earlier today on ESPN, as Dudley was featured on a slew of ESPN programming spanning their radio and TV networks -- consider it an early audition for life after basketball. In the process he didn't make any new friends in Los Angeles and New York, as he suggested other star players don't want to play with Kobe Bryant and named Carmelo Anthony as the league's most overrated star.
Not surprisingly those comments have drawn plenty of attention, though Dudley also offered some interesting insight into the inner workings of the upstart Bucks (less interesting to the rest of the world, more interesting to us). Not surprisingly there was plenty of talk about Jason Kidd's success in helping turn around the Bucks, with Dudley crediting Kidd's calm demeanor, hands-on approach and egalitarian style. He Dudley revealed that Kidd frequently diagrams plays himself -- it's not just assistant Joe Prunty -- including the game-winning pass Dudley threw to Jerryd Bayless in game five of the Bucks' playoff series with Chicago. There's also some Giannis and Jabari stuff, whom he continues to cite as the keys to the Bucks' long-term future.
For more, check out Dudley's appearance on First Take above; if you want to minimize your exposure to Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith and go straight to the Bucks talk, skip to the 7:30 mark. For his comments on Kobe and Carmelo, check out his appearance on Colin Cowherd's radio show below: