Zach Lowe clearly isn’t sweating Cam Thomas’ barbs too much.
The Ringer analyst Lowe made some comments last week on his self-titled podcast about the Brooklyn Nets guard Thomas, who is a restricted free agent this summer and remains without a new deal. Lowe acknowledged that the general consensus around Thomas is that he is an “empty calories ball hog” with inflated statistics thanks to his high usage rate but with a lack of contribution to winning basketball.
That led to a profane response from Thomas in a post to X after he caught wind of that comment from Lowe. “F*** you and the consensus,” Thomas wrote while tagging Lowe (see his full reply here).
Lowe responded to Thomas’ diss in the latest episode of his podcast on Monday.
“Mark Cuban once said, ‘F–k you Zack Lowe on national television,” replied Lowe. “I said on a podcast with Tim MacMahon that Luka Doncic might be the biggest whiner in the NBA with officials. And he pushed back on that. I feel like I was vindicated on that … I feel like I’m OK on Cam Thomas.”
Lowe was referencing the 2021 incident when then-Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban bashed him over his critical comments about Doncic, who was then the star player of the Mavs, and Doncic’s tendency to complain to the referees during games.
The irony here is that Lowe was largely complimentary to Thomas given the full context of his original comments last week. After acknowledging the general consensus, Lowe went out of his way to highlight the strengths in Thomas’ game, namely Thomas’ ability to make difficult shots and his positive development as a playmaker.
But it looks like Thomas fell for the bait when Lowe’s comments were presented out of context over social media. Thomas, who averaged a career-high 24.0 points per game last season but was limited to 26 appearances because of injury, might just be frustrated that his market has been very lukewarm this summer. It doesn’t help the 23-year-old either that the Nets went 26-56 last season and that they may want to keep their long-term books clear for a bigger difference-maker.
H/T NBA Reddit
