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Michael Carter-Williams wrote* an excellent piece for Derek Jeter’s (increasingly fascinating) The Players’ Tribune today in which he lashes out against those who think Sixers players aren’t giving it their all and are, well, tanking:

First of all, there’s a lottery system. As players, we all know the math. The last place team only has a 25 percent chance of winning the lottery. Grown men are going to go out and purposely mail it in for a one-in-four shot at drafting somebody who might someday take their job? Nope.

Someone might want to alert Larry Brown to this quote.

Then MCW took aim at the media, and Stephen A. Smith specifically:

You can question my shooting. You can question my ceiling. Just don’t question if I’m giving my all every single night. Don’t talk to me about tanking.

The media creates this narrative and repeats it over and over. That’s how Stephen A. Smith ends up in our locker room with a big smile on his face (on night the Sixers were supposed to set losing streak record). I’m not picking on him. I know he’s playing a character. He knows he’s playing a character. But what happens when we break the streak by going out and beating Detroit that night? Now it’s another story. After the game, a lot of the reporters didn’t even stick around. The ones that did weren’t prepared. They didn’t ask us about the specifics of the game. They made up questions on the spot, like, “Uh, hey, you guys won … so how do you feel?”

We weren’t the story anymore. They were on to the next thing. Stephen A. didn’t really stick around. I guess he had a plane to catch. Believe me, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure he doesn’t come back for the same reason.

MCW’s message in a nutshell: The haters are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate and the players are gonna play, play, play, play, play. Read the full thing here— it’s excellent.

Other recommended MCW reading: Richard Rys’ profile on him for Philly Mag. That Rys guy just gets all the best subjects.

UPDATE: It’s pretty obvious that the Sixers, as an organization, are tanking. What MCW is saying is that the players are very much trying to win games. I’m not sure he realizes there’s a difference.

*The pieces on there, not just MCW’s, are largely excellent. Athletes typically don’t write excellently. I would assume most require heavy editing. Oh and also, GODDAMN YOU, JETER! DO SOMETHING UNPERFECT!