ESPN Analyst ‘Calls Out’ Stephen A. Smith on First Take for Not Talking About WNBA 3 Years Ago

Prateek Singh | 03/06/2024
The women's basketball world has experienced an unprecedented growth in the last few years. As important a change as it is, it was long overdue for the WNBA to get their moment to shine. Taking a deep dive into the same discussion, recently Monica McNutt called out Stephen A. Smith for not using his platform to support the WNBA. During her recent First Take appearance, McNutt and Stephen A. got into a verbal battle over the media veteran riding the recent women's basketball bandwagon. While SAS claimed that his show is the prime platform where women's sports is given the attention that it deserves. However, McNutt had a different opinion on it. Stephen A. asked the 35-year-old, "Who talks about the WNBA, who talks about women, who talks about women's sports more than First Take?" Soon, he went on to regret his words as without wasting a breath, McNutt responded with, "Stephen A., respectfully, with your platform, you could have been doing this three years ago if you wanted to." McNutt believes that the media is now conveniently talking about the women's basketball because now there's something for them to gain. In addition to that, the ESPN analyst also alluded that since the arrival of Caitlin Clark, more people are chiming in with their half-baked takes on the WNBA, and that is only because they have a limited knowledge of the sport and the league. Interestingly, McNutt isn't the first one to call out the convenient participation of the media. WNBA legend Diana Taurasi once trashed the lack of knowledge of basketball fans Acknowledging one player's greatness by comparing them to another is a common thing in the world of sports. However, when it comes to the WNBA, players like Michael Jordan and Stephen Curry shouldn't be the point of reference. Unfortunately, we haven't moved on from there. During a conversation with The Athletic, Diana Taurasi slammed the lethargic media analysts for not putting enough effort into their comparisons. She said, "It's funny. I hear on broadcasts whenever I do watch a WNBA or college game, ‘Hey, Caitlin Clark is like Stephen Curry.' Well, why can't she be like Katie Smith, you know? Angel Reese? Boy, she rebounds like Dennis Rodman.' Well, why can't she be like Rebekkah Brunson?" Taurasi believes that just because the self-proclaimed basketball fans don't know much about the women's league, they take the convenient route of comparing female players to the NBA legends. It's high time we change that.

The women’s basketball has experienced unprecedented growth in the last few years. As important a change as it is, it was long overdue for the WNBA to get their moment to shine. However, several analysts and the media did not show their trust earlier when the league desperately needed it. Pointing this out on First Take, recently, Monica McNutt called out Stephen A. Smith for not using his platform to support the WNBA.

McNutt and Smith got into a verbal battle over the media veteran riding the recent women’s basketball bandwagon. SAS claimed that his show is the prime platform where women’s sports are given the attention they deserve. However, McNutt had a different opinion on it.

Smith asked the 35-year-old, “Who talks about the WNBA, who talks about women, who talks about women’s sports more than First Take?” Soon, he went on to regret his words as without wasting a breath, McNutt responded with,

“Stephen A., respectfully, with your platform, you could have been doing this three years ago if you wanted to.”

McNutt believes that the media is conveniently talking about women’s basketball because now, there’s something for them to gain. In addition to that, the ESPN analyst also alluded that since the arrival of Caitlin Clark, more people are chiming in with their half-baked takes on the WNBA, having a limited knowledge of the sport and the league. Interestingly, McNutt isn’t the first one to call out the convenient participation of the media.

Diana Taurasi once trashed the lack of knowledge of basketball fans

Acknowledging one player’s greatness by comparing them to another is common in sports. However, when it comes to the WNBA, players like Michael Jordan and Stephen Curry shouldn’t be the point of reference.

Unfortunately, we haven’t moved on from there. During a conversation with The Athletic, Diana Taurasi slammed the lethargic media analysts for not putting enough effort into their comparisons. The WNBA legend said,

“It’s funny. I hear on broadcasts whenever I do watch a WNBA or college game, ‘Hey, Caitlin Clark is like Stephen Curry.’ Well, why can’t she be like Katie Smith, you know? Angel Reese? Boy, she rebounds like Dennis Rodman.’ Well, why can’t she be like Rebekkah Brunson?”

Taurasi believes that just because self-proclaimed basketball fans don’t know much about the women’s league, they take the convenient route of comparing female players to the NBA legends. It’s high time we change that.

Post Edited By: Hitesh Nigam
Caitlin Clark Diana Taurasi Stephen A Smith

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Prateek Singh

Prateek is a Senior NBA Writer for The SportsRush. He has over 900 published articles under his name. Prateek merged his passion for writing and his love for the sport of basketball to make a career out of it. Other than basketball, he is also an ardent follower of the UFC and soccer. Apart from the world of sports, he has followed hip-hop religiously and often writes about the origins, evolution, and the biggest stars of the music genre.

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