Stephen A. Smith is arguably the biggest name in sports media right now, his $20 million a year deal with ESPN attests his influence in mainstream sports journalism. However, Smith isn’t really liked by a lot of current and former athletes because of some of his questionable methods. The ESPN analyst is not new to the accusation that he’s not a real journalist. Recently, Deron Williams joined the long list of people who have declared publicly that they are not fond of the First Take host.
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Williams declared on PlayersTV during a recent sit-down that he would walk off the set if the host ever compared him to Stephen A. Smith.
The incident transpired during an ongoing conversation about JJ Redick being appointed as the head coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. However, things took an abrupt turn when another guest on the show, Famous Los said, “JJ’s my boy” while criticizing his recruitment as the Lakers Head Coach.
After that, host of the show, Ashley Nevel commented that Los is sounding like Stephen A. Smith because the media veteran often declares that a certain person is “my boy” [his friend] after criticizing them. Los took offense to that comparison and immediately made it clear that there’s no similarity between him and Stephen A. Smith.
However, the harshest comment was made by Williams. He seemed particularly offended by the remark even though it was not intended for him.
The three-time NBA All-Star said, “She just called you Stephen A. [to Los]… [Turning to the host] If you ever call me that, I’m walking off the set.”
All Nevel could do was awkwardly say, “I would never do that.”
Before they got into dissing Stephen A., Los said that the people who are seeing Redick’s appointment as HC as a direct result of the podcast he started with LeBron James are wrong. In his opinion, if having a platform to talk basketball earned you a coaching job, Kendrick Perkins would’ve been a coach by now.
While Los and Williams were supportive of Redick’s new role in LA, they made it clear that they don’t have a shred of respect for Stephen A. Unfortunately, these two aren’t the first people to publicly discard the media veteran. He has been in the crosshairs of several athletes over the years, which could be because of his loud and often aggressive nature of reporting.
Stephen A. Smith recently got into a beef with Jaylen Brown
Recently, Stephen A. reported a bold claim about Jaylen Brown’s marketability, citing a source that he wasn’t willing to reveal. The ESPN analyst reported that an NBA source has said to him that the Celtics star isn’t liked in the NBA community because of his attitude and that is the reason why he’s not marketable.
Stephen A. said, “He [The Source] said, ‘Jaylen Brown, it’s not so much that he’s underrated, it’s that he’s just not liked because of his I-am-better-than-you attitude. He knows it. It’s the same reason he is not as marketable as he should be.’ That’s what an NBA source just sent me.”
This led to an internet feud between him and Brown as the latter kept asking him to reveal his source, which Smith didn’t. Brown’s longtime mentor Isiah Thomas also took part in the conflict as he tried to defend the Celtics star against Stephen A. It could be instances like this that prompts NBA players to grow an animosity towards the media veteran.
