Stephen A. Smith is never one to stay silent after someone calls him out, as the public bore witness to the ‘LeBron James threatened me’ media tour. He’s outspoken, and most of the time, uses his platform to defend himself from criticism. This time was no different, as he took to his YouTube channel and ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show’ to fire back at Charles Barkley, who mocked his string of TV appearances on a recent podcast appearance.
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Chuck, on the ‘Don’t @ Me’ podcast, claimed that as he gets older, he wants to have fewer and fewer TV appearances. His host, in response, joked that he’d be going the opposite of the Stephen A. route, and Chuck jokingly replied, “Hey listen, as a matter of fact, I was in the studio last night, and I see he’s going to be on Law and Order tonight. I mean he’s already on General Hospital, now he’s gonna be on Law and Order. And I was just laughing like yo man you’re starting to be too much right now.”
He then swooped in with some sage advice for ESPN’s main man, “Because at some point, people are gonna regret. Like they’re gonna get sick of you, and you’re gonna be like yea, I’m probably being too much. Because once you do too much, it’s too late, and then people don’t take you serious.”
In response, Stephen A. just laughed. Then rattled off a warning, claiming anything he said in response to Chuck was from a place of love, for a man he considered a friend and a brother. That being said, Stephen A. had a few choice words for Barkley after his ‘overexposure’ criticism.
“That’s my guy. But that doesn’t mean I always agree with him. And that doesn’t mean I’m devoid of the right to call him a flaming hypocrite when it’s called upon,” he said. “Do y’all have any idea how many commercials Charles Barkley does a year? He’ll tell us two. Are you kidding me? Oh, by the way, the cat that you work with at least twice a week during the NBA season is Shaquille O’Neal. Can we count the endorsements he has?”
Stephen A. went on to say that he wasn’t on commercials the way Chuck and Shaq were; rather, he was working whenever he appeared on TV. His appearances on General Hospital and Law and Order were passion projects. As for his other appearances on sports shows and podcasts, they were for his friends.
SAS does have a point from the standpoint of Shaq’s repeated appearances on television. Whether it’s him promoting Icy Hot, Epson printers, or Carnival Cruises, fans can expect to see the Lakers legend on the silver screen more than they bargain for
Stephen A. and Barkley, for all the talk of being friends and brothers, sure do get into a lot of very public disagreements. This wasn’t the first time, and certainly won’t be the last. In fact, Chuck was extremely critical of Stephen A. during his whole feud with LeBron James, too, despite stating that he didn’t think James was in the right for confronting Smith the way he did.
Barkley called Stephen A. Smith “weak” for going on a press tour after LeBron James confrontation
When Chuck appeared on the Dan Patrick show in March, he called out LeBron James for his bullying of Stephen A. and Brian Windhorst on Pat McAfee’s show. After calling James a control freak, he called out Smith as well, saying his reaction to the whole confrontation was “weak”.
“Stephen A., the way he reacted was so lame and weak,” said the 1993 MVP. “And Stephen A. is a good dude, man. For him to react, going on Gilbert’s podcast, talking tough. Come on, man, you’re better than that.”
It’s been a few months since Stephen A. and LeBron went at each other, but neither has seemingly buried the hatchet yet.
