While the days of Stephen A. Smith shouting at Skip Bayless for three hours on ESPN are long gone, ESPN continues to embrace Smith’s role in First Take‘s manufactured debate. As of late, former NBA player J.J. Redick has been a regular co-host alongside Smith. But even for Redick, he found that he can get carried away with the show’s desire for conflict.
That certainly happened during Tuesday’s discussion about a possible LeBron James retirement.
After Redick tried to rationalize LeBron’s comments from Monday’s Game 4 elimination, Smith essentially brushed away Redick’s remarks and called it nonsense. That led to Redick getting personal about Smith’s brief college basketball career.
“You didn't play Stephen A. You don't understand our athletic mortality. 3 games at, wherever, South Dakota, Winston-Salem State doesn't count.”
– JJ Redick 😬pic.twitter.com/2Wk7NJzlPd
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) May 23, 2023
Smith clearly didn’t appreciate Redick going with the “you didn’t play” card for a sports argument as you can understand a game without being able to physically perform it at a world-class level. Whether there was tension or something said off camera, we don’t know. But Redick felt the need to apologize to Smith for crossing that line and getting personal.
Redick later offered up an apology to Stephen A for his earlier comments.
Is this friction intended, healthy, and all in the game. Or are these two genuinely starting to wear on each other? pic.twitter.com/WtTRQh9KJr
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 23, 2023
Fans also had thoughts on the whole exchange.