Stephen A. Smith: ‘I totally disagree with Dwight Howard and Kyrie Irving’

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith believes a lot needs to be done when it comes to social injustice, but he doesn’t think that means no basketball.

Dwight Howard and Avery Bradley may agree with Kyrie Irving’s idea of not continuing the 2019-20 NBA season because they feel it will distract people from the greater issue of social injustice in America, but there are other players who are more aligned with Garrett Temple and feel resuming the season would be a good thing.

And with LeBron James supporting the continuation of 2019-20 at Disney World in Orlando, some ESPN personalities have decided to share their stance on the matter, including First Take’s Stephen A. Smith:

I absolutely do not agree with them. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that their position has been foolish as I am concerned. I respect the fact — and I want to make sure that I’m clear about this — I am not talking about if you’re not going back to work because of the coronavirus. I totally understand that. If you choose to make that decision for the better being, for the well-being of yourself and the family members who you are near, then obviously that has a profound impact and I totally respect and understand that. But that’s not what Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard are talking about. … The fact that racial oppression or racial inequality, brutality on the part of police officers and all of that stuff exists is not an excuse not to show up to work. … If you have the LeBron James’, the Kyrie Irving’s and others playing their role in bringing attention to these issues, then you hand it off to people that know what to do with that attention and that elevated level of awareness to really provoke the kind of change that we’re talking about here. We seem to think that, excuse me, just protesting and raising holy hell is going to get done what we need to get done. That is not the answer, and certainly it’s not refusing to show up because of that issue. …  I totally disagree with Dwight Howard and Kyrie Irving, and I suspect that I’m not alone, that a lot of people agree with what I’m saying.

Jay Williams “vehemently disagree[s]” with the stance Irving and others are taking:

ESPN’s Bomani Jones took to Twitter to get his message across:

And then there’s Kendrick Perkins, who’s “sooo damn confused” by Irving.