NEWSLETTER
Stephen A. Smith just couldn’t take the L. The ESPN analyst dug himself a deeper hole on Wednesday morning while addressing Lonzo Ball’s response to comments Smith made the day prior.
In case you missed it, Stephen A. Smith reported on First Take that he heard Ball struggled to stand up from a seated position. His thoughts came after Ball appeared on Trae Young’s podcast and briefly discussed his health status, confirming that he would be out for the entirety of the 2023-24 season.
Ball then responded to Smith’s comments in a video posted on social media. The point guard rose up and down from a chair using only his injured knee, implying that Smith shouldn’t spread misinformation and even directly stating that he plans to “come back.”
I’ll plop the video below, but to see Smith’s original comments that sparked this whole thing, be sure to check out our post from last night here.
Now, Smith has clapped back at Ball in what is a truly bizarre moment. Rather than correcting himself, he attacked internet trolls and attacked Ball for his video response.
“You really going to sit poolside on a bench and think because you’re getting up and sitting down and getting up and sitting down that makes you healthy? Does that have anything to do with running up and down a damn court for 30-35 minutes a night? Come on, bro? …. Stop the nonsense. Maybe you can get up and get down. All right, you can stand up and sit down. Bro, you ain’t healthy. You’ve missed 48 percent of your games, and you’re only four years into your career. And, on top of it all, you would think that since you missed all of last season and 47 games the season before that, and you’re schedule to miss games at least until the new year this upcoming season, that you wouldn’t make a video claiming you’re healthy.”
Why in the world is he coming after a guy who had three surgeries in 14 months? Ball’s health issues aren’t his fault. We’re dealing with a remarkably unfortunate situation for a promising 25-year-old player. Ball also spoke during Young’s podcast appearance about how tough this period has been on him. And what is Stephen A. Smith’s first instinct? Let’s call the guy out for failing to stay on the floor!
The full video goes on for about two minutes, and you can watch it below. If I’m being honest, the rant just gets worse and more embarrassing each time I watch it. We’re not talking about a bad performance on the basketball court here. We’re talking about a human being’s health.
You can almost tell that Smith recognizes he went too far at the end when he switches to speaking directly to the internet trolls and states he “likes the Ball family.” A little too late, man.
Anyway, I hate thinking I’m giving Stephen A. Smith the attention he wants by even sharing this and writing the article, so I’m going to stop now. Watch the full video here …
