Stephen A. Smith, an influential voice in sports, recently took a different stance when asked a question from Los Angeles Lakers coach Darwin Ham.
Smith criticized a reporter’s suggestion that the Lakers might forgo the game instead of facing the powerful Denver Nuggets in an NBA play-in game. Following ESPN’s controversial Mike Greenberg comments that he was expecting the Lakers to potentially lose.
The debate swiveled back to Darvin Ham following their 110-106 triumph over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Ham responded provocatively to the implication that the Lakers may intentionally lose to the Pelicans to dodge the Nuggets, questioning the sanity of those proposing such a strategy – an apparent reference to Greenberg.
Contrary to Greenberg, Smith strongly criticized the reporter’s line of questioning about the Lakers’ strategic intent.
The ESPN anchor defended the idea that such discussions were mere “talk” and did not accurately represent the Lakers’ approach.
“I’m very protective of the industry, but every now and then, there’s some weak a reporters out there that bring up questions like that — talk, TV talk,” said Smith. “Ask questions directly. We’re not sitting here suggesting the Lakers avoid the Denver Nuggets. We asked, “Are you planning on doing that?” Because the Denver Nuggets beat you.” They beat you eight times in a row. It’s been over a year and a half since they recorded a win against him. That’s what we said.
Stephen A. Smith disagrees with a reporter who asked Darwin Ham about the Lakers potentially avoiding the Nuggets.
“Sometimes there are weak reporters who ask these questions… We didn’t sit here and suggest the Lakers…”
“You know, in our industry, these things sometimes irritate me. I’m very defensive of these things because I understand that not everyone has the platform that we have. But when you sit down in front of your coach and ask him a question, do you have the decency to state your question clearly? People weren’t talking about how the Lakers should leave Denver.”
Smith explained the difference between wanting to avoid playing against Denver and questioning the team’s courage to face a difficult opponent.
He insisted the discussion should not be about how to avoid the Nuggets, but whether the Lakers are willing to accept that challenge:
“…We talked about it, right? Do you have the courage to sit back and say, “They’re beating us and we want them,” or will you choose the path of least resistance? It’s like, “Oh, you’re the public. The media said we should avoid them,” Smith continued. “That’s not true, Darwin Ham. I’m on the phone with the Lakers coach, Darwin Ham, that’s a lie… we didn’t say the media should avoid Denver, we asked, ‘Would you?’“..What we were saying is, would they? Do you have the courage to sit up there and say, ‘They’ve been whipping our a, and we want ’em,’ or are you gonna take the path of easiest resistance? That’s an entirely different question than saying ‘Oh, the public; the media out there was saying you should avoid them,’” continued Smith. “They were not, Darvin Ham — I’m reaching out to the coach of the Lakers. Darvin Ham, that is a lie… Darvin Ham, the media was not saying you should’ve avoid Denver, we were asking, ‘Would you?’ and that was a legitimate question going into last night’s game.”
Smith, who is generally careful not to cross the line between journalism and sports strategy, addressed Ham and publicly called the media’s handling of the topic “lies.”
The analyst’s departure from his usual stance on ESPN’s “First Take” raised eyebrows among sportscasters.
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