Coming off a week in which Stephen A. Smith went to battle with the city of Memphis, clearly a lot of attention is paid to what Smith says and does. Far less attention is paid to how ESPN deploys him and how he has become so ubiquitous. That’s the part of Smith’s current place in sports media that Barstool’s Mark Titus took issue with this week as the NBA Finals head toward Game 7.
These NBA Finals have had no shortage of magical moments and surprise outcomes. A series some expected the Oklahoma City Thunder to sweep is headed toward a Game 7 no one saw coming. But somehow, Smith has become the main character in ESPN and ABC’s coverage of the series.
Smith sparred with Tyrese Haliburton twice: once over his status as a superstar, then over his decision to play through a calf strain. Later, Smith was caught playing cards on his phone instead of watching the game he is paid to cover — and lied about it. Between games, Smith turned First Take‘s coverage of a Memphis Grizzlies trade into a war with the team and city.
Titus is exhausted by all of it, and wishes ESPN could at least make it easier for basketball fans to ignore the Stephen A. Spectacle.
“I would have zero problem with anything Stephen A. Smith is saying or doing if he wasn’t on NBA Finals broadcasts,” Titus said. “The fact that ESPN has appointed him to be one of the voices you hear when you tune into the NBA Finals, that’s the only problem I have.”
Coming off a reference to Memphis during Thursday’s episode of Mostly Sports, Titus clarified that he doesn’t take issue with Smith’s aggressively personal style of commentary. He takes issue with ESPN shoving it in his face during the most prestigious NBA games of the season.
“You’re allowed to talk sh*t,” Titus said. “But the fact that if you try to avoid the Stephen A. bullsh*t, and you’re like, ‘You know what I want to do? I love basketball so I want to watch the two best basketball teams compete for the highest honor in professional basketball, if you choose to do that, you’ll get Stephen A. in your face. And you’re just like god d*mn, this guy’s awful. I almost forget it because I don’t watch all the other sh*t he does.”
Almost as if to prove what Mark Titus said, later Thursday night, Smith brought his daughter to set for NBA Finals pregame coverage from Indianapolis. Samantha Smith, a model and actor, joined his SportsCenter hit in the afternoon before appearing on NBA Countdown to make her pick for the matchup.