Stephen A. Smith on ABC's broadcast of Day 1 of the 2025 NBA Draft Photo Credit: ABC

After a controversy-filled NBA Finals for ESPN NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith, it’s safe to say that most NBA fans have been eagerly anticipating getting a reprieve from seeing Smith covering live events around the sport for a few months. However, his critics had to contend with Smith on ABC’s coverage of Day 1 of the 2025 NBA Draft, which featured numerous instances of his trademark rants.

Always known for his passionate takes, Smith certainly wasn’t shy on them on Wednesday night, breaking out into several rants where he raised his voice to get his point across.

His first of the night came when discussing what the Philadelphia 76ers should do with their No. 3 overall pick, going off on top prospect Ace Bailey for his decision not to work out with any NBA teams ahead of the draft.

“Forget what they should do,” yelled Smith. “Let’s talk about what they shouldn’t do! What they can’t do, which I teased on SportsCenter. This guy Bailey, who refused to work out for anybody. We don’t know, we don’t want to blame him. But in the end, you are a young man. Your representation is telling you not to work out for people.

“You can’t be the team that had The Process and were throwing seasons for years. You can’t be the team that had Ben Simmons, that you spent the number one pick on. We all know his story. We’ll be nice tonight, because it’s about the NBA Draft, it’s about these kids, it’s not about him. But the kind of stuff that happened with him… You can’t then turn around and then turn around and tell the Philadelphia public, ‘We’re going to take a kid that we didn’t work out.’ That can’t be who you spend the No. 3 pick on. They might do it, but they shouldn’t.”

As Smith continued on in his rant, the camera cut to Adam Silver with the 76ers’ pick, which ended up being VJ Edgecombe. No mention of Edgecombe came from Smith, meaning that the rant was largely meaningless and could have been spent to profile some of the options that could be good fits for the 76ers.

Negativity was a trend for Smith throughout the NBA Draft, which became evident in Smith’s next rant about the mediocrity of the Washington Wizards as of late in response to the team taking Tre Johnson with the No. 6 pick.

“Listen, I’m praying for the dude to do well,” said Smith of Johnson. “Obviously, the Wizards are a young team. They have struggled over the last couple of years. You need somebody that can be instant offense because you want to entertain that fanbase. That’s what this kid clearly brings to the table. They have about seven players who are 23 years of age or younger. Keep in mind, this Washington Wizards team suffered not one, but two 16-game losing streaks last year.”

Bob Myers then interjected, taking issue with how negative his breakdown of the Wizards was on a broadcast that is supposed to give teams hope for the future.

“This is a night to be positive,” said Myers.

“I am positive,” replied Smith. “By having him, this is gonna go a long way in avoiding that level of misery.

Perhaps the most heated Smith got all night came after it was reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania that the Phoenix Suns had traded their No. 29 pick and a future first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for Mark Williams. Citing Williams’ past failed physical after a failed trade last season between the Hornets and Lakers, Smith argued that this was a terrible trade for the Suns.

“Respectfully, what on earth are the Phoenix Suns doing? Giving up a first-round pick in 2029 for Mark Williams? This is the same dude that the Lakers were trying to acquire. And supposedly, he failed the physical. Listen, we don’t know all the details. But here is the bottom line. One of the reasons you made the deal to move Kevin Durant was to acquire assets. You are trying to hold onto them. Why would you give them away for Mark Williams? Four years from now, why?”

Even Smith’s favorite team, the New York Knicks, wasn’t safe from Smith’s criticisms, going on a rant about the organization’s troubled coaching search after being asked by Kevin Negandhi whether the Knicks could be favorites to come out of an Eastern Conference weakened by injuries.

“You can’t sit up there and just catapult the Knicks to that level when you don’t even have a coach,” said Smith. “This has owner James Dolan all over it. Because, how do you get rid of a Tom Thibodeau, who took you to back-to-back 50-win seasons and within two games of a berth to the NBA Finals. If you want to go away from him because it’s just time after five years, fine. But have a plan. The New York Knicks have asked permission to talk to everybody but me, you, and Bob. That’s about it.

“It just makes no sense. I don’t like it, I’m not happy about it. But I’m trying to hold out hope because they have improved. They are no longer basketball purgatory. But that does not mean that I am not annoyed with what I am seeing them do. I mean, it just looks chaotic right now.”

Notably, the Knicks didn’t even have a pick in the first round. So again, this is Smith largely discussing a topic that shouldn’t really be a topic of discussion during the NBA Draft…

Going on numerous rants on shows like First Take or even his own podcast is one thing. But doing so during an NBA Draft, which has had a formula of analysts providing quick-hitting insight about prospects that has worked in the past, certainly left fans a little underwhelmed with his presence on the ABC broadcast.

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.