Stephen A. Smith rebukes Jason Whitlock for alleging his memoir is farcical

After he seemingly poured his heart and soul into his memoir, Stephen A. Smith was agitated to see someone allege the book is farcical.

Smith spent the better part of last year on a never-ending media tour to promote the release of his memoir, Straight Shooter. Recently, there have been rumors about some of the book being untrue, likely spawned by Jason Whitlock writing a column for The Blaze titled, Does Katt Williams’ interview expose Stephen A. Smith as a fraud?

Tuesday morning on First Take, Smith took the show on a quick tangent to address any rumors about his book being fake.

“There are people out there lying and actually putting out there that I didn’t write my book,” Smith said. “I can assure you, so help me God, I wrote my book. It’s my memoir. It’s my life story. I wasn’t leaving that in the hands of other people. So, people who say that, it’s just lies.”

Smith’s First Take co-hosts Molly Qerim and Shannon Sharpe were quick to claim the ESPN star is “better than that” and shouldn’t be concerned with his critics.

“I know exactly who you’re talking about,” Sharpe said. “Why does it bother him? You’re not gonna buy the book, you’re not gonna read the book, so why do you care?”

Assuming Sharpe is referring to Whitlock, Smith’s former ESPN colleague wrote in his column that he did read the book. And he supported that claim by citing what Smith wrote about his high school and college basketball career, which Whitlock attempted to poke holes in. After reading the book and listening to Katt Williams’ recent shakedown of the entertainment industry on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast, Whitlock categorized Smith as a “gimmick,” claiming his memoir offers more questions than answers.

The two engaged in a public feud a few months ago, culminating in Smith referring to Whitlock as a “fat b******.” Whitlock said the exchange caused him to take a “deeper interest in how someone with such limited journalistic skills became the face of the worldwide leader in sports.”

Maybe Smith will use his podcast to go on a long diatribe against his critics where he also defends his high school and college basketball statistics the way Skip Bayless has about his own playing career. But Smith is not the face of ESPN because of his journalistic background or college basketball scoring credentials. Smith became the face of ESPN because of his entertainment value, which continues to generate interest.

[First Take]