Stephen A. Smith, an influential voice in the sports industry, recently took a divergent stance on a reporter’s question to Darvin Ham, the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Smith critiqued the reporter’s insinuation that the Lakers might prefer to lose a game instead of facing the formidable Denver Nuggets in NBA’s play-in game.
After a controversial statement by Mike Greenberg on ESPN about the Lakers potentially wanting a defeat.
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 a direct question. We didn’t sit up here and suggest that the Lakers should avoid the Denver Nuggets. What we asked was: ‘Were you going to? Because the Denver Nuggets have been whipping your a.’ They beat you eight straight. It’s been over a year and a half since you recorded a victory against him. That’s what we said.
Stephen A. Smith takes issue with the reporter who asked Darvin Ham about the Lakers potentially ducking the Nuggets.
"Every now and then, there's some weak ass reporters out there that bring up questions like that… We didn't sit up here and suggest that the Lakers should… pic.twitter.com/0xdYxDHwGi
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 17, 2024
“You see, this is the kind of stuff that irritates me about our industry sometimes, which I am very, very protective of because I understand that everybody doesn’t have the platforms that we have, guys, and I get it. But when you sit up there in front of a coach and ask a question, could you have the decency to represent the question accurately? People weren’t talking about how the Lakers should throw the game and avoid Denver…”
Smith clarified the difference between an intent to avoid playing against Denver and questioning the team’s courage to face a challenging opponent.
He maintained that the discussion was not around avoiding the Nuggets, but about whether the Lakers would volitionally take on the challenge.
“..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, typically careful not to cross the divide between journalism and sports strategy, reached out to Ham expressly diagnosing the media’s take on the topic as a “lie.”
The analyst differed from his regular stance on ESPN’s First Take program, raising eyebrows in the sports commentariat.
