Stephen A. Smith may have had a controversial take on Steve Nash being named the new head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, but he said that it wasn’t one that he took pleasure in delivering. In fact, he called sharing his opinion “one of the toughest, toughest decisions I’ve ever had to take in my career on First Take.”
The First Take host had nothing but good things to say about Steve Nash as a person. Smith noted all of the work Nash did during his career to lift up younger and lower-profile players and acknowledged his Hall of Fame credentials.
“Steve Nash is a sensational dude, and if anybody deserves this opportunity absent the experience he has as a coach, it is him.”
Most of Stephen A. Smith’s scorn and frustration was directed at the Nets and the NBA. He said that “in these times when we are making all this noise about social justice” not much has changed in the thinking of the people at the top.
“Ladies and gentlemen, there’s no way around this. This is white privilege. This does not happen for a Black man. No experience whatsoever? On any level as a coach and you get the Brooklyn Nets job?”
Smith acknowledges that according to his sources, both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant signed off on the hire. Smith isn’t worried about Nash getting pushback from his players. He is frustrated by people like Ty Lue and Mark Jackson, who have succeeded as head coaches being passed over for a more famous white man with no experience. Smith tied his frustration into those marching in protest of racial inequality.
“The frustration, the protests and all of these things you see across America emanating from the Black community and disenfranchised communities is that proverbial glass ceiling, and the fact that it breeds a level of frustration that we can’t even put into words sometimes. You just want to scream, scream to the high heavens, ‘how the hell does this always happen for somebody else other than us?’ Why is it that we have to be twice as good to get half as much?”
Not surprisingly, Stephen A. Smith has received some pushback on social media. That’s bound to happen when you are an already polarizing figure and use a phrase like “white privilege,” which tends to set Twitter off. One interesting rebuke came from his friend and ESPN colleague Jay Williams.
As Smith pointed out at the beginning of his rant, there is no shortage of love for Nash in the league. The two-time MVP has received largely praise and well wishes from his coaching peers.
Mark Jackson had zero coaching experience when hired by the Warriors. He’s not white.