Stephen A. Smith made some waves inside of ESPN earlier this week according to Kyle Koster of The Big Lead. He reported that Smith’s interview with FOX Sports Radio personality-turned-conservative pundit Clay Travis “has not been a huge hit” with Smith’s ESPN co-workers.
Ben Koo of Awful Announcing added to that, saying that many at ESPN understand that Smith mostly gets to operate however he wants, but he has been characterized as a “bad teammate” by some that don’t like that he made time for someone who has been so critical of ESPN.
Smith answered those accusations on the new episode of his Audacy podcast K[no]w Mercy.
“These are the people who are a problem,” Smith said. “I thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Clay Travis. He has his opinions. I have mine. He expressed them cogently with clarity. You can agree or disagree. I have my opinions. That’s what makes the world goes round. That’s what K[no]w Mercy is about and that’s what the hell it’s gonna stay about.”
K[no]w Mercy is not an ESPN production, so Stephen A. Smith does not necessarily have to think about what is best for the Worldwide Leader when putting episodes together. He doesn’t want the show to ever follow an agenda or his guest list to ever become too predictable.
“Let me be very, very clear: I talk to everybody. I don’t agree with a lot of people or a lot of things that people say. I don’t believe that’s a reason to hate them, any more than I want that to be a reason for them to hate me.”
Travis has also been critical of accusations that Stephen A. Smith did something wrong by having him on the show. Earlier this week, he demanded that Koo name the people at ESPN that allegedly told him there was something wrong with Smith and Travis talking.
