Stephen A. Smith has spawned a lot of imitators. It is something Dan Le Batard says he hates. He even put the blame on Smith and former First Take partner Skip Bayless.
Pat McAfee agrees with Le Batard that the slew of knockoffs aren’t good for television, but he is not ready to put the blame for that on Smith.
Smith made time for his future ESPN colleague on Tuesday to discuss the NBA Finals. McAfee joked that Smith was the reason he did not pay close enough attention to the regular season, a reference to the criticism that NBA coverage only focuses on stars and the sport does not matter until the playoffs.
“You’ve done a lot of great things for sports media. You need to know that,” McAfee said. “There’s a couple things, you know, you’re so damn good at what you do that now everybody’s trying to be you. Not everybody, but a lot of people are trying to be you. They’re not. That sucks. Not your fault though.”
Smith agreed with the assessment.
“I appreciate you not being Dan Le Batard and trying to blame me for that. Thank you very much.”
The comment was in reference to Smith’s appearance on Le Batard’s South Beach Sessions podcast earlier this year. During that episode, Le Batard told Smith “I hate what you two have done to sports television” in reference to the ESPN star and Skip Bayless.
McAfee said that it would be easy to blame Smith and Bayless, but not accurate.
“We have to deal with it, but not your fault.”
Pat McAfee’s popular digital show will join the ESPN lineup this fall. That will certainly help break up the number of debate shows on in the middle of the day on sports television and provide a unique program in the cluttered landscape.
