Stephen A. Smith can’t stand all the hate he and ESPN have received from former ESPN employees in light of recent layoffs.
On his podcast The Stephen A. Smith Show on Wednesday, Smith took aim at Dan Le Batard, who was one of the voices across the industry to talk about how the elimination of some 20 on-air positions in recent weeks made ESPN into a shell of what it used to be.
Stephen A. couldn’t bite his tongue any longer.
“There are certain times where enough is enough. Enough is enough,” he said.
Stephen A. went on to add later that for anyone to think he should’ve been on the chopping block isn’t paying attention.
“I’m not going away. I thought, fellas, I thought I couldn’t be more fired up about this upcoming year,” he said. “You think I’m fading? You think First Take is gonna fade? You think that we’re gonna lay down and just let others come along or are we gonna take them out? Let’s go, let’s go.”
“I can’t wait. The hell do yall think this is?” Smith added. “Everybody talking about what it used to be. We’re number one! And I’m not just talking about First Take. I’m talking about ESPN!”
Smith said there’s an agitation that swells up inside when he sees people like Le Batard, who used to work at ESPN, bad-mouth the network. He said taking pot shots at the network isn’t something you’ll see him do even when his time at The Worldwide Leader is done.
“What I won’t do is constantly lament an employer that was once good enough for me to take money from,” he said. “That’s BS! It really, really is.”
Stephen A. said he was still disgusted about the question Dan premised to him when he was a guest on Dan’s podcast saying he hated what Smith and Skip Bayless did for debate television. He found it rich that Le Batard would hate debate shows so much when he himself hosted one toward the end of his ESPN career.
“Like his ass has been doing accounting,” Stephen A. said. “Didn’t you have Highly Questionable?!?…I’m talking about your comfort. You was on the show just looking at your father saying hi and giving him a hug and a kiss? You were debating! That’s what you were doing.”
“It amazes me how somebody like a Dan Le Batard will sit up there and lament the state of affairs in an industry you are participating in!” Smith added. “You’re sitting on the air, I don’t know how long ago it was, with Jemele Hill talking about ‘It’s a great, great thing that you left.’ Really? OK. Probably is.”
