After being a primary talking point for nearly a week on Jason Whitlock’s BlazeTV show Fearless, Stephen A. Smith finally responded in full on his podcast Wednesday.
Whitlock had called into question certain events from Smith’s 2023 memoir, Straight Shooter, particularly Stephen A.’s claim to being a high school basketball player and getting a basketball scholarship to Winston-Salem State University.
Smith prefaced on The Stephen A. Smith Show that fans of the podcast and fans of First Take on ESPN would see a different side of him when talking about Whitlock. Stephen A. had been referring to Whitlock as a fat bastard on social media and on ESPN.
“He’s a no-good individual,” Smith said. “Probably the worst individual I have ever had the displeasure of ever being associated with in any capacity.”
Stephen A. Smith also was preemptive before engaging in his response to Whitlock. He felt like he owed it to the people he loves and cares about and his employer.
“I even took the liberty of calling my pastor to apologize in advance for what I gonna say about that no-good bastard,” Smith said.
“I did the same when I emailed the bosses at ESPN. This is my podcast. I own and operate this. I do what I want on this podcast,” he continued. “But it doesn’t mean that I still don’t harbor a responsibility to at least give my daytime employers a heads up as to what I’m about to do.”
While Whitlock had been digging into Smith multiple times since last week, Stephen A. – who said he never talks bad about his colleagues publicly – was going to make an exception to address Whitlock.
“I’m only gonna do it once,” he said. “Because this bastard is worse, less than a damn cockroach. He wanted my attention. He’s got it.”
Stephen A. said since Whitlock has blown up every bridge he’s had prior to arriving at TheBlaze, talking bad about other people in the industry, especially other Black journalists, is how he’s managed to survive.
“That’s not real work,” Smith said. “Think about this for a second. I’m supposed to be covering sports, but I make a career talking about my colleagues. That ain’t work! That’s you finding some slick way to get a check, because you can’t get a job. That’s Jason Whitlock. That’s who the hell he is.”
Smith also cited a 2015 Deadspin article written about Whitlock that listed Stephen A. among big-name ESPN talents that refused to work with him when they were both at the network. Smith said that reputation followed Whitlock to other career stops, and Smith even has it in his contract that he will never work with Whitlock.
“You think I’m lying? Ask ESPN. Ask FOX,” Smith said. “Ask the Kansas City Star. Ask them all. Jemele Hill, Rob Parker, Chris Broussard, Skip Bayless, yours truly, along with a host of Black folks all over this country. Every single one of them will confirm what the hell I’m saying about this piece of garbage.”
Stephen A. Smith clarified that he wasn’t trying to take shots at The Blaze for hiring Whitlock, but he delivered a warning about embracing Whitlock.
“Be careful that you don’t get yourself stained in stench by Whitlock,” he said. “He can do that to you. He is the worst. He’s not ethical, he’s not moral.”
“He will lie, he will denigrate, and he will turn against anyone to serve his own good,” Smith added.
Stephen A. admitted at one point that he knew Whitlock was trying to bait him into retaliating in some fashion. But after this one time, he will go back to not mentioning Whitlock’s name.
“It will never happen again,” Smith said. “He’s irrelevant. He’s not important. He’s insignificant, and he knows it. And he did all of this to try and bait me into all of this stuff.”
“My point is I don’t care. And the reason I don’t care is because I’ve been holding it in for nearly 10 years,” he added. “So there comes a point and time where at the very least, at least one time, you have to address it. It’s necessary. It’s important.”
“He wants to talk about me, that’s fine. Ladies and gentlemen, he’d give anything to have my job. He’d give anything to have my resume.”
Stephen A. Smith also said at this point in his career, what good would it serve for him to just lie about playing basketball in high school and college, and why would it matter to someone like Whitlock?
“Look, I’m 56 years old. If yall think now that I’m successful in this business, that I gotta sit here and lie about me playing basketball in high school to write in my own damn memoir, at this point and time in my life I can’t help yall,” he said. “I’m not gonna waste my time with that silliness.”
“You are a great writer,” Smith later said of Whitlock. “Your mistake was you started talking and worse wanting to be seen while you were talking. Which is why your quality and your value plummeted. Because when we see you and we listen to you, we know how worthless you are.”
