Thursday saw TNT and ESPN come together for a collaboration as they covered the two In-Season Tournament semifinals. We got to see Stephen A. Smith with the Inside the NBA crew, and they hilariously had him play ‘Who He Play For?’ Unfortunately for Smith, the results were not great.
Stephen A Smith gets paid millions to talk about basketball and only knows big name players 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/CBbR9dRFAw
— Old NBA Tweets (@oldnbatweetz) December 8, 2023
Up first was Ish Smith and Stephen A. went with the Detroit Pistons. Before the answer came in, Smith felt it could be the Washington Wizards, but Ish plays for the Charlotte Hornets. So that was 0-1 and things were not going to get better.
Second was Damian Jones and Smith was so lost that he asked Charles Barkley for help and didn’t even attempt to answer it. Barkley went with the Hornets, but Jones plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Dante Exum was the third player and Smith got a lot of help for the answer. The rest of the crew told him Exum started for his team the night before and that the team was based in Texas. Smith went with the Houston Rockets, but the right answer was the Dallas Mavericks.
Things were looking really bleak at that point, but Smith then correctly stated that Otto Porter Jr. plays for the Toronto Raptors, to get to 1-4. Lastly came a ‘Who He Play For?’ legend in Garrett Temple.
Smith passed it off to Barkley, who had been asked to name Temple’s team earlier this season. He had gotten it wrong back then and that was the case here too, as the 60-year-old wildly went with the New Jersey Nets. Temple actually is with the Raptors and Smith claimed he did say that as well, giving himself a score of two out of five.
That’s a better score than what Barkley usually manages to get, but that’s not a very high bar. The players aren’t household names, but you’d expect someone who covers the league to know a bit more than what Smith did.
NBA Fans Called Out Stephen A. Smith
The clip of Smith not getting more than half of them right quickly went viral. NBA fans called out the 56-year-old for his lack of knowledge.
One says Smith clearly hasn’t watched a single Mavericks game if he couldn’t get Exum and called him a casual.
https://twitter.com/Bmac_______/status/1733073457980588125
A fan joked that Smith only gets paid for Twitter memes.
He really does get paid to make twitter memes
— Jabari Walker’s Revenge (@OSportsU) December 8, 2023
Smith doesn’t actually talk about basketball, a fan claimed.
He doesn’t talk about basketball. He talks drama and sensationalism.
— Muzi (@LukeMuzykiewicz) December 8, 2023
One fan felt this was rather pathetic on Smith’s part.
So pathetic
— Bob McMillan (@BobMcMillan8) December 8, 2023
A fan wondered why people are surprised by Smith’s lack of basketball knowledge.
Why you surprised
— Chris Covello (@ChrisC77_23) December 8, 2023
Smith does talk about so many sports, so you would excuse him for not knowing some of the lesser-known players on bad teams. Not getting Exum, though, was really bad on his part, especially after he got those hints from Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith.
Charles Barkley Hilariously Stated He’d Beat Up Stephen A. Smith
This segment was one that Smith probably would love to forget in a hurry, but the rest of the day would have been quite memorable for the right reasons for him. His interactions with the Inside the NBA crew were hilarious and Barkley, in particular, was at his brilliant best the whole day.
Barkley jokingly told Smith he’d beat him up if he spoke loudly like he does on First Take and there were so many more hilarious moments. This ESPN TNT collaboration was a massive hit and it’ll be interesting to see if this becomes somewhat of a common occurrence moving forward.
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