Jason Whitlock and Stephen A. Smith have been beefing for a while now, and another war of words might soon erupt. Whitlock appeared on the 4th&1 with Cam Newton podcast, where he called Smith the most overrated sports personality right now.
That led to host Cam Newton asking Whitlock about his issues with Smith, and after a bit of convincing, he went off on his former ESPN colleague.
“He’s fraudulent,” Whitlock said. “He’s lying about his college basketball career. He’s admitted he’s lying about his college basketball career. If I said in the media space for 20 years, telling everybody I played for [Clarence] ‘Big House’ Gaines and I got a full-ride scholarship after knocking down 17 straight three-pointers in a scrimmage on a Sunday when they played a game on Saturday. And they hosted a scrimmage on Sunday, and I knocked down 17 straight three-pointers, and they gave me a scholarship on the spot.
“Anybody familiar with HBCUs, anybody familiar with Winston-Salem State, and how little money Winston-Salem State has and had back then?” Whitlock continued. “They’re not giving out scholarships on the spot to anybody. It’s all a lie, and I’ve done the homework.”
The story Whitlock is referring to is one Smith had written about in his memoir “Straight Shooter,” which came out in 2023. He had also spoken about it during an appearance on the Old Man and the Three podcast in 2022.
“Winston-Salem State came calling because a former player there was a family friend of mine, and he drove me down for a tryout,” Smith said. “And it was the greatest shooting performance I ever had in my life because I’ve never done it since, and I never did it before that, but that particular day, that tryout. I went down to Winston-Salem, and I just passed the ball around when Coach Gaines put me on the court.
“And Coach Gaines blew the whistle, and he called me over,” Smith added. “… He said, ‘Ain’t you supposed to be a shooter? I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Well, god damn it, shoot the ball.’ And I said, ‘All right,’ and I went out there, and I hit 17 straight three-pointers. I’ve never done that in my life before or after, but that day I hit 17 three-pointers straight, and he signed me to a scholarship on the spot.”
Whitlock says this is all bogus. He also claimed that the individual named Gary Stephens, who hangs out with Smith and was supposedly his teammate at Winston-Salem State, is a fake.
“If you go back and look at the newspaper articles, like I did, Gary Stephens was some 6’3″ guard,” Whitlock stated. “The Gary Stephens that Stephen A. runs around with is some 5’9″ m****t who played basketball up in New York for some school called Old Westbury. They’re running around taking flights, and posting Instagram photos. Yeah, we’re Winston-Salem State teammates. It’s all a lie. It’s fraudulent.”
Whitlock then tried to twist the knife further by bringing up some of Smith’s past comments about his academics. He has spoken about being held back in fourth grade, as he struggled with reading and writing. He had also mentioned that a high school guidance counsellor had laughed at him when he told her he wanted to go to college.
“I know how fraudulent he was as a sports writer and how they had to rewrite everything that he did,” Whitlock said. “And to see him passed off as the face of sports journalism and the top of the profession, Katt Williams already done told you what that was about. They all get installed. Bob Iger and the $20 million a year that they give this guy to be a puppet and the standard for sports journalism.
“It’s a joke, and I know it factually,” Whitlock added. “He knows it factually. None of his teammates, his alleged teammates, they won’t talk on the record because I’ve tried to interview virtually all of them. They won’t address it… He doesn’t know sports, doesn’t follow sports. You’re at the NBA Finals playing Solitaire.”
Comedian Katt Williams had called the likes of Kevin Hart an industry plant who is used to promote the messages Hollywood elites want to put out. Whitlock thinks former Disney CEO Bob Iger did the same with Smith. Then, at the end, he was referring to Smith playing Solitaire during Game 4 of the 2025 NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
That was a lot. Will Smith react to all of this? Well, there is a good chance he will. We have seen some bitter foes mend fences over the years, but it is safe to say these two are never going to be on good terms.
