Stephen A. Smith is one of the most popular sports television personalities around, and he is known for being very outspoken. Smith has established himself as the biggest star on ESPN, and while players take offense to his comments at times, he does share a good relationship with some of the big names in the NBA world.
One of them happens to be Shaquille O’Neal, who hilariously wished Smith on his birthday last year by mocking his hairline. O’Neal called Smith his favorite guy, and the two go back a long time, with Shaq having appeared on First Take on ESPN on numerous occasions in the past.
While those were planned in advance, O’Neal decided to catch his friend off guard by prank-calling him live on the Stephen A. Smith show back in 2019. Smith, a noted critic of the Dallas Cowboys, had been bashing them on the show after a defeat in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs to the Rams, and a certain Tex Johnson hilariously called in to tell him to take off the cowboy hat and stop talking about the team.
“First of all, you have to take that damn cowboy hat off and stop talking about the damn Cowboys you understand me, son.”
Smith was visibly confused for a while as to who would call him out like this on his own show, but he eventually realized it wasn’t Tex Johnson but O’Neal on the other end, and the two shared a laugh after that.
If you are wondering why Smith hasn’t shown up on ESPN for a while now, the reason is that he is rehabbing from surgery following a serious shoulder injury, and for those who missed him on First Take, he is set to return next week on the 15th of August.
