In a time of social and racial unrest, uttering insensitive or controversial statements is always going to cause an uproar.
In the case of Stephen A. Smith, he’s getting a considerable amount of heat after his recent remarks regarding Team USA’s loss to Nigeria.
“There’s no excuse to lose to Nigeria… [To lose to] some dude Gabe Nnamdi, who goes by Gabe Vincent and plays for the Miami Heat. Or Caleb Agada. Or Nma… however the hell you pronounce his name,” Smith declared. “You give up 60 points on 3’s? Excuse me, you can do better than that.”
This is exactly what needed to said about TEAM USA!!! pic.twitter.com/duH385AlwR
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) July 12, 2021
Fans, media members, and even Nigeria basketball pushed back against Smith, putting him in the spotlight on Monday afternoon.
A one minute clip with no basketball analysis and pure disrespect to the names of our culture.
Do better please @stephenasmith. This is low, even for you. https://t.co/H6m69KCwL2
— D’Tigers | Nigeria Basketball (@NigeriaBasket) July 12, 2021
Smith also made some comments about MLB star Shohei Ohtani.
https://twitter.com/Super70sSports/status/1414708765996294145
Needless to say, it wasn’t a good day for Stephen A., who managed to offend two different people groups in a matter of a few hours.
But after realizing the amount of backlash he was receiving, he posted an apology on Twitter, with more to come on First Take Tuesday.
Amazing that folks still don’t know me after all these years. If I am wrong about something, I will apologize. Especially if I unintentionally offend ANY GROUP of people — because it’s the right thing to do. Period! I’m BLACK. I would know! See y’all tomorrow on @FirstTake.
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) July 12, 2021
On my earlier comments about Ohtani pic.twitter.com/FM0vnDDXBB
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) July 12, 2021
I'm sincerely sorry. pic.twitter.com/pANjWTrD4X
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) July 12, 2021
Smith hasn’t gone into specifics about his comments on Nigeria basketball, but we can expect him to address that topic and more all throughout the week.
For now, people will continue to slam the famous ESPN voice for some rather regrettable comments.
