Things are heating up between Phoenix Suns superstar Kevin Durant and ESPN TV personality Stephen A. Smith after Durant called Smith a ‘clown’ in a recent interview with The Athletic.
“Yeah, Stephen A., I don’t understand how people even listen to Stephen A. I’ve been in the league for 18 years. I’ve never seen Stephen A. at a practice, or a film session, or a shoot-around. I’ve never seen him anywhere but on TV talking s— about players. … He’s a clown to me. He’s always been a clown. You can write that, too.”
Smith issued his first response on ESPN’s First Take, saying he won’t stoop to Durant’s level and be disrespectful. He disputed some of the claims made by Kevin in his interview before ending his nearly four-minute monologue by expressing his love for Durant’s achievements on the court and making a backhanded remark about the Suns forward’s recent Playoff failures.
“Kevin Durant has seen me in the locker room when he was at Oklahoma City. He has seen me in the locker room when he was at Golden State. He has certainly seen me at games throughout his career. But, unfortunately for him, I don’t have to be at shoot-around. And I don’t have to be in the postgame locker room. I happen to have a hit show that’s been No. 1 for 12 years. I have other things to do with my time.”
“I will not disrespect him the same way he disrespects me. It’s unfortunate that no matter how old he gets, his sensitivity seems to heighten with it, and his maturity it doesn’t. But that’s something he has to deal with, not me… He’s a treasure to the game of basketball. I love seeing him play. And I sincerely wish that he doesn’t get swept again in the playoffs like he has two of the last three years.”
Smith would issue a second response on his podcast, ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show,’ taking a more aggressive tone while attacking Durant for trying to work with him for previous interviews and media ventures.
“I am a clown, that’s why your team called me to be a part of your documentary. That’s why y’all called me, because I’m a clown? It’s your company, you run the show, you executive produced it, how come y’all called me? When you had the Boardroom and you were sitting down to interview people one-on-one, didn’t you invite me for that too? Didn’t you show up on First Take and sit right across me?”
Smith switched the topic of discussion to Durant, relentlessly attacking his decision to join the Brooklyn Nets in 2019 and everything that went wrong with that superteam, also criticizing Durant for making a bad business decision by choosing the Nets over the New York Knicks, a team Smith claims Durant had verbally agreed to join.
“Can anybody talk about you? I just need clarity. After departing from OKC, sitting across from me, you said you wanted to play a better brand of basketball. So what was the excuse to go to Brooklyn?… It was about you signing off on Steve Nash when he had no experience to be a head coach. It was about you making sure Brooklyn embraced Kyrie because they didn’t want him, they wanted you, and you made it clear they weren’t getting you unless Kyrie also arrived.”
“This was after you told the Knicks you were coming and at the 11th hour you got convinced to roll over to Brooklyn, which might be one of the worst business moves, Mr. 35 Ventures, that we have seen from a basketball superstar in the modern day.”
Smith got everything he could off his chest in these two rants, first on national TV and then on his personal podcast. Durant struggles to keep himself from responding to issues like this on social media, but he likely will have to exercise restraint here because it could turn into a season-long drama.
Stephen A’s job involves discussing basketball on a daily talk show for ESPN, so he’s bound to keep mentioning Durant and the Suns. If Kevin responds and drags this out, it might create an unnecessary uneasiness which the team doesn’t need as they’ve started the season 4-2 and look like potential contenders.
Instead of focusing on Stephen A, Durant will get ready for the Suns hosting the Miami Heat on Wednesday before a rivalry matchup against the Dallas Mavericks at home on Friday.
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