• Stephen A. Smith opened up on his beef with Kyrie Irving
• Smith has been overly critical of Irving’s actions over the last few years
• He revealed that the animosity had increased because of Irving’s father messaging him
Stephen A. Smith is one of Kyrie Irving‘s staunchest critics. The ESPN analyst has criticized Irving various times in the last few years. The reasons are plentiful and sometimes justified, but the comments kept getting harsher and more personal.
Smith owned up to his Irving comments becoming too personal on Paul George’s podcast, revealing Kyrie’s father, Drederick Irving, had gotten involved and complicated the situation.
“His father and I are fine. But it got to that point because where it wasn’t, unbeknownst to the public, the father loving his son was coming to his defense by sending me text messages I didn’t really appreciate. We were at the STAPLES Center. Kyrie rolls up on me, he taps me on the back, and says, ‘You’ve got that same energy face-to-face?’ I said, ‘I’m standing here, ain’t I?’ Then he said, ‘It’s really not about me anymore.’ And I said, ‘You’re right’. It had become about me and his dad and how we elected to communicate with each other.”
Smith gave Kyrie credit for opening the doors of reconciliation between them, as Drederick Irving and SAS squashed their issues.
“The shame of it is that I’m 55 and obviously, his father is around my age. The younger son was the one that had to educate us. That’s what men do, Kyrie Irving was right, and I called his father and we met face to face, there was no problem. I said to him, ‘I’m still gonna judge your son by what I see. But this notion that there’s gonna be personal animus or whatever, I was just doing my job. If it looked different, that’s on me.'”
Their differences aside, Kyrie made Stephen A. see the bigger picture pic.twitter.com/ELO2hMs0JP
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) August 14, 2023
Smith had previously said he had personal issues with Irving but has tried his best to be an unbiased observer. He openly said Kyrie wasn’t the reason behind the Mavs falling from the fourth seed to the 11th seed after they traded for him, though his other comments give good reason to Kyrie for not liking SAS.
Kyrie Irving Can Silence The Doubters With The Mavericks
Even though most people were rooting for Irving to leave the Mavericks after a doomed half-season stint with him, he elected to stay with the franchise and sign an extension. While trades can be demanded at any time, it’s clear he trusts the Mavs’ front office with Nico Harrison and Jason Kidd as the brain trust.
The organization has various basketball figures in leadership positions including Michael Finley in the front office, Jared Dudley as an assistant coach, dribbling legend God Shammgod, and even Dirk Nowitzki as a special advisor. It seems Irving also has a good relationship with Luka Doncic.
Irving put up strong numbers in 20 games with Dallas, averaging 27.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game. With solid moves on the roster front, Irving will hope to show the world he and Doncic can succeed as a duo.
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