Stephen A. Smith is currently one of the top sports journalists in the country. Over the years, Smith has reached this level with a ferocious style of reporting, but there have been times when he regretted doing so.
One such incident involved none other than former NBA superstar Allen Iverson. Smith apparently covered a story regarding AI, which dented their friendship. In an interview, Smith talked about how things got super ugly between him and Iverson in 2010.
“Allen Iverson, when he and I didn’t speak, it got so ugly in 2010,” Smith said. “I was told there were people looking for me to do me harm because of how bad it appeared with me and AI. … So he met up with me, it was a complete lie. There was nobody looking for me. There was nothing like that going on. He just didn’t have anything to say. And when we sat down finally, it almost broke my heart because I’ve always had a lot of love for him, cause we’ve always been tight, but you know, he got into some situations, and you can’t just ignore every damn story, when you’re a journalist, you got a job to do.”
Considering Smith had a close bond with Allen Iverson, the situation must have been extremely tough for him.
So much so that Smith even admitted that writing that bad story about Iverson was the biggest regret of his career. Sure, Iverson was involved in many controversies during his career, but having one of his close friends write an adverse story must have shocked the former Philadelphia 76ers superstar.
Allen Iverson And Stephen A. Smith Cleared The Air
At the time, Stephen A. Smith wasn’t as huge of a TV personality as he has become now. So, it’s somewhat understandable that Smith broke that story about Iverson.
But Smith only realized his mistake when he had a face-to-face conversation with Iverson, and the two cleared the air about the so-called beef.
“And all of these stories that were percolating, he said, ‘I don’t give a s**t about none of those stories, you know me, I don’t care about that. All I care about is that your name was on the byline.’ He said not you, not you. … That’s the day I knew that I could never cover him again.”
Stephen A. Smith essentially saved his friendship with Iverson by deciding to take off his reporter’s hat. Smith even offered a sincere apology to Allen Iverson for what he did.
Sure, the two may not hate each other, but it seems pretty obvious that they are not best friends either.
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