Stephen A. Smith Rumors
Chase Hughes: More Russell Westbrook on Stephen A. Smith’s comments: “It’s been like that my whole career, honestly. There’s no other player that takes heat that I take constantly.”
Chase Hughes: Russell Westbrook on ignoring Stephen A. Smith: “One thing I won’t allow to happen anymore is let people create narratives and constantly just talking shit for no reason about me.”
Damian Lillard happy in Portland
Stephen A. Smith recently suggested the NBA superstar join a team like the Knicks or move to a city where he could elevate his brand. Lillard has continued to reject the idea because he knows the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. “I think, for every person that says you know I want to see him on the big stage, and I want to see him go to a bigger market and all these things, of course those things have pros, but nobody ever wants to think about the cons,” Lillard explained. “If you take that step and it’s not what it seems to be, and it doesn’t work out, or an injury happens, and you haven’t established as much of a rapport with that team, and they chose one guy over the next guy and now you’re traded to a third team, things can fall apart. That may never happen, but it’s just a lot of things you can’t control. You got to consider both sides. But for me, it would have to come down to my team saying look, we’re going in a different direction, and we don’t want to hold you hostage, basically, and what route do you want to go.”
ESPN made a full-court press to reunite Skip Bayless with Stephen A. Smith, The Post has learned. The duo would have done a daily ESPN+ show together, while being splashed all over ESPN, including weekly spots on the “Monday Night Football” halftime show. After lengthy negotiations, it culminated in Fox Sports retaining Bayless with a four-year, $32 million contract, according to sources.
Among those appearing on the special in some form will be WNBA legend Lisa Leslie, former Lakers teammate Pau Gasol, and former Lakers GM Jerry West. Stephen A. Smith will provide some thoughts on Bryant and his legacy while Snoop Dogg has planned a musical tribute to him.
In Wednesday’s edition of First Take, Smith said that the 28-year-old Irving should retire from the NBA. Smith said: “No, he’s not. He’s not worth it at all. As a matter of fact, let me say this straight up and down, I think Kyrie Irving should retire. I think he should announce his retirement today. Clearly you don’t want to play basketball bad enough. Now, you may still want to get the $33.4 million … Kyrie Irving has not prioritized basketball. I’m not saying he doesn’t want to play all together. I’m saying he hasn’t prioritized it. How fair is that to the Brooklyn Nets? How fair is that to Sean Marks? How fair is that to Steve Nash? A coached that he endorsed bringing onboard. A coach that he wanted. A coach that he fully supported. How fair is that to his brother, Kevin Durant?”
