It’s very rare to see two of ESPN’s biggest personalities in a space where they’re interacting with one another in a less-than-favorable manor. But that’s what happened on Friday.
Stephen A. Smith, who hosts ESPN’s biggest program in First Take, got into a heated exchange with NBA Today’s Malika Andrews after she called him out for his take on the Ime Udoka scandal.
The thing here is we still don’t know very much about the Ime Udoka scandal — at least not anything concrete.
The team has officially suspended him for an entire year, but they’re not giving us details on exactly why or what he did. All we know from previous reporting on the matter is that there was some sort of relationship with an unnamed woman on the Celtics staff at the center of this.
That didn’t stop Stephen A. Smith from calling the Celtics out on First Take for suspending Udoka and not the unnamed employee he was involved with.
This is why Malika Andrews was angry at Stephen A Smith…when he questioned if the woman involved in Udoka situation violated company policy deserved to get mentioned https://t.co/UnAku2pn7S pic.twitter.com/snJrZ4lPyj
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 23, 2022
“It said, in the numerous news reports, that it was a consenual relationship and violated an organizational policy. So only he is in violation of a company policy? The woman who elected to have a consensual relationship with him is not in violation? He gets to get mentioned and put on front street? We don’t know who she is.”
He went on to talk about how outing the woman involved in the scandal would then alleviate the stress of other women in the organization who have been wrongfully involved in the scandal because of online speculation.
Without even thinking twice about it, Smith is placing blame for rampant and incorrect speculation on the woman involved in this scenario who may have even been wronged by Udoka herself. The simple fact is we don’t have those details yet and, without them, it’s wrong to make any assumptions.
That’s why Andrew wasn’t having it. She called into the show to let Smith know.
Malika Andrews to Stephen A Smith "with all due with respect this is not about pointing fingers, stop" pic.twitter.com/s6mV4XHcyL
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 23, 2022
“Stephen A., with all due respect, this is not about pointing the finger. Stop. What became apparent to me, in this press conference, is that we do not have all of the information here and it was frustrating to me that the Celtics declined to elaborate or give more specifics about what exactly the rule-breaking was that led up to this point.
We are not here, Stephen A., to blame women. That is not why we are here.“
Of course, Stephen A. Smith came back at her and he very clearly didn’t appreciate what Andrews had to say here.
Stephen A Smith responds to Malika Andrews accusing him of blaming women "I don't appreciate where you're going with that I'm not blaming anybody but Ime Udoka"
"I listened to you, you're the one telling me to stop on my show that ain't happening" pic.twitter.com/upXT50rEpc— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 23, 2022
“First of all, let me be very clear, I don’t appreciate where you’re going with that. I’m not blaming anybody but Ime Udoka. The fact of the matter is, I said he deserves to be fired if you’re going to fire him. If you’re not going to fire him then don’t fire him. My issue is all of this being publciized.”
Andrews tried to squeeze in another point here, but Smith swiftly cut that out.
“Excuse me. I listened to you. You’re the one telling me to stop on my show, that ain’t happening. OK. That’s number one. Number two, I’ve already said he deserves to be fired or he deserves to be there and handle it internally and privately.”
This is almost certainly a conversation that won’t stop today. It’ll be a topic of discussion for the next few weeks as we head into the start of the new NBA season.
Hopefully, moving forward, we can see this entire thing handled a bit more carefully. That way we might not have to sit through arguments like this one anymore.
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