Stephen A. Smith has come out guns blazing against Steve Kerr.
The discourse started earlier this week when Smith questioned Steph Curry’s leadership after Draymond Green had his second incident of on-court violence this season, punching Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the head and ultimately receiving an indefinite suspension from the NBA.
Smith wondered why Curry gets a pass when someone like LeBron James would get blamed for a teammate’s failure to control himself, and Kerr, without naming Smith, called the take “disgusting” and lamented the “climate that we live in.”
On ESPN’s “First Take” on Friday, Smith was disgusted with Kerr’s disgust.
“Steve Kerr didn’t mention me by name. I’ll mention Steve Kerr by name. I’m disgusted with him,” Smith said, as covered by Awful Announcing. “No one is questioning Steph Curry as a leader. What we said was, ‘If that were LeBron James we would have said, ‘Where are you?’
“So in this particular instance, we’re not talking behind the scenes. We’re talking out front-and-center. We were asking Steph Curry, ‘Where are you on this?’ Because you’re such a great leader. Because you’re such a phenomenal leader. Because you’re the closest thing to perfection that I think most of us have ever seen as a professional athlete. We’re asking about the impact that you’ve seemingly been unable to have on a teammate who loves and reveres you, like Draymond Green. But Steve Kerr twisted it.”
Smith was of the belief that the media “fawns” over Curry.
“I don’t even want to use the words that I’m tempted to in terms of him fawning over Steph Curry. We all fawn over Steph Curry. Why would you try to twist it like that?” he asked.
“You trying to tell me that Steph Curry’s not a human being, that every single thing about him is absolutely positively perfect? That we can’t sit here while revering him and and respecting him and appreciating everything about him, we can’t sit here and simply say, ‘Yo, you of all people, you might be able to have an impact on Draymond Green.’”
When Kerr spoke to the media before the Warriors played the Clippers on Thursday, he could hardly hide his disdain regarding what Smith said about Curry.
“Steph is as good of a leader as I’ve ever been around,” Kerr said.
“That guy is an amazing human being and what he’s done the past decade in leading this team through all of the ups and downs and the turmoil. For anybody to question Steph Curry’s leadership, it’s kind of sickening to me. And I saw some of that yesterday, it was disgusting. We’re talking about one of the finest human beings I have ever been around. But that’s the climate that we live in.”
He continued to bemoan the media climate.
“Part of all of this is the climate we live in and the arrows that are slung at these guys and the judgment, the criticism,” Kerr continued. “That’s fine, it’s part of it, but it’s not easy. We’re all human beings. And so that’s a big part of the job these days as a professional athlete, you have to deal with everything and you have to accept it. But there are times when you kind of have to say ‘Really? Like that’s the angle you’re going to take? You’re going to question Steph Curry’s leadership? Really, we’re going to do that?’ Think about that. Think about that.”
Smith, in his commentary, refuted the idea that he needs to bang on pots and pans to get attention.
“You didn’t say my name, but I don’t need clickbait,” he said. “We’ve been No. 1 for 12 years. With or without YouTube, with or without social media, we’ve been No. 1, period.”
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