Earlier today, ESPN Analyst Stephen A. Smith completely lost his temper expressing his displeasure with black athletes and their inability to speak up about white male executives getting opportunities in the NBA that black people are not receiving. It appears that the breaking point for smith was the announcement of Brad Stevens being promoted by the Boston Celtics. He also took exception to Steve Nash being named the coach of the Brooklyn Nets last year. To make matters worse, he singled out players such as Lebron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant for not demanding that more black people are interviewed for these executive roles.
Smith had the following to say today:
“I wanna call out the NBA players. You got something to say about everything else. Where you at?” Mr. Smith said on “First Take.” “There ain’t African Americans that have been toiling through the terrain and trying to become executives in the National Basketball Association? Last time I checked that’s the case. We see [assistant] coaches on the sidelines — they don’t want to become head coaches? They’ve been assistants for years.”
“Steve Nash never coached on any level,” he said. And not only does he get the job, he gets the job with the full support of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who by the way, never insisted that a Black candidate be interviewed and be put front and center.” “
We’re supposed to be woke,” he said. “We supposed to understand that that knee on George Floyd’s neck wasn’t just about violence and police brutality. It was also the figurative semblance that it provided, where you’re feeling like, constantly, people have their knee on your neck since the time you come out of the womb. We’ve been talking about all this stuff.”
“NBA players are some of the most powerful people in this world,” he said. “When have they spoken up for Black coaches? When? When have they spoken up for Black executives? GMs? President of Basketball operations? When has that happened? LeBron! All of them. Everybody! Where the hell have they been? Nobody’s done anything. And then when we the media bring it up, you got White folks out here, gonna sit up there and look at Stephen A. and say, ‘Oh, here he is bringing up race.’ And none of the Black players speak up and say, ‘Yo, he’s got a point.’”
