Stephen A. Smith has made a living out of talking his mind about everything that revolves around the NBA. Needless to say, that means he had to talk about Kyrie Irvingās situation with the Brooklyn Nets for quite a while.
Irving obviously didnāt care for Smithās comments about him. The ESPN pundit praised Kyrieās game, but attacked his character and lack of availability over and over.
A lot has transpired ever since, but Smith has made it loud and clear that heāll never have a relationship with the former Cleveland Cavaliers star, and a lot of that has to do with his father.
Stephen A. Smith Explains His Beef With Kyrie Irving
āHis father and I are fine,ā Smith said on Paul Georgeās Podcast P. āBut it got to that point because where it wasnāt, unbeknownst to the public, the father loving his son was coming to his defense by sending me text messages I didnāt really appreciate. We were at the STAPLES Center. Kyrie rolls up on me, he taps me on the back, and says, āYouāve got that same energy face-to-face?ā I said, āIām standing here, aināt I?ā Then he said, āItās really not about me anymore.ā And I said, āYouāre rightā. It had become about me and his dad and how we elected to communicate with each other.ā
āThe shame of it is that Iām 55 and obviously, his father is around my age,ā continued Smith. āThe younger son was the one that had to educate us. Thatās what men do, Kyrie Irving was right, and I called his father and we met face to face, there was no problem. I said to him, āIām still gonna judge your son by what I see. But this notion that thereās gonna be personal animus or whatever, I was just doing my job. If it looked different, thatās on me.'ā
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Fortunately, things didnāt escalate, and props to Kyrie for trying to settle the beef between two grown men. Thatās why the media needs to be quite careful when talking about players, making sure things doesnāt turn personal.
