Watching Stephen A.

I recently watched a clip of Stephen A. Smith on his YouTube show responding to criticism he received from Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors. Green said on Shaquille O’Neal’s podcast that “Stephen A. Smith really pissed me off.” Green was heavily criticized earlier in the season for striking another player, an act for which he was suspended. As I understood the clip Smith showed, Green was essentially upset that Smith and others who know him as a person never pointed out that Green’s actions on the court didn’t reflect what they know of him as a man. Smith spent the next 9 minutes and 15 seconds responding to Green.

It’s the drama, baby.

 

Full disclosure, I e-mailed Smith an interview request weeks ago looking to add to my “A Shift in the Media?” series. In the e-mail, I also acknowledged a tweet of mine from years ago saying that he’d been, shall I say, more than friendly interviewing Kobe Bryant at the end of his career. I was crass and shouldn’t have been. I don’t think that’s why I didn’t get a response; it was a long shot that he would even get the e-mail.

I watch The Stephen A. Smith Show clips regularly. In fact, their appearance in my YouTube suggestions/algorithm, prompted me to start the interview series. My thought was, why would the guy called “the face of ESPN” by many do his own podcast?

But . . . is this what we’re doing now? When did YouTube podcasts become the high school cafeteria?

It wasn’t that long ago that Stephen A. spent the better part of an hour on his podcast absolutely trashing Jason Whitlock. Smith was infuriated that Whitlock, a former TV sports analyst now mostly on his own podcast as far as I know, said that Smith hadn’t written his own book, Straight Shooter.

Smith’s rant spawned other videos from some high-profile sports talkers simply reacting to what he had done. Smith even did a follow-up video despite repeatedly saying in the first video that he would never mention Whitlock again.

Obviously, I watched the original rant. It was oddly enthralling. And I don’t blame Smith for being PO’d. The man wrote for the Inquirer, the biggest paper in Philadelphia for decades. He clearly knows how to write. And I’ve been told he was charming and fun in his days at the paper.

Yet, just this week, Smith did another video responding to criticism he received from Jaylen Brown and Isiah Thomas. I only watched briefly. On Wednesday, he apologized to Kyrie Irving. I have no idea why; I haven’t watched the clip as I write.

As I’ve said when writing about other people in the media, I don’t begrudge Smith anything. I’d still like to interview him for various reasons. Love him or hate him, he’s built possibly a completely unique role in sports. In fact, Smith has even produced a documentary about the sports debate industry.

Clearly, I’m not the only one wondering where the sports reporting / reacting business is going. Great minds think alike, right, Stephen A.?

I understand Smith is trying to become a voice in the entertainment and political worlds. More power to him. However, I still feel compelled to ask . . . what are we doing? At what point are we just making noise? Personal beefs now qualify as sports talk or sports entertainment? Is it all just a bit of theater?

Smith is by no means alone in doing tabloid-like segments on his YouTube show. In just the last few days, Dan LeBatard had “Stan Van Gundy Calls Out ESPN For How They Treated His Brother Jeff Van Gundy Amid Layoffs.” And Pat McAfee had “Kylie Kelce Stands Up To Karen Who Screams After Being Denied Photo | Pat McAfee Reacts.” A week ago, Le Batard posted, “Was Dan Le Batard Purposely Cut Out of Stephen A Smith’s New Debate Documentary for ESPN?!” The list goes on and on.

The drama isn’t quite on the level that Stephen A. creates. Smith has a delivery that seemingly no one currently doing podcasts can match. He practically inserts himself into a soap opera with major pro athletes.

He creates his own drama.

And it works.

Why does he do it? Why do others try to do it? Is it all just about getting views? Well, maybe. 

I was recently preparing questions for another interview that I was hoping to get with Kevin Kinkead of Crossing Broad, one of the “big boy” Philadelphia sports blogs that I hoped to compete with when I was doing this blog the first time around. I am still baffled to have learned that the site that calls itself “Philadelphia’s irreverent sports blog” sold in 2020 for a reported $12 million upfront with future considerations up to $9.5 million more. That’s million.

By the way, I recently took “phillysportsink” on Blogger. If anyone’s interested in blogging with a guy who can’t pay you a dime (yet?), use that Contact Rob form currently in the sidebar. What the hell, eh? (Million?)

I’m still hoping to ask more questions instead of offering opinions on where the sports media is going. In the meantime, I’ll keep checking out what the really big boys are doing.