Stephen A. Smith, who is undoubtedly one of the foremost voices of the sport, does not refrain from speaking his mind and therefore becomes a bearer of controversy more often than not. The famed analyst recently made headlines by indulging in a heated one-to-one with LeBron James at the Crypto.com arena. However, the veteran analyst does not express his views on James only, he takes into account other individuals too from the league. Smith has now come into fire for the comment he made about Kawhi Leonard.
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Stephen A. Smith's Comment on Kawahi Leonard Garners Negative Reaction
The Clippers have been playing excellent basketball lately, and they are currently on a four-game winning run. Their 132-119 win over the #1-seeded Cavaliers last night sparked a conversation on First Take this morning. Monica McNutt lauded the team's amazing triumph and claimed they had been flying under the radar.
Stephen A. Smith started by saying, “It wouldn’t bother me at all if James Harden got MVP consideration.” He went on to pour acclaim on Tyronn Lue and Jeff Van Gundy for their outstanding coaching performances. As soon as one assumed Smith was on the Clippers' side, he dropped the other shoe.
“The reason I’m not sold on the Clippers is because I’m just looking at my watch and I’m just looking at the dates and the calendar and I’m just waiting for Kawhi Leonard to get hurt,” Smith said. He further continued to boldly claim that Leonard wouldn’t be available come playoff time.
Smith brought up the 2023 first-round series versus the Suns. Kawhi played brilliantly in the first two games, scoring 38 and 31 points. However, he was ruled out of Game 3 due to knee soreness, and it was later determined that he had a meniscus tear in his right knee.
Smith further said, “He looked just fine, and then between one game and the next game. We don’t know whether it was him going to the bathroom hitting Chick-Fil-A. chilling out at some bar hanging out in the house or something.”
Smith's comments made reverberations on social media and once again he drew negative reaction. One fan labelled his act of envisaging Leonard's injury as "sick behaviour."