It seems that former Boston Celtic guard Stephon Marbury is no fan of ESPN analyst Stephen A Smith — not an uncommon outcome for the polarizing sports media personality.
Marbury — currently working overseas as the head coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters of the Chinese Basketball Association — has no problem with Stephen A. Smith the person according to a recent interview with Heavy.com’s Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, but how he conducts himself as an analyst rubs the ex-Celtic the wrong way.
“I think Stephen A. Smith, he does what he’s doing for TV. That’s it. That’s the best way to paraphrase what is actually happening, what’s going on. Stephen A. Smith, he’s never played any professional sport and I think when you have these guys like him and Shannon Sharpe,” he explained. “When you have a football player talking about basketball, I think you’re doing it an injustice towards people’s ears and understanding about what’s actually happening on the court.”
“When you listen to guys like Chris Webber and Kenny Smith, even Charles Barkley, when you’re listening to these guys when they’re talking about basketball it’s okay to have an observation about what it is that you see.,” Marbury added.
CLAB 14: Taking stock of the NBA restart post-strike with N. Jeremi Duru https://t.co/WWUXL427st
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) August 28, 2020
The CBA legend went on for some time attacking Smith’s bonafides as a player.
Despite the fact that the ESPN personality was given a basketball scholarship to attend Winston-Salem State University, it didn’t move the needle for the Coney Island native; “When you play in the NBA, that’s a different space. Right?” he asked.
Skipping a crude sexual metaphor, Marbury feels one has to have played the game professionally to know the game as well as Smith seems to represent himself as knowing it, at least to Marbury.
Without diving into that particular controversy, there are plenty of people who like Smith’s schtick for simply aesthetic reasons — like the constant screaming — so, as Marbury said of Smith, “your opinion is your opinion”.
