Stephen A. Smith goes after Michael Carter-Williams in radio rant
Stephen A. Smith of ESPN's First Take went on a wild radio rant on Friday, seemingly speaking to Philadelphia 76ers guard Michael Carter-Williams after Carter-Williams made comments about him in a blog post.
Carter-Williams wrote a post for Derek Jeter’s The Players Tribune last week, in which he talked about tanking and Smith, who used to be a sportswriter in Philadelphia.
Carter-Williams has been frustrated by talk the team is tanking to stockpile its roster with high-draft picks and said that’s how “Smith ends up in our locker room with a big smile on his face.”
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Carter-Williams, last year’s NBA Rookie of the Year, went on to say in the post that Smith was a “character” and that “he knows he’s playing a character” on television. He also said that media, including Smith, don’t stick around after games to talk about specifics of the game.
During a Sirius Radio interview on Friday, Smith seemed to take exception to those comments, and had a message for any player that wants to talk about him. He did not specifically call out Carter-Williams' name in the clip provided by the Big Lead.
“You’ve never going to have the last word over us,” Smith said. “And you damn sure ain’t going to have the last word over me. I’m not going to start problems, but I can damn sure finish them. If these guys want to come at me, let them do it at their own peril. It will be a mistake.”
Philadelphia is the only team in the NBA that has yet to win a game this season and has lost all nine of its contests by an average of 16 points, by far the worst in the NBA.
Carter-Williams is averaging 16 points, 6.5 rebounds and five assists in two games. He missed the first seven games of the season after recovering from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shooting shoulder.
- Scooby Axson
