Former Razorback Coach Likely Surprised at ESPN's Latest Goof

No, Nolan Richardson hasn't passed but apparently Stephen A. Smith thought he had

Nolan Richardson speaking about his experiences during a ceremony where the Bowie High School gymnasium was re-named to honor him in El Paso, Texas. | Victor Calzada/El Paso Times

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The truth is Nolan Richardson probably got a good laugh when someone told him he's apparently dead now. It will probably get worked into one of his talks at some point in time.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, trying to inject sports opinions into his recent flurry of appearances regarding politics, apparently thought the former Razorback coach had passed away at some point. Considering Richardson spoke to John Calipari's team before their Sweet 16 trip to San Francisco before Thursday night's loss, Nolan is still around and doing well for an 83-year-old.

"He's gonna be able to recruit better than anybody ever has there outside of Mr. 40 Minutes of Hell himself, the late great Nolan Richardson. God rest his soul." - Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/xSFWn9zC99

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 28, 2025

This is just the latest round of verbal misstatements by the loudmouth ESPN talking head. This is becoming a habit just this week for him after an earlier comment about LeBron James.

Stephen A. Smith on this app doing irreparable damage to his public image.

Even misinformation accounts saying he went too far I’M CRYING 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/SaaZMWmdjY

— Hater Report (@HaterReport_) March 27, 2025

As of this writing, Smith has not issued any sort of clarification about Richardson's status. The clip doesn't add if Seth Greenberg, who should know the former Arkansas coach is still very much around and enjoying retirement in Northwest Arkansas, corrected the mistake.

Richardson, of course, was a Hall of Fame vosvh who guided the Razorbacks to the National Championship in 1994. He took the program another Hall of Fame coach, Eddie Sutton, built and expanded it even higher.

Considering the number of times Richardson has been seen at Razorback games this year probably should have caught the attention of the ESPN shock-jock talker that usually stays focused on the pro sports, but occasionally dabbles down into the college ranks.

If he's going to talk about legends, though, he might want to be be sure they are alive before he refers to them as the "late, great" of anything. Not that Nolan would disagree with him on that assessment.

Ad you can probably be assured he will get a good laugh out of it. The fans won't like it all, though.

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