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Stephen A. Smith Apologizes After Getting Called Out by Suns Owner Mat Ishbia

The ESPN personality apologized for mentioning Donald Sterling while discussing Ishbia's tenure as Suns owner.

Liam McKeone

Smith said Ishbia is on the verge of becoming the worst owner in NBA history on Tuesday
Smith said Ishbia is on the verge of becoming the worst owner in NBA history on Tuesday / First Take
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Stephen A. Smith made waves this week when he boldly proclaimed Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is "on the verge" of becoming the worst owner in basketball history. He mentioned disgraced former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and New York Knicks owner James Dolan as examples of the trajectory Ishbia is on.

Ishbia didn't like that comparison and called Smith out on Thursday night for suggesting he could end up in the same category as someone like Sterling, who is banned from the NBA for life. The Suns owner also said he expected an apology from Smith for doing so.

On Friday, Smith issued that apology.

"Mat Ishbia is absolutely right," Smith said on First Take. "I do owe him an apology because I mentioned Donald Sterling. I thought I was making it clear that I was talking about basketball. I certainly did not mean to compare him to a person that was thrown out of this league and has been widely recognized as a racist. I should not have mentioned Mat Ishbia's name in the same breath as Donald Sterling. I did not mean to do that. I was not talking about that Donald Sterling. I was talking about the Donald Sterling that would be sitting courtside heckling his own damn players and never winning anything and didn't give a damn. That's the Donald Sterling I was talking about, in terms of how ineffective he was as an owner on the basketball court... Mat Ishbia is absolutely right and for that I apologize."

It seems the matter is now settled.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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