“80 percent, we’re talking in the 80s,”NBA OG Baron Davis told NBA icon Shaquille O’Neal when asked for a percentage of NBA players who think broadcaster Stephen A. Smith is a “clown.”
[NOTE: Davis, a dynamic two-time NBA All-Star was the #3 overall pick in the 1999 draft and played 13 years in the league — he is a businessman and successful podcaster. He just became co-host of current NBA star and 4x champ Draymond Green‘s podcast.]
The question, which Shaq asks with a joyful smirk, stems from NBA superstar Kevin Durant‘s recent slam on Smith, the rabble-rousing ESPN commentator who makes his bank with hot takes and strong opinions.
KD basically said that in his 18 years in the NBA he’s never seen Stephen A at a practice or a film session, but “only on TV talking [expletive] about players.” He’s “like a clown to me,” Durant said.
In estimating that 80 percent or more of the current players are in the “Stephen A. Smith is a clown camp,” Davis charges that more than 360 of the 450 roster players feel this way.
But as Davis also concedes, when Smith makes you part of his “storyline,” then you are “hot,” Davis says. That’s Smith’s power. Clowns, of course, don’t usually possess power.
Durant may be right that Smith isn’t quite the student of the game that he portrays on TV, but that doesn’t mean, to Davis’s point, that Smith doesn’t have influence on public opinion.
Davis provided another insight into why players like Durant and others don’t always appreciate Smith’s assessments and opinions — it’s because they sound personal. “You delivering it like you know me homie,” Davis explains.
Durant wants people to know Smith isn’t giving inside scoops. He’s not in the gym. He’s just like the other talking heads on TV, even if he makes it seem “personal.”
Smith, of course, is a journalist whose most valuable tool is his cellphone and his contacts, not his ability to dissect a defense in the film room. The two men have different professions that happen to coincide. Smith’s job is to talk about Durant; Durant is just a hobbyist when he opines on Smith’s place in the game.
If you want to know what’s up in the locker room, Durant and Davis might be more helpful. For insight into the boardroom and the general manager’s office, Smith may be the guy.