Stephen A. Smith escalated his feud with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, challenging the commander-in-chief to a televised IQ debate less than a day after their clash surrounding the Knicks’ NBA Finals Game 3 loss.
The dispute began after Trump attended Monday night’s NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden and intensified when the president questioned Smith’s intelligence following the Knicks’ defeat.
“You wanna talk about IQ,” Smith said on ESPN’s First Take, “I could put my IQ against yours any day of the week. But I could go one better. I could ask you why you’ve been running from me for the past year since I asked you to talk to me. I could ask you to debate me since you think you’re that dude.”
Trump’s Remark Follows Smith’s Game 3 Criticism
The feud began before tipoff, when Smith declared on air that he would hold Trump personally responsible if the Knicks lost. Trump, watching from his courtside seat, let the result speak for itself.
After the defeat, Trump fired back.
“You need a certain aptitude to run for president. You need a high IQ, I don’t really think Stephen A. Smith has that,” Trump told reporters, according to The Daily Beast.
Smith had spent the previous day criticizing Trump’s attendance itself. He accused the president of disrupting the Knicks’ momentum and creating chaos that prevented fans from gathering for watch parties near the arena. Trump’s security detail locked down multiple blocks of Midtown Manhattan, forcing fans to wait in line for hours to pass through security screenings before entering the building.
Smith also zeroed in on a specific moment during the broadcast. Trump appeared to doze off during portions of the matchup, a detail the ESPN commentator seized on to question whether the president’s presence reflected genuine investment in the game.
“If it was that important for you to be there, why did you look like you were asleep? Didn’t you call our former president Joe Biden ‘Sleepy Joe?’ Well what should we call you?” Smith asked on the ESPN broadcast, as quoted by The Daily Mail. “It’s clear you need your rest, isn’t it? The New York Knicks need it too. Give New Yorkers a break.”
Smith Challenges Trump to Direct Debate
On First Take Tuesday morning, Smith expanded his counterattack beyond the intelligence insult. He detailed the cascading impact Trump’s presence had on New York City and local businesses surrounding the arena.
“Did you see traffic? Did you see the watch party outside of Madison Square Garden that wasn’t? Did you see thousands upon thousands of faithful New York Knicks fans that were forced to remove themselves from the area?” Smith asked, according to The Daily Beast.
Smith then pivoted to his core challenge. He suggested Trump had been deliberately avoiding confrontation with him over the past year.
“I could put my IQ against yours any day of the week,” Smith repeated. “We could go a myriad of ways with all of this, but I am not going to let you off the hook.”
Smith’s willingness to directly challenge the sitting president represented a bold escalation from his initial Game 3 criticism. The ESPN personality has built his career on aggressive, no-holds-barred commentary delivered at volume, and his response to Trump’s attack was vintage Smith.
No word from Trump so far on Smith’s debate challenge.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Stephen A. Smith Challenges Trump to IQ Debate After Knicks’ Game 3 Loss appeared first on HEAVY.