Stephen A. Smith Shreds Fox Sports Host Doug Gottlieb for Calling Him a ‘Race-Baiter’

Ahmad Austin Jr.Jun 24th, 2024, 2:09 pm
 

Stephen A. Smith went off on Doug Gottlieb in response to the Fox Sports host calling him a “race-baiter” for his comments about new Lakers coach JJ Redick.

Last week, Smith claimed on First Take that Black head coaches in the NBA took issue with the Redick and LeBron James’ podcast Mind the Game. According to him, the timing of the podcast’s launch rubbed them the wrong way because at the time, then Lakers coach Darvin Ham was viewed as being on the hot seat. In their eyes, James launching the podcast when he did showed the Lakers that Ham wasn’t meant for the job.

In response to those comments, Gottlieb called Smith “disgraceful” and “pure evil.”

“I hope it gets him the clicks and the recognition and the numbers that he’s looking for,” Smith said on Friday’s episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show, “because he damn sure hasn’t been showing he’s getting them any other way; but I digress.

“I don’t dislike him. I don’t like him. I don’t really know him. I don’t have much use for him, just like he apparently has no use for me; but I never discussed him. He has said some B.S. over the years. He’s said some dumb shit over the years. I’ve never brought it up. I don’t bother him! But this guy goes on his show on Thursday, accusing me of being a ‘race-baiter’ for reporting that Black NBA coaches condemned JJ Redick’s podcast with LeBron James.”

Gottlieb also compared Smith’s comments to “the perception that President Trump stokes the White nationalist flame.”

“But Doug Gottlieb is comparing that and equating that to Donald Trump and White nationalists?” Smith said. “So when the mayhem took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a young lady was killed, and we had folks out there marching and White supremacists making themselves conspicuous — and Donald Trump goes over the airwaves and says, ‘There were good and bad people on both sides’ — that’s the equivalent of this?”

Tags: