Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Following the in-season tournament, the ESPN analyst had some thoughts…
Stephen A. Smith was part of the coverage of the final weekend of the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament, as ESPN and TNT teamed up to cover the semifinals and the final game of the IST. While the Los Angeles Lakers captured the inaugural NBA Cup on Saturday night, defeating the Indiana Pacers, the last thing Smith wanted to talk about on Monday was that game.
He had something else on his mind.
Zion Williamson’s belly.
It began on Monday morning, when Smith was on ESPN’s “First Take.” During a segment that — as the bottom third shows was supposed to be about the Lakers-Pacers game — Smith was focused on the semifinal matchup between Los Angeles and New Orleans. The Lakers won that game going away, by a final score of 133-89, and Williamson had 13 points in 26 minutes.
But that was not exactly Smith’s train of thought:
“The word out on Zion Williamson is that he’ll eat the table.”
But he was just getting warmed up.
Later on in the day Smith released a clip from “The Stephen A. Smith Show” where he doubled down on his criticism of Williamson and … you just need to see this for yourself:
It is hard to pick out just a single moment from this clip to highlight. Is it the initial pause after the “[h]e looks fat”? The “GET IN MY BELLY” reference? The qualifier: “[h]e’s addicted to food. I’m speculating, but it’s gotta be!”
All I know is this: If Stephen A. Smith recorded something like this about me — and I’ll be honest, I’ve put on a few LBs over the years — I’d be at the gym that night.
