Stephen A. Smith: Club cowards for bringing Irving back

NEW YORK — You never want to go too far in attempting to read someone’s mind, especially when that person spouts their thoughts for a living. But it seems safe to say that at some point the phrase “my Flu Game” was rattling around Stephen A. Smith’s brain on Tuesday morning, when the ESPN personality announced that he had COVID before going almost directly into a lengthy rant about Kyrie Irving.

Smith, with his voice fading, said he had two shots of the Pfizer vaccine and was tested after getting an endoscopy over the weekend, which he had been delaying his booster shot for. He said that he’d likely be off the air the rest of the week and over the holidays, but wanted to do his show remotely for his highest purpose: crushing Kyrie Irving and the Nets.

“It’s one of the most shameful things they could’ve ever done,” Smith said of the Nets’ pathetic and foolhardy decision to bring back Irving after banishing him for two months.

Smith, who has spent the last eight months calling for sweeping vaccine mandates in sports, laughed at the idea of bending rules for the mercurial and unvaccinated point guard. “One of the last people in the world who’s worth it is Kyrie Irving,” he said.

“To make this capitulation, to make this concession, for HIM, who by the way was away from basketball for ten months before coming back for two weeks last year, and then the riots at the U.S. Capitol took place and he was traumatized and needed time away from basketball ... Didn’t give back the money mind you, didn’t give back the money, still expected to be paid,” he said. “The fact that they reversed course on this is egregious, and disgusting to be quite honest with you...

“The Brooklyn Nets will rue the day they made this decision.”

Fine points all, but maybe not worth calling into work while sick with what he called the “omnicrom” variant. Smith did the full show, discussing Jake Paul’s knockout of Tyron Woodley and Anthony Davis’ knee injury.