Top sports analyst Stephen A. Smith appeared on Podcast P with Paul George and said a lot about sports and other stuff. One thing caught the attention of fans and journalists and that’s his claim that some Pro athletes have tried getting journalists fired from their jobs. Huh? Probably these athletes took the opinions of journalists too personally hence doing everything within their power to get them sacked.
Stephen A. Smith‘s appearance on Podcast P with Paul George has offered the internet plenty to dissect ranging from his rift with Kyrie Irving, who his dream debate partner would be on First Take, but one of the more serious topics broached in the conversation was about pro athletes trying to get journalists fired for asking tough questions.
While Smith acknowledged that athletes starting their own podcasts and becoming their own media outlets is insightful in many ways, he lamented how the tough questions may never get asked due to the players’ own perspectives and how that places journalists’ jobs in jeopardy.Â
Good convo between Paul George and Stephen A Smith about the relationship between the Media and Athletes pic.twitter.com/0zzDwPwFW7
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) August 15, 2023
“You got to understand that everybody has a job to do,” Smith said. “The last thing they want to do is come up to you and ask you that question. They have no choice because their job is on the line, and no matter how bad your game was that day, your contract guaranteed, and it’s for a gazillion times more than that journalist made.”Â
He continued: “You know, you got cats that, and they’re gonna remain nameless as players because I’m not going to do that to them, […] But when I went hard on a couple of superstar players, I happen to know for a fact they tried to get a couple of journalists fired, and it’s because the journalists asked them about something that they were hearing.”
Journalists ask hard questions and athletes should blame them, it’s their damn job to ask hard-hitting questions, and the best an athlete can do is to not answer the question. It’s that simple. There is no need to go to the extreme to get them fired from their jobs.
