Stephen A. Smith couldn’t resist poking fun at the smugness recently showcased by Kyrie Irving.
Irving had a chance to publicly apologize for his anti-Semitic behavior after the Nets’ loss to the Indiana Pacers in Brooklyn this past Saturday. Instead, the veteran guard stood his ground and tried to act like he was the smartest person in the room. Irving’s defiance ultimately led to a tense back-and-forth with ESPN NBA reporter Nick Friedell.
During Wednesday’s episode of “First Take,” Smith supported his colleague by sarcastically assessing the way Irving continues to present himself.
“Kyrie literally doesn’t mean harm to anybody,” Smith said, as transcribed by Awful Announcing. “That’s not his problem. His problem is that his intellect far exceeds the rest of ours. See, we’re all peons. His level of intellect is so far and above the rest of us that we can’t possibly comprehend what he is articulating and disseminating.”
Smith added: “If you just listen to him, Nick Friedell. This is Kyrie Irving, ‘Just listen to me, you’re asking questions, but you’re not comprehending. You’re not listening. All you want to do is do something to create clickbait’ or whatever it was that he was saying to Nick Friedell. We’re not absorbing the brilliance of him.”
Irving finally showcased a semblance of remorse Wednesday when he released a joint statement with the Nets and vowed to donate $500,000 toward anti-hate organizations. The money, which will be matched by the Nets, surely is helpful. But at this point, Irving’s apologetic actions feel forced and hollow.
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