Recently, ESPN NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith came under fire when he was spotted playing Solitaire on his phone during the NBA Finals Game 4 between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder. While Smith initially claimed that he was only doing this during timeouts, this was quickly disproven when videos circulating on social media clearly showed him playing the phone game while the Finals were actively going on.

Recently, Smith was asked about the controversy during an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

“I was doing what the hell I always do, and for those out there that don’t like it, kiss my ass,” said Smith. “When I'm watching the game, I'm watching the game. If there's a break in the action, it could be a dead ball, it could be a timeout or something like that, I can play the damn thing for two seconds. Somebody is standing over me, upper deck, watching me, zooming in on my phone and saying ‘oh, he's playing solitaire.' I watch over 100 games a year.”

It's unclear how much Smith actually was engaged in some Solitaire action during Game 4 of the Finals, but it's safe to say he was probably more careful about it during Game 5, which the Thunder won thanks to a late fourth quarter surge on Monday evening.

Smith is part of a broader NBA media landscape that has receieved heavy criticism in recent years for its perceived tendency to only focus on big-market teams and storylines while ignoring smaller markets, which made this year's matchup between Oklahoma City and Indiana feel like a breath of fresh air.

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Next year, the NBA media world will be shifting tremendously as TNT will no longer be broadcasting games and NBC returns to its NBA coverage, along with Amazon.

ESPN will still be the epicenter of all things NBA, so much so that the famous pre and post game show “Inside the NBA” will appear on the network starting next season.

It remains to be seen what, if any, involvement Smith and some of his other ESPN counterparts will have on that show's production.

In any case, Game 6 of the Finals is slated for Thursday evening.