Following Jason Whitlock's accusations of Stephen A. Smith fabricating portions of his book “Straight Shooter”, Smith fired back in a 40-minute takedown of Whitlock on his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show”. According to Smith, the feud between the two had been brewing for the past ten years but reached a fever pitch once Whitlock made seemingly unfounded accusations about Smith's memoir.

Whitlock spoke about Smith in his article entitled, “Does Katt Williams’ interview expose Stephen A. Smith as a fraud?”

In the article, Whitlock said, “Stephen A. Smith is the Kevin Hart of the sports media. Smith is a plant. Disney and ESPN installed Smith at the top of sports media because his inadequacies as a journalist make him easy to control.”

Deeper in the article, he specifically alleges that Smith's retelling of his time on Winston-Salem State University's basketball team was fabricated.

“He (or his ghostwriter) claims he received a full basketball scholarship from Winston-Salem State after a one-day tryout in February 1988. A former Winston-Salem State basketball player allegedly drove Smith from New York to North Carolina for the tryout after Smith impressed the former player during a one-on-one matchup on a playground court. According to his book, Smith arrived on campus on a Saturday, checked into a hotel, and woke up Sunday morning to participate in a scrimmage….According to Smith’s account, he knocked down 17 straight shots in the scrimmage, and Big House offered him a full scholarship immediately after the practice. This is laughable. In Big House’s own memoir, he frequently complained about his limited budget at WSSU. The historically black Division II program was not flush with cash and a dozen scholarships to toss around. We’re supposed to believe that Gaines gave one to a frail kid he saw play for an hour?”

He then went on to seemingly challenge that Smith was a student at Winston-Salem State at all.

“Smith’s entire existence at WSSU is weird. His ‘First Take' show has traveled back to the campus at least twice. But we’ve never been shown more than one picture of Smith at the school. It’s a standard headshot for a game-day program. There are no action shots of Smith as a player. Nothing from him socializing with his friends on campus. Smith’s memoir doesn’t feature a single picture.”

Smith responded in kind on “The Stephen A. Smith Show”, repeatedly calling Whitlock a “fat b*sturd”.

“I mean it from my soul when I say this is the worst human being I’ve ever known. I don’t know of another human being worse than Jason Whitlock. He is a piece of s–t. He’s the dude that’s going to have a funeral and ain’t going to be no pallbearers.”

Smith continued, saying, “You see what he does is, he’s the one that puts himself in front of white folks. The white folks, not all white folks, not most white folks, but the white folks that dare we say may have a problem with black folks…He says ‘I’m your man.’ That’s what he does. You think I’m lying? Ask ESPN. Ask Fox. Ask the Kansas City Star. Ask them all. I could not imagine, as a black man, knowing our history, anything worse than a white supremacist. That is until Jason Whitlock came along. He’s worse than them. He is the worst, most despicable, lying, no-good, fat-ass human being I have ever known in my life.”

 

A picture of Stephen A. Smith as a student-athlete at Winston-Salem State University.

The accusations of Smith's time at Winston-Salem State are odd in scope as he's always embraced his experience at the North Carolina-based HBCU. Several pictures, such as a picture published to HBCU Gameday in 2014, show him as a student-athlete at Winston-Salem State. There are also videos that show Smith being an active alumni of Winston-Salem State before his rise to fame via First Take such as a video of him addressing students in 2004 per HBCU Gameday founder and Winston-Salem State alumnus Steven J. Gaither.

Several prominent sports industry media members took to their Twitter/X accounts to salute Stephen A. Smith for speaking out against Whitlock and corroborating several of the things that Smith said.

Jemele Hill tweeted, “I did. Stephen A Smith told the truth. Ole Boy tried to recruit a bunch of us to do some work for what was then the Undefeated and we did not want to work with him.”

Scoop B tweeted, “Jason Whitlock was not kind to me about ten years ago when I was looking for a job and he was in position to hire me & he did not. So I have nothing kind to say. My mother taught me that if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all. Happy New Year!”

Stan Verrett said, “Watch and see if there is a single, solitary Black soul in sports media who has anything positive to say about Whitlock, or comes to his defense. Everybody knows. Everybody…There aren’t that many of us. The business is small. We see each other at the NABJ convention, and at sporting events around the country. And it’s all love. That’s why so many detest his anti-black rhetoric and attacks on colleagues. It’s deliberate and destructive.”

Stephen A. Smith's memoir “Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes” is available now in paperback wherever books are sold.