Michelle Beadle’s Firing Isn’t the Only Controversy for Stephen A. Smith

Stephen A. Smith is everywhere, right? The man is a media blitz, the face of ESPN’s “First Take,” and he just keeps adding more to his empire, like his new radio gig with SiriusXM. But as his star continues to rise, so does the controversy. And now, in the wake of him taking over a new radio time slot, his former ESPN colleague Michelle Beadle is absolutely unloading on him, pulling no punches. But Beadle’s fiery clapback isn’t the only heat Stephen A. is facing.

Let’s start with the Michelle Beadle situation, because it is messy. News broke that SiriusXM had parted ways with Beadle and her co-host, Cody Decker. And who was announced as the replacement for their popular 1-3 p.m. ET time slot? None other than Stephen A. Smith.

Now, losing a gig happens in this business. But according to Beadle, the way it went down was just plain disrespectful. She told Front Office Sports she was “totally blindsided,” finding out about SAS taking her job not from the company, but by seeing his face in The Hollywood Reporter. “I was like, I should have known. That was just kind of gross,” she said. “I don’t care that we’re being replaced… But a little respect would have been nice. Good Lord.”

That feeling of disrespect clearly opened up the floodgates for Beadle, who has a long and complicated history with Stephen A. She went on to absolutely blast him, making it crystal clear there is “no love lost” between them. “I don’t respect him. I don’t respect his work,“ she stated bluntly. “I think he gets things wrong all the time. I’m not talking about opinions; those can never be wrong. But factually, when you spread yourself so thin, it’s hard to be right. Not a fan.”

She wrapped up her feelings on the whole SiriusXM situation with a final, brutal assessment of the business: “It’s a reminder: We’re just all pieces of s— to someone.” Yikes. But Beadle’s very personal and public takedown isn’t the only controversy Stephen A. is in right now. In a completely separate conversation on the Rapid Response podcast, another respected voice and former ESPN personality, Sarah Spain, raised what might be an even more damaging accusation – that the conduct of massive personalities like Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee could actually be harming ESPN’s journalistic reputation.

Spain doesn’t have a personal beef with SAS, she’s more concerned about ethics and journalistic credibility. She pointed to the infamous moment where Stephen A. talked about the video of UFC boss Dana White striking his wife. Spain said, “When they turn it on… does the fact that… Stephen A. Smith, who will say, ‘Oh I can’t talk about Dana White hitting his wife on camera, he’s a close personal friend of mine.’ That’s not how journalism works, right?”

She argued that when the network’s biggest star blurs the lines between being a friend and being a journalist, it raises a serious question: “Does the rest of what’s coming out on that network get harmed by it?” For Spain, the answer is yes, and she said it “concerns me.” It’s a powerful accusation that suggests the “Stephen A. effect” might have consequences that go far beyond just his own shows.

Why all the hate? A look back at Stephen A.’s most infamous on-air moments

Michelle Beadle and Sarah Spain’s recent criticisms aren’t coming out of a vacuum. For years, Stephen A. Smith has been one of the most polarizing figures in sports media. His brash personality is his brand, but it’s also what consistently lands him in hot water.

Let’s start with what might be the most infamous example of his on-air style rubbing an athlete the wrong way: the long-running, one-sided beef with former NBA No. 1 pick Kwame Brown. For years, Stephen A. used Brown as a verbal punching bag, a symbol of a “bust.” The most notorious moment came when Smith, responding to Brown calling him out, rolled a nearly 90-second “lowlight” reel of Brown’s on-court blunders on his show, providing gleeful, mocking commentary over every mistake. To many, it felt less like analysis and more like straight-up bullying.

While Stephen A. saw it as just criticizing a player’s performance (“The only negative thing anybody has ever said about Kwame Brown is that he couldn’t play a lick of basketball… Newsflash! That wasn’t a lie!”), for many viewers, it was a prime example of a powerful media personality punching down on a player. Nobody enjoys that.

And the controversies aren’t just ancient history. Just this past March, during a heated debate with LeBron James, Stephen A. made the factually wrong claim that LeBron didn’t go to Kobe Bryant’s memorial service. The comment was instantly proven false by viewer fact-checks on X, since multiple outlets had confirmed LeBron was there. It’s exactly what Michelle Beadle was talking about when she said he gets “things wrong all the time,” not just opinions, but basic facts, all in his quest to make a fiery point.

It’s this long, long history of inflammatory, sometimes factually incorrect, and often deeply personal commentary that makes Stephen A. Smith such a lightning rod. His defenders will say he’s a passionate, entertaining personality who’s not afraid to speak his mind. His critics? They see a “hot take aficionado” who has, at times, thrown journalistic integrity and basic decency out the window for the sake of ratings and relevance. Whether you love him or hate him, one thing’s for sure: controversy is never, ever far behind when Stephen A. has a microphone.