“Solitaire, no good,” joked Nick Wright during a live segment of ‘First Things First, ’ aiming a subtle dig at Stephen A. Smith after the ESPN sportscaster was caught playing the card game during the Indiana Pacers-Oklahoma City Thunder Finals. Wright wasn’t the only one, as Smith received criticisms and ridicule from all quarters, with even Kevin Durant joining the party and writing “Cmon, Steve”, while hundreds of fans continued to troll him. Smith responded to the criticism at the moment, and then returned a few days later to tell his critics to “kiss my a–”. So, end of chapter? Nah, not when Stephen A.Smith is involved. Even after two weeks, the ESPN analyst has not gotten over the trolling and criticism. And not just about the ‘Solitaire’ issue, but everything from the alleged ‘feud’ with Max Kellerman to his SiriusXM posting.

As the latest episode of ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show’ started approaching the final minutes, Smith took a pause and said, “My staff didn’t want me to do this, you know. They ain’t want me to bring this up. So because of them, out of respect for them, I’m not going to mention names, or the trifling a– individuals that keep talking s— about me”. He then went on to highlight that he doesn’t mind the criticism or trolling, since “This kind of stuff makes me happy, it’s right up my alley. It’s right up my alley, it don’t bother me”. However, it bothers him when he isn’t given a chance to speak out on that criticism. Probably a good thing, knowing the stuff he said on multiple occasions previously.

“First of all let’s go down the list. They got on me for playing solitaire for a couple of minutes during the NBA game. Even contemporaries on other networks would talk about me. And of course, you know a couple of people in the podcast stratosphere used to be in sports, but now they can’t get a damn job,” said Smith. “So their job, all of a sudden, is being a media critic instead of covering sports. But we won’t go there. So they got on me for playing solitaire, they said that I was upset that Max Kellerman, my former colleague at ESPN on First Take. I got upset because he’s going to be calling the Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez fight in September? They looked at my face and said I was upset”.

The criticism has been getting strong for Stephen A. Smith over the last couple of days. Sports reporter Michelle Beadle, who earlier used to work at ESPN, responded to Mark Titus criticizing Smith for being “awful” and for ruining the NBA Finals for fans by writing, “No lies detected.” Beadle had been on Smith’s case recently ever since it was confirmed he would be taking over her time slot on SiriusXM radio. Their feud dates back to Smith’s comments on the Ray Rice Domestic Violence case. Hence, it’s safe to assume that when Smith talked about “people in the podcast stratosphere…” he was taking an indirect jab at Beadle.

Dan Le Batard, who has held a long-running feud with Stephen A. Smith, brought up the Smith-Kellerman feud amidst Kellerman’s recent job update. It led him to highlight how Stephen A. allegedly got Kellerman fired since the latter was reportedly offering context to an argument show when he wanted to do an argument show. Le Batard believes that since then, however, the show has “become more and more of an argument show”. He connected this issue and Shannon Sharpe as well, stating that “I guess we probably all know at this point that Shannon Sharpe will never – is not likely to ever work at ESPN again, right?” Yikes!

Fending off so much criticism can take a toll on anyone. Like him and hate him, even Stephen A. Smith is a human (although it’s easy to forget that at times!), and he feels really wronged in this scenario. So, in a true Stephen A. Smith style, he has announced his intentions to get back at his critics.

Stephen A. Smith vows to call out critics upon broadcasting return: “Y’all might see somebody a little different.”

Remember how, in The Big Bang Theory, Leonard got scared when Sheldon told him that up until a point, they had been living with the ‘happy funtime Sheldon’? Yes, well, imagine if Stephen A. Smith said something like that, knowing just how much passion he puts in most of the time when expressing his takes. His voice will suddenly grow loud, then he will talk in a whisper that would even beat that of Joe Biden’s, and he would not be afraid to double down on things for which he has been called out for. If you can’t imagine it, then don’t worry, because Smith himself admitted this on his recent show.

During the segment, Smith took another pause and said, “but over the process I got something to tell y’all. I think I’ve gotten too mellow (Uh oh!). I think I’ve been very nice, very quiet, and I haven’t come out with the fire that I’m accustomed to coming out with”. He further added, “I don’t believe I’ve told enough people to kiss my a–, i don’t believe I’ve told enough people ‘You could go kick rocks. I don’t believe that I’ve said enough about the people who talk s— about me lying all the damn time. That’s going to end”.

Stephen A. Smith made it clear that, once he returns to host SiriusXM around 2nd September, “y’all might see somebody a little different. Maybe not different, but somebody that’s going to remind you of the good old days, when I’d getting your a–. I’m not backing up”.

Well, it will certainly be a scary day for all of our ears when that day comes around. Therefore, to all the people who are on the sportscaster’s target list, enjoy the vacation as well as you can, since Stephen A. Smith is returning later with an all-out attack on your eardrums. You have been warned.