Stephen A. Smith and Malika Andrews went at it during a recent edition of First Take while discussing the Ime Udoka scandal.
The Ime Udoka situation in Boston is affecting more people around the NBA. The head coach led the Celtics to their first NBA Finals in 12 years, losing to the Golden State Warriors in six games in the big series.
When everybody thought they were ready to return to the Finals and win the elusive 18th title, things are different now. Udoka has been suspended for the entire 2022-23 NBA season after having an improper relationship with a female member of the team staff.
This situation has led to many debates around the league, with everybody expressing their opinions on what could have happened, what should have been done, and more. As usual, sports talk shows are covering this situation nonstop, especially ESPN shows.
Stephen A. Smith And Malika Andrews Have Heated Argument On Live TV Over Ime Udoka Scandal
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith called out the Boston Celtics on Thursday, accusing them of leaking the news to the public while saying that white coaches do the same Udoka did, and they aren't getting any punishment from their teams.
Well, he was ready for round 2 this Friday, but this time, up-and-coming analyst Malika Andrews was in front of him, and the Oakland native wasn't afraid to stand up against Smith. The result? A heated argument between these two after Andrews called in and immediately told Smith to change his narrative.
“Stephen A., with all due respect, this is not about pointing the finger. Stop,” Andrews boldly stated. “The fact that we are sitting here debating whether somebody else should have been suspended or not, we ARE NOT here, Stephen A., to further blame women.”
Smith didn't take those comments kindly and responded, seemingly annoyed, telling Andrews that he shouldn't put all the blame on Udoka.
“First of all, let me be very clear,” Smith responded, clearly annoyed with Andrews’ assessment of his commentary. “I don’t appreciate where you’re going with that, I’m not blaming anybody but Ime Udoka. The fact of the matter is, he deserves to be fired if they were going to fire him. If you’re not going to fire him, then don’t fire him. My issue is all of this being publicized.”
After this, the two analysts engaged in a back and forth until Smith told Andrews to stop interrupting him, telling her that she wasn't on her show.
“Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, I listened to you,” Smith interjected to quickly shut Andrews down. “You’re the one telling me to stop on my show. It ain’t happening.”
This is out of line by Smith, as it shouldn't matter whose show they were on, if you make a bad take, you deserve to be held accountable for that. If Udoka was suspended and nobody said anything about it, it would have led to more speculation than right now, and it was inevitable that one insider would drop this info at some point.
Hermetism is something that not many NBA teams can have, and sooner or later, reports about Udoka violating the team's organizational guidelines would see the light, even despite Stephen A. Smith's disagreement.
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