Stephen A. Smith’s move into the political world, centered on a will-he-won’t-he presidential campaign that obviously never would have happened, has seemingly been the one step too far that has laid bare the emptiness of his entire schtick.
Within the confines of the sports world, Smith could reign freely. In a world built on hot takes and loudness, he is king. But like so many men with power, the longtime ESPN talent craves more of it. But in the last year, as he’s pivoted into arenas beyond the world of sports, he’s shown himself to be someone with truly nothing to say other than boilerplate centrism and small-c conservative talking points.
That’s had an effect on how he’s perceived in the sports world as well. Despite his best efforts, Smith had no impact on the cultural or political conversation and overexposed himself, removing any semblance of credibility that had existed. Left in that wake is just a guy with nothing to say who can only generate headlines through his arguments with other people.
Perhaps that’s why he returned to the well of calling out Jason Whitlock, of all people, last week. Smith gave oxygen to a guy who doesn’t deserve it and made himself look weak and small based on just how much attention he gave away. Much like a certain president, he’s revealed himself to be all bark, no bite.
The same is true in his ongoing feud with Knicks player Josh Hart, which is a perfect example of how Smith’s punditry ouroborous works. He says dumb things, gets called out for saying dumb things, and gets mad that someone called out the dumb things he said.
Monday’s First Take might have given us the perfect example of Smith’s emptiness.
After news spread that Boston Celtics guard (and SAS hairline lookalike) Derrick White unfollowed him on X, Smith brought First Take to a grinding halt so that he could reenact the dril tweet about making sure everyone knows he’s not mad while Brian Windhorst was held hostage.
“I don’t care.”
—@stephenasmith addresses he’s been “unfollowed” by Derrick White ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/T0rHT7cUdv
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 30, 2026
“You know, I woke up this morning and I had no idea, actually I shouldn’t say, I mean, I woke up, but then I took the red-eye back here, you know, so I’m in the car service coming home and I’m sitting there going like, I’m seeing some reports circulating that somehow, someway, it’s breaking news, Wemby, that I’ve been unfollowed by Derek White,” said Smith. “I mean, stop the presses. I just wanna make sure that I’m clear about this, okay? I don’t care whether an NBA player is following me or not. I don’t care, you know, how they feel in regards to it. What I care about is whether or not I’m fair.”
The first rule of “I don’t care” club is that the person who felt the need to say they don’t care absolutely, 100 percent cares.
This is, in many ways, a perfect summation of Smith’s entire persona, invoking yet another dril tweet.
“im not owned! im not owned!!”, i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob
— wint (@dril) November 11, 2011
Smith exists now to be perpetually owned and hoisted by his own petard. Perhaps that’s how it’s been for a long time, but now, all the bluster and bombast can’t hide it anymore.
