Stephen A. Smith responds to Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia, who made comments on Stephen A.'s recent take that he could be the worst owner in the history of basketball.
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00:00Matt Ishbia is absolutely right.
00:04I do owe him an apology because I mentioned Donald Sterling.
00:09I thought I was making it clear I was talking about basketball.
00:13I certainly did not mean to compare him to a person that was thrown out of this league
00:19and has been widely recognized as a racist.
00:24I should not have mentioned Matt Ishbia's name in the same breath as Donald Sterling in that regard.
00:29I did not mean to do that.
00:30I was not talking about that Donald Sterling.
00:33I was talking about the Donald Sterling that would be sitting courtside,
00:38heckling his own damn players and never winning anything and didn't give a damn.
00:43That's the Donald Sterling that I was talking about in terms of how ineffectual he was
00:48or ineffective he was as an owner on a basketball court.
00:52I certainly did not mean to do that.
00:53So Matt Ishbia is absolutely right.
00:56And for that, I apologize.
00:57I'm a man if I'm wrong, I'll say I'm wrong.
01:01Unfortunately for you, sir, that's the only thing I'm wrong about.
01:06And that's the only apology that you're getting from me.
01:10Let's go one by one.
01:12First of all, with all due respect, you should have other problems than worrying about
01:16bringing up LeBron James and paying attention to that.
01:19I said what I said as it pertains to LeBron James.
01:21I meant every damn syllable of it.
01:23I ain't taking nothing back and it is what it is.
01:26We are what we are with one another.
01:28And that's cool.
01:28It doesn't negate the fact that he's one of the greatest players to have ever lived.
01:32A great basketball ambassador who will be missed when he is gone.
01:36And regardless of how, whatever beef we have, I'm thankful for what he has meant to the game
01:42of basketball and what he has meant to all of our careers.
01:44That's what I have to say about LeBron James.
01:46When it gets to Kevin Durant, I stand by what I said about him.
01:51One of the greatest players to have ever played the game of basketball.
01:56I think from a talent perspective, Kevin Durant is top five all time.
02:01But the resume ain't there.
02:03Because you won when you went to Golden State.
02:05You lost everywhere else.
02:07And over the last five years, you've been bounced out of the first round a couple of times.
02:11You've been swept a couple of times.
02:13The one playoff series you did win in Phoenix was because Kawhi Leonard went down after game two.
02:18And now you ain't even in the damn playoffs.
02:20Okay?
02:21So, it is what it is when I pointed to leadership.
02:25Which brings me to Mr. Matt Ishbia.
02:27When Kevin Durant put out his tweet the other day, I gave him 2% of the responsibility.
02:33I don't know if you know, that's a crime.
02:34It's a crime in today's NBA.
02:35One of these days, very, very shortly, I'm going to dedicate a full episode of First Take to covering the NBA the way the players would want me to.
02:44The way the coaches would want me to.
02:45The way, evidently, Matt Ishbia would want me to.
02:48Because everything is roses, you know.
02:49Nothing's wrong.
02:49I mean, 2% of the blame.
02:51My God.
02:51You get $50 million a year.
02:53You can't get to the playoffs.
02:54And I hold 2% of the responsibility to you.
02:57And that is a crime.
02:59But that's what it is with Kevin Durant.
03:00It is what it is.
03:02So be it.
03:02I'm not backtracking from that either.
03:04I question the leadership.
03:05Where is it?
03:06And Matt Ishbia would argue with me about this.
03:10As the owner of the Phoenix Suns, sir, respectfully, I know the future could hold in an ordinate amount of possibilities.
03:20But in your first two years, there is a legitimate argument that you are an atrocity, one of the worst owners in the history of the sport.
03:32And your background makes it worse because there's no excuse for it to happen.
03:38Were you not a walk-on at Michigan State?
03:41Did you not play for Tom Izzo, the phenomenal Tom Izzo?
03:46Okay?
03:47One of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball.
03:49Did you not talk about the kind of influence he had on your life and what he has done for you in terms of your basketball acumen or whatever?
03:58My God.
03:59You're staining his name.
04:01That's how bad you've been.
04:02Okay.
04:02Okay.
04:03Okay.
04:03Okay.
04:03Okay.
04:03Okay.