TV and radio character Stephen A. Smith was left tongue-tied final week after being gently referred to as out by Serena Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, over remarks he’d made in regards to the tennis legend’s look at this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl.
Showing on ESPN’s debate show “First Take” on Oct. 9, Ohanian requested Smith point-blank about him implying he would’ve cut up from Williams after she showcased her crip stroll throughout Kendrick Lamar’s halftime present.
“Stephen A. Smith, I feel you had some marriage recommendation for me. Is that proper?” stated Ohanian, who shares two daughters, Olympia, 7, and Adira, 2, with Williams.
Smith shrugged off the query, noting that he wasn’t “certified” to talk as regards to marriage, and he and Ohanian “can get into that one other time.”
Ohanian saved his cool, however nonetheless took one other tactfully worded dig.
“You hadn’t been married earlier than, proper?” he stated. “I give recommendation to loads of founders who need to construct billion-dollar corporations, and the explanation I do that’s as a result of I construct billion-dollar corporations. So I usually attempt to keep in my lane.”
Smith, an NBA analyst for ESPN and host of “The Stephen A. Smith Present” podcast, drew backlash in February when he criticized Williams for performing alongside Lamar. The 22-time Grammy-winner included “Not Like Us,” a diss monitor targeting fellow rapper Drake, as a part of his set. Williams reportedly dated Drake on and off from 2011 to 2015, earlier than she went on to wed Ohanian in 2017.
“If I’m your husband, I’m pondering, ‘Why are you up there trolling him—trolling your ex?’” Smith stated during a “First Take” broadcast. “If I’m married, and my wife is going to troll her ex—go back to his ass. Because clearly you don’t belong with me. What you worried about him for?”
When his comments on Williams were met with a flurry of criticism, Smith defended himself by claiming he was merely presenting a “man’s perspective” and “highlighting what most men would think.”
“I didn’t utter a single disrespectful word about Serena. No issues with folks getting upset of literal serious stuff one’s pissed about,” he wrote on X. “This doesn’t qualify peeps. Come on.”
In a short video posted to YouTube Sunday after his on-air squabble with Ohanian went viral, Smith clarified his newest “First Take” feedback additional.
“I’ve completely no difficulty with him in any respect wanting to handle that state of affairs with me, as a result of that’s her husband, and I definitely meant no disrespect towards him in any respect,” he stated. “I used to be simply saying males, understanding us as males, if we’re married and our spouse is exhibiting power towards anyone else, even in a unfavorable manner, we’re asking ourselves: ‘In case you’re glad, why present that power?’ That’s it.”
