After watching former White House medical advisor Anthony Fauci deflecting COVID-vaccine questions from Congress, ESPN and SiriusXM host Stephen A. Smith has now offered a mea culpa to Kyrie Irving for criticizing the NBA star’s refusal to get immunized years earlier.
Now with the Dallas Mavericks, Irving was a member of the Brooklyn Nets when the vaccine reached the market nearly five years ago. With the NBA deferring to local laws and regulations amid thousands of deaths nationwide, Irving was barred from playing home games and temporarily held out of road games by the Nets.
In the end, both the city and the team retreated from their respective stances. And on Friday’s episode of his eponymous talk show, Smith belatedly followed suit.
‘I watched Dr. Fauci on Capitol Hill yesterday and the person I thought about most was Kyrie Irving,’ Smith began.
‘There’s several people that we all owe apologies to, and I’ll put myself at the front of the list, but none more so than the apology that I owe to Kyrie Irving,’ he continued.
In total, Irving would miss 35 games for a Nets team that finished 44-38 before suffering a first-round playoff defeat to the Boston Celtics. As a result of his absence, Irving suffered roughly $13 million in lost pay.
Speaking on his SiriusXM show, sports pundit Stephen A. Smith has now offered a mea culpa to Kyrie Irving for criticizing the NBA star’s refusal to get immunized years earlier
Now with the Dallas Mavericks , Irving was a member of the Brooklyn Nets when the vaccine reached the market nearly five years ago. The NBA star refused to take the shot
Mentioning other vaccine skeptics like then-Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and tennis legend Novak Djokovic, Smith admitted that they may have been right in their stance.
‘The reality is, is that Kyrie Irving, no matter what we think, may have been more right than we have given him credit for and unquestionably was more vilified than he deserved,’ Smith said. ‘And ladies and gentleman, it starts with me.
‘We saw vaccine mandates and booster mandates and you know distancing stipulations and mask mandates and all of this other stuff,’ he continued. ‘And along the way, there were a select few individuals in the world of sports especially that stood up and said, ‘Nah, I’m not down for this.’
Smith was previously critical of vaccine skeptics and had his own harrowing battle with the illness, which he has claimed nearly killed him.
But his takedown of Irving actually took place before Smith became infected in January of 2022. Rather, Smith was reacting to a piece in The Athletic months earlier in which a source close to Irving said the NBA guard wanted to be a ‘voice for the voiceless.’
Former NIH Director Anthony Fauci listens during a lengthy hearing with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Saturday in Washington DC
‘Let me get this straight,’ Smith said in October of 2021. ‘So you don’t have a problem with taking the vaccine? Your position is that you’re going to sit up there and compromise the championship aspirations of an organization you signed on to represent – you coaxed Kevin Durant into signing on to represent, you played a role in coaxing James Harden into signing on to represent? You’re going to compromise all that because you want to give a voice to the voiceless? Really?
‘And how is that going to work out for you, Kyrie Irving? You’re going to disappear from the game of basketball, who the hell is going to be interested in what you have to say when you have proven that you can’t even be trusted enough to do your damn job? A job you volunteered for.
‘I am not calling Kyrie Irving stupid,’ Smith added. ‘Kyrie Irving, I happen to believe is an intelligent brother whose heart is in the right place. But now you’ve regressed to an alarming level of self-righteousness it not only makes you look hypocritical and untrustworthy, it makes you look what I know you are not, which is flat-out stupid.’
Speaking on Friday, Smith took it all back.
“[H]indsight-wise it didn’t make him stubborn or selfish,’ Smith said Friday on SiriusXM. ‘It made him brave for his willingness to stand up and say “Nah, I’m not doing that.”‘
