Emmanuel Acho questions Stephen A. Smith’s handling of Molly Qerim’s departure from ESPN

Stephen A. Smith pulled back the curtain on Molly Qerim’s departure from First Take just enough to leave everyone confused and speculating.

Qerim’s abrupt breakup with ESPN and First Take came as a shock to many, including Smith, who addressed her departure on his Tuesday afternoon Mad Dog Sports Radio show for SiriusXM. And after hearing Smith share some details on Qerim’s departure, Emmanuel Acho questioned the ESPN star’s approach.

“Don’t tell us the details, then tell us you’re not gonna tell us the details,” Acho said Tuesday night on Speakeasy. “He said she abruptly resigned. That’s a detail! And then you’re gonna say, ‘but don’t ask me the details, cause I’m not gonna tell you all the details, that’s none of y’all business. Oh, and I don’t know the details.’”

Smith began his Tuesday afternoon SiriusXM show by addressing Qerim leaving ESPN, telling his audience the details were none of their business. Despite insisting he wasn’t going to share any details, Smith did, however, note her resignation was abrupt. Smith then used Qerim’s departure as a jumping off point to rant about talent contract negotiations in media. While Smith insisted he wasn’t talking about Qerim, the timing of his rant implied otherwise and allowed the audience to draw their own conclusions.

By being coy about what he knew and didn’t know, Smith created more questions on Qerim’s departure than he answered. And Acho agreed Smith made it sound like “something wild happened” leading to Qerim’s resignation, believing ESPN’s biggest star would have been better off just giving a shoutout and moving on instead of using the topic for clicks.

“From a human perspective. Molly was your sidekick for 10 years,” Acho continued. “We don’t need to know she abruptly resigned. Protect her at all costs. She didn’t want it to leak…We don’t need to know she abruptly resigned.”

“But now, Stephen A., you’re the one who told us she resigned. Don’t put her business out there and then say, you’re not gonna put her business out there…At what cost do you get the clicks? Don’t get clicks at the cost of Molly…You want to get clicks at the cost of LeBron James, I get it. Don’t get clicks at the cost of a person that helped you build your empire. That was tough on me.”