Jason Whitlock has defeated Stephen A. Smith

You don’t have to like Jason Whitlock. You don’t have to loathe Stephen A. Smith. All you need is a pair of eyes, a pair of ears, and half a brain to recognize the truth. 

There is no sense in these men continuing to escalate their war of words. Whitlock has won. He’s in Smith’s head.

I don’t know if Whitlock’s criticisms sting because Smith thinks they are true. I don’t know if the ESPN star was hurt that his First Take colleague Cam Newton had Whitlock on his podcast in the first place. Whatever the reason, Smith can’t quit Whitlock. 

Clearly, this is personal for Stephen A. Smith. We got our first glimpse of it two years ago with the ESPN star’s intense response to Whitlock calling him a fraud and questioning the details of Smith’s autobiography. 

Smith is one of the cogs that make Bristol turn. Whitlock is a dude with a YouTube channel. Why can’t Smith just dismiss the guy as a jealous hater and move on? If more people in the sports world did that, Whitlock would not get half the attention that he does.

Maybe it’s the specific word that sets Smith off. You can just dismiss someone calling you an asshole, but fraud has weight to it. It’s a specific criticism, and it lands hard. 

Whitlock has recognized something in Smith. He doesn’t have to try hard to turn that man inside out. I mean, “I think you’re gay and don’t like basketball” is something a sixth grader says. It’s not something that should merit a response from someone with a nine-figure contract.

In Smith, Whitlock has found an easy, high-value target. Smith can’t help but pay attention to what is said about him. Too often, he will give the criticisms airtime. It’s an affliction that is way too common these days amongst ESPN stars. 

Stephen A. Smith is unique, though, because his desire to be everywhere means there are more and more opportunities to call him out. Look, I don’t agree with Jason Whitlock’s politics, but I will give him credit for knowing what they are and consistently making content through that lens. Smith, on the other hand, is so dedicated to being everything to everyone that he refuses to move out of the center. As a result, he has created a political talk show for no one.

He is also in sports conversations he doesn’t need to be. First Take is going to fill time with topics that Smith cannot keep up with sometimes. All a critic needs to see is a brief moment of one of those conversations, and they have ammo to use against the star.

Jason Whitlock’s only move is to troll. Check his YouTube channel with video titles like “Daddy Issues Explain Lack of Black NFL Head Coaches” and “WNBA’s Alphabet Mafia STEALS More Money from NBA.” It’s really lazy stuff, but it’s all the man needs when it comes to Stephen A. Smith.

It’s bad enough that Smith is too emotional to realize that everything he says about Jason Whitlock only helps Jason Whitlock. I mean, when was the last time the average person even thought about Whitlock outside of one of these feuds? 

What is even worse is that Smith’s response on Monday morning’s First Take was just further proof that Whitlock got the better of him. By even acknowledging his existence, Whitlock has already won. The fact that Smith took it to national television made it a landslide victory. Couldn’t he come up with anything off the rip? He had to do a WWE-style promo promising we wouldn’t believe what he had to say on his podcast later that day. Then, when we got the podcast, the message was basically “I win because I said so” and “my friends should tell everyone I’m cool.”

You might hate Jason Whitlock, and it pains you to admit that he won anything. That’s fine. This can be one of those “the worst person you know just made a great point” moments. He has Stephen A. Smith’s number and knows he can ruin that man’s day any time he wants.