NBA All-Star Weekend festivities tipped off on Friday night in Indianapolis. The 2024 All-Star Celebrity Game rang in the party, as is tradition, with great fanfare. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith participated in the fun only after a reported injury to the go-getter sports media personality ahead of the event during practice.
According to a tweet from ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, Smith sustained an ankle injury, practicing against Dallas Cowboys star EDGE Micah Parsons. The former Penn State standout also participated in Friday night’s fun in Indianapolis.
On Saturday, Smith went on the record to clear up what happened during a special weekend edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show.
Smith explained that he was on the court Friday night because he coached up Team Stephen A. during the All-Star Celebrity Game against First Take co-host and longtime friend Shannon Sharpe.
“What I didn’t expect to happen to me was what happened to me. And that is… I busted my ass,” Smith admitted. “I wasn’t running, I wasn’t jumping, I literally stepped and I slipped on something. It must have been sweat on the court or whatever and both my feet went sliding in the air and I busted my ass and slid. It was pretty bad, it was pretty bad.
“Contrary to popular belief, however, it did not happen the way this turncoat, this Benedict Arnold, tried to portray it about me on live national television this morning,” Smith said. He pointed to a clip from First Take with Molly Qerim, who claimed Parsons crossed Smith over, resulting in the injury. Smith readied his response.
“You see, that’s what Molly does. That’s what Molly Qerim does. She fabricates stories, she makes stuff up, she’s always sensationalizing stuff, and it’s always to make me look bad. I did not get crossed over by Micah Parsons. I ain’t crossed over by any damn body cause I wasn’t playing no defense, I wasn’t in front of anybody, I wasn’t competing. I was just shooting around,” Smith said.
Smith then apologized for “not representing” everyone properly, and begged his colleague to stop laughing at him. He then blamed the sneakers he had on, which were the same ones Smith said that he wore on the mound at Yankee Stadium when he threw out the first pitch. “There’s no way in Hell I’m busting my ass on national television,” he said of the moment he threw that pitch with those sneakers.
“I should’ve known not to take those sneakers in the vicinity of a basketball court,” he admitted. “Fool me once, shame on you. But as George W. Bush, our former President said, fool me twice… you ain’t gonna fool me again.”
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