Stephen A. Smith hits back at Charles Barkley’s ESPN rant: ‘He’d never be accused of knowing television’

Things seem to be going well as ESPN braces for Charles Barkley and the entire Inside the NBA to join their airwaves next season.

In the wake of ESPN reaching a licensing agreement with TNT Sports to air Inside the NBA next season, Barkley has picked fights with the network and refused to confirm whether he’s even going to lend his talents to the Worldwide Leader.

Thursday night, Barkley took one of his patented shots at ESPN, calling Kendrick Perkins out specifically as he ripped “the fools” on that network for catering to the Lakers too much. Barkley criticizes ESPN for hyping the Lakers almost as much as ESPN actually hypes the Lakers. And Friday morning on First Take, Stephen A. Smith pushed back on Barkley’s rant.

“Barkley does television. He’d never be accused of knowing television.” – Stephen A. Smith responds to Charles Barkley’s ESPN rant pic.twitter.com/46cYDKff1S

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 7, 2025

“Barkley does television. He’d never be accused of knowing television. That would be Ernie Johnson who handles that responsibility,” Smith said. “Maybe Charles Barkley should look at its rundowns from time to time even though they are an NBA show as opposed to a show that talks about an abundance of things. The fact of the matter is, some stories get a higher profile than others because they resonate with the viewing public. And in television, it’s called ratings.”

Stephen A. Smith went on to say he had to call Kendrick Perkins and “talk him off a ledge” Thursday night “because he wanted to hurt somebody” after Charles Barkley labeled him a fool.

“That’s how Barkley talks,” Smith said. “He calls Kenny a fool every show! He calls him and Shaq idiots at least once a week. It’s how he talks.”

But while he excused Barkley for calling everyone at ESPN “fools,” Smith still had a big issue with the core of his rant.

“I’m sick and tired of people acting like ‘oh my goodness, we only talk about the Cowboys during the season, we only talk about the Lakers during the basketball season.’ That is factually incorrect.” pic.twitter.com/kklao5bMdF

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 7, 2025

“I’m sick and tired of people acting like ‘oh my goodness, we only talk about the Cowboys during the season, we only talk about the Lakers during the basketball season.’ That is factually incorrect,” Smith insisted. “We run from nothing. I do a minimum of about 240 shows a year…we talk about a potpourri of topics. We talk about all sports. But we also pay attention to what’s resonating. That’s why we’re number one. We understand what the audience wants us to talk about.”

First Take might run from nothing. But they also run toward every possible Cowboys and Lakers topic. Yes, it’s in the name of ratings, numbers, interest and engagement, but it’s factually correct to claim they prioritize talking about the two most popular franchises in American sports.

For some diehard sports fans, that might be exhausting. But First Take isn’t trying to appeal to you, First Take is trying to appeal to a broader audience, an audience who is more likely to pause at “Lakers” or “Cowboys” than they are “Thunder” or “Texans.” And there’s nothing Charles Barkley can do or say to change that.