Another chapter was added to the ongoing pseudo-beef between Stephen A. Smith and Dan Le Batard this week when Smith hosted Le Batard on his YouTube show and called Le Batard “sanctimonious” after Le Batard criticized the absurdity of First Take.
“You talked about the show being dumb or doing dumb things, and I’m saying, ‘wait a minute, have you seen some of the things that have been done on The Dan Le Batard Show?’ I find it funny. I find it comical,” Smith said. “But it ain’t like y’all are doing a whole bunch of stuff that is so cerebral and upstanding and so serious and ethical.
“You do seem to be a bit sanctimonious.”
Smith explained that his word choice came from a check-in with fellow old-school ESPNer Michael Wilbon.
“I won’t use the word hypocritical,” Smith said, “But I just got off the phone with my man Mike Wilbon, and he was like this, ‘we both love Dan, he’s our brother, but you tell his sanctimonious ass to calm down.'”
Le Batard, to his credit, agreed.
“I think that’s fair criticism of me.”
https://twitter.com/LeBatardShow/status/1699565936351526962?s=20
Despite Le Batard being critical of himself and his show’s social media team having fun with the clip, he continued to defend his style versus ESPN and Fox’s “embrace debate” programming.
“I think there are ways, without it being lowest common denominator, there are ways to elevate that discussion,” Le Batard said.
From there, Smith turned Le Batard’s words back on him. Smith said Le Batard can’t comprehend why an audience or even the journalists who host a show would truly prefer a show like First Take because, basically, his head is too big.
“I’ve known you for 30 years. You are a brilliant writer. And you are incredibly conscientious, and brilliant, and compassionate,” Smith said. “But you are also self-righteous.”
Always content to take it on the chin and be the butt of a joke, Le Batard agreed once again. He seemed to finally see the light as Smith broke down the difference between what he’s doing and what Le Batard is doing on TV.
“It is a terrible blind spot that you have just revealed to me that my arrogance is terribly unlikeable.” Le Batard said. “It would explain why it is that so many people have a problem … they think an (a-hole) is lecturing them, and it bothers them.”
The two star hosts’ “beef” began earlier this year when Le Batard told Smith he “hated” what he and Skip Bayless did to sports analysis. Le Batard has long held that debate TV demeans athletes and appeals to the “least common denominator” among sports fans.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.