John Oliver succinctly describes Stephen A. Smith on ‘Last Week Tonight’

Whether you listen to him or not, most people who watch sports know who Stephen A. Smith is. But while he’s got First Take, his own radio show, and makes frequent SportsCenter appearances, he’s not too well known outside of the sports bubble.

On Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver discussed the NBA’s current situation with China, and Smith came up. Last week alone, Smith brought up the longstanding Israel-Palestine conflict when talking about the NBA’s growing issues with China, while ESPN itself reportedly told shows to “avoid any political discussions about China and Hong Kong,” shortly before using a China-endorsed map of the country on the air.

Anyway, to paint a picture of Smith to those in the audience who doesn’t know who he is, Oliver said that Smith is “loud, wrong, and tends to take pointlessly dramatic pauses.” Yeah, that’ll do it.

attn: SAS came up on Last Week Tonight & it's the good stuff pic.twitter.com/xfXAkc6PXT

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 14, 2019

Instead of discussing the actual issues between the NBA and China, Smith has instead focused his attention on Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey for his original tweet that started this whole controversy, and was mad that Morey would tweet something that could affect the NBA’s revenue.

Whatever he’s talking about, Smith is often loud, wrong, and does tend to take pointlessly dramatic pauses. Thanks to John Oliver, people outside of the sports world are now aware of who Stephen A. Smith is.

[@bubbaprog]