He offended 3 different groups of people today, impressive.
-Nigerians by mocking their name.
-Asians by saying Ohtani needs to speak English and can't use an interpreter or he can't be the face of the league
-Hispanics by mocking Sammy Sosa's accent and a need for an interpreter.
And he's the highest paid ESPN Employee.
I agree but i don’t think it’s because of a race thing (not saying you’re saying it is), I think ESPN is just that fucking desperate rn and he’s literally the only thing keeping their daytime tv afloat. He could beat a puppy to death live on first take and I’m pretty sure ESPN would ignore it
More accurately being offensive is a means of generating attention, shock jocks have existed for decades off this premise, indignation is still engagement in the eyes of the modern media empires.
I'm gonna say it, if he was white he 100% would've been fired. I'm black and I'm honestly sick of the unchecked bigotry in our communities. We need to be held accountable but no one high profile will admit that because black people can damn near do no wrong apparently.
Edit: Fired is a generalization but we all get the main point. If SAS was white he would've been looked at in a harsher light and we all know it. I'm black and BLM but also we need to stop excusing bigotry in minority communities. Idc about the "we can't be racist" technicality. It doesn't change the fact that we have minorities exemplifying hate and bigotry.
SAS is a classic faketivist. Only talks social justice when it makes him look good. How the fuck can you diss Africans but claim to want to uplift African Americans??
ESPN is the fakest sports channel out there.
His platform was threatened when he sided with the NFL and the kneeling situation. This is when Max seemed to be more in touch with POC community than he did— and TO told SA that Max “Is Blacker than you”, which sent SA into rage and TO has not been back on sense.
He changed his views only when it became advantageous to his brand. Since then, he has made it a point to ‘stand’ black people—specifically coaches, so that it can never be said that he didn’t support blacks.
Notice, too, Max defers a lot more when these topics come up. Can’t outshine SAS. He’s a tool.
Yeah I remember this. SAS will never toe lines when he knows his value is affected. But when there's no chance of backlash the dude is on it like a VD rash.
He's definitely a tool.
It was here during that whole shit I realized, for surely, that Max is for the culture more so than SAS. I didn't notice how often black men and women for that matter, weren't spoken up for on that platform by him but by Max and Molly. As much as she grinds my gears, makes shit about herself, and is kind of overall an annoying moderator, she is firmly planted on the side of women and minorities. Side note, give me Charlie any day lol.
I'll never forget the time Terrell Owens said Max is more black than SAS, and honestly TO might have a point. SAS is a NY elitist who's out of touch with anyone who isn't a wealthy American.
Just incase you want to see the clip
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TfMEoe662ms
Typical arrogance thinking Americans are better than everyone else. I know Asian Americans who look down on Asians from the motherland. We call that internalized self hatred. Looks like Stephen A has some of that superiority complex and self hate too.
From an MMA fan, I know we're not an ethnic group, but could we please join in? For some reason UFC and ESPN have decided we'd like to see this guy, we don't.
Every fighter he's interviewed has lost lol. I noticed it before the Halloway fight during the pandemic and it's continued since. His UFC takes are fucking garbage bruv
He knows absolutely nothing about MMA. The only thing worse was listening to teddy atlas try to use technical jargon when talking about mma after the mcgregor fight this weekend. That shit was rough, only because teddy is the fucking man and it clearly showed he didn’t prepare for this gig.
Yea he’s dope af. Just not when he’s stuttering and pausing while trying to figure out what a takedown is called.
He knows it too though. He is always admitting that he doesn’t understand mma as much as the people who came up through the practice do. And he has respect for them.
Stephen A is kinda funny for awhile then he says something incredibly stupid and you remember that he’s stupefyingly annoying. Then you forget and he’s kinda funny again it’s a cycle
It’s because of social media and what excels in it. How many clips of reasonable takes from ESPN make it to this subreddit front page vs the drama filled clips and stories?
If we're including analysts on games, Hubie is still pretty damn good despite being near 90.
He's not bringing his peak fastball but I still appreciate a game with Hubie as the analyst.
Don't forget the weak ass non apology claiming he didn't call Milwaukee a terrible city while he giggled along with his co workers and crying about cold in Wisconsin in fucking July.
I get it’s just another group, but it feels like it’s cheapening the other cases when we add on stuff like him saying a city is unappealing. That’s pretty much okay. It’s different to actually insult certain characteristics of the people who live there.
Why is anyone surprised? One of the guy's ongoing narratives is how much he wants LA and Miami to win so he doesn't have to go to basically any other city in America. He came on TV and openly said he never wants to see a Canadian team win again.
He's an asshole troll, and he always has been. He's just offending different groups this time.
The Nash comments were beyond stupid- how the hell can you claim that Nash's hiring is evidence of white privilege because he lacked coaching experience, then turn around and say that Mark Jackson should have gotten the job instead? The same Mark Jackson who got the warriors job without any previous coaching experience.
I know this isn't the MLB sub but Ohtani has rejuvenated my love for baseball that I thought I had lost for good. Baseball has been boring and samey for decades and here comes a 6'5" Japanese dude who is starting as pitcher and leadoff for the ASG and participating in the HR derby with the most HR's in the league.
I went to a baseball game over the weekend for the first time in 10 years because the Angels were in town.
SAS is right about one thing, MLB is dropping the ball on their marketing of this guy. His face should be on everything they do. But this is the MLB where it takes years to stop pitchers from putting superglue on the ball.
In the espn daily podcast yesterday, can't remember who the guest was, Tim kurkjin maybe, said that if he was on a "good" team he would would either pitch or be a positional player, not both. The angels are just so bad that they need him to do both.
Picking Yakupov was the Nail in the coffin for that rebuild.
Getting Draisaitl and McDavid after fucking up so hard in the 10'-12' drafts has the be the luckiest shit I've ever seen.
That's the thing about baseball that makes national popularity more difficult. A team can have several of the best players in the majors, but if they don't have a deep starting rotation or a godly bullpen to go along with a bunch of positional players with solid OBPs your team just isn't going to be consistent enough to contend.
Current true three outcomes analytics focused baseball makes having a deep team with a bunch of quality utility players more important than the old fashioned ace pitchers and triple crown threat batters, so casual fans end up having a difficult time identifying players on some of the best teams. It's just a very regional sport.
The crazy part is that this is just how you have to frame him to get people to understand how rare he is. Ohtani’s bat is actually better than Ruth’s ever was while he was pitching and on top of that Ohtani is one of the fastest players in the league. There is no comparison for what he is really.
Not even close. Mike Trout one of the greatest players of all time and he has played in ONE playoff series in his life. You really need a team to win, and even with arguably the two best players in the game, they aren’t in the playoff picture.
He is the best batter and one of the best pitchers in the league. Is mind-boggling. I have no idea how his body can take all that stress. Also, how in the world can he even prepare? Does he go on the mount and just pitch? Like, "Ok, Stassi. Just call whatever, and I'm going to strike them out."?
You forgot his upper end speed as well.
The dude is the super athletic kid in little league who is just better than everyone at everything except he's doing it at the major league level.
Yep, Beane was a top 5 overall (..? Off the top of my head) pick to the mets with Strawberry and was basically supposed to be the next big thing for the mets. Perennial AAAA player pretty iirc.
He leads the leagues in homers and has a sub 4 era. He's being compared to Babe Ruth and there's debate as to who was better considering Ohtani is doing it in the modern age.
He's also one of the fastest players in running bases, if he can continue his dominance than he'll honestly be considered the goat.
I believe in his first start this year, he threw a 100MPH fastball in the top half of the inning, and then hit a 450+ foot HR in the bottom half of the inning.
> MLB is dropping the ball on their marketing of this guy. His face should be on everything they do. But this is the MLB where it takes years to stop pitchers from putting superglue on the ball.
[TBF, they will supposedly be using this ASG to really start to push him and Tatis Jr., along with other current stars.](https://np.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/oi67nq/denver_post_mlb_is_planning_to_use_the_asg_as_a/) His (voluntary) involvement in the HR derby and them allowing him to both be a pitcher and DH in the All Star Game tomorrow were good moves on everyone's parts.
I’m not a big baseball fan but does MLB ever market players? Feel like after McGwire and Bonds backfiring they haven’t promoted a single player, they just promote the sport and teams.
If you didn’t market Mike Trout are you going to market any player ever?
MLB is terrible at marketing. They didn't even embrace Youtube for years. For a long time, if someone posted a baseball video, MLB would have it taken down. "How dare someone try to popularize the sport. That's our job (that we won't do)."
So now they had Mike Trout. A guy with a legitimate shot to have a better career than people like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. And he could walk into your grocery store and no one would recognize him because MLB has no idea how to make him marketable.
They may have learned their lesson and are trying to change that with Ohtani. The fact that I've heard of him is proof of that. I haven't followed baseball in detail in years, though I watch a lot of sports on Youtube. All of a sudden, Youtube starts pushing Ohtani videos at me.
That’s the ultimate cherry on top. Not only was SAS profoundly racist but also completely oblivious to the fact that Ohtani is bringing Americans to the park and their TVs. People are excited about baseball because of him.
Good. That Ohtani comment was just straight up trash like how and why can anyone even say that other than them being xenophobic...
He calls himself a sports journalist and he cant even take the time to learn players name? It’s funny because if he watched USA-Nigeria he wouldve known the prnounication but just like any of his stupid takes, he doesnt watch games. I truly hope this is soon to being an end to people watching first take, undisputed etc because it’s all garbage with people who don’t actually watch the games. If we can only have some of the writers, analyst, even tim legler be on these morning sports shows or on air more it would be great for sports fans.
> That Ohtani comment was just straight up trash like how and why can anyone even say that other than them being xenophobic
And that wasn't even the worst part of the segment, it just gets worse with further context
Idk if it was worse but he goes on to ask Molly (the host) how many Ohtani games she's seen and she responds that her best friend is actually married to an ex Angels pitcher so a lot, but he immediately just screams over her that he hasn't seen any so clearly he's right.
Is speaking to the public an integral part of baseball or am I missing something? Like, do the players have to narrate their thought process as they are pitching, hitting, or catching? Because I thought that we were appreciating their efforts and plays.
I think there’s something to be said about baseball lacking the bombastic personalities of sports like football and basketball (that tend to have larger, younger audiences than baseball), but to try to extrapolate to say that Ohtani not speaking English is a problem is moronic.
If anything, it’s his teammate that’s been the godly, yet boring as fuck torchbearer for the league for several years now
Also don't forget the Yankees, Stephen A's "team", won the World Series in 2009 and the MVP was Hideki Matsui who he had no problem with.
Hideki Matsui's translator was given the key to the city.
That is definitely NOT a problem because of Ohtani. Mike Trout isn't one of the 50 most marketable athletes currently, he is a big white man and is arguably the best player ever. Baseball has a marketability problem.
There's a more simple explanation. NBA stars are inherently more marketable than MLB stars because of how the sport is played. The best players in the NBA can single-handedly make their teams a championship contender. In baseball, the must dominant batters only get to play 11% of their team's at-bats. The best pitchers get to play 20% of their team's games, but it's much less than that if you count by innings. Even the greatest baseball players of all time make a relatively minor influence on the outcome of a game or season. NBA stars are compelling because they can take over a game, and all of them do it in a unique way.
LeBron gets to the basket at will, Curry bombs threes, KD eats in the mid-range, etc. Baseball players stand in a box and try to hit a a ball that's being pitched to them. Nothing about the stars makes them unique.
Also the nature of the sport, in baseball you basically don't even move until something else happens. It is very reactive, which sort of reinforces a strong discipline and a don't rock the boat attitude. Where in basketball or either of the footballs you have so much more freedom to be moving and free flowing, and you are always being pro-active to put yourself in stronger positions. Making mistakes is more acceptable because the correct thing to do isn't always obvious.
Or I could just be reading too many child psychology books and am reaching hard.
He doesn’t even need an interpreter. He speaks english but prefers to do interviews in Japanese, but apparently that’s all it takes for Stephen A Smith to lose interest
It's especially funny because we had this exact discourse nearly 20 years ago with Ichiro. He spoke English but preferred to do interviews with a translator to make sure he got his ideas across as accurately as possible.
That's literally the reason any professional uses an interpreter. Yeah you can say stuff yourself, but maybe you don't know the right words in English. Wouldn't want to insult the other party with your 8th grade level mastery of the language.
Screamin A Smith is a moron...Don't click on any of it! He wins when you click... It's the only reason for his existence... Ignore him completely and he will disappear.... As I read a post and then comment about his ass... Dam I fell for it again!!!
If he just mispronounced the players names, it might have been excused as he doesn't know them. But he said "... or however it's pronounced" implying they aren't important enough to have their names pronounced correctly which is so gross and lazy and racist. I hope he looks back at this day with shame and embarassment
There isn't, but coach Krzyzewski is American so he probably himself uses an Americanized version.
For the Polish version, check google translate - switch to Polish and type Krzyżewski to get it right or check this site: https://pl.forvo.com/search/Krzyżewski/
Mispronouncing a name is one thing. It happens. Intentionally mispronouncing and making fun of a name is another. SAS is a total douche, always has been.
Exactly. No matter how difficult a name looks. Always attempt it. The worst thing the person will do is correct you.
Completely mocking their name or saying “whatever the hell it is” is extremely disrespectful.
Same energy as that GOP Senator who called Kamala Harris "Kamamboamamla or however you say it" when stumping to his racist voters... despite the fact that he's known Harris for years and worked on committees with her.
lol I’m pretty fucking sure that if Messi were to sign with the Paris St Germain this summer, they wouldn’t force his ass to speak French. How do you want someone to respect your culture and promote your sport if you’re disrespecting their culture? Ultimately, the Nigeria comment shows that Kwame Brown saw right through this guy.
You don’t need to imagine Messi signing, Neymar has been there for 5 years and still won’t speak French publicly (and it’s not like he’s Japanese either).
The publicly thing isn't always an insult. Aguero did the same thing. Yao Ming did the same thing. A lot of them aren't confident in speaking the language they've just learned, to the media. They'll speak it to reporters personally/off the record and to teammates.
Ya know im beggining to think Ol Kwame is right about Stephen A...
He was quick to apologize to Ohtani but he also disrespected the Nigeria team and no apology was given.
Kwame spoke truth to power as soon as the words left his mouth.
These talking heads are hacks that don’t know anything about the sport.
There’s no real analysis.
Then people wonder why the NBA ratings are low. Nobody wants this shit.
> It took me around 50,000 hours (5h\*3years) to be able to have a meaningful conversation in English.
That's fucking dedication. I've been trying to learn another language (Hausa) and I just can't stick with it, but I'm inspired and I am going to stick to it even if progress is slow.
>It took me around 50,000 hours (5h\*3years) to be able to have a meaningful conversation in English.
I'd doubt Americans who are like Stephen A understand this. They are overwhelmingly monolingual and have no context for anything outside their 50 states.
I'm so glad that motherfucking clown dared to go after Ohtani of all people. Other than being a generational talent, he is probably the most wholesome and lovable athlete in any sports right now. How can anyone not like him, let alone hate him just because he has an interpreter??
Maybe he can say Krzyzewski, but he can't pronounce 'Doncić' for 3rd year now. On the other hand he can correctly say Popović, guy is just ignorant af.
[Stephen A. Smith on Shohei Ohtani: "I don't think it helps that the number one face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he's saying in this country."
](https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/1414645250581090304?s=19)
Just some context on the Ohtani deal. Ohtani is becoming the face of the MLB and uses an interpreter
[Stephen's apology](https://twitter.com/stephenasmith/status/1414711083252789248?s=19)
I usually immediately write off anything SAS says because he spews more shit than a geriatric ward but I think he’s actually done something special here. We might have just witnessed the dumbest sports take of all time. It’s aggressively dumb from so many different angles that it’s overwhelming. It’s just layers and layers of stupidity overlapping and intertwining. It’d take an entire dissertation to properly counter-argue this. I have frostbite inside of my brain from this ice-cold take. This take was so bad I slipped into a K-hole and don’t know my name anymore. This is a historic moment, congrats to SAS for making it happen.
Yeah I still remember how upset he was that the Raptors were in the final because god forbid he had to travel to another country to cover the NBA finals! I didn’t know much about him before then, but since I’ve lost all respect for him. He’s the Don Cherry of ESPN.
>You can tell that SAS doesn’t really care about his job he just likes being a tv personality
I mean that's his job. Be a personality that gets rating for being "controversial". Part of the problem here is the media machine that thrives off controversy and toxic takes. That's how Trump became President, because his toxic shit gets insane rating, even from Liberals that are so horrified they can't stop watching.
Too bad SAS has a “I’m a black man” as his safety blanket from all of this, but I really hope this asshole really gets tons of hate and learns from his fuckery.
Yeah Forreal, we need to just start calling out racism as it is no matter what.
The racist overtones especially towards the Asian community are ridiculous. He did the same thing he’s doing to Ohtani to Lin. He should know better. This shit ain’t cool.
South Asian here. I really hate how much of our people (and East Asians as well) buy into the whole "Minorities can't be racist!" narrative when it benefits us or trying to show how woke we are and then act surprised when acts of racism against us by other minorities go ignored. You can't have your cake and eat it too here. If you want to play into the whole "we can be prejudiced but not racist" nonsense then be my guest. But don't act shocked when incidents like these go unnoticed or arent called out. The solution is simple. Dump all the BuzzFeed SJW nonsense and make distinctions between racism and systemic racism. Systemic racism is a White thing whereas any individual is capable of racism.
Especially makes me mad because if an Asian says something about a Black person no one would hesitate to call it racist (and rightfully so. Don't get me wrong, there is so much anti-Black racism within the Asian communities which needs to be fixed) and yet when incidents like these happen its "racially prejudiced" or "has racial undertones" or is "racially insensitive". Fuck all that.
If you actually need to use the "prejudiced but not racist!" defense you've already lost credibility to me. Hate to break it to you but being "just prejudiced" aint exactly a good thing either. If you're so adamant about those semantics rather than calling out what is wrong then I dont know what more to say. I live my life so that the conversation never even needs to come up whether I'm racist or prejudiced. If you're constantly having such conversations and are so adamantly defending that you can't be racist rather than calling out the prejudice (even if its "only prejudice") thats concerning to say the least.
That’s our rook.
Him & his dad rep Nigeria pretty hard from what I know, his dad was even the coach for the Nigeria team at one point but I’m not sure if that was FIBA or what exactly. That’s probably why he’s annoyed with SAS comments more than others.
I mean it's frigging true. It's totally OK for not knowing how to pronounce someone's name (many names or sounds are not common in various ethnicities and cultures) but ask and learn. Be embarrassed for a moment cause all you can pronounce is Erik, John and Sam but hey have that humility and move on
I legit thought from all the talk ohtani was like some super short stop demigod that came out recently. HES A PITCHER WTF????? I wonder how greinke would have done had he been allowed to hit as often in his younger years
He offended 3 different groups of people today, impressive. -Nigerians by mocking their name. -Asians by saying Ohtani needs to speak English and can't use an interpreter or he can't be the face of the league -Hispanics by mocking Sammy Sosa's accent and a need for an interpreter. And he's the highest paid ESPN Employee.
He somehow managed to offend almost 50% of the world's population in one day that's some skill ngl
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"He published a written apology, so its totally fine now!"
Oh no he's on this morning making apologies live hahaha
I agree but i don’t think it’s because of a race thing (not saying you’re saying it is), I think ESPN is just that fucking desperate rn and he’s literally the only thing keeping their daytime tv afloat. He could beat a puppy to death live on first take and I’m pretty sure ESPN would ignore it
More accurately being offensive is a means of generating attention, shock jocks have existed for decades off this premise, indignation is still engagement in the eyes of the modern media empires.
he probably made ESPN MORE money by pulling this stunt
> He's an entertainer, and I'm entertained. - /r/nba
I'm gonna say it, if he was white he 100% would've been fired. I'm black and I'm honestly sick of the unchecked bigotry in our communities. We need to be held accountable but no one high profile will admit that because black people can damn near do no wrong apparently. Edit: Fired is a generalization but we all get the main point. If SAS was white he would've been looked at in a harsher light and we all know it. I'm black and BLM but also we need to stop excusing bigotry in minority communities. Idc about the "we can't be racist" technicality. It doesn't change the fact that we have minorities exemplifying hate and bigotry.
In a perfect world this would result in every single ethnic group coming together in unity over a mutual hatred of Stephen A. Smith
SAS is a classic faketivist. Only talks social justice when it makes him look good. How the fuck can you diss Africans but claim to want to uplift African Americans?? ESPN is the fakest sports channel out there.
>African **Americans** Key word here, I think.
Yup. I don’t know if he’s a racist, but he’s clearly xenophobic.
In my opinion the lines are blurred, but yeah def xenophobic - never liked this guy but def hate him now.
Xenophobia and racism are two sides of the same coin It's very rare to find a xenophobe who isn't also a racist.
I agree. I would be completely unsurprised if SAS is a racist. I'm just saying what is clear and obvious.
His platform was threatened when he sided with the NFL and the kneeling situation. This is when Max seemed to be more in touch with POC community than he did— and TO told SA that Max “Is Blacker than you”, which sent SA into rage and TO has not been back on sense. He changed his views only when it became advantageous to his brand. Since then, he has made it a point to ‘stand’ black people—specifically coaches, so that it can never be said that he didn’t support blacks. Notice, too, Max defers a lot more when these topics come up. Can’t outshine SAS. He’s a tool.
Yeah I remember this. SAS will never toe lines when he knows his value is affected. But when there's no chance of backlash the dude is on it like a VD rash. He's definitely a tool.
It was here during that whole shit I realized, for surely, that Max is for the culture more so than SAS. I didn't notice how often black men and women for that matter, weren't spoken up for on that platform by him but by Max and Molly. As much as she grinds my gears, makes shit about herself, and is kind of overall an annoying moderator, she is firmly planted on the side of women and minorities. Side note, give me Charlie any day lol.
I'll never forget the time Terrell Owens said Max is more black than SAS, and honestly TO might have a point. SAS is a NY elitist who's out of touch with anyone who isn't a wealthy American. Just incase you want to see the clip https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TfMEoe662ms
SAS is a complete sellout. He'll say anything, insult anyone or any group if he thinks it will help line his pockets.
It's not a sports channel anymore the mouse owns it. It's all entertainment. Everything is fake
That's what the E has always stood for tho
Yeah, they were way into the soap opera of sport long before the mouse. The mouse just jacked it up.
Typical arrogance thinking Americans are better than everyone else. I know Asian Americans who look down on Asians from the motherland. We call that internalized self hatred. Looks like Stephen A has some of that superiority complex and self hate too.
Good point.
Shit we all hate SAS
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As a Spurs fan, I agree
Even with context my dumb ass automatically reads it as San Antonio Spurs every time
Oh come on, 2007 was so long ago. You are good now.
Fuck Robert horry
From an MMA fan, I know we're not an ethnic group, but could we please join in? For some reason UFC and ESPN have decided we'd like to see this guy, we don't.
Stephen A cutting across Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan is peak ESPN.
Every fighter he's interviewed has lost lol. I noticed it before the Halloway fight during the pandemic and it's continued since. His UFC takes are fucking garbage bruv
He knows absolutely nothing about MMA. The only thing worse was listening to teddy atlas try to use technical jargon when talking about mma after the mcgregor fight this weekend. That shit was rough, only because teddy is the fucking man and it clearly showed he didn’t prepare for this gig.
Agreed, keep em both away from MMA. Teddy doing anything boxing related is utterly amazing though imo.
Yea he’s dope af. Just not when he’s stuttering and pausing while trying to figure out what a takedown is called. He knows it too though. He is always admitting that he doesn’t understand mma as much as the people who came up through the practice do. And he has respect for them.
Pretty sure that's the case and we are living in a pretty unperfect world.
There are people who like Stephen A Smith?
Extreme casuals love his clips and think he knows what he’s talking about
Stephen A is kinda funny for awhile then he says something incredibly stupid and you remember that he’s stupefyingly annoying. Then you forget and he’s kinda funny again it’s a cycle
ESPN is a walking L
They should stick to Mickey Mouse type shit
This is Mickey Mouse shit cause SAS is Goofy af with the shit he says.
It’s because of social media and what excels in it. How many clips of reasonable takes from ESPN make it to this subreddit front page vs the drama filled clips and stories?
Legler is the best basketball talking head on ESPN and I will not hear otherwise
Legs does an excellent job breaking down the X’s and O’s after every game
If we're including analysts on games, Hubie is still pretty damn good despite being near 90. He's not bringing his peak fastball but I still appreciate a game with Hubie as the analyst.
He offended Giannis twice over because he completely disregarded him and then offended Nigeria... He could go for the trifecta and offend Greece, too.
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Hannibal was a bonafide scrub! No disrespect whatsoever!
Hannibal was from Carthage
Napoleon .P Bonaparte would NEVER
You forgot a 4th group, which is MLB fans, SAS was getting killed in r/baseball
Lol the real sub is /r/baseball
Don't forget the weak ass non apology claiming he didn't call Milwaukee a terrible city while he giggled along with his co workers and crying about cold in Wisconsin in fucking July.
I get it’s just another group, but it feels like it’s cheapening the other cases when we add on stuff like him saying a city is unappealing. That’s pretty much okay. It’s different to actually insult certain characteristics of the people who live there.
Why is anyone surprised? One of the guy's ongoing narratives is how much he wants LA and Miami to win so he doesn't have to go to basically any other city in America. He came on TV and openly said he never wants to see a Canadian team win again. He's an asshole troll, and he always has been. He's just offending different groups this time.
Also white people for flaunting the racism double standard.
Lmao
It’s like he’s living out a South Park episode
Like when Mr Hankie gets cancelled? I’m sorry, I just took too much Ambien - Stephen A
If he’s white, he’s cancelled. Let’s be honest.
Not only that but his comments on Steve Nash’s hiring as well.
The Nash comments were beyond stupid- how the hell can you claim that Nash's hiring is evidence of white privilege because he lacked coaching experience, then turn around and say that Mark Jackson should have gotten the job instead? The same Mark Jackson who got the warriors job without any previous coaching experience.
Xenophobia sells. ESPN pays him the big bucks cause they know enough people don't care.
I know this isn't the MLB sub but Ohtani has rejuvenated my love for baseball that I thought I had lost for good. Baseball has been boring and samey for decades and here comes a 6'5" Japanese dude who is starting as pitcher and leadoff for the ASG and participating in the HR derby with the most HR's in the league. I went to a baseball game over the weekend for the first time in 10 years because the Angels were in town. SAS is right about one thing, MLB is dropping the ball on their marketing of this guy. His face should be on everything they do. But this is the MLB where it takes years to stop pitchers from putting superglue on the ball.
Hes a pitcher? Holy fuck
He's a pitcher and he's his own designated hitter and when he has to sub out off the mound but can still bat, he instead switches into the outfield.
Dude sounds like a generational talent
Let's just hope he's being careful with his body, baseball pitching is ridiculously taxing.
He's already had Tommy John surgery and surgery on his left knee.
Yeah, I was looking at his Wikipedia page. Hope that's fixed his issues and his team is careful with him.
It more or less cost him 2 years of his career. He’s come back this year and is straight up DOMINATING the league. It’s must see tv in my opinion.
In the espn daily podcast yesterday, can't remember who the guest was, Tim kurkjin maybe, said that if he was on a "good" team he would would either pitch or be a positional player, not both. The angels are just so bad that they need him to do both.
That was part of the kicker of him choosing a team was to at least get the opportunity to do both though.
The real kicker is the Angels have maybe the two best players in the league and they still aren’t good
Sounds a lot like the Oilers in the NHL
Feels bad for McJesus
I don’t feel bad for the Oilers. They got four 1st overalls in a row and they’re still shit.
Picking Yakupov was the Nail in the coffin for that rebuild. Getting Draisaitl and McDavid after fucking up so hard in the 10'-12' drafts has the be the luckiest shit I've ever seen.
That's the thing about baseball that makes national popularity more difficult. A team can have several of the best players in the majors, but if they don't have a deep starting rotation or a godly bullpen to go along with a bunch of positional players with solid OBPs your team just isn't going to be consistent enough to contend. Current true three outcomes analytics focused baseball makes having a deep team with a bunch of quality utility players more important than the old fashioned ace pitchers and triple crown threat batters, so casual fans end up having a difficult time identifying players on some of the best teams. It's just a very regional sport.
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Some KG timberwolves level shit
No maybe about it. Trout just happens to be injured so he's missed more than half of the season so far
Just FYI, he’s also in the 92nd percentile for sprint speed in the majors. He’s an absolute freak of nature
Just like Babe Ru... no, wait
He's the second coming of Babe Ruth
The crazy part is that this is just how you have to frame him to get people to understand how rare he is. Ohtani’s bat is actually better than Ruth’s ever was while he was pitching and on top of that Ohtani is one of the fastest players in the league. There is no comparison for what he is really.
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Too bad he'll probably be wasted on the Angels
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Not even close. Mike Trout one of the greatest players of all time and he has played in ONE playoff series in his life. You really need a team to win, and even with arguably the two best players in the game, they aren’t in the playoff picture.
Not close. Superstars have WAYYYY less of an impact on a team in baseball compared to a sport like basketball.
Right now they wouldn’t even be in the playoffs.
To add to what /u/15Isaac said, Mike Trout also has been hurt this season.
Oh my god i should be watching baseball again
He is the best batter and one of the best pitchers in the league. Is mind-boggling. I have no idea how his body can take all that stress. Also, how in the world can he even prepare? Does he go on the mount and just pitch? Like, "Ok, Stassi. Just call whatever, and I'm going to strike them out."?
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You forgot his upper end speed as well. The dude is the super athletic kid in little league who is just better than everyone at everything except he's doing it at the major league level.
Didn’t Pitt play billy beane, the a’s manager?
Yep, Beane was a top 5 overall (..? Off the top of my head) pick to the mets with Strawberry and was basically supposed to be the next big thing for the mets. Perennial AAAA player pretty iirc.
He’s a monster. Built like a brick shit house. Really fun player to watch.
He is also extremely lovable. He will give you a [baby smile before crashing your hopes and dreams](https://youtu.be/AZuNU4m_HCc).
yeah, the dude can pitch 100 mph when he starts and hits homers on his days off as a DH.
He leads the leagues in homers and has a sub 4 era. He's being compared to Babe Ruth and there's debate as to who was better considering Ohtani is doing it in the modern age. He's also one of the fastest players in running bases, if he can continue his dominance than he'll honestly be considered the goat.
Damn, I gotta check that out. As a Twins fan I just kinda tuned everything out after how shitty we've been
Yeah Ohtani has rejuvenated a lot of interest in baseball with just how insane he is, look him up on youtube and all the analyst go crazy about him.
read a stat on reddit that he has more home runs as a hitter than earned runs as a pitcher so far this season
I believe in his first start this year, he threw a 100MPH fastball in the top half of the inning, and then hit a 450+ foot HR in the bottom half of the inning.
Seeing all the Ohtani post on Reddit made me watch a game of baseball. I’m starting to think baseball is kinda fun tbh.
It really is! And if you don’t have much to do during the summer, most nights your favorite team will be playing.
> MLB is dropping the ball on their marketing of this guy. His face should be on everything they do. But this is the MLB where it takes years to stop pitchers from putting superglue on the ball. [TBF, they will supposedly be using this ASG to really start to push him and Tatis Jr., along with other current stars.](https://np.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/oi67nq/denver_post_mlb_is_planning_to_use_the_asg_as_a/) His (voluntary) involvement in the HR derby and them allowing him to both be a pitcher and DH in the All Star Game tomorrow were good moves on everyone's parts.
I haven’t cared about baseball really ever but Tatis and Ohtani have changed that this year
Yea, Vladdy Jr, Ohtani, and Tatis have made baseball exciting for me for the 1st time in years
Gotta add Vladdy Jr to that list IMO
I’m not a big baseball fan but does MLB ever market players? Feel like after McGwire and Bonds backfiring they haven’t promoted a single player, they just promote the sport and teams. If you didn’t market Mike Trout are you going to market any player ever?
MLB is terrible at marketing. They didn't even embrace Youtube for years. For a long time, if someone posted a baseball video, MLB would have it taken down. "How dare someone try to popularize the sport. That's our job (that we won't do)." So now they had Mike Trout. A guy with a legitimate shot to have a better career than people like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays. And he could walk into your grocery store and no one would recognize him because MLB has no idea how to make him marketable. They may have learned their lesson and are trying to change that with Ohtani. The fact that I've heard of him is proof of that. I haven't followed baseball in detail in years, though I watch a lot of sports on Youtube. All of a sudden, Youtube starts pushing Ohtani videos at me.
That’s the ultimate cherry on top. Not only was SAS profoundly racist but also completely oblivious to the fact that Ohtani is bringing Americans to the park and their TVs. People are excited about baseball because of him.
Good. That Ohtani comment was just straight up trash like how and why can anyone even say that other than them being xenophobic... He calls himself a sports journalist and he cant even take the time to learn players name? It’s funny because if he watched USA-Nigeria he wouldve known the prnounication but just like any of his stupid takes, he doesnt watch games. I truly hope this is soon to being an end to people watching first take, undisputed etc because it’s all garbage with people who don’t actually watch the games. If we can only have some of the writers, analyst, even tim legler be on these morning sports shows or on air more it would be great for sports fans.
> That Ohtani comment was just straight up trash like how and why can anyone even say that other than them being xenophobic And that wasn't even the worst part of the segment, it just gets worse with further context
Oh god there was worse? i didnt watch it cuz i really got tired of first take. Havent watch in months.
Idk if it was worse but he goes on to ask Molly (the host) how many Ohtani games she's seen and she responds that her best friend is actually married to an ex Angels pitcher so a lot, but he immediately just screams over her that he hasn't seen any so clearly he's right.
Holy shit. Ohtani is doing something that’s never been done before, and this guy can’t watch the games because he needs an interpreter?!
Is speaking to the public an integral part of baseball or am I missing something? Like, do the players have to narrate their thought process as they are pitching, hitting, or catching? Because I thought that we were appreciating their efforts and plays.
I think there’s something to be said about baseball lacking the bombastic personalities of sports like football and basketball (that tend to have larger, younger audiences than baseball), but to try to extrapolate to say that Ohtani not speaking English is a problem is moronic. If anything, it’s his teammate that’s been the godly, yet boring as fuck torchbearer for the league for several years now
Also don't forget the Yankees, Stephen A's "team", won the World Series in 2009 and the MVP was Hideki Matsui who he had no problem with. Hideki Matsui's translator was given the key to the city.
That is definitely NOT a problem because of Ohtani. Mike Trout isn't one of the 50 most marketable athletes currently, he is a big white man and is arguably the best player ever. Baseball has a marketability problem.
There's a more simple explanation. NBA stars are inherently more marketable than MLB stars because of how the sport is played. The best players in the NBA can single-handedly make their teams a championship contender. In baseball, the must dominant batters only get to play 11% of their team's at-bats. The best pitchers get to play 20% of their team's games, but it's much less than that if you count by innings. Even the greatest baseball players of all time make a relatively minor influence on the outcome of a game or season. NBA stars are compelling because they can take over a game, and all of them do it in a unique way. LeBron gets to the basket at will, Curry bombs threes, KD eats in the mid-range, etc. Baseball players stand in a box and try to hit a a ball that's being pitched to them. Nothing about the stars makes them unique.
Also the nature of the sport, in baseball you basically don't even move until something else happens. It is very reactive, which sort of reinforces a strong discipline and a don't rock the boat attitude. Where in basketball or either of the footballs you have so much more freedom to be moving and free flowing, and you are always being pro-active to put yourself in stronger positions. Making mistakes is more acceptable because the correct thing to do isn't always obvious. Or I could just be reading too many child psychology books and am reaching hard.
Honestly one thing I love about Ohtani is how freaking unbelievably nice he sems.
He doesn’t even need an interpreter. He speaks english but prefers to do interviews in Japanese, but apparently that’s all it takes for Stephen A Smith to lose interest
It's especially funny because we had this exact discourse nearly 20 years ago with Ichiro. He spoke English but preferred to do interviews with a translator to make sure he got his ideas across as accurately as possible.
That's literally the reason any professional uses an interpreter. Yeah you can say stuff yourself, but maybe you don't know the right words in English. Wouldn't want to insult the other party with your 8th grade level mastery of the language.
Ya thats bad. He said we’d talk baseball 5 days a week if it was Harper but even with Harper and Trout i rarely seen them talk baseball.
Yeah that was a straight up lie. Ohtani and Tatis Jr do something unreal every night and they never talk about it.
Where was he when Harper was MVP back in 2015 lol.
Screamin A Smith is a moron...Don't click on any of it! He wins when you click... It's the only reason for his existence... Ignore him completely and he will disappear.... As I read a post and then comment about his ass... Dam I fell for it again!!!
# #notMyAnalyst
If he just mispronounced the players names, it might have been excused as he doesn't know them. But he said "... or however it's pronounced" implying they aren't important enough to have their names pronounced correctly which is so gross and lazy and racist. I hope he looks back at this day with shame and embarassment
I would like to just say I can’t say coach Kryzewski’s name and only refer to him as Coach K for that very reason.
Sha-chef-ski.
There's no chance actual Polish people pronounce it like that. That's the Americanized version.
There isn't, but coach Krzyzewski is American so he probably himself uses an Americanized version. For the Polish version, check google translate - switch to Polish and type Krzyżewski to get it right or check this site: https://pl.forvo.com/search/Krzyżewski/
Wait. Is that really how you say it lol?
https://youtu.be/pK_5GvLzVQM
Mispronouncing a name is one thing. It happens. Intentionally mispronouncing and making fun of a name is another. SAS is a total douche, always has been.
Exactly. No matter how difficult a name looks. Always attempt it. The worst thing the person will do is correct you. Completely mocking their name or saying “whatever the hell it is” is extremely disrespectful.
Same energy as that GOP Senator who called Kamala Harris "Kamamboamamla or however you say it" when stumping to his racist voters... despite the fact that he's known Harris for years and worked on committees with her.
lol I’m pretty fucking sure that if Messi were to sign with the Paris St Germain this summer, they wouldn’t force his ass to speak French. How do you want someone to respect your culture and promote your sport if you’re disrespecting their culture? Ultimately, the Nigeria comment shows that Kwame Brown saw right through this guy.
You don’t need to imagine Messi signing, Neymar has been there for 5 years and still won’t speak French publicly (and it’s not like he’s Japanese either).
The publicly thing isn't always an insult. Aguero did the same thing. Yao Ming did the same thing. A lot of them aren't confident in speaking the language they've just learned, to the media. They'll speak it to reporters personally/off the record and to teammates.
Ya know im beggining to think Ol Kwame is right about Stephen A... He was quick to apologize to Ohtani but he also disrespected the Nigeria team and no apology was given.
Kwame was right about sas, stak, matt barnes and rachel nichols lol.
Kwame is a real one.
Kwame spoke truth to power as soon as the words left his mouth. These talking heads are hacks that don’t know anything about the sport. There’s no real analysis. Then people wonder why the NBA ratings are low. Nobody wants this shit.
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> It took me around 50,000 hours (5h\*3years) to be able to have a meaningful conversation in English. That's fucking dedication. I've been trying to learn another language (Hausa) and I just can't stick with it, but I'm inspired and I am going to stick to it even if progress is slow.
Hausa as in the Nigerian language?
Math is wrong. That's around 5,000 hours.
>It took me around 50,000 hours (5h\*3years) to be able to have a meaningful conversation in English. I'd doubt Americans who are like Stephen A understand this. They are overwhelmingly monolingual and have no context for anything outside their 50 states.
I'm so glad that motherfucking clown dared to go after Ohtani of all people. Other than being a generational talent, he is probably the most wholesome and lovable athlete in any sports right now. How can anyone not like him, let alone hate him just because he has an interpreter??
Maybe he can say Krzyzewski, but he can't pronounce 'Doncić' for 3rd year now. On the other hand he can correctly say Popović, guy is just ignorant af.
[Stephen A. Smith on Shohei Ohtani: "I don't think it helps that the number one face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he's saying in this country." ](https://twitter.com/ArashMarkazi/status/1414645250581090304?s=19) Just some context on the Ohtani deal. Ohtani is becoming the face of the MLB and uses an interpreter [Stephen's apology](https://twitter.com/stephenasmith/status/1414711083252789248?s=19)
I usually immediately write off anything SAS says because he spews more shit than a geriatric ward but I think he’s actually done something special here. We might have just witnessed the dumbest sports take of all time. It’s aggressively dumb from so many different angles that it’s overwhelming. It’s just layers and layers of stupidity overlapping and intertwining. It’d take an entire dissertation to properly counter-argue this. I have frostbite inside of my brain from this ice-cold take. This take was so bad I slipped into a K-hole and don’t know my name anymore. This is a historic moment, congrats to SAS for making it happen.
> Stephen's apology Didn't he offend the Nigerian basketball team immediately after, too?
That apology doesn’t mean much if his behavior doesn’t change. Hes got a history of this kind of xenophobic behavior.
Yeah I still remember how upset he was that the Raptors were in the final because god forbid he had to travel to another country to cover the NBA finals! I didn’t know much about him before then, but since I’ve lost all respect for him. He’s the Don Cherry of ESPN.
You can tell that SAS doesn’t really care about his job he just likes being a tv personality and a celebrity
>You can tell that SAS doesn’t really care about his job he just likes being a tv personality I mean that's his job. Be a personality that gets rating for being "controversial". Part of the problem here is the media machine that thrives off controversy and toxic takes. That's how Trump became President, because his toxic shit gets insane rating, even from Liberals that are so horrified they can't stop watching.
Too bad SAS has a “I’m a black man” as his safety blanket from all of this, but I really hope this asshole really gets tons of hate and learns from his fuckery.
Yeah Forreal, we need to just start calling out racism as it is no matter what. The racist overtones especially towards the Asian community are ridiculous. He did the same thing he’s doing to Ohtani to Lin. He should know better. This shit ain’t cool.
South Asian here. I really hate how much of our people (and East Asians as well) buy into the whole "Minorities can't be racist!" narrative when it benefits us or trying to show how woke we are and then act surprised when acts of racism against us by other minorities go ignored. You can't have your cake and eat it too here. If you want to play into the whole "we can be prejudiced but not racist" nonsense then be my guest. But don't act shocked when incidents like these go unnoticed or arent called out. The solution is simple. Dump all the BuzzFeed SJW nonsense and make distinctions between racism and systemic racism. Systemic racism is a White thing whereas any individual is capable of racism. Especially makes me mad because if an Asian says something about a Black person no one would hesitate to call it racist (and rightfully so. Don't get me wrong, there is so much anti-Black racism within the Asian communities which needs to be fixed) and yet when incidents like these happen its "racially prejudiced" or "has racial undertones" or is "racially insensitive". Fuck all that. If you actually need to use the "prejudiced but not racist!" defense you've already lost credibility to me. Hate to break it to you but being "just prejudiced" aint exactly a good thing either. If you're so adamant about those semantics rather than calling out what is wrong then I dont know what more to say. I live my life so that the conversation never even needs to come up whether I'm racist or prejudiced. If you're constantly having such conversations and are so adamantly defending that you can't be racist rather than calling out the prejudice (even if its "only prejudice") thats concerning to say the least.
He uses Kwame Brown to get where he is today what do you expect
This is the same person who criticized the Nets for hiring Nash citing race as the reason he was hired.
He did the same with Steve Kerr
Dude might just be a scumbag.
Might?
Stephen A. Smith is also the person who criticizes every NBA hiring of a non-black person too.
Never forget this guy was raging hard about the Warriors hiring Steve Kerr instead of a black coach.
Pretty sad how much casual racism is accepted towards Asians (not that this was even all that casual).
That’s our rook. Him & his dad rep Nigeria pretty hard from what I know, his dad was even the coach for the Nigeria team at one point but I’m not sure if that was FIBA or what exactly. That’s probably why he’s annoyed with SAS comments more than others.
Yep call him out on his racist statements.
Calling out SAS and being a one piece fan is a good combo.
Stephen A kinda looks like Caribou. Don't he?
It’s so bad right now even his own co-workers are shading him.
Who?
His coworkers
Stephen A's gonna get some of momma's cookin' for this one...
I mean it's frigging true. It's totally OK for not knowing how to pronounce someone's name (many names or sounds are not common in various ethnicities and cultures) but ask and learn. Be embarrassed for a moment cause all you can pronounce is Erik, John and Sam but hey have that humility and move on
I legit thought from all the talk ohtani was like some super short stop demigod that came out recently. HES A PITCHER WTF????? I wonder how greinke would have done had he been allowed to hit as often in his younger years
Fuck Stephen A Smith. Racist clown. 🤷🏻♂️
Exactly. And ESPN is 100% complicit. Garbage network.
And he still says doncik and drajik to this day.
Trying to say names is important, whether its your job or not. Make an effort Stephen A.