ESPN host Stephen A. Smith launched into a ferocious tirade against conservative commentator Jason Whitlock on Wednesday, calling him “the devil” and “worse than” a white supremacist after Whitlock called Smith’s memoir “farcical.”
Earlier in the day, Smith had announced his intentions to “finally speak my mind about that no good, fat bastard.” He said he made his pastor, ESPN colleagues, and his family aware of his forthcoming comments—an apparent indicator of how strong they would be.
And on Wednesday night, Smith pulled no punches during his podcast, calling Whitlock “the worst human being any of you will ever meet.”
“You get within a mile of his presence, wrap your arms around yourself to protect your soul. He is Cain. He is a devil, the worst. That’s all I have to say,” Smith said.
“I’m a very forgiving person. Not with him. I don’t care what beef I had, I don’t care how many of you out there hate me, whatever former athletes, all this stuff… man, please. I’m sorry. Because I certainly don’t hate y’all,” he continued. “We might have our differences from time to time. But it ain’t ever that. This is the exception.”
Smith defended his book, Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes, just yesterday.
“There are people out there lying and actually putting out there that I didn’t write my book,” he said then. “’I can assure you, so help me God, I wrote my book.”
“It’s my memoir. It’s my life story. I wasn’t leaving that in the hands of other people. So, people who say that, it’s just lies,” he said.
Whitlock, in an opinion column on the right-wing website The Blaze, doubted that Smith was recruited by Winston-Salem State’s basketball team.
In response to Smith, Whitlock wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I knew Stephen A was limited. I didn’t know he was this limited. I’m starting to feel sorry for him. I beat up a baby seal.”
