Stephen A. Smith Speaks Out On ESPN Cancellation And Buzz Dissinger

First, the show was not awful. At the very least, Smith gave a voice to black sportswriters and editors. That's a good thing. He had an intriguing episode on Ali. He conducted decent interviews with both Kobe and Iverson. And he had the all-woman panel a couple times. It wasn't I, Max. It tried.

But in the wake of its cancellation, I think you have to ask important questions about the role of race. No, not whether white people rejected the show. Whether not enough blacks embraced it.

Black America can sustain entertainment all on its own, you know, and if the viewership had been there - regardless of race - ESPN would have kept the show on. Stomp The Yard, a niche film for young black adults, completely blasted the competition this weekend at the box office. So it can happen. For whatever reason, Smith didn't capture enough of any audience.

For me, the show erred in a couple ways.

First, Smith's idiom of pronouns and adverbs and adjectives scrapes my brain cells. He sounds and acts like a barker.

Second, he stuck too closely to the ESPN talking points. Too often he was rehashing the same arguments that had raged all day on the channel. He made the columnist's mistake of showing up at the big event, putting in his two, and relying on the strength of his commentary.

 

Alma, you disappoint. Stomp the Yard a niche film? You of all people should recognize the latest iteration of the tough-guys-do-dance flick.

 

That's not just automatically a good thing.

It'd be better if black sportswriters and editors had a "voice" who was professional, reasoned, well connected...y'know, someone like Michael Wilbon. David Aldridge. David DuPree.

Jason Whitlock. (I couldn't resist)

Just because SAS is black doesn't automatically make his show any good, any more than Woody Paige and Skip Bayless being white makes their show a "voice" for white people.

Might the reason SAS "didn't capture enough of the black audience" is because black people aren't idiots? They see the same crap everybody else sees, and they -- like everyone else -- aren't interested enough to tune their TVs to ESPN in the middle of the night to watch SAS talk about Terrell Owens with Jim Brown, Carl Everett and Kwesi Mfume?

 

Besides, if black journalists need a voice, who better than this man?



Good Morning! It’s Sunday, 4:43 in the A.M, and this is "Perspectives." I’m your host, Lionel Osbourne.

 

You really don't see a photo there? It's coming through for me...

 

Mr King,

I couldn't stand him on the same show--ass-kissing, apple-polishing. Matter of taste, I guess. No Tom Snyder, that's for sure, as far as late-nite goes.

YHS, etc

 

You misunderstood. Smith invited other black journalists on the show. That's what I meant.

 

Not for me, either.

 

Sorry Alma, I stand corrected.

And my apologies about the photo...hopefully it's fixed now. (Though it does sort of spoil the joke.)

 

SAS DID NOT speak for African American sportswriters. He spoke for SAS about SAS and for SAS. Don't get it twisted llike a pretzel folks.

 

Smith invited quite a few black journalists on the show, didn't he? Did they all speak for him, too?

Again, it wasn't a great show. But let's not pretend he didn't include a lot of people in the business. He did.