ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith teased the viewers of his show “First Take” Tuesday morning, informing his followers that he had something to say on Tuesday’s edition of the program.
As it turned out, Smith didn’t announce a big trade in the NBA, or give his prediction for the NBA Finals. Instead, Smith — in a raspy voice — announced that he has tested positive for COVID-19.
“I’ve tested positive for COVID-19,” Smith announced. “I have the coronavirus. I learned this over the weekend. I got tested three times last week prior to the weekend. I had tested negative before I had departed for LA, I tested negative when I arrived in LA, I tested negative when I got back from LA.”
Smith did not appear on Monday’s show due to his positive test, and said he will be out for the remainder of the week.
“Thank god I was vaccinated,” he continued. “Thank god I got the Pfizer vaccine, two shots a few months ago … thank god I got the vaccine because had it not been for that, I’d probably be much worse than I am right now.”
Smith revealed that he has mild symptoms and dealt with a 12-hour fever. He also informed the viewers that while he has not yet received his booster, he plans on doing so soon.
Following his announcement that he had contracted a virus that roughly 51.5 million other Americans have been infected by, Smith dove right into hammering the Brooklyn Nets for allowing star point guard Kyrie Irving to return to the team as a “part-time” player. Irving has yet to play in a game this season due to remaining unvaccinated, which prohibits him from playing at Barclays Center, the home of the Nets.
“I think it’s a horrible move. I think it’s a disgraceful move,” Smith said when asked if this was the best move for the Nets’ organization. “I think that Nets ownership is incredibly disappointing and I think that the league should intervene.”
“I’m open to the league invoking its ‘best interest of the game’ clause and mandating that everybody be vaccinated in some capacity,” Smith continued.
Smith’s comments come a day after his former colleague — Skip Bayless — slammed Irving for putting his teammates at risk on Monday’s airing of “Undisputed.”
“To me, that’s shameful,” Bayless said to Shannon Sharpe. “You thought it was shameful what Kyrie did to this team to begin with … The crushing irony of this whole development is that he betrayed this team over COVID, and then they crawled back to him because of COVID. And so the very thing he refused to protect himself and his team against, has now wrecked the whole basketball team to the point they said ‘we got no other choice, we gotta ask him to come back.’”
“As a society, we’re up against a variant that is the most contagious yet, by far. Maybe not the deadliest, but most contagious. And Kyrie is unvaccinated … he will be an enormous threat to their team. Which is why he’ll have to be tested every day, and kept in all kinds of mask protocols … He’s going to be a huge threat while he also can be a godsend.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
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