Stephen A. Smith Is Never Satisfied

December 13, 2019 11:06 PM

He's a giant of sports media. A self-made man who's overcome tremendous odds to become the biggest star at ESPN. But now that he's reached the top, where does Stephen A. Smith go from here? To find out, Drew Magary attempts to keep up with the take-master himself.

A compelling long-ish form profile and interview of a man who - as a non-US resident - I previously knew only from his occasionally being lampooned on Deadspin. I hope folks more familiar with him will find it as interesting as I did.

posted by ominous_paws (12 comments total)

Stephen A. Smith has made a career out of being aggressively wrong in the way only a pundit or sports commentator is allowed to be.
posted by axiom at 2:59 AM on December 14, 2019 [10 favorites]

The way that every single photo in the article is flat, boring or incompetently shot, is that suppose to be a reflection of Smith's personality or is it just GQ's house style?
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:42 AM on December 14, 2019

To axiom’s point— Wasn’t this the guy who defended sports stars’ right to commit domestic violence?
posted by supercres at 4:23 AM on December 14, 2019

read him light into safety Eric Reid and NFL outcast Colin Kaepernick, demeaning the latter for daring to have his “hand out” (there’s that phrase again) for the NFL’s money and not being 100 percent deferential to them in the process. This is a pattern where Stephen A. lives now to respect moneyed interests and to be one.

He sold out Kap, tried to take credit for the bullshit fake tryout they made him run through, and doesn’t give two shits about women.

Commuting 1:45 each way in a personal vehicle through nyc isn’t sufficient punishment for such fuckery but it’s not a bad start.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 4:28 AM on December 14, 2019 [7 favorites]

To axiom’s point— Wasn’t this the guy who defended sports stars’ right to commit domestic violence?

It is discussed in this very article!
posted by ominous_paws at 5:29 AM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

Sometimes one wishes not to give page views to profiles of DV apologists!
posted by supercres at 8:47 AM on December 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

So this is a critical profile, not a puff piece or endorsement; author a long time critic of the man I should have made that clearer in the OP. Will remove this from my activity and let the post stand or be removed or whatever on its merits now.
posted by ominous_paws at 9:49 AM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

I think that in kind of the same way that "there's no such thing an anti-war film," there's no such thing as a critical longform personal profile. If you want to write an article about how some dude is an asshole, make it an op-ed, or a... folk song or a poem or something.
posted by Sterros at 10:32 AM on December 14, 2019

I think raucous romans a clef have been most effective in practice? Funny, risible character to be fixed in the public memory, and then the rumor that the buffoon is really... or ...? and then the image is stuck.

Or cartoons. “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?”
posted by clew at 12:32 PM on December 14, 2019

I enjoyed that. I miss Deadspin so it was nice to read a longform piece by Drew. I don't think Stephen A. Smith is any less of a misogynistic asshole because of it. It seems weirdly superficial to claim that longform pieces shouldn't be written about terrible people; I'm capable of understanding that people contain multitudes and sometimes, on balance, most of those multitudes are not very nice.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:47 PM on December 14, 2019 [6 favorites]

I don't care one iota about Stephan A Smith, but I read it just to enjoy Drew's writing, which I have sorely missed since the annihilation of Deadspin.
posted by jwest at 10:16 PM on December 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

Ctrl-f "Rangoon"

No results?????
posted by saladin at 6:29 AM on December 15, 2019