The day has finally come when Stephen A. Smith has to apologize for something absolutely outlandish he said. In a rant about Phil Jackson and his inability to manage a team properly and make good basketball decisions as the team president. He went absolutely nuts when mentioning Lamar Odom and his serious drug addiction in the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScHTTDqigwA
RELATED: Stephen A. Smith goes nuclear on Phil Jackson and his tenure with the Knicks
Lamar Odom's lawyer released a statement to ESPN about Smith's rant and Odom tweeted it out with the hashtag "slander" as a caption:
#slander #ihopewearebetterthanthis pic.twitter.com/rcG1mPFTKR
— LAMAR ODOM (@RealLamarOdom) June 23, 2017
The note pretty much shoots down Smith and says that what he did was unacceptable and that addiction is a real and serious disease that Odom has been strong enough to share with the public. That fact shouldn't be overlooked and Smith jokingly disparaging the situation is not a great look.
Smith released an apology to Deadspin claiming that Odom "was not the target of (his) ire."
"Because of my personal affection for Lamar Odom — and only for that reason — I want to return to my comments about something I've repeated quite often over the last few days: the flagrant ineptitude that I feel has been on continual display by Knick's President Phil Jackson.
My comments were NOT to put any more focus on Lamar Odom's much publicized drug use and addiction. He was not the target of my ire.
The sole focus of my comments were directed at the unmitigated disaster that Phil Jackson has created since he's arrived in New York. It my opinion, he simply couldn't leave soon enough."
Smith went on to say that Odom is "one of the nicest athletes any of us have encountered." However, he did not quite address all of the issues raised by the former player's lawyer. While it's rare that Smith ever backs down from comments he makes, this would seem to be an excellent opportunity for the rare exception.
[h/t The Spun]
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