Dave Portnoy rips Stephen A. Smith for Solitaire controversy in Caitlin Clark defense
Dave Portnoy pulled out a trump card to dunk on Stephen A. Smith.
Portnoy chided the star ESPN personality for his recent Solitaire controversy during the NBA Finals while calling him out on X for his opinion that Fever phenom Caitlin Clark can be an instigator, and saying she set off the drama with rival Angel Reese during their college days.
The Clark discussion came the day after the former No. 1 overall pick was at the center of a WNBA ruckus that featured her getting knocked to the ground during a win over the Sun on Tuesday.
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6 Dave Portnoy wearing a Caitlin Clark jersey.
Grace Smith-IndyStar via Imagn Images
'I'll take things that never happened but ESPN always pretends did for 100 Alex,' Portnoy tweeted Wednesday night over a quote tweet of Smith's comments. 'Less solitaire. More facts.'
Portnoy's comment hits on several factors, but at the core of the matter is a dig at Smith for being captured playing Solitaire on his phone during the Thunder's Game 4 win over the Pacers.
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Smith confirmed the legitimacy of the photo, but denied he was playing during the game.
However, several folks have claimed Smith was playing the card game on his phone during action, and one video corroborated that claim, showing the teams in action in front of Smith.
6 Smith playing Solitaire during Game 4 of the Finals.
@LegionHoops/X
'Yep! That's me. Who would've thought….I can multi-task. Especially during TIMEOUTS!' Smith tweeted. 'Hope y'all are enjoying the NBA Finals. This is going 7 games now, peeps!'
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Smith later said those bothered by his actions can 'kiss my ass.'
While the Solitaire line seemed to have a joking undertone, Portnoy's zealous defense of Clark is nothing new.
6 Caitlin Clark is bumped by Marina Mabrey.
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6 Clark hits the floor after being bumped.
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The Barstool Sports founder is an ardent supporter of the former Iowa star and ripped the WNBA for not ejecting Sun star Marina Mabrey after she bumped Clark to the floor Tuesday.
After Jacy Sheldon poked Clark in the eye, resulting in Clark making contact with her, Mabrey ran over and bumped Clark, sending her crashing to the floor in the third quarter.
'Imagine not kicking Marina Mabrey out after she assaults the face of the league?' Portnoy wrote on X on Tuesday above a clip of the play. 'Sick league @WNBA. Also shouldn't have been a tech on Caitlin since that girl got in her face after gouging her eyes.'
It's no surprise that Portnoy did not agree with Smith's take that Clark is not innocent and has created resentment toward her, in part because she's the 'rising tide' and also because of her antics.
'There's also resentment toward her because she instigates resentment toward her sometimes,' Smith said on 'First Take' on Wednesday. 'Oh, Caitlin can clap at you now. Caitlin can antagonize you now. Remember in college … the whole Angel Reese thing with her started because when Caitlin was giving it to everybody else, she was the one waving in their face. And that's why when Angel Reese and LSU got a hold of her, Angel Reese was like,' Yeah, it's your turn.' That's where it came from. It was instigated by Caitlin Clark. She got her comeuppance and she was big enough to embrace it and accept it and say, 'Yo, I deserve it and it was my turn' because they got me good.'
'South Carolina didn't do it to them when they spanked Iowa in the championship game, but nevertheless, she comes to the WNBA and you see her, you see a little shove here and there, you see her throwing a little elbow here and there, you see her talking smack. Caitlin Clark does this.'
6 Smith does the hand waving motion from the Caitlin Clark-Angel Reese drama.
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6 Stephen A. Smith discussing Caitlin Clark on ESPN on Wednesday.
@stoolpresidente/X
Clark and the Fever (6-5) have won back-to-back games since she returned from injury and visit the expansion Valkyries on Thursday night.
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