ESPN's Jay Williams Rips Stephen A. Smith For 'Asinine Comment' on Giannis Antetokounmpo
ESPN's often cartoonish Stephen A. Smith has proven time and again that he will find his way into the news cycle, one way or another, regardless of whether it's for good or for bad.
But, ultimately, it's almost always been good from the lens of ESPN, because having Smith in headlines from countless media outlets at a near constant rate has proven to be exceptionally great for business.
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There's a very valid reason the 57-year-old Smith recently signed a monster contract with the "The Worldwide Leader in Sports," inking a $100 million deal that will keep him at ESPN for the next five years.
However, there's also a very valid reason that the man who chooses to play solitaire on his phone while in attendance for an intensely pivotal game of the NBA Finals is frequently ripe for loud criticism.
And sometimes, even from his own EPSN colleagues.
Enter Jay Williams, the former Duke basketball star and regular contributor to First Take, Stephen A. Smith's signature show, who simply could not hold back after Smith rather bizarrely referred to two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo as an "underachiever" during Monday's show.
"That was one of your worst takes I've heard in a long time, man," Williams said in response to the "underachiever" comment made by Smith. "That was horrible ... It's always love, but I think we really need to do a better job of reframing some of these conversations."
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"But a guy [Antetokounmpo] who has a 50-point closeout game [in the 2021 NBA Finals]. A guy who's never chased any of these dream team scenarios," Williams continued. "A guy who is a Finals MVP. A guy who is a multi-time All-Star. All-NBA, all-everything, global face of the game. The fact that he brought an NBA championship to Milwaukee, to Milwaukee ... to call him an underachiever I just think is an asinine comment."
Williams went on to essentially say that, by Smith's logic, there's an exorbitant number of fellow professional basketball players out there who have seen great success that led to winning an NBA championship, but would still fall under the same bizarre umbrella of "underachieving."
Unfortunately for Williams, in what was an otherwise solid and lengthy retort to Smith's click-bait type of claim, Philadelphia 76ers legend Allen Iverson never won an NBA Championship.
Yes, Iverson absolutely did carry that 76ers team to the NBA Finals in 2001 against a loaded Los Angeles Lakers team, but he never won a title.
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Nonetheless, Williams calling out Smith in a prolonged rant made for the type of sports entertainment that First Take was designed for, although even ESPN producers opted to drop some "time's up" type of tune at the 2-minute, 16-second mark of the clip.
To put the cherry on top of what turned out to be a highly expressive morning for the 43-year-old Williams, he may or may not have purposely dropped a dig at Stephen A. Smith in reference to him apparently never being around.
"He's only working nine thousand jobs," Williams said as host Molly Qerim sent First Take to commercial.
Related: Travis Kelce Makes Major Physical Change Ahead of NFL Season
ESPN's Jay Williams Rips Stephen A. Smith For 'Asinine Comment' on Giannis Antetokounmpo first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 16, 2025
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