Stephen A. Smith
Image Source: Moody College of Communication, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
What Was the Accusation?
On August 1, 2026, the New York Post reported that sports commentator Stephen A. Smith apologized to NBA player Kyrie Irving for Smith’s earlier criticism of Irving’s refusal to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The dispute originated in 2021, when Irving declined vaccination while playing for the Brooklyn Nets. New York City’s workplace vaccine requirements restricted his eligibility for home games, and the Nets initially announced that he would not participate as a part-time player. Irving’s decision became one of the NBA’s most visible vaccine controversies. Smith repeatedly criticized Irving in sports-media commentary, focusing on the effect that Irving’s choice had on his availability, his teammates, and the Nets’ championship expectations.
The 2026 report said Smith reconsidered that criticism after watching a hearing involving former federal health official Anthony Fauci. Smith’s apology therefore addressed the fairness and certainty of his earlier public judgments about Irving rather than a new allegation against the player. The image-repair issue for Smith is whether he used his large media platform to condemn Irving too strongly during a period of incomplete, disputed, and rapidly changing public-health information. By apologizing years later, Smith acknowledged that his earlier assessment deserved reconsideration. The available report supports two principal strategies: mortification, because he apologized directly to Irving, and defeasibility, because the reported catalyst was information or testimony that changed his understanding of the controversy.
Key Apologia Strategies:
Mortification, Good Intentions, Bolstering, Corrective Action
Video
Transcript
What’s up, everybody? Welcome to this special edition of the Stephen A. Smith Show. I’m out on vacation or what have you, but I felt compelled to come on the air because, ladies and gentlemen, I have to do something that I’ve done in the past, but I haven’t had to do but so much in my career.I just feel compelled to do it today, and that’s to issue an apology. There’s several people that we all owe apologies to, and I’ll put myself at the front of the list, but none more so than the apology that I owe to Kyrie Irving. Now, I know that People didn’t see and his name has not come up over the last several months too much because he sustained a devastating knee injury that kept him out this entire season from playing with the Dallas Mavericks probably could have came back early if they were playing for something. But since they weren’t playing for much because they were losing basketball games and Cooper flag was continuing to develop in the sand. He wasn’t really, really needed. So Kyrie Irving eventually will be back next season and he’ll be the superstar guard that we know him to be a scoring machine. One of the greatest handles we’ve ever witnessed.One of the greatest skilled players we’ve ever seen in NBA history. But this is not about him, the basketball player. This is about him, the man. The reality is, is that Kyrie Irving, no matter what we think, may have been more right than we have given him credit for.and unquestionably was more vilified than he deserved.And ladies and gentlemen, it starts with me, Teague Teller.
I’m a man. If I’m wrong, I’ll say I’m wrong. But when it comes to Kyrie Irving, I can’t apologize strongly enough. You know, you may be wondering what I’m talking about because you may not be paying so much attention to politics. I do. I always have and I always will. Not from an aficionado’s perspective, but just as a conscientious observer, watching the news, watching these shows, listening to perspectives, reading the newspapers, et cetera, I pay attention to some degree. Not an expert, but I watched. A gentleman by the name of Dr. Anthony Fauci show up on Capitol Hill, show up on Capitol Hill just this past Wednesday. And Dr. Fauci was up there and he was testifying. He was appearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee because they wanted to know specifically about his knowledge in regards to the coronavirus pandemic and what role he may have played inadvertently or otherwise in what ravaged this country and this world for over a year, if not longer. 1 .2 million American lives were lost. Worldwide, more than 7 million deaths were officially reported. The World Health Organization estimates approximately 14 .9 million excess deaths in the year 2020 and 2021 alone. And while that stuff was going on, we saw Dr. Anthony Fauci essentially protected. We saw him essentially labeled untouchable in terms of questions or scrutiny or anything like that. We saw vaccine mandates and booster mandates and, you know, distancing stipulations and mask mandates and all of this other stuff.
And along the way, there were a select few individuals in the world of sports, especially, that stood up and said, nah, I’m not down for this. And it was people like me who are critical of them. In my case, it wasn’t about the vaccine itself. It was about the fact that from a societal perspective, if we all got to deal with it, we all got to deal with it. And I looked at a willingness for one to sacrifice themselves for the betterment of the team, even though you thought something would be unhealthy for you, potentially. And I felt like it was worth the risk. I didn’t want to take the vaccine, but I took it. Millions of other people didn’t want to take the vaccine, but we took it. Why?Because there was a mandate that was handed down. And if we weren’t willing to meet that mandate, our jobs, our livelihoods, if not compromise in a very significant way would be completely stripped from us. But there were others who had the courage to say, bump that. One of those people at the forefront was Kyrie Irving. I bring his name up because I had my issues with him from a leadership standpoint. Never as a player, because he’s sensational. But with him, in terms of leadership, and I didn’t look at it as being courageous. I looked at it as being selfish. And I watched Dr. Fauci, Capitol Hill yesterday. And the person I thought about most was Kyrie Irving.
There were others, Aaron Rodgers, then other Green Bay Packers, before moving on to the Jets and ultimately, Pittsburgh Steelers. There was Novak Djokovic, greatest tennis player in the world. There was Bryson DeChambeau, golf extraordinaire. There was Conor McGregor of the UFC. There was Cole Beasley of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. There was Bradley Beal of the NBA, Jonathan Isaac playing for the Orlando Magic. Bradley Beal playing for the Washington Wizards. There was Kirk Cousins for the National Football League as well. There was Tyler Perduzzi for the Detroit Red Wings in the National Hockey League. There was Andrew Wiggins for the Golden State Warriors in the NBA.List went on and on.
Kyrie Irving stood out in my mind because of the heat that he was taking. And our folks were piling on because that was just the latest transgression in their eyes that he was committing and subjecting the public to. He refused the vaccine. New York City’s mandate made him ineligible for home games and he inked and he linked his stance to people losing jobs over vaccine mandates. It was Aaron Rodgers said he was immunized, not necessarily vaccinated. Tried to be slick with that. We got on him about that, but then disclosed that he had not received an authorized COVID vaccine and had pursued an alternative immunization protocol. He defended bodily autonomy and criticized the NFL rules for unvaccinated players. There was Yokovitch, remained unvaccinated and said he was willing to miss major tournaments rather than take the vaccine. He was deported before the 2022 Australian Open, if y ‘all remember, and missed the 2022 US Open because of government entry rules. Conor McGregor, his vaccination status was not publicly established and subsequently deleted post he opposed compulsory vaccination while saying he was not against vaccines themselves. Cole Beasley, NFL wide receiver fiercely criticized the joint NFL -NFLPA rules that treated vaccinated and unvaccinated players differently, saying he would accept retirement rather than get vaccinated.
Again, Jonathan Isaac cited his previous infection and natural immunity, invoked bodily autonomy and faith, and called vaccination a personal God-given choice. Bradley Beal said he was unvaccinated for personal reasons and questions why vaccinated people could still contract COVID. He later clarified that he was not urging others to reject vaccination. Kirk Cousins remained unvaccinated and called the decision private after missing practices as a close contact. He suggested using plexiglass to avoid another close contact designation. Tyler Bertuzzi, National Hockey League, was one of four unvaccinated NHL players when the 2021-2022 season began. His decision kept him out of games in Canada and cost him the corresponding paychecks. A lot of people spoke out against these folks.I spoke out against Guy Rier.
Years ago, as we learned and gathered more information, still not condemning Dr. Anthony Fauci, not saying that everything that he said was wrong, still so much unknown about the pandemic, the coronavirus, its origin, its true, total, specific impact. We can’t engage in condemnation completely anyway towards Fauci. A lot of Democrats, a lot of businesses in corporate America and beyond who supported their position. But the real point is we can’t condemn those who were a bit suspicious and raise the proverbial eyebrow about what was going on. That includes not raising that proverbial eyebrow at somebody like a Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving is a phenomenal, phenomenal basketball player. He’s also a good brother who’s conscientious and never intended to hurt anybody, just exercised his God-given right as a man and as an American citizen to do something differently than the public was pressuring him to do. I wasn’t alone. There were many, many people who took that position. But they were wrong, and I was wrong. He deserved better, especially from me.
Back then, just to enlighten everybody, COVID almost killed me. Got it in 2021. Sick as a dog, couldn’t shake it. In the emergency room, 90 minutes before the ball dropped in Times Square to bring in 2022. Doctors told me this antibiotic and this steroid is what you need to use. If this doesn’t work, we’re gonna have to call your family. I had double pneumonia, stemming from COVID, which plagued me for more than three weeks. Couldn’t breathe, woke up in cold sweats every night as if I had jumped into a pool with my clothes on. Some people, like my sister, had it and were better in three days. It nearly killed me. One size never fit all with this virus during this pandemic. But yet there were many people encouraging folks to do it anyway. Kyrie Irving wasn’t one of them. In my opinion, particularly hindsight-wise, it didn’t make him stubborn or selfish. It made him brave, his willingness to stand up and say, nah, I’m not doing that. It’s just a time for reflection and look at things differently.
With Kyrie Irving, that should certainly be the case, especially now after what we witnessed on Capitol Hill yesterday. When I see anything about the Rona, as they say, the coronavirus pandemic, and I see anybody testifying, and every time I see further suspicions coming to light about what it entails, I think about him. I’m just sorry. It wasn’t intentional. It was what I believed. And I didn’t even believe there wasn’t stuff that was suspicious about the vaccine. I always vibe with Kyrie Irving about that. I just felt that in the end, I was a leader at ESPN. He was a leader for his NBA team. And to get stuff flowing towards normalcy and recapturing our quality of life in this world and in this country, that it was worth taking a chance.
And every time I see additional information oozing out of Capitol Hill or anywhere else, adding credence to the suspicions that took place, I think about him. I think about the Aaron Rodgers too who’s a good dude. His personality might not be everybody’s taste, but he’s a good man and a future Hall of Famer and one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks in history, who has always deserved better than how he’s been treated. So I think about him, too. But again, no one, no one more than I think about Kyrie Irving. Sometimes it’s not about intent. It’s about the impact of one’s actions. And when I think back to how I felt about how selfish I thought his inaction was when it came, to the pandemic and the vaccines and the boosters and all of that stuff. And then you learn more about the harm that it has done to the human body. And you’re reading about Fauci in the diary and how he had chest pains and they thought it was some form of cancer. And then it was some pulmonary infarction.
Ultimately, you recognize the fact that these vaccines have harmed some people. It ain’t for everybody. And you think about how it was, we were told it’s for everybody. And one of the people, the few people that stood up publicly and was like, nah, It was Kyrie Irving. That’s our fault. Turns out that no matter what the truth is behind all of this, Kyrie Irving did nobody wrong. We did him wrong. I did him wrong. And for that, I’m sincerely sorry. Just thought it was important to say that. And all of those people in the sports world, you deal with the preponderance of evidence that’s presented to you and you come up with a perspective. It certainly doesn’t mean you’re always right.
And I’ll be damned if I’m always right. This is the latest evidence pointing to that. Doesn’t mean that Dr. Fauci was totally wrong just because he pleaded the fifth 111 times. It means there’s grounds for suspicion, and that suspicion alone justifies the skepticism, the cynicism, and the doubt that came along with the Kyrie Irvings, the Aaron Rodgers, the Novak Jokovics of the world. They weren’t as wrong as we thought they were. At the very least, we can say that. And that alone warrants a sincere apology to all of them, in my case, especially Kyrie Irving. That’s all I wanted to say. Other than just means I need to do better. I’m not alone, but I’m responsible for me. I need to do better and I will. Peace and love everybody. Until next time, talk to y ‘all later.
Sources
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