Jason Whitlock Deserved Getting Destroyed By Stephen A. Smith

Call it the Katt Williams Effect: We aren’t even a full pay period into 2024 and the airing of grievances has already been legendary.

On Wednesday evening, it was Jabba the Jason Whitlock’s turn for that Summer Jam screen, thanks to ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith.

Smith used his podcast, The Stephen A. Smith Show, to spend about 40 minutes laying into Whitlock, his rival sports commentator. Smith is known for his animated and honest takes on all things sports-related, but his last 18 years in radio and broadcast journalism have demanded a degree of restraint, so we’ve never seen him get as busy – or as profane – as this.

The feud between Smith and Whitlock is well known among sports media fans, but Wednesday night’s attack is the result of Whitlock recently claiming on his own show, “Fearless With Jason Whitlock,” that the stories in Smith’s 2023 book “Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes,” are inauthentic.

In Smith’s preamble, he stated that he consulted family members, his bosses at ESPN and even his pastor before leveling Whitlock. His tweet leading up to the Wednesday evening stream of the podcast invited much speculation – but “fat bastard” made it clear for many of us.

As Williams did in the Club Shay Shay podcast, Smith name-dropped everyone and their baby’s mama – only Whitlock was the only name to receive Smith’s vitriol. He rattled off the long and distinguished list of sports journalists who want nothing to do with Whitlock, including Jemele Hill, who backed up Smith with a tweet.

Smith himself, of course, is divisive for his bloviations and provocations; he’s no stranger to his own controversies, including his 2014 comments on domestic violence following NFL player Ray Rice’s suspension. But anyone remotely familiar with the antics of Whitlock, a sentient Uncle Ruckus, had Smith’s back Wednesday night.

One doesn’t need to be a sports fan to understand why Whitlock is a cancer to Black people or any semblance of reason. He was pushed out of ESPN in 2015 following his disastrous management of its then-new culture site The Undefeated (now Andscape); Deadspin wrote an investigative piece detailing the shitshow Whitlock precipitated – a copy of which Smith held up during his podcast.

Whitlock has bounced from one major sports outlet to another, lending credence to Smith’s claims that he’s alienated himself throughout his own industry. His current program “Fearless With Jason Whitlock,” is on Blaze Media, a conservative outlet known for platforming some of the most hideous humans ever shat out by a woman.

Whitlock has spent years delivering commentary that’s almost impressive in its abhorrence: He joined the parade of butthurt anti-LGBTQ commentators to lambaste USA World Cup soccer star and activist Megan Rapinoe, calling her the “Andrew Tate of LGBTQ.”

When Memphis police beat Tyre Nichols to his eventual death on Jan. 7, 2023, Whitlock hopped on Tucker Carlson’s show and suggested his murder is what happens when “young Black men” are “supervised by a single Black woman.”

When LeBron James’ Los Angeles home was vandalized with a racial slur in 2017, the NBA legend said, “no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, at the end of the day being a Black man in America is very frightening.”

Whitlock suggested that James’ fame and money somehow shields him from racism: “He’s reveling in pretending to be a victim. He hasn’t been a victim at any point in his lifetime,” he said. “But LeBron, like a lot of Black people, thinks that you can’t be Black unless you’re a victim, so he likes to play the role of victim.”

This list of Whitlock’s offensive bullshit is by no means exhaustive. But I’ll never contribute to his view count, so Google for yourself if you need to see more.

Smith called Whitlock a “fat piece of shit” several times Wednesday evening. Though I don’t endorse public body shaming, somehow it feels apropos for Whitlock and Whitlock alone.