Brash babbler Stephen A. Smith is all bark. The Big Dog wants to see if he's got any bite.
The ESPN media personality and former Bucks star Glenn Robinson have a weird, ongoing beef that goes back to when both were in Philadelphia more than a decade ago, the former as a columnist for the Inquirer and the latter in the final years of his career with the 76ers. As we've now learned, there wasn't a whole lot of Brotherly Love between the two men in that city.
Their feud apparently started with the then-writer suggesting Robinson had a racial bias toward coaches (an ostensibly reverse-racial bias, in Smith's eyes), and it continued last week when Smith went on the radio to explain why "I despise him and he despises me."
Here's what Smith said on Sirius XM's Karen Hunter Show:
"I saw this man march lock step with what (former Bucks Coach) George Karl wanted to do ... but Randy Ayers becomes the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers ... you treated this man like trash, but you'll come and talk to reporters about how brothers need to facilitate brothers being hired, but you had one and how'd you treat him?"
Robinson, who was drafted first overall by Milwaukee in 1994 and served as a forward on the team until 2002, played under Karl for five seasons, advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001. From 2003-04, Robinson played in Philadelphia for Ayers, who is black and now an assistant for the New Orleans Pelicans.
On Tuesday, Robinson, the second-leading scorer in Bucks franchise history, fired back at Smith to TMZ Sports.
Robinson said he got in Smith's face recently at a game, which is the "real reason he despises me," not because of the alleged racial hypocrisy. His explanation of what happened (or would have happened) next is outstanding.
"It almost got physical, and we know what the outcome would’ve been if things had gotten physical," Robinson said. "I probably would’ve ended up getting a big, healthy, Ron Artest fine, and he probably would’ve sued me for $67 of my $68 million (rookie) contract. So at the end of the day, it really wasn’t worth it."
Big Dog then offered Smith an olive branch in the form of a challenge.
"I don’t want the brother to despise me for another 12 years," Robinson said. "So if he really wants to, we can set something up and put it on TMZ Sports and we can take it to the cage. Let’s get it off your chest my brother."
Settle it with a kennel fight.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
