Stephen A. Smith apologized to Phoenix Suns Owner Mat Ishbia for his remarks after the team’s catastrophic season.
Smith took Ishbia to task for the state of affairs in the Salt River Valley recently, and even though the 45-year-old only bought the team in 2022, the ESPN host still painted him as a historic failure.
‘Mat Ishbia needs to understand that right now, you are on the verge of being recognized as the worst owner in the history of basketball,’ Smith said recently.
That comment put Ishbia in a category with Donald Sterling, who was famously forced to sell the Los Angeles Clippers over racist statements, and Robert Sarver, whose own scandals led him to sell the Suns to Ishbia.
After Ishbia lashed out at Smith for being ‘disrespectful’ the latter backtracked for mentioning Ishbia in the same breath as Sterling. However, he stood firm in his statement about his performance as an owner.
‘Mat Ishbia is absolutely right. I do owe him an apology because I mentioned Donald Sterling,’ Smith opened his remarks. ‘I thought I was making it clear I was talking about basketball.
Stephen A. Smith apologized to Mat Ishbia following his criticism of the Phoenix Suns owner
‘I certainly did not mean to compare him to a person that was thrown out of this league and has been widely recognized as a racist. I should not have mentioned Ibshia’s name in the same breath as Donald Sterling in that regard,’ The First Take host continued.
‘I was not talking about that Donald Sterling. I was talking about the Donald Sterling that would be courtside, heckling his own d*** players and never winning anything and didn’t give a damn. That’s the Donald Sterling I was talking about. With how ineffective he was as an owner on the basketball court.’
‘I certainly did not mean to do that. So Matt Ishbia is absolutely right and for that, I apologize,’ Smith said. ‘I’m a man, if I’m wrong, I’ll say I’m wrong.’
‘Unfortunately for you sir, that’s the only thing I’m wrong about,’ he concluded, glaring into the camera.
Ishbia was speaking Thursday after what he described as an ’embarrassing season’ – a 36-46 campaign that ended with coach Mike Budenholzer’s firing earlier in the week. Now, despite a roster that includes Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, Ishbia is set to hire the team’s fourth head coach in as many years.
During his remarks, Ishbia gave his thoughts on Smith given the back-and-forth between them.
Smith apologized for comparing Ishbia to controversial former Clippers owner Donald Sterling
Ishbia claims nobody cares about what Smith says, but ESPN plans to pay him $100m to say it
Ishbia believes Suns guard Devin Booker remains one of the league’s true ‘franchise’ players
‘Stephen A. Smith?’ the billionaire mortgage mogul and ex-Michigan State point guard asked reporters. ‘I don’t take him seriously, and honestly, I don’t think many do.’
Ishbia also brought up Smith’s past criticism of current league stars before pivoting back to his own roiling feud with the sports pundit.
‘The things he said about Kevin Durant, just wrong and disrespectful,’ Ishbia said. ‘The things he said about LeBron James, just disrespectful and inappropriate. With that being said, I don’t really think Stephen A. believes what he said.
‘I think he’s doing his thing, he’s on the mic and…I think he’ll apologize to me because it’s disrespectful to put my name aligned with anybody that was kicked out of the league or no longer part [of the league].’
The team is likely to move Durant this offseason before he turns 37 in September, but Ishbia remains publicly supportive of Booker, who is just 28 despite already spending an entire decade in the NBA.
Regardless of what their roster looks like next season, Ishbia promised fans ‘we will win a championship.’