Stephen A. Smith Says Suspension of Black Celtics Coach Was Example of Societal ‘Inequality’ Like Police Brutality
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith condemned the Boston Celtics for suspending former head coach Ime Udoka because it showed “inequality” like police brutality against Black Americans.
Udoka was suspended by the organization for the entire 2022-2023 season over an alleged affair he had with a staffer. Joe Mazzulla was named interim head coach, but on Thursday morning, the Celtics removed the “interim” tag and named him the head coach, thus ending Udoka’s tenure in Boston.
On Thursday’s First Take, Stephen A. was joined alongside analyst Jay Williams and the two agreed that the Celtics treated Udoka poorly.
“You could’ve handled it differently; they put him on front street. With his personal business, and I happen to know many occasions where that never happened to people who look a lot differently than me or you,” Smith said. “This is where I make people uncomfortable, and I don’t give two damns about it. Y’all full of it, and it really ticks me off with that.”
“It’s business as usual for those people, not for us,” Williams said.
Stephen A. compared how the Celtics treated the former head coach to police brutality in the Black community, but said, “this is why we cannot absolve Ima Udoka.”
He said:
What we can do is point out the inconsistency. When you talk about Black folks and what we’re really aspiring for, what you’re talking about fair and equal treatment. Not just under the law but period! No matter what may disgust us as a people, if you do to everybody, what you do to us, we gon go like this, “that’s the way it goes.”
When we talk about police brutality, what are we talking about here? We’re talking about the fact you see an unarmed Black man getting shot, but White folks shooting at cops, and they get arrested. Murdering folks, and they getting arrested. Getting stopped at Burger King, for crying out loud. The inequity of the treatment is what we’re talking about. Obviously, this case has nothing to do with the violence I just brought up.
Smith conceded that Udoka should have been fired, but he disagreed with how the situation was handled.
“But we’re talking about the inequity, the inequality, the inconsistency, and the flagrant hypocrisy that exists out in this world. And y’all gon’ sit up here, and everybody just say, ‘Ime Udoka shouldn’t have done it.’ Damn right, he shouldn’t have done it! Damn right, he should be fired! Fine! I’m good with it, no problem!” Stephen A. said.
Watch above via ESPN.
