Stephen A. Smith Slams Alabama Basketball Star Owning Gun: ‘If You Didn’t Have That Firearm… a 23-Year-Old Young Lady Probably Would Still Be Alive’

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith blasted Alabama star Brandon Miller for possessing a firearm that was later allegedly used in the death of a woman.

In mid-January, former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles and Michael Lynn Davis allegedly shot and killed Jamea Jonae Harris. On Tuesday, police told a grand jury that Miller gave Miles the gun before the deadly shooting occurred. 

Miller played in Wednesday night’s game against South Carolina, where he was booed loudly, and fans in Columbia chanted “lock him up” while he was at the free throw line.

On Thursday morning’s First Take, Stephen A. praised the Alabama star for playing through the rough crowd.

“I will applaud Brandon Miller, the basketball player, from the standpoint that to be to endure what he was enduring last night,” Smith said.

“And to go out there as a freshman and to put on that show on the road absolutely showed the level of mental toughness that I believe NBA scouts, people on the next level, will look at assuming there’s nothing that comes from this from a legal perspective for him, they’ll look at that level of mental toughness and find a way to applaud that,” he said. “And as a basketball player, I’m not saying that should be applauded.”

Smith pivoted from Miller’s 41-point performance, where he also scored the game-winning basket in overtime, to the police’s testimony that Miller’s gun was used in the shooting.

“As a young man, I want Brandon Miller to think about this,” Smith said. “You didn’t pull the trigger, you didn’t shoot anybody, and it’s important to say that. But it’s also important to say this. If you didn’t have that firearm to provide for Darius Miles and the person that he was with, a 23-year-old young lady probably would still be alive.”

“And to think about that, and for you to have anything to do with that, it’s something that should make it very, very, very difficult for you to sleep at night. As opposed to pumping your chest to people who were booing you,” he said.

Stephen A. implied that Miller should not have played in Wednesday night’s game.

“As a young man and as a human being, you brought a gun to a teammate that ultimately was used to kill a 23-year-old innocent young lady seconds later. That is something the Alabama program and Brandon Miller himself should’ve wanted to avoid cameras for,” Smith said.

Watch above via ESPN.