Stephen A. Smith is used to doing the pressing on First Take, but the tables were turned when he sat down with former ESPN colleagues Jemele Hill and Cari Champion for a very candid conversation about their complicated history at the Worldwide Leader.
Stephen A. Smith appeared on Hill and Champion’s Flagrant And Funny Podcast, where the three broadcasters went through years of disagreements, public criticism and lingering issues from their respective runs at ESPN. Champion wasted little time challenging Smith’s version of how she landed her former gig moderating First Take alongside him and Skip Bayless.
“Skip Bayless did not want to hire you,” Smith told Champion while discussing how she joined the show. “Neither did you,” Champion fired back. Champion joined ESPN in 2012 after working at Tennis Channel and eventually became the moderator of First Take before moving on to SportsCenter and SportsNation. Smith has previously claimed he played a major role in Champion getting the First Take opportunity, something she has disputed. During their reunion, Champion made it clear that her issue was not denying Smith’s influence at ESPN, but what she felt was him minimizing the work she had already done before arriving there.
“I didn’t like the idea of you acting like you plucked me out of obscurity and ignored all the hard work I did to get to that point,” she told him. Things got even spicier when Smith claimed Champion later wanted to return to a previous ESPN role. Champion immediately rejected his version of events, telling him, “That is not true Stephen A. I know you lying.” Smith stood firm, replying, “We’ll disagree. I don’t lie.”
Hill also came armed with some old receipts of her own. She revisited the controversy surrounding her 2017 comments about Donald Trump and pointed out that Smith publicly criticized her approach at the time without first contacting her privately. That became particularly relevant because Smith has repeatedly taken issue with Hill and Champion publicly criticizing him instead of calling him personally.
“You never called me, you never reached out, you didn’t say anything,” Hill told him, noting that she did not necessarily expect Smith to defend her but found the contrast notable considering his current position about friends addressing disagreements privately.
At the time, Smith argued that ESPN personalities needed to remember they represented a sports network and its larger brand when speaking publicly on political matters. Years later, Smith has expanded his own commentary far beyond sports, regularly discussing politics and appearing on political programs, which gave Hill plenty of room to challenge whether his standards have changed.
The conversation also widened into criticism Smith has received over how aggressively he addresses Black public figures, particularly Black women. Champion and Hill questioned whether Smith brings the same energy to everyone he disagrees with, while Smith defended his willingness to publicly criticize anyone and pushed back on the suggestion that he has been unfair toward Black women. The discussion touched on everything from Joy Reid and Jasmine Crockett to his very public feuds with athletes including LeBron James.
Despite some tense exchanges, things never completely went off the rails. Smith eventually told Champion, “I apologize for ever making you feel like you couldn’t talk to me,” and all three acknowledged the value of actually sitting across from one another instead of continuing their disagreements through clips, podcasts and social media.
And apparently, they still weren’t finished. Hill revealed that the nearly three-hour sit-down was split into two parts, with Part II scheduled to arrive Friday. Judging by how many ESPN skeletons came tumbling out during round one, Stephen A. Smith might want to keep those debate-show reflexes warmed up.
You can see the first half of their discussion here.
