The “A” stands for atonement.
ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith issued a shocking on-air apology to Kyrie Irving for blasting the much-maligned NBA superstar’s refusal to comply with mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations in 2021, which derailed the Brooklyn Nets’ season.
Smith interrupted his scheduled vacation Friday after watching Dr. Anthony Fauci deflect questions from Congress about the origins of the pandemic — saying he “felt compelled” to issue a mea culpa to Irving who was ruthlessly slammed for deciding against getting the COVID shot.
“I watched Dr. Fauci on Capitol Hill yesterday and the person I thought about most was Kyrie Irving,” the bloviator admitted after Fauci repeatedly pleaded the Fith Amendment during his testimony Wednesday.
“There’s several people that we all owe apologies to, and I’ll put myself at the front of the list, but none more so than the apology that I owe to Kyrie Irving,” the 58-year-old said at the start of his near 20-minute monologue for the “Stephen A. Smith Show” on Siruis XM.
He also named other top-tier athletes who are owed apologies for their COVID-19 vaccine stance, including former Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, tennis great Novak Djokovic, golfer Bryson Dechambeau and UFC legend Connor McGregor.
“The reality is, is that Kyrie Irving, no matter what we think, may have been more right than we have given him credit for and unquestionably was more vilified than he deserved. And ladies and gentleman, it starts with me,” Smith continued.
“We saw vaccine mandates and booster mandates and you know distancing stipulations and mask mandates and all of this other stuff. And along the way, there were a select few individuals in the world of sports especially that stood up and said, ‘Nah, I’m not down for this,’” Smith recounted.
During the 2021-22 NBA season, Irving sat out 35 games, including all games at Barclays Center, due to New York state’s vaccine mandate.
Irving was signed to a $34.9 million contract that season and was forced to relinquish just over 1% of his salary, roughly $381,000, for each game he missed for not complying with the mandate.
It cost the 9-time all star upwards of $13 million.
That vaccine rule was later lifted by then-Mayor Eric Adams who created an athlete/performer exemption in March 2022.
“[H]indsight-wise it didn’t make him stubborn or selfish. It made him brave for his willingness to stand up and say ‘Nah, I’m not doing that,’” the outspoken commenter opined.
Meanwhile, Smith, who survived a brush with COVID that landed him in the hospital on New Year’s Eve in 2022, also flamed Fauci’s decision to plead the Fifth during his testimony.
“Doesn’t mean that Dr. Fauci was totally wrong just because he pleaded the Fifth 111 times. It means there’s ground for suspicion,” said Smith, who stopped short of condemning the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director since there is “still so much unknown about the pandemic.”