Kyrie Irving has never been shy about speaking his mind, and now that he’s active on Twitch while rehabbing a torn ACL, he’s using the platform to dive deeper into basketball debates—and challenge the sports media status quo.

Recently, Irving took aim at the way sports analysts critique NBA players’ salaries, calling out what he sees as a double standard. His example? ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.

“I’m going to discuss Stephen A’s contract, and I’m going to say he’s not worth it,” Kyrie said bluntly on stream. “Obviously, Stephen A., this is for an [example],” he clarified, making clear it wasn’t a personal attack—just a point about fairness.

For years, players have been criticized by fans and pundits alike for failing to live up to big contracts. Washington’s Bradley Beal has become the face of this conversation, earning over $53 million this season while averaging just 17 points per game. But as Irving noted, fans tend to follow the lead of major media personalities.

“Sheep will follow the shepherd,” he remarked, arguing that if analysts want to publicly scrutinize players' performance versus pay, their own earnings should also be fair game.

Smith, arguably the most recognizable name in sports broadcasting, recently signed a five-year, $25 million contract with ESPN. That’s more annually than Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs’ rising star, who’s making $13.7 million.

“Does Smith deserve to earn more than Wemby?” Kyrie asked rhetorically—highlighting the strange optics of a broadcaster out-earning a generational basketball talent.

Irving’s main point was about accountability. If players are criticized for not delivering on their contracts, analysts should also face scrutiny when they offer poor takes or get things wrong—something fans have often accused Smith of.

In a new era where athletes have their own platforms and can speak directly to fans, the traditional role of sports analysts is being questioned. Irving’s take may be bold, but he’s far from alone in thinking it’s time to challenge the narrative.

Source: https://basketnews.com/news-227786-nba-star-questions-analysts-salary-compared-to-wemby.html

35 comments

  1. Unrealistically, I would hope Stephen A agrees he’s not worth $25 mil a year and retires so I don’t have to hear him ramble on EVERY SPORTING EVENT.

  3. I get the sentiment, I do, but this comes from a guy who makes hundreds of millions of dollar playing basketball. I really don’t think he’s in a position to say who deserves to make how much money, I type as I am about to enter my shitty job for pennies compared to either of them

    Edit: I fully understand how capitalism works. My complaint isn’t that they shouldn’t get that much money, because they should based on the system that we have. Whether I think that’s great or not isn’t the point of my comment. Just pointing out how out of touch Kyrie complaining about it is. You’re all making millions to play or talk about ball. Quit squabbling about who can afford the better yacht.

  4. stephen a smith still says “wembanyaNa”

    stephen a smith is a toilet man

  6. Kendrick Perkins is on the minimum vet wage at ESPN and must be seen as a bargain for them as ESPN builds out their talent. Dumb takes but gets folks active on social media

  9. SAS ruined the draft for me. Out of everyone you could’ve got and it was him. 💔

  10. Just like he was accountable for blowing up the Nets and proudly declaring he did his job

  11. I guarantee Stephen A, as obnoxious and grating as he is…earns every bit of that money for ESPN. He’s basically 90% of their programming at this point, and views = $$$. If anything he’s probably in that Lebron territory of underpaid lol. He’s probably *the* biggest personality on ESPN, and people tune in to watch his dumb takes, they read his tweets, they regurgitate his content all over social media, etc.

    Also, Wemby is on a rookie contract…it’s not like he’ll be making $13m/yr his whole career.

    Note: I really *really* don’t like SAS, so this isn’t kissing his ass or anything, just pointing out that he’s earned that contract via his work cultivating that character and his takes, regardless of how much they’ve harmed sports media/reporting. They don’t throw money like that at people w/o factoring in viewership and all sorts of metrics we regular people don’t even have access too. Their advertisers pay a premium because of those viewership #’s, and if the math works out: SAS will continue to get paid this way.

  12. If he wasn’t worth it Im not sure the network would just hand him the contract

  13. SAS is paid what the open market dictates. Wemby is paid based on the CBA and salary cap rules. Apples and oranges 

  14. SAS is salivating at the contents and clicks he can generate from this.

  15. Stephen A Smith about to pull out the low voice in the next episode of his podcast.

  16. How is a 5 year, $25M contract worth more annually than a $13.7M salary?

  17. It’s so difficult to talk about “worth”.

    As long as people watch those shitty ESPN segments with SAS he is in fact worth 25m…. especially considering how much Kyrie makes and how him just retiring the next second would not impact any ratings or earnings from the NBA or the Mavs at all.

    This is a tough point to make even tho I love SAS slander usually.

  18. It’s so funny that a guy who earns hundreds of millions of dollars putting a ball into a hoop is the one pocket watching other men and asking if they’re worth what they’re paid. Both of your jobs are equally meaningless

  19. I mean players being able to fuck with the livelihood of announcers they don’t like is a horrible precedent even though he’s totally right in this case

  21. lol of course he does. Because people like Kyrie talk about him. And then people here repost it. You know what the logical thing to do if you don’t like someone? Don’t fucking talk about it! Instead of giving him free promotion. I mean are Kyrie and people posting interning for Stephen A? Cause that’s the only reason to say and repost this bullshit.

  22. Wait, there is one more parallel here. Discussing Stephen A Smith’s (SAS) salary, with Wemby’s salary (who plays for SAS).

    On a serious note, 25m/5 years is like, 5m a year. How is that more than Wemby’s 13.7m a year? For sure SAS is not earning 25m a year, right? RIGHT?

  23. “I’ve known Kylie Irving a looooong time. Great young man. But let me tell you something”

  25. It is very funny that “professional hater” is a job that can earn you millions of dollars

  26. Y’all confusing “I don’t like this man” and “he brings no value to his company”.

  27. Stephen A is like that drunk dude at the bar that just says dumb shit for shock value. Stephen A doesn’t deserve a job in this industry, let alone a massive payday.

  28. Bro gonna be playing solitaire on hard mode to keep from having to think about these shots Kyrie fired

  30. “If players are criticized for not delivering on their contracts, analysts should also face scrutiny when they offer poor takes or get things wrong—something fans have often accused Smith of.”

    that’s not Stephen A’s job, his job is to get attention for ESPN which he does

  33. I can’t watch anything that has SAS on it. I don’t know how people do it.

  35. NBA players pocket watching is the craziest thing you get paid 8 generations worth of wealth to play basketball and complaining some guy makes money off criticizing you. SAS is awful and bad for basketball but come on bro.

Leave a Reply