Michelle Beadle does not have a lot of good to say about her former ESPN colleague.
The veteran sports host Beadle spoke this week on her “Beadle and Decker” podcast about ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. Beadle specifically reacted to how Smith was caught playing Solitaire while on assignment at an NBA Finals game last season and then (a few days ago) cashed in on the controversy by endorsing an app called Solitaire Cash.
“Honestly, I’m not a religious person, but I pray for the downfall,” said Beadle of Smith, per Awful Announcing. “It’s gross, man. You gotta have principles in this thing.
“ESPN pays him a gazillion dollars to get a lot of stuff wrong and yell,” Beadle added. “He gets caught playing solitaire during the NBA freaking Finals … He made you look like fools for handing him a blank check in the first place. He doesn’t even give a s–t about the stuff that he’s paid a gazillion dollars to talk about. Now he’s turning around and turning that into a money-making opportunity.”
You may recall that it was Game 4 of the NBA Finals last season between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers when Smith was caught in a viral video playing Solitaire while in the middle of live game action. Smith then later (falsely) claimed that he was only playing during a timeout before eventually issuing a profane response to all those who were criticizing him over the viral moment.
As for Beadle, she does not have the best history with Smith either. While they still worked together at ESPN over a decade ago, Beadle publicly called out Smith over some controversial comments that Smith made at the time about domestic violence. Now Beadle, who works these days for FanDuel TV after leaving ESPN in 2019, is once again targeting Smith over his supposedly shameless latest Solitaire grift.
