Stephen A. Smith reveals he and Allen Iverson only said 'F*** you' to each other for 8 months till nightclub rendezvous: "Met him at 2 AM"
Long before Stephen A. Smith was a TV personality who frequently dished out hot takes, he was an aspiring young journalist. During that time, Smith was assigned to the Philadelphia 76ers as the team's beat writer. Essentially, this meant that Smith was responsible for attending games, practices and media scrums to gain an inside scoop on the team.
Traditionally, this would mean building and maintaining relationships with some of the team's best players, in this case, such as Allen Iverson. However, Smith and Iverson didn't see eye to eye and went months without ever talking to one another.
This situation came about after Smith, who Iverson had built a relationship and friendship with, wrote an article criticizing the 76ers star. It created tension between the two, as Smith explained during a recent appearance on the Bussin' With The Boys podcast.
Smith said:
"You go every single day every single practice you got to cover the team, I was covering the Philadelphia 76ers and Allen Iverson and I went eight months without talking and the only time we talked was a couple of times where he was like, 'f**k you' and I was like, 'f**k you.'"
According to Stephen A. Smith, it wasn't until a friend of Iverson got the two together at a nightclub at 2 a.m. that they were able to squash their beef.
Stephen A. Smith describes how Allen Iverson made him feel small
In the recent Bussin' With The Boys podcast appearance, Stephen A. Smith explained that Allen Iverson was mad at him for not getting his side of the story. As Smith countered, he had been trying to reach Iverson for quite some time to get his take but wound up being left hanging.
As a result, he proceeded with the article, telling Iverson that his accessibility wouldn't determine the journalist's productivity. Interestingly enough, however, in 2022, Stephen A. Smith told the story of how Iverson made him feel small when the two discussed the article in question while speaking to JJ Redick.
"He said, 'Man, I don't care about the article. It's that it came from you.' And when he said that, I felt this small, because I got it ... He said, 'I deal with that every day, it's the fact that your name was on the byline.' And I really didn't say much, but when I saw the hurt in his eyes, the story wasn't worth it to me."
While Stephen A. Smith has discussed the situation on several occasions, Allen Iverson hasn't spoken about the matter and hasn't shed light on the disagreement. Although he is now the vice president of Reebok Basketball, he keeps a relatively low profile and hasn't divulged his side of the story.