ESPN fired Curt Schilling for sharing a Facebook post about bathroom signs.
Now the man earning $21 million a year from that same network told the world the Lakers can't win because their best players are white.
Nobody at Disney has said a word about Stephen Smith’s racism.
What He Actually Said
Stephen A. Smith went on the air Wednesday and said the quiet part so loud it echoed across every sports bar in America.
The Lakers just rebuilt their roster around Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and newly acquired center Walker Kessler.
Smith's verdict?
Wrong skin color.
"Where the hell the Los Angeles Lakers think they're going with a bunch of white dudes?" Smith said on The Stephen A. Smith Show. "Your three top players are white dudes? Really? This ain't golf! This ain't baseball! Hell, it ain't even soccer! What do y'all think this is? This is basketball!"
He kept going.
"In NBA history, when have you seen your three most prominent players on a basketball team all be white, and that takes you to the promised land? Somebody got to say it, so I'm saying it!" he added.
https://twitter.com/stephenasmith/status/2072397917055262848?s=20
Smith then posted the clip himself, titled it "3 WHITE DUDES?!" and had his team push it everywhere.
This was not a slip.
A planned, produced, promoted declaration that white players are structurally incapable of winning the NBA's biggest prize.
Curt Schilling Got Fired for a Facebook Post
In April 2016, Curt Schilling shared a post on his personal Facebook page about transgender bathroom laws.
Not on ESPN airwaves. Not in a clip his team promoted. His personal page.
ESPN released a statement calling his conduct "unacceptable" and terminated his employment the same week.
That is the standard the network established for itself.
A private post from a personal account: immediate termination.
A produced, promoted, on-air declaration that white athletes cannot win basketball championships: nothing.
OutKick reached out to Smith and asked whether he believes white basketball players are inferior, and whether there are cases where Black athletes are inferior.
He didn't answer.
ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro – the man who handed Smith a five-year, $105 million contract last year – has not said a word either.
Someone Already Answered His Question
Smith asked whether three white stars had ever carried a team to an NBA championship.
The 1986 Boston Celtics would like a word.
Larry Bird. Kevin McHale. Danny Ainge.
Three white stars finished 67-15 that season and won the ring.
Smith gets paid to know things like that.
The broader picture is more damning for his premise.
Nikola Jokic – white, Serbian – is the best player in the NBA right now.
Luka Doncic – white, Slovenian – was the most dominant offensive player in the league before injuries ended his season.
Cooper Flagg – white – is the most celebrated rookie the league has seen in years.
Caitlin Clark – white – single-handedly rescued WNBA ratings and dragged an entire league into relevance.
https://twitter.com/NBA__Courtside/status/2072404429966389362?s=20
Smith's claim isn't a hot take.
It's demonstrably, historically, repeatedly wrong.
The Rule Works One Way at ESPN
ESPN built a standard: say something offensive, lose your job.
They applied it to Curt Schilling over a bathroom post he made on his own time.
They are not applying it to the man who declared on their airwaves that white players cannot win the NBA's biggest prize.
If a white broadcaster had said the equivalent about Black players – that three Black stars couldn't lead a Super Bowl champion, that football "isn't a Black sport," that somebody needs to say it – that broadcaster would be gone before the weekend.
Every person reading this already knows that.
The rule at ESPN isn't about offensive speech.
It's about whose offense counts.
Smith has a written exemption from his boss to discuss politics when other ESPN personalities are prohibited from doing so.
He's been floated as a 2028 Democrat presidential candidate. He pulls in nearly $40 million a year across ESPN, SiriusXM, and his podcast.
None of that changes what he said on camera.
All of it explains why he'll still be on the air Monday.
The Los Angeles Lakers surrendered two unprotected first-round picks and two draft swaps to build around Doncic and Reaves.
Reasonable people can debate whether that price was too steep.
What no white broadcaster would survive doing is dismissing the whole project based on the skin color of the players.
ESPN wrote the rule.
ESPN enforced it once.
They just decided it doesn't apply anymore.
Sources:
- Dylan Gwinn, "WATCH: '3 WHITE DUDES?!' Stephen A. Smith Stunned by Lakers' Building Roster Around White Players," Breitbart, July 1, 2026.
- Andrew Powell, "Stephen A Smith Mocks Lakers For Having A Lot Of 'White Dudes' On Roster," The Daily Caller, July 2, 2026.
- OutKick Staff, "Stephen A Smith Shows His Privilege By Mocking Lakers' Roster For Having Too Many 'White Dudes'," OutKick, July 2, 2026.
- NPR Staff, "ESPN Fires Curt Schilling For 'Unacceptable' Conduct," NPR, April 21, 2016.
- Andrew Marchand, "Stephen A. Smith Agrees to New ESPN Contract Worth $100 Million," The Athletic, March 7, 2025.