Jalen Rose Is Very Tired Of A Certain Someone ‘Pretending To Fake Troll The Cowboys’

When the Dallas Cowboys fell short on Sunday night in San Francisco, there were few non-Niners fans happier about it than Stephen A. Smith, who loves nothing more than trolling Cowboys fans and his Monday First Take sparring partner, Michael Irvin, after a Dallas loss.

On that front, Stephen A. delivered, doing a pre-show skit where he dressed as Pinky from Friday, badgering Irvin and then continuing on the show itself.

Smith relishes the chance to go over the top on his Cowboy hate, but not everyone at ESPN is a fan of the antics. His fellow NBA Countdown analyst Jalen Rose decided on Monday night that he’d stir the pot a bit with some tweets throwing considerable shade at Smith for “pretending to fake troll the Cowboys,” going after low-hanging fruit, and generally calling out sports TV shows for selling “clowns” to the audience instead of quality content.

What prompted this thread of tweets eight-plus hours after First Take aired is anyone’s guess, but Rose apparently couldn’t help but get his frustrations with ESPN’s most valued asset and the take-economy in general off his chest. It’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out, given ESPN’s investment in Smith, the fact that these two work together on NBA Countdown (which had been a revolving door of a cast until the last two years), and Rose re-upping on a contract extension in October. Smith would, of course, love to turn this into something for TV, but taking this to Twitter seems to indicate Rose isn’t interested in on-air banter for the aforementioned “dumb/lazy” audience.