The dominant story in the sports world coming out of the weekend was Kyrie Irving being traded from Brooklyn to Dallas, ending his tumultuous tenure with the Nets after issuing a trade request on Friday.
There is plenty to unpack about Irving’s time in Brooklyn, where he and Kevin Durant only played in 74 games together over three years and never made it beyond the conference semifinals, as well as what Irving will bring (good and bad) to the Mavericks. On Monday’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Jay Williams, and Tim Legler were planning on doing just that when things got spicy and a little bit personal between Smith and Williams, who had a very tense two-minute exchange.
Serious sparks are flying between Stephen A. Smith and Jay Williams over Kyrie Irving pic.twitter.com/Cp7MaSeTQD
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 6, 2023
Williams accuses Smith of having personal issues with Kyrie and letting that color his commentary of Irving. Smith, unsurprisingly, takes issue with that, coming from”you of all people,” referencing how Williams is rather famously close with Irving and has defended him on a number of occasions since he arrived in Brooklyn. He also calls out Jay for talking about things he finds interesting rather than simply saying what he feels.
The best part of the whole thing is when they pan to the camera behind Molly Qerim and you just see Legler chuckling to himself and sitting there wondering what the hell he’s doing there. Molly tries her best to get things back on track while Smith and Williams insist on trying to get the last word, but it didn’t seem like this segment did anything to resolve any lingering issues between Stephen A. and Jay.