What did NBA analyst Stephen A Smith tweet about Rihanna and why did he apologize?
Stephen A. Smith is no stranger to producing some of the hottest takes one can see on the internet. The reputed basketball analyst has made a career for himself out of his entertaining analysis, and more often than not, he is known for ripping into underperforming NBA stars irrespective of who or how big they are. As it turns out, Smith has a new, unusual target.
The NBA analyst recently went viral on social media after he posted his comments on pop singer Rihanna performing at the Half Time Show of the upcoming Super Bowl LVII. The biggest sporting event in the United States of America always hosts a huge musical presence performing at halftime every year, and it turns out that Rihanna will be the singer to perform this year.
While her fans are excited to see her perform for the first time in many years after coming back off a hiatus, it turned out that Stephen A. Smith wasn’t a fan. Smith appeared on the talk show Sherri, where he said: “I don’t wanna say I’m not excited. She’s fantastic. That’s not where I’m going with this. She’s a lot of things. She’s spectacular. Congratulations on new mama hood.”
Smith continued: “There’s one thing she’s not. She ain’t Beyoncé.” In response to the audience booing him, Smith added: “The only reason I brought up Beyoncé is because Beyoncé recently performed at the Super Bowl. And without Bruno Mars and Coldplay.” However, Smith had to apologize when fans of the singer voiced their anger when the clip surfaced on social media.
Smith took to his Twitter to address two tweets as an apology for his comments.
Smith wrote, “Horrific mistake. Something that was suppose to be a fun moment on the Sherri Shepard show has gotten out of hand. An overzealous member on my MGMT team — which has access to my account — posted something I would NEVER say about @rihanna, her fans or any other artist.”
The NBA analyst added: “The post… Has been removed. My social management team will never make a mistake like this again. My apologies again to @Rihanna. And just to be clear, I’m a huge fan. Sherri and I were just having fun. That is all.”
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