Stephen A. Smith became one of the biggest storylines of Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night and it had nothing to do with his takes on the action, but rather what he was seen doing during the game.
In case you missed it, the ESPN star was caught by a fan playing solitaire on his phone during the Thunder’s thrilling win over the Pacers that evened the series at 2-2.
This was not a good look for Smith, who gets paid a lot of money to watch these games and then to share his thoughts on the action that he saw.
Smith fessed up to playing solitaire after the photo went viral, but said he was only doing it during timeouts.
“Yep! That’s me. Who would’ve thought….I can multi-task,” Smith tweeted. “Especially during TIMEOUTS! Hope y’all are enjoying the NBA Finals. This is going 7 games now, peeps!”
That tweet got the dreaded community note, which showed another fan’s video of Smith having solitaire up on his phone while the game was going on:
Tears why u lying pic.twitter.com/oyVX0LlH8q
— ᴅ ʀ ᴇ ᴡ (@FeelLikeDrew) June 14, 2025
NBA fans ripped Smith over his excuse about only playing it during timeouts.
Most employees get fired for playing solitaire on the job. The details during timeouts: players, coaches, etc is insightful. You are famous for lambasting elite professionals who fail in big moments. This is the NBA Finals & you didn’t do your job
You owe Kwame Brown an apology https://t.co/OuFXkP9Z8u
— Matthew Piper Jenks 🧲 (@MattPiperJenks) June 14, 2025
Bro just take the L. It’s video as top comment proving you wrong, then you double down with a video below, and the OG video proves you lied about that too..
Just accept you petty, don’t care, and move the hell on.. guess them cats at the game were right https://t.co/lJPfmMua0t pic.twitter.com/FXa2Exj3mq
— Lexx (@LexxinATX) June 15, 2025
100 mil to talk about, criticize, a defame the characters of players you don’t even watch play https://t.co/VBD8p3CG6P pic.twitter.com/i0zhvJ5gE3
— Zay2officiallll (@buckeyeXKdXDame) June 14, 2025
Do you know how bored you have to be to play solitaire? 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/PmZ36lZEvr
— Shuaiyb Newton, Esq. (@CoffeeWasBae) June 15, 2025
lol @stephenasmith is a casual with the worst takes. Doesn’t even watch ball https://t.co/tMxoidUTVj
— Big Dip Energy (@Energy4This) June 14, 2025
Getting community noted on your own post is NASTY WORK! 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/2ihRzZ4Zuq
— The Man About Tech (@Vyyyper) June 14, 2025
Not to be that guy, but to truly scout a game enough live that you are talking about it on-air immediately after you need to be DIALED into the game action https://t.co/ewo7XPjmf2
— Mat Issa (@matissa15) June 14, 2025
Playing solitaire during work while getting paid millions of dollars to analyze the game is some crazy sheisty work https://t.co/gZqob3O1Xr
— Mr Editor 🦅🦅 (@SN_Trizzy) June 14, 2025
Game 5 is Monday night in Oklahoma City. Stephen A. might want to keep his phone in his pocket during that one.
