Stephen A. Smith may not have played his cards right.
The polarizing ESPN personality is being criticized for playing the popular card game Solitaire during the Thunder’s 111-104 road win over the Pacers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday, with even rival NBA player Kevin Durant joining in on the mocking.
Durant posted to his Instagram story the image of Smith playing the game while at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
“CMON STEVE,” Durant wrote on the bottom of the photo.
Smith maintained he only turned to the mobile version of the game during a stoppage in play in a response to a quote tweet from popular NBA aggregator on X @LegionHoops showing him playing cards.
“Yep! That’s me. Who would’ve thought….I can multi-task. Especially during TIMEOUTS!” Smith wrote in a quote tweet of the post. “Hope y’all are enjoying the NBA Finals. This is going 7 games now, peeps!”
However, not everyone is buying that response.
The community note on Smith’s post claims he’s fabricating his story and linked to a video showing Smith playing the game during in-game action.
“Stephen A. Is lying. This photo was taken during gameplay, NOT during a timeout,” the community note states.
The video linked in the post came from user @feellikedrew, who posted a video showing the Thunder going for a basket before cutting to Smith with the game on his phone.
The end of the clip showed the Pacers running a play.
“Bro talks about knowing ball,” the caption read. “He’s playing solitaire during the NBA finals.”
Smith attempted to get the last laugh by posting just after midnight a photo showing a Solitaire hand with an inset image from when the Pacers led, 87-80, with 11:36 remaining in the game.
The Thunder outscored the Pacers, 12-1, in the final three minutes to even the series at 2-2.
Pacers fans and Durant are upset with the controversial Smith for comments he’s made.
Smith would not classify Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton as a superstar and then fired at Haliburton after the guard chirped at NBA pundits — he didn’t name Smith specifically — after pulling the Game 3 upset.
“Oh, by the way, just in case he was talking about me. My brother, I’m not going away,” Smith said on “First Take” on Thursday. “I’m going to be here for a while. .. Players far more accomplished and far more superior have made their efforts trying to call me out. How has that worked out?”
The feud between Durant and Smith goes back years and the NBA star called him out in April for being too distracted to digest enough basketball after Smith mocked his leadership.
“Steve is trying to run for president, u think he actually paid attention to a struggling team??” Durant said in reference to the Suns. “It’s called propaganda.”
