Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia isn’t happy with ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith.
Ishbia made it clear that, while he’s not taking seriously Smith’s comments about him being “on the verge of being recognized as the worst owner” ever in basketball, he thinks an apology is coming his way in the near future.
“Stephen A. Smith, I don’t take much of what he says seriously,” Ishbia said on Thursday at the team’s season-end news conference, via the Arizona Republic. “I don’t think many people do, to be honest with you.”
Ishbia did, however, take issue to being compared to former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and believes Smith will apologize for connecting the two.
“He’s doing his thing, he’s on the mic, and I think he’ll apologize to me because I think it’s disrespectful to put my name aligned with anybody that was kicked out of the league or no longer part of it,” he said.
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That apology came Friday, when Smith admitted it was not wise to put Ishbia in the same category as Sterling.
Smith said he meant to compare the two strictly in basketball terms. He did not intend to compare them as people.
Earlier this week, Smith went in on Ishbia on “First Take” and said he was one of the worst team owners in the history of the NBA with how he’s managed the Suns in the short time he’s been at the helm.
“Mat Ishbia needs to understand that right now, you are on the verge of being recognized as the worst owner in the history of basketball,” Smith said. “That’s saying a lot. That’s saying a lot. Donald Sterling once owned an NBA franchise. … That’s the trajectory, if you’re Mat Ishbia, that you are on right now, being recognized as arguably the worst owner in the history of basketball.”
Comparing Ishbia to Sterling was never a great argument. While the Suns have largely struggled since Ishbia took over, he’s still miles better than Sterling, who sold the Los Angeles Clippers and received a lifetime ban from the NBA after he made racist comments to his mistress on a recording, among other things. The man who Ishbia purchased the Suns from was extremely problematic, too. Robert Sarver faced racism, misogyny and poor workplace-culture allegations before he eventually sold the team to Ishbia for $4 billion in 2023.
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Ishbia, for all of the Suns’ issues, isn’t at that level.
But looking at how the Suns performed this season, it’s easy to see where Smith’s take is coming from. The Suns went 34-46 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2020 despite entering the season with the big three of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. They fired head coach Mike Budenholzer, too, which will set them up with a fourth head coach in four seasons once they hire his replacement, and Durant is likely on the move this offseason after a late trade for him fell through at the deadline a few months ago. Ishbia even admitted the season was “embarrassing” and a “failure.”
But Smith’s comments comparing him to the worst of the worst owners didn’t sit right with Ishbia.
“If he wants to say the first two and a half years Mat Ishbia bought the team, we didn’t win a championship, I think you could probably say that about almost every owner ever. But yeah, we had high expectations, but we didn’t win,” he said.
“We spent a lot of money and we didn’t win. Yep. Yep. Be critical of me on that. But to even say that kind of stuff, I think he’ll apologize. I think he was out of line, and I think he knows that. I don’t think he really believes that.”
Despite Friday’s apology, Smith still stood by his criticism of Ishbia as an owner, so don’t expect the ESPN personality’s latest feud to die down any time soon.
