Today marked the two-year anniversary of Kobe Bryant's death. To mark the occasion, many decided to pay tribute to Kobe with social media posts are even video essays about what kind of player he was. On First Take, Stephen A. Smith opted to count down the Lakers superstar's five greatest moments on the court. He also delivered a segment about the "Mamba Mentality," which took shots at players like Kyrie Irving and Kawhi Leonard.
“Players missing games for reasons that have nothing to do with injury, that was not Kobe Bryant," he said. “Players collecting paychecks without regard to regular season participation, that was not Kobe Bryant. Players prioritizing any and everything but championships, that was not Kobe Bryant.”
As you can see in the tweet above, one fan was not happy with Stephen A's shameless agenda pushing, and neither was the rest of Twitter. In the quote tweets, Smith was promptly roasted for his comments as many fans deemed them as inappropriate. The consensus was that it is possible to uplift a player like Kobe, without resorting to insulting today's generation of NBA youth. After all, many of these players were Kobe disciples.
Smith has a very long history of stirring the pot, so his comments today shouldn't have been the biggest surprise. Regardless, fans were upset, and rightfully so given how much Kobe means to people.
Let us know what you thought of Smith's remarks, in the comments below.
