Stephen A. doubles down on Denver diss, has shocking MVP pick

The man who last year called Denver Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic “a big tub of lard,” was on 104.3 The Fan on Monday, and his attitude has barely changed. Strident and unwilling to apologize for his public dislike of Denver, Smith talked out of both sides of his mouth while on Schlereth and Evans.

“He’s the best in the game, he’s the standard. It doesn’t get more complimentary than that,” ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said of the Joker moments before picking Jayson Tatum for NBA MVP.

“To me, I look at Tatum… the Boston Celtics are the best team in basketball and he’s their best player. It’s not to take anything away from Jokic. We know how great he is and he always has to be in the conversation and he’s in line to potentially win it. But when you see Boston and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, I don’t think that’s an argument that can be dismissed because we recognize the greatness of Jokic.”

SGA of the Thunder should be Jokic’s main rival for the award in the season’s stretch run. Most sportsbooks have him as a serious threat for the award but they don’t think much of the Boston Celtics star, listing him as their sixth candidate for the league’s top player honor. Basketball Reference’s MVP Award Tracker, which ranks candidates based on a model built using previous voting results gives Tatum a 4.8% chance to Jokic’s 47.1%. Tatum is scoring 27.1 points to Jokic’s 25.9 and the Celtics have a slightly better record than the Nuggets despite both teams ranked at the top of their conferences. And those are the only two areas where Jokic falls behind, Tatum has fewer rebounds (3.8 fewer a game), assists (4.4 fewer a game), steals and blocks and is doing that on worse shooting efficiency (Jokic’s effective shooting is 61% to Tatum’s 56.%.)

So does Stephen A. even know ball? Further, is he actually giving any credit to Jokic?

“The Nuggets are not common, Jokic isn’t common. I joke that he can’t jump onto a curb and nobody can stop him,” Smith said. “I’ve never seen anything like it, his footwork, his IQ, his skillset, he’s the best in the game. Michael Malone is a great coach and his name needs to come up more often. And I challenge anyone to find a bigger fan of Jamal Murray than me… Murray is great, Jokic is the best in the game, Malone is an elite coach and the organization is first class top to bottom and I think Jokic a Murray are the top tandem in basketball… when they’re both clicking the Nuggets look unbeatable.”

The nice words are timed a bit curiously after Saturday night’s Nuggets beat down of the Lakers, Smith honed in on Los Angeles’ struggles while on ABC and barely uttered a word about the team who has beaten them eight straight times. When asked on 104.3 The Fan if ESPN and the national media are refusing to promote Denver Smith attempted to gaslight the listener.

“It’s false number one, number two, it’s utterly ridiculous and, you’re lying to your listeners because you’re saying we don’t talk about and promote Denver. There isn’t a day that goes by we don’t talk about Jokic. He’s the best in the game, he’s the standard. It doesn’t get more complimentary than that. Sometimes you’re so great you’re boring because nobody measures up to you… they’re the measuring stick, what else is there to talk about, you do radio every morning, what else can you say about Jokic? What hasn’t been said? The guy is just that great.”

So Smith is saying the national media doesn’t talk about Jokic because he’s so good it’s become boring?

Smith, who is on First Take has his own podcast, hosts NBA coverage and is pretty much ubiquitous on ESPN, has rarely run out of things to talk about. Meanwhile, the Nuggets center’s contemporary LeBron James has been omnipresent for ESPN and Smith for the past two decades. So maybe Jokic is already better than James if the four-letter network’s highest-paid non-broadcasting employee has run out of topics regarding the Nuggets star.

Disney, the owner of ESPN, is one of the NBA’s biggest corporate partners and is the league’s primary broadcaster. The league and its partners have long had an issue of not marketing non-costal cities, and this has played out in the Mile High City as the Nuggets have risen.

Smith’s voice is just another echo in the chamber of ESPN commentators who have begrudged against Denver’s success at best and have straight-up sabotaged it at worst. ESPN fired two separate members of their main broadcast booth last summer, both who possibly not so coincidentally, had been cruel to Jokic in the past. A third ESPN broadcaster who has been highly critical of Jokic in the past was also demoted down the broadcast team depth chart. On top of the gripes about Jokic and the Nuggets by network employees came some weak hate for the city of Denver over the weekend. “I’m not coming around to that (going to Denver,)” Smith said on ABC Sunday. “I’m holding out for the Clippers, I’m holding out hope for Dallas.”

The morning after, Smith clarified those thoughts, doubling down on where he’d like to be for the NBA Finals on 104.3 the Fan.

“I’m not apologizing for that (what I said on Sunday,)” Smith spoke. “Now let me say this, it’s a fabulous sports town, the fans and atmosphere are great. The Nuggets are great… but when you talk about the Clippers, that’s Southern California… when I was in Denver last summer, the altitude was an adjustment stuffy nose and headaches every day for me. I’m just not that big of a fan of being in Denver, but I know it’s a great sports town and it’s a great team, but it’s not someplace I want to be over Southern California sunshine or Dallas, Texas.”

Colorado certainly seemed good enough for Smith when he sent First Take and every other ESPN show on the road to Boulder for a weekend with Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes last fall. A few months later he’d throw out Deion Sanders’ name as a possible Nick Saban replacement at Alabama. Smith said, while discrediting the state and insinuating success in Colorado wouldn’t be real, “Go ahead and be happy in Boulder, Colorado. God bless you… I was there twice in my life and the only reason for that was him.”

But Smith wouldn’t be the first to prefer Dallas and other cities over Denver, FIFA did the same when they picked World Cup hosting sites for the 2026 event. However, in that case, the arena size consideration made sense whereas on the hardwood, the Mavericks failed to make it to the playoffs last year and the Nuggets haven’t been that low since 2018.

What we learned is that Stephen A. appreciates Jokic until it counts, praises Denver and the Nuggets but doesn’t want to step foot inside the city and he’d like everyone to know how often he talks about the reigning NBA champs while rarely actually doing so on his platforms. Got it.

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