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Kevin Durant Gives Stephen A. Smith a Win With Latest Comments

A Kevin Durant–Stephen A. Smith feud only benefits the ‘First Take’ host.

Jimmy Traina

Stephen A. Smith is currently engaged in a war of words with Kevin Durant.
Stephen A. Smith is currently engaged in a war of words with Kevin Durant. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

1. Kevin Durant recently gave an interview to The Athletic in which he blasted ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.

“Yeah, Stephen A., I don’t understand how people even listen to Stephen A.,” Durant said to The Athletic. “I’ve been in the league for 18 years. I’ve never seen Stephen A. at a practice, or a film session, or a shoot-around. I’ve never seen him anywhere but on TV talking s--- about players. … He’s a clown to me. He’s always been a clown. You can write that, too.”

Smith had called out Durant a couple of weeks ago on First Take for not being a good leader. The Phoenix Suns star fired back on Twitter. Then Durant reignited the feud with his new comments to The Athletic.

And that’s a win for Smith. Why? Well, for starters, that gave Smith fresh content and the opportunity to spend a First Take segment on Monday responding to Durant.

Durant is the athlete. A superstar athlete. His job is to play basketball. Smith’s job is to create content and get a reaction for his opinions.

When the superstar athlete responds to the media member, it’s always a win for the media member. Durant gets nothing out of feuding with Smith. Smith gains relevancy from a feud with Durant.

2. CBS’s Kevin Harlan was the perfect person to be behind the mic for Tyler Bass’s 61-yard game-winning field goal in Buffalo’s win against Miami on Sunday.

3. I understand this is a very old-man-get-off-my-lawn observation, but Bengals coach Zac Taylor handing out a million game balls after his team beat the lowly Raiders at home seems a tad ridiculous. Somehow, I can’t see Bill Belichick or Bill Parcells ever doing this.

4. I’m not sure you can come up with a worse prop bet loss than this one.

5. Here’s what I wrote in last Monday’s Traina Thoughts after the Browns pulled off an upset win against the Ravens:

One of the reasons I’m very grateful that I have this column is that I can share some thoughts here that I can’t on Twitter because people would annihilate me.

For example, following the Browns' shocking upset of the Ravens yesterday, Twitter was one big Jameis Winston party. Praise was heaped from every corner of the world. If anyone came in to say anything negative, they would be banished from society, basically.

Yet, my only thought was, “How does everyone give Winston all this credit when the game really should’ve been over on a Winston interception?”

Winston’s stat line yesterday in a 27–10 home loss to the Chargers: 26 of 46 for 235 yards and three interceptions.

I’ll never understand Twitter’s weird narrative that Winston is a good quarterback.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast episode features a conversation with ESPN’s Joe Buck.

The voice of Monday Night Football talks about why Major League Baseball calls have become such a big thing with fans, the issues that national broadcasters have to deal with when calling MLB playoff games and why he won’t call baseball for ESPN.

Buck also discusses the best play to call in the NFL, what it’s like calling a Monday Night Football game that’s going head-to-head against a World Series game, the beef he has with partner Troy Aikman about being on time vs. being late, the broadcast restrictions on Tom Brady and much more.

Following Buck, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we read the Apple Podcast reviews for October, discuss the World Series, a weird NFL betting line and a recent sports TV segment that was a home run.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 63rd birthday to Ralph Macchio.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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