Stephen A. Smith Defends '3 White Dudes' Lakers Claim as Fox Host Calls It Racist
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 8
Stephen A. Smith Defends '3 White Dudes' Lakers Claim as Fox Host Calls It Racist
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 8
Summary
Fox News' Will Cain pressed Stephen A. Smith on Tuesday over his claim that the Lakers could not win a title with Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and Walker Kessler, calling the remark racist.
Smith said Cain's criticism was "fair" and that he was not offended, but he repeated that no NBA team led by 3 White top players has won a championship since the Minneapolis Lakers from 1949 to 1955.
Cain argued Smith's standard was artificially narrow, noting Larry Bird and Kevin McHale led 3 Celtics titles in the 1980s with Robert Parish as the third star, and saying a Nikola Jokic-Luka Doncic-Cooper Flagg trio could win.
The exchange followed backlash to Smith's earlier comments about the Lakers, shifting the debate from whether such a trio has existed to whether saying it cannot win crosses into racial stereotyping.