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S tephen A. Smith has long been the king of sports hot takes.
However, with the emergence of his Stephen A. Smith Show , his opinions have expanded from sports-related topics to pop culture. And now, his latest rant, which has folks up in arms, harkens back to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards .
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have been promoting their fourth movie together, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die and its become the first blockbuster film of the summer, making over $100 million worldwide in its opening weekend.
It’s also been granted positive reviews for the storied buddy cop series, but Stephen A.’s not hearing it and is still judging Will’s slap, and he wants him actually to speak about the moment in a sit-down interview.
“We know you wouldn’t have smacked Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher, Bill Burr, or a host of others,” the ESPN pundit said on the Stephen A. Smith Show . “We know you wouldn’t have done that. No apology necessary. I’m just saying a lot of folks ain’t get over that. A lot of folks find it hard to just go to the movies to watch you. I’m one of those people.”
Smith starts his diatribe by saying no matter how much success Chris Rock has seen after the incident, his life’s forever been altered, and he’ll never truly get over it, and that the Black community isn’t either until he fully addresses it.
“At some point along the way, he has to sit down and talk to the Black community. You can see all the white people around Will Smith all you want to. Black folks have loved and revered this man for decades. He was the closest thing to perfection. Everyone makes mistakes,” Smith says. “This is not hatred. I love Will Smith still, but you gotta have a conversation as to why you did that.”
Two years after the slap, social media is confused by Smith’s bringing it up again amid the success of the latest Bad Boys movie. See the reactions below.
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