Stephen A. Smith’s feud with Lonzo Ball doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
The ESPN personality, 55, continued the back-and-forth over the severity of Ball’s knee injury during Wednesday’s installment of his self-titled podcast, “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” alleging his sources are the doctors who operated on the 25-year-old Bulls guard, who underwent a cartilage transplant on his left knee in March.
“Sitting poolside on the bench, getting up on one knee, you think that shows that you’re healthy?” Smith said of a video Ball posted Tuesday on Twitter, which showed the former second-overall pick repeatedly getting up from a chair while doing weight-bearing exercises on his left knee by the pool.
Ball also called out Smith in the video, imploring the “First Take” star to “stop yapping” about the matter and to reveal who his sources are.
“You’re going to call me yapping when I have all this information in front of me… Would like me to tell where you had surgery and exactly what dates you had surgery on? Would you like me to get the names of the doctors?” Smith said Wednesday.
“I do have them. I know the actual doctors that operated on him.”
However, Smith declined to share the information because “I would never do something like that, that’s none of my business,” and said he was just trying to get his point across.
“I’m gonna be nice because I got love for you bro,” Smith continued. “I want you to get back healthy.
“It’s not a crime to say people have been concerned about your knees. You know I don’t make it up. If I said it, somebody close to you told me.
“Maybe they’re wrong, but that’s the concern about you. That’s the reality.”
Smith’s latest comments came after he responded to Ball’s video on “First Take” earlier in the day.
After claiming Ball’s knee isn’t as healthy as it seems, Smith called out “idiotic trolls” on social media and outlets such as “Bleacher Report and others [saying], “Oh he really tore into Stephen A.”
NBA Twitter has been keeping a close eye on the drama, and it appeared Bleacher Report’s Molly Morrison caught wind of Smith’s comment.
“You said the man couldn’t stand up from a chair, Lonzo posted a humorous video proving that wrong,” Morrison wrote on Twitter, including a clip of Smith discussing Ball’s situation Wednesday on “First Take.”
“Instead of apologizing or moving on, you’re shifting the narrative and digging into him for not being healthy? This is honestly just mean and embarrassing.”
Ball posted his video after Smith spoke about him on Tuesday’s “First Take,” stating he heard Ball was having trouble standing up from a sitting position.
“Come to the actual source next time,” Ball wrote on Twitter. “I’m not hard to reach.”
Smith said on “First Take” that he felt “really sad” for Ball, who is out for the whole 2023-24 season after missing the entirety of last season due to a knee injury.
“I don’t think he’ll ever be the same,” Smith said of Ball. “… I’ve heard that it’s even hard for him to get up from the sitting position… I’m really, really sad for him.”
Ball confirmed on the “From the Point by Trae Young” podcast that he is going to miss all of this upcoming season following the cartilage transplant procedure.
It marked his third procedure on his knee since he signed a four-year, $80 million contract with Chicago in 2021.
“Just taking it day by day, bro. I just had a really big surgery — hopefully, the last one I ever have to get,” Ball said. “It’s a long process. I’m already out this whole next season.
“When I first got hurt, we didn’t really know what it was. I was seeing all types of different doctors and stuff. I was just kind of going up and down. That was really hard for me because I just didn’t know what the next day was going to be like.”
Ball went on to explain that he’s “on track” in his recovery.
“At least now, I got the surgery,” he said. “We got a plan moving forward. We’ve been on plan. I’m on track.
“Hopefully, everything works out. I just leave it up to God and do the best I can and live with the results.”
Ball added that he felt bad for Marc Eversley, the Bulls’ general manager, since the organization appeared to build a team around him.
The Bulls applied for a disabled player exception for Ball, ESPN and The Athletic reported in July.
The exception allows a team to replace a player who is out for the season and reportedly would be worth about half of Ball’s salary — around $10.2 million.
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