Stephen A. Smith has said a lot of things on ESPN First Take that have made us scratch our heads and wonder, "WTF is he talking about?" So you might read the headline of this particular post and say, "Why should we believe anything that Stephen A. has to say about Allen Iverson right now?" And we wouldn't blame you one bit for doing it.
For what it's worth, though, Stephen A. says he spoke with A.I. for almost an hour this morning about the recent allegations made against him by journalist Kent Babb in a book called Not a Game: The Incredible Rise and Unthinkable Fall of Allen Iverson. Specifically, he spoke to A.I. about a section of the book that features his former head coach Larry Brown and his former general manager Billy King insinuating that the former 76ers point guard may have been drunk during his infamous "practice" press conference. And after speaking with him, Stephen A. called the story a "flat out lie" on First Take this morning.
"This is a flat out lie," he said. "Allen Iverson was not drunk the day he had that press conference about practice."
You can watch Stephen A. defend A.I. in the clip above. The problem with his defense is that Stephen A. is apparently so close with A.I. today—he says that they still speak once a week, even though A.I.'s playing days are over—that it's difficult to take what he says about him as a pure fact. He's more or less giving his opinion on the recent allegations made against A.I. based on things that he knows or, at least, thinks he knows about the former NBA star. But for once, we can say that watching what Stephen A. has to say here is probably worth your time, if you can sit through it.
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