Stephen A. Smith had no issue extensively discussing Kyrie Irving’s new contract with the Dallas Mavericks and whether his contract was adequate for what Irving brings to the table. But on Friday night, Irving turned the tables on Smith and questioned whether the longtime ESPN personality is worthy of the contract extension he recently received to stay at ESPN.
Last month, Smith shared his thoughts on Irving’s three-year, $119 million contract extension that he recently signed to stay with the Mavericks for the foreseeable future, explaining how he believed that Irving was actually “low-balled” by the Mavericks and deserved more.
“I think Kyrie Irving got low-balled,” said Smith. “I think he deserved more. This is Kyrie Irving were talking about. You don’t let go of a Luka Dončić if you don’t have a Kyrie Irving. You want to know what Kyrie Irving meant to the Dallas Mavericks before his injury? They were willing to unload Luka Dončić, a 25-year-old global basketball iconic figure with playoff numbers that compare to Michael Jordan. That’s who you let go of. And you did it with no problem because Kyrie Irving was in your backcourt.
“This man has arrived in Dallas. I don’t give a damn about all the noise he made in Brooklyn off the court. That wasn’t the case in Dallas. He came to Dallas, he was balling. He was a model citizen. As ‘Keef’ would tell us all, he is beloved throughout the NBA community by his peers. He is not a cancerous affect on his team or anything like that. What happened to him? He got injured. In today’s NBA economy, where you have cats getting paid 55-60 million plus, you couldn’t give this guy at least a $43 to $45 million a year contract?”
“I think Kyrie Irving got low-balled.”
—@stephenasmith on Kyrie Irving’s new deal with the Mavs pic.twitter.com/sMY5kvuihe
— First Take (@FirstTake) June 25, 2025
Smith’s commentary on Irving’s contract was far from any kind of dig. In fact, it spoke to the kind of talent that Smith believes that Irving is when healthy for the Mavericks.
Despite this, it doesn’t seem like Irving was all that happy to hear Smith’s two cents about his contract extension in Dallas. Or at the very least, he believes that Smith’s recent contract extension at ESPN is fair game to be openly critiqued like his was by Smith.
During a live stream from Irving’s Twitch account on Friday night, Irving questioned whether Smith deserves the five year $100 million deal that he recently agreed upon to stay at ESPN.
“I’m gonna discuss his contract,” said Irving. “And I’m going to say I don’t think you are worth it. That may be controversial.”
Kyrie literally said “someone might try and clip it up, watch the whole thing” and it happened 😭 pic.twitter.com/BXvD9CfVj8
— Kyrie Center (@kyriecenterig) July 12, 2025
Irving would clarify that this comment was largely just an example of how players view people like Smith discuss players contracts publicly and how it would feel if Irving did the same to media members. But later on in the live stream, Irving did compare Smith’s contract to the rookie contract that San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wenbanyama is currently on.
“Does Smith deserve to earn more than Wemby?” questioned Irving later on in the live stream.
Smith has been subjected to his own fair share of criticism as of late from the general public in regards to his work covering the 2025 NBA Finals. So there is at least an argument that Smith can take criticism as much as he dishes it out about players in the NBA.
It seems like Irving’s whole point is that media members should be as accountable for their shortcomings as players are expected to be, which is a fair point.
Whether Smith will see Irving’s comments this way obviously remains to be seen. But given the fact that Smith has never been shy in responding to criticisms from players about him, don’t expect Smith to remain quiet about this topic for all that long if he does indeed feel disrespected about Irving’s assessment of his ESPN contract.