Stephen A. Smith Says Dan Le Batard Is His 'Friend' But Calls His 'Constant B*tching' About ESPN 'Bush League'

One of the best current rivalries in sports media is Stephen A. Smith vs. Dan Le Batard. The two are former colleagues at ESPN. Smith still works there, obviously, but now has an independent podcast. Le Batard works for his own company. So, the two are free to say as they please.

And one of the big talking points in recent weeks is simple: who ruined ESPN? Le Batard blames Smith and his former co-host, Skip Bayless. Smith claims that Le Batard participated in the downfall just as much as anyone else.

The two hosts are essentially WWE wrestlers, apparently. They jabber-jaw in public, but they're friends behind-the-scenes. At least according to Smith.

“I went at him before I went on vacation because I didn’t appreciate some of the bullsh*t he was saying on his show—and I still don’t,” Smith said on his podcast, according to Awful Announcing. “But just because I don’t like what you said doesn’t mean you’re not my friend. We can disagree and still be friends."

Stephen A. Smith and Dan Le Batard might be "friends" from their time at ESPN but that doesn't stop them from going at one another publicly. (Photo credits: Getty Images)

To refresh your memory, in the most recent round of sparring, Le Batard laughed off the idea that he participated in the "embrace debate" edict at ESPN.

Which, as I pointed out at the time, is correct:

"Le Batard is right about his former ESPN show. That program was not a debate show and that was by design. He constantly paraded his far-left leaning friends Bomani Jones, Sarah Spain, Mina Kimes, Pablo Torre and others — along with his own father — onto the set.

"Of course there was no debate: all of his 'co-hosts' think all the same things that he does. That’s the only kind of content that Dan Le Batard creates: completely unchecked far-left political commentary."

Stephen A. Smith dives right back into war of words with Dan LeBatard, his former ESPN colleague

Fresh off of vacation, Smith decided to keep the "feud" going. After prefacing his commentary with the lines about the pair being friends, he went back in on Le Batard.

“Dan Le Batard was talking, and I didn’t like some of the sh*t he was saying," Smith said. "I particularly didn’t like him constantly bringing up ESPN and bitching all the time about ESPN.

"Because I’m just one of those dudes that if a place is good enough for you to collect a check from for years, why are you maligning it every chance you get the second you went? I just think that’s bush league."

Both Stephen A. Smith and Dan Le Batard share some blame in the downfall of ESPN and sports media. (Photo Illustration by Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

That's definitely true. ESPN was more than good enough for Le Batard when he needed to increase his profile from local Miami radio guy into national brand.

He used the company for all that he could and then he left. Fine, that's capitalism and that's America. But it's also fair game for Smith to question Le Batard's integrity.

Just be honest, Dan: you used ESPN to benefit yourself, the person who you care the most about in this world. That's fine, most people care more about themselves than other people. It's a survival mechanism wired into all of God's creatures.

But it's the part where Le Batard pretends to care about the plight of others to make money that shows he's a fraud. He's certainly not alone, that's practically its own industry.

In fact, it's an industry which Stephen A. Smith profits from too.

I give credit to Smith for having at least some semblance of self-awareness about it, though.