Stephen A. Smith saying that NASCAR drivers are not athletes has been one of my favorite stories for quite some time.
You’ve got someone giving a demonstrably incorrect hot take, and then just digging their heels in.
It’s everything that’s both great and terrible about sports media rolled up in a single package.
But, I thought if there was one person who could break through to Stephen A. and point to the mountain of evidence why NASCAR drivers — and racing drivers in general — are not just athletes, but high-level, highly trained athletes, it would be Michael Jordan.
But I would be mistaken.
Stephen A. has been called out on this take by drivers like Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick, who brought his own in-car fitness tracking info as proof. So, Smith, being the savvy media personality he is, took this to his show.
That’s when, according to Awful Announcing, he got a call from his Airness.
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Now, if you didn’t know, Jordan is a longtime NASCAR fan and co-owns one of the sport’s hottest teams right now, 23XI Racing, with current Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin.
Surely, he could talk some sense into Stephen A.
Stephen A. Smith speaks onstage during the 2025 ForbesBLK Summit at Ray Charles Performing Arts Center Morehouse College on October 9, 2025, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images) (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
“You know who wanted to correct me about the NASCAR thing? Michael Jordan,” Smith said on his SiriusXM. “Michael Jordan. I argued with him! Because that’s how I feel! I’m being honest. That’s how I feel. That’s all, it’s not a crime. That’s what makes radio and sports talk.”
All right, so not at all.
I mean, people are entitled to their opinions, but when someone goes, “Here are several dozen reasons and examples why you’re wrong,” and you stick to your guns, you’re just being difficult.
ESPN commentator and executive producer Stephen A. Smith is on set in New Orleans ahead of Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 7, 2025. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
But remember, it is Stephen A. who is under attack through all of this.
“Don’t you notice what we call the gang mentality?” Smith asked. “Where everybody in my line of work jumps on popular opinion so they are lumped in with the vast majority of people who feel the way they feel? That’s easy. The hard part is, ‘this is where I stand, and I genuinely feel this way, and here’s why.’”
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NASCAR drivers being athletes isn’t a popular opinion.
It just is.