Stephen A. Smith recently said Mat Ishbia was “on the verge of being recognized as the worst owner” ever in NBA basketball, and the Suns owner isn’t happy about it all. In fact, the executive is expecting for the ESPN analyst to apologise for what he’s said about him.
Mat believes he will earn this apology when his team finally gets back on track and starts to succeed in the league. “Stephen A. Smith, I don’t take much of what he says seriously,” he said on Thursday’s season-end news conference. “I don’t think many people do, to be honest with you.”
One of the comments that most affected the Phoenix owner, was how he compared him to former Los Angeles Clippers president Donald Sterling, one whose reputation is remembered truly as one of the worst in the league’s history. Ishbia doesn’t appreciate being linked to him.
“He’s doing his thing, he’s on the mic, and I think he’ll apologize to me because I think it’s disrespectful to put my name aligned with anybody that was kicked out of the league or no longer part of it,” he said, while Smith’s apology came the next day.
It all started earlier this week, when Stephen A. explain his position on the Suns executive’s NBA career so far, managing the Arizona franchise during a short time. “Mat Ishbia needs to understand that right now, you are on the verge of being recognized as the worst owner in the history of basketball,” Smith said.
He then added: “That’s saying a lot. That’s saying a lot. Donald Sterling once owned an NBA franchise. … That’s the trajectory, if you’re Mat Ishbia, that you are on right now, being recognized as arguably the worst owner in the history of basketball.”
At the time, Ishbia first defend his work. “If he wants to say the first two and a half years Mat Ishbia bought the team, we didn’t win a championship, I think you could probably say that about almost every owner ever. But yeah, we had high expectations, but we didn’t win,” he expressed.
