Stephen A. Smith has a bad history of taking misogynistic stances on live television, most often during an taping of his ESPN show, “First Take!” He’s made jokes about women athletes messing up their hair and even gone as far as to say women are responsible in cases of domestic violence against themselves.

But that’s okay because he was “raised by 4 women,” right? Nope.

In his latest problematic rant, Smith took it upon himself to explain to Ayesha Curry what she should and shouldn’t do as the wife of a professional basketball player and how she should carry herself to maintain his image. He then compared her to Savannah Brinson, the wife of LeBron James. This, of course, was in direct response to a tweet Curry posted and deleted following Game 6 of the NBA Finals where Steph was ejected in the 4th quarter suggesting the series was rigged.

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“She stepped out of line. She stepped out of pocket. I’m trying to sound as appropriate as I possibly can. You are the wife of Steph Curry,” Smith said during his monologue. “What you do is a reflection on him. What you do is a reflection on the organization he works for. You have to be mindful of that. You can’t get caught up in your own individual emotions and having this zest to speak out, to the point where it compromises your husband.”

As if those comments weren’t bad enough, he then doubled down on the sentiment with language suggesting that she should just sit down and know her place.

“If that was Savannah, LeBron’s wife, if that were Gloria, LeBron’s mother, what would we be saying? LeBron James has a mom and has a wife, has kids, great guy, an even greater ambassador of the game of basketball than Steph Curry because he’s done it over the test of time. Wonderful, beautiful father And I’ve got news for you. As beautiful as everyone wants to say Ayesha Curry is, and she is, Savannah is something special. I’m here to tell you something right now. Ain’t a man alive, particularly a black man, that’s going to look at LeBron James’s wife and not say that that woman ain’t gorgeous. Well, she’s wonderful inside and out. She sits there. She doesn’t bring any attention to herself. She never tweets and goes out there and calls out the league and stuff like that. And nobody, nobody is more scrutinized than her husband. But yet, she thinks about how she represents him, and as a result, she doesn’t do that.”

Ayesha then responded with a claim that Smith, like many others, is trying to force black women to compare themselves to each other. [Now, to be fair, this is something Curry’s fed into in her own right. But it’s still a fair point.]

Then, as he’s had to do many times in the past, Smith issued a half-apology on the air while attempting to further explain and justify his claims.

While there are bound to be some that people don’t agree with or like, there’s no one right way to be the spouse of a professional athlete. And they’re also more than just extensions of their husband or wife. They’re individuals entitled to their own opinion, no matter how out of place some may find them.

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