Stephon Marbury annoyed by Stephen A. Smith’s words on Black athletes: ‘When are we going to defund his voice?’

Former Minnesota Timberwolves guard Stephon Marbury recently expressed his annoyance with Stephen A. Smith of the ESPN show “First Take” for his words about Black athletes.

Smith called Zion Williamson “fat” back in December.

He recently took another shot at Williamson’s weight.

Also, back in 2022, Smith put Kyrie Irving on blast when the latter was still a member of the Brooklyn Nets franchise and said that “he cannot be trusted.” Irving sat out a number of games during the 2021-22 regular season due to his vaccination status, and the Nets got swept by the Boston Celtics — who went on to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals — in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.

Irving is now with a different team in the Dallas Mavericks. He has appeared in 34 games in the 2023-24 regular season, his second season in Dallas, and is averaging 25.6 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game while shooting 49.4 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from 3-point range.

In the Mavericks’ first game after the All-Star break on Feb. 22 against the Phoenix Suns, Irving put on a great showing in terms of scoring efficiency. He dropped 29 points, five rebounds, three assists and one steal on 11-of-18 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 from deep against his former teammate in Kevin Durant.

As for Williamson, he is a still a member of the New Orleans Pelicans organization, who drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft after he spent one season of college basketball at Duke University.

Williamson has been able to keep himself healthy and on the floor for his team thus far this season, at least by his standards, considering he has appeared in 45 of New Orleans’ 56 regular-season games. The 23-year-old is averaging 22.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game on 58.5 percent shooting from the floor and 68.5 percent from the charity stripe.

The Pelicans and Williamson have a matchup against the Miami Heat — who sit as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference — on the horizon. New Orleans will host Miami on Friday night before it takes on the Chicago Bulls at home on Feb. 25.