Stephen A. Smith Suggesting Luka Doncic Faked His Injury To Exit Blowout Loss to OKC Sparks Fans Backlash – “Sick, Disgusting Man”

Stephen A. Smith and his First Take crew were discussing how the Luka Doncic-led Lakers collapsed against the OKC Thunder.

Stephen A. Smith Suggesting Luka Doncic Faked His Injury To Exit Blowout Loss to OKC Sparks Fans Backlash – “Sick, Disgusting Man”

Stephen A. Smith and Luka Doncic (Image via FirstSportz)

In Short
  • Stephen A. Smith suggested Luka Doncic faked his injury during a blowout loss to the Thunder, sparking backlash from fans.
  • Fans criticized Smith's comments on social media, calling them insensitive and shameless.
  • Colin Cowherd also weighed in, comparing the Lakers' performance to fake Louis Vuitton bags, indicating they are not true contenders.

Over the past 24 hours, Los Angeles Lakers fans have realized that, one, their team is nowhere close to being a championship contender, and that Luka Doncic will not play this regular season anymore.

Before their clash against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center, the men in purple and gold had won 14 of their last 15 games, giving their fans hope that maybe they had turned a corner.

In that stretch, the Slovenian had also established himself as a legitimate contender to win his first league MVP award, but somehow, voters did not think he was good enough.

He, too, clapped back at them for leaving him fourth in the race, even though his numbers and impact on the team have become such that without him, winning becomes a bit harder.

However, in that blowout loss to the Thunder, Luka Doncic was struggling to score at his usual efficiency, which saw the Lakers end up losing by more than 40 points.

It was almost so that it’s a good thing that Luka actually got hurt and had to get taken out in the third quarter because when we saw him holding his hamstring in the first half a lot of was like, ‘wait a minute now that wasn’t happening when you were dropping 30+ the last 15 games. But suddenly now your damn hamstring is hurt.’ We were looking at it with a raised eyebrow.

Stephen A. Smith said on First Take

This was Stephen A. Smith, who seemingly suggested that Luka Doncic was almost ‘faking’ an injury while struggling against the Thunder.

Fans tear into Stephen A. Smith for Luka Doncic comment

As soon as Stephen A. Smith said this on First Take, fans clipped the part where he talked about Luka Doncic potentially faking his injury and reposted it on social media.

Those clips went viral, mostly because fans were irked by the ESPN analyst’s suggestion. They felt the political aspirant was shameless to go to this extent whenever he has to emasculate someone. Check out examples of those reactions below.

Luka Doncic and his Los Angeles Lakers did not play well even before he went down with his hamstring injury. Maybe Stephen A. Smith was right to suggest that the team proved they are nowhere close to being contenders.

However, what fans would appreciate is if he were a bit more sensitive to such topics. Even Smith’s former partner-in-crime, Skip Bayless, made a similar comment about Tyrese Haliburton during last year’s Finals.

Colin Cowherd compares Lakers to fake Louis Vuitton bags

While Stephen A. Smith decided to take shots at Luka Doncic in that manner, another longtime analyst, Colin Cowherd, decided to take sarcastic shots at the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Thunder exposed the Lakers
The Thunder exposed the Lakers (Image via ElLoboVIP/X)

That was ugly last night… The Lakers moved up, let’s say, weight class, and got knocked out in the first round… Sometimes it’s hard to tell a fake Louis Vuitton bag from a real one until they’re next to each other.

Colin Cowherd said on The Herd

The FS1 analyst claimed that the Oklahoma City Thunder were intentionally hunting Doncic after he was being talked about as the favorite to take over reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Cowherd believes that this blowout loss proves that the Lakers are nowhere close to what their recent successes have led people to claim. Unless they fix the roster and improve their ability to play against elite defenses, the franchise will struggle.

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