The A. Is For What Now?

While searching the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for see if Earl Boykins was going to play tonight after being traded to the Bucks by the Nuggets (so Denver could avoid the luxury tax at the end of the season, in case you were wondering since no one follows the NBA anymore), I found a quick blurb that Stephen A. Smith's show "Quite Frankly" was cancelled by ESPN.

Say what you want about Stephen A., and if you don't, Stephen A. himself surely will... but the guy, although extremely loud and half of the time yelling for no reason (to the point where when I'm watching his segments, Jenny will walk through the room and question why he is yelling about a sport topic), does know his stuff. Smith especially knows the NBA, which I personally appreciate. Stephen A. has worked as a sports reporter in Philly for years and probably started yelling just to literally get heard in the volatile city, rather than a gimmick.

But I'd like to give an appropriate "shout out" to Stephen A. for consistently scheduling black guests and co-hosts and championing black culture in general. There are few black anchors in a lot of media arenas, easily seen by the startlingly few black head coaches in professional sports, and Smith had his own show and represented. The aforementioned blurb stated Stephen A. Smith will remain at ESPN and is to be featured regularly on ESPN's many outlets. Oh, and nice timing ESPN... only three days before January 15, 2007, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Classy.