Stephen A. Smith responds to savage putdown from Kash Patel over 'dumb' claim Donald Trump is behind NBA mafia gambling probe

A defiant Stephen A. Smith insists he stands by his claim that Donald Trump is behind the NBA mafia gambling probe, despite FBI boss Kash Patel branding it 'the single dumbest thing' he's ever heard.

The NBA was shaken to its core Thursday after Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier were among more than 30 people arrested in connection to an FBI investigation into Mafia-led illegal sports betting and rigged poker games.

And following the bombshell news, Smith sparked fury by claiming the investigation is politically motivated and backed by Trump amid his thirst for revenge over the NBA, an assessment Patel took issue with.

'That may be the single dumbest thing I've ever heard out of anyone in modern history and I live most of my time in Washington DC,' he told Fox News. 'I'm the FBI director. I decide which arrests to conduct and which not to conduct.'

Smith, who has flirted with a run for the White House over the past year, earlier suggested this investigation was the latest evidence that 'Trump is coming.'

And the ESPN First Take host is refusing to back down despite Patel's put-down.

'I would say he’s the director of the FBI, let’s just say I’m not trying to get on his bad side,' Smith said on his YouTube channel. 'But having said that, I still stand by what I said. And I’m not changing my mind.

'In the interest of being real and making you understand who I am as a journalist and a commentator spanning 30 years, I just want you all to know that it’s customary for people to say I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, that I’m off my damn rocker, only to come down the pike weeks months later and say, "Yeah, it was true" or the facts bear those things out.

'This investigation has been going on when [Joe] Biden was in office. They talked about how this stuff has been going on since 2019, which is when Trump was in office. 

'I’m not implying that Kash Patel doesn’t have any legitimacy to the case that he’s pursuing against these individuals, and I’m not about to argue with an FBI director. I’m simply making the point that in the end, you have a president in place that has a lengthy connection to the sports world, rife with friends and enemies. And those who are his enemies, he doesn’t mind inconveniencing one bit. And when it comes to the NBA brand, it doesn’t bother him.'

Smith's initial comments earlier in the week sparked a furious backlash from viewers on social media, who rightly pointed out that the investigation began well before Trump started his second term in the White House.

One commented: 'This isn't a guy being dumb. This is Stephen A. Smith intentionally making a provocative statement he knows is misleading. The FBI director showed up because this is a huge mob related arrest. The FBI always shows up. You'd have to live under a rock or be dumb as dirt to believe what he just said. TDS (Trump derangement syndrome) is a real thing.'

Another posted: 'The issue with this take is that they literally said this is an investigation that started and has been spanning 4 years So this started well before Trump'.

A third added: 'Uhhhh, I highly doubt Trump had anything to do with this. Investigation was ongoing for years. Only political angle is Patel jumping in front of a camera for some personal PR, but that's it lol.'

'The investigation started years ago and has nothing to do with Trump, but leave to Stephen A to make it political,' a fourth posted. 

One Trump fan commented: 'Why is everything made political? This investigation started before Trump got into office. So the FBI cracks down on illegal mafia and illegal gambling racket in the NBA but Trump is still a bad guy.' 

Six defendants are accused of participating in an insider sports betting conspiracy that exploited confidential information about NBA athletes and teams, said Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

He called it 'one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since online sports betting became widely legalized in the United States.'

'My message to the defendants who´ve been rounded up today is this: Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out,' Nocella said. 

The second case involves 31 defendants in a nationwide scheme to rig illegal poker games, Nocella said. The defendants include former professional athletes accused of using technology to steal millions of dollars in underground poker games in the New York area that were backed by Mafia families, he said.

In the sports betting scheme, players sometimes altered their performance or took themselves out of games early, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

In one instance, Rozier, while playing for the Hornets, told people he was planning to leave the game early with a 'supposed injury,' allowing them to place wagers that raked in thousands of dollars, Tisch said.

The indictment of Rozier and others says there are nine unnamed co-conspirators, including a Florida resident who was an NBA player, an Oregon resident who was an NBA player from about 1997 to 2014 and an NBA coach since at least 2021, as well as a relative of Rozier.

Rozier and other defendants 'had access to private information known by NBA players or NBA coaches' that was likely to affect the outcome of games or players´ performances and provided that information to other co-conspirators in exchange for either a flat fee or a share of betting profits, the indictment says.

The NBA, which had investigated Rozier previously, told Daily Mail in a statement: 'We are in the process of reviewing the federal indictments announced today. Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups are being placed on immediate leave from their teams, and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities.

'We take these allegations with the utmost seriousness, and the integrity of our game remains our top priority.'

Rozier was in uniform as the Heat played the Magic on Wednesday in Orlando in the season opener for both teams, though he did not play in the game. He was taken into custody in Orlando early Thursday morning.

The case was brought by the U.S. attorney´s office in Brooklyn that previously prosecuted ex-NBA player Jontay Porter. The former Toronto Raptors center pleaded guilty to charges that he withdrew early from games, claiming illness or injury, so that those in the know could win big by betting on him to underperform expectations.

Billups was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year. The five-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA point guard led the Detroit Pistons to their third league title in 2004 as NBA Finals MVP. Boston drafted the former Colorado star with the No. 3 pick overall in 1997.