ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith did indeed apologize to Mat Ishbia for mentioning the Phoenix Suns team owner alongside Donald Sterling when saying he’s on the “verge of being recognized as the worst owner” in NBA history.

Smith then proceeded to lay out in detail the reasons he believes Ishbia has been a poor owner since acquiring the team.

“In all seriousness, Mat Ishbia is right. I do owe him an apology because I mentioned Donald Sterling,” Smith said on ESPN’s First Take on April 18. “I thought I was making it clear I was talking about basketball. I certainly did not mean to compare him to a person who was thrown out of this league and has been widely recognized as a racist.”

Sterling received a lifetime ban from the NBA in April 2014 for his racist remarks, a decision that ultimately led to him and his wife selling the Los Angeles Clippers .

“I was talking about the Donald Sterling that would be sitting courtside heckling his own damn players and never winning anything and didn’t give a damn,” Smith said. “That’s the Donald Sterling I was talking about in terms of how ineffective as an owner on the basketball court. I certainly did not mean to do that. So Mat Ishbia is absolutely right, and for that, I apologize. I’m a man and if I’m wrong, then I’ll say I’m wrong.”

Smith made clear that’s the only apology Ishbia is getting from him and addressed Ishbia’s comments from an end-of-season news conference on April 17 at the Suns' practice facility and his 2½ year run as team owner.

Ishbia bought the Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury from Robert Sarver for a record $4 billion during the 2022-23 season.

“Let’s go one by one,” Smith said.

Ishbia addressed Smith’s comments from ESPN’s First Take earlier in the week by first saying he, nor hardly anyone else, takes Smith seriously.

“The things he said about Kevin Durant, just wrong and disrespectful,” Ishbia said. “The things he said about LeBron (James) were just disrespectful and inappropriate. He’s doing his thing, he’s on the mic and I think he’ll apologize to me because I think it’s disrespectful to (have) my name aligned with anybody that was kicked out of the league or no longer part of it.”

Smith had also named New York Knicks owner James Dolan as being one of the league’s worst owners before hiring Leon Rose as team president in March 2020.

“If he wants to say the first 2½ years Mat Ishbia bought the team, we didn’t win a championship, you could probably say that about almost every owner ever, but yeah, we had high expectations, but we didn’t win,” Ishbia said.

The Suns went into the 2024-25 season with the NBA’s first $400-million team and championship aspirations, but won just 36 games and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

“We spent a lot of money and we didn’t win,” Ishbia continued. “Yep. Yep. Be critical of me on that, but to even say that kind of stuff, I think he’ll apologize. I think he was out of line and I think he knows that. I don’t think he really believes that.”

After apologizing, Smith said Ishbia has “other problems” to concern himself with and stands by his remarks about James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, and Durant.

“Over the last five years, you’ve been bounced out of the first round a couple of times, you’ve been swept a couple of times,” Smith said about Durant. “The one playoff series you did win in Phoenix was because Kawhi Leonard went down after Game 2 (vs Clippers in 2023 playoffs) and now you’re not even in the playoffs. It is what is when I pointed to leadership.”

Smith then rattled off a list of failures for Ishbia that took a team that made it to the 2021 NBA Finals and turned it into one that just finished its first losing season since 2019-20 and missed the postseason.

“As the owner of the Phoenix Suns, sir, respectfully, I know the future could hold an ornament of possibilities, but in your first two years, there is a legitimate argument that you are an atrocity. One of the worst owners in the history of the sport and your background makes it worse because there’s no excuse for it to happen.”

Smith pointed out that Ishbia played for Tom Izzo at Michigan State, where he was part of the 2000 national championship team.

“You’re staining (Izzo’s) name, that’s how bad you’ve been,” Smith said.

He criticized the trades involving Bradley Beal, Deandre Ayton and Durant, who is likely to be traded during this offseason.

Soon after Ishbia acquired the team, the Suns traded Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder and four unprotected first-round picks to Brooklyn for Durant right before the 2023 trade deadline.

The following summer, Phoenix dealt point guard Chris Paul to acquire Beal from Washington. Paul, who turns 40 next month, appeared in all 82 games for the Spurs this season, averaging 28 minutes, 8.8 points per game and 7.4 assists.

The Suns, meanwhile, looked to move Beal, who has been hampered by injuries since arriving in Phoenix, prior to this season’s trade deadline but his no-trade clause was an issue. Smith noted Beal’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, is the father of Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein.

The other deal Smith cited came right before 2023 training camp, when the Suns traded Ayton, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft, to Portland in a three-team deal to acquire Jusuf Nurkic, who the Suns dealt to Charlotte in the middle of this season.

Bridges, Johnson, Crowder, Paul and Ayton were key parts of Phoenix’s 2021 finals team and franchise-best 64-win squad in the 2021-22 season, the NBA’s best record that year.

“You didn’t inherit a horrible franchise,” Smith said. “You didn’t inherit a franchise void of leadership.”

Smith continued by noting Phoenix has had three head coaches in three seasons since Ishbia became owner — Monty Williams, who coached the Suns to the finals and the 64-win season, Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer. Vogel and Budenholzer were fired after one season.

The Suns won 49 games under Vogel last season, but Minnesota swept them in the first round. They went 36-46 under Budenholzer, but Smith talked about how the Suns paid Williams $20 million in a buyout in 2023, still owe Vogel $20 million and have $40 million still due for Budenholzer, who signed a five-year deal for $50-plus million.

Smith then noted the Suns don’t have control over their draft picks “for the next six years,” to conclude his rant about Ishbia's ownership.

“My God, what am I missing?” Smith said.

Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin .

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