Stephen A. Smith has never been shy to bring his hot takes to the forefront of sports discourse, however, some takes are a lot more well-received than others. Today, Smith should have known he was going to stir up some controversy as he and Max Kellerman compared Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant’s careers.

Surprisingly, Smith made the argument that Duncan had a better career. Both players won five championships each although Smith felt as though Duncan had more defensive accolades which made his career that much better. Smith made sure to praise Kobe for what he had done although, by that point, Smith already had sports fans fuming.

“I have to say Tim Duncan, with all due respect to my man Kobe Bryant,” said Smith. “When you consider the model of consistency that Tim Duncan was able to put forth — David Robinson has a title because of Tim Duncan. Tim Duncan is a five-time champion, as that chart just showed, just as many titles as Kobe Bryant, more NBA Finals MVPs. You’ve got to take that into consideration the fact that he is universally recognized as the greatest power forward to have ever played the game, a 10-time All-Defensive First Team player.”

Considering Kobe’s tragic passing, some fans felt like the conversation was unnecessary especially since Smith has previously stated that Kobe’s legacy shouldn’t be compared to anyone’s anymore. Regardless, First Take needs to fill time with no sports on TV and this is the discourse we ended up with.

Let us know what you think of Smith’s claims in the comments, below.