ESPN's Stephen A Smith fires back at Charles Barkley after warning about being overexposed

ESPN star Stephen A. Smith fired back at Charles Barkley over the warning the Basketball Hall of Famer gave to the sports personality about being overexposed in the media.

Smith prefaced his remarks on his podcast by saying he had a respect and appreciation for Barkley, suggesting the two were very close.

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Stephen A. Smith on the ESPN NBA Countdown live set at Intuit Dome. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

"That’s my guy, but that doesn’t mean I always agree with him. And it doesn’t mean that I’m devoid of the right to call him a flaming hypocrite when it’s called upon," Smith said on "The Stephen A. Smith Show." "Do y’all know how many commercials Charles Barkley does a year? He’ll tell us two. Have you seen Charles Barkley in two commercials? Are you kidding me? Oh, by the way, the cat that you work with at least twice a week during the NBA season is Shaquille O’Neal.

"Can we count the amount of endorsements he has? How often he’s seen everywhere? What new product he’s pitching? Did you say that about him? No, you didn’t. But when it comes to me, I need to be ‘careful.’"

Smith wanted to get to the "heart of the matter."

"And this isn’t directed at Charles Barkley. This is directed at all the folks out there – I’m making people out there – I’m making people very uncomfortable, and I don’t give s---," Smith said. "You can talk about people not taking me seriously all you want to, we’ll see, because I’m a serious brotha. That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to laugh and smile and have fun, you know who the hell I am."

Barkley made his remarks during an appearance on OutKick’s "Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich."

The former Philadelphia 76ers star said he would not vote for Smith for president before warning Smith that people could get "sick" of him.

Charles Barkley attends the Redmont Challenge With Charles Barkley at Puttshack Atlanta on April 8, 2022 in Atlanta. (Prince Williams/Wireimage)

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"I was in the studio last night and I saw he was going to be on ‘Law & Order’ tonight. I mean he is already on ‘General Hospital,’ he’s already on ‘General Hospital,’ now he is going to be on ‘Law & Order’ tonight, and I was just laughing. I was like, ‘Yo man, you are starting to be too much right now,’" Barkley said.

"Like, you are going to be on CNN, you are going to be on ‘Fox & Friends,’ now you on ‘General Hospital,’ now you on ‘Law & Order,’ I’m like, ‘Yo man, knock it off. Stop being on every TV show’ because at some point people are going to get sick of you, and you are going to be like, ‘Yeah I probably did too much.’ But once you do too much, it’s too late and people don’t take you serious, and I think he’s got to be careful in that aspect."

Barkley said he wants to be on TV less and less, because "less is more."

"My friends close to me give me a lot of credit, and I’m not blowing my own horn, I want to be on TV as less as possible, to be honest with you Dan. That’s why I only do a couple commercials a year. I don’t go on a bunch of shows, less is more, because the more you do, the less people take you serious. And I don’t feel the need to grab every dime, I don’t feel the need to grab every dime at my disposal," Barkley said. 

Stephen A. Smith at the Disney 2024 upfront presentation held at North Javits Center on May 14, 2024 in New York City. (Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images)

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"I’ve been arguing with my agent, he said we could do five-seven commercials a year, I said we are going to do two commercials a year, that’s it. I don’t want to be on TV all the time. I get sick of seeing myself do March Madness, but I don’t want to be on TV all the time and I don’t do a bunch of TV stuff because I don’t want to – people get sick of you, that’s my number one thing. People will get sick of you, so I don’t want to be on TV more, I want to be on TV less."

Fox News' Ryan Canfield contributed to this report.

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