Stephen A. Smith Apologizes to Kyrie Irving for 2021 Vaccine Criticism

Smith said the apology was an act of personal accountability and that recent public-health developments prompted him to reassess his past stance.

Overview

On Friday, July 31, 2026, Smith used his eponymous show to say he was sorry for the harsh commentary he directed at Kyrie Irving during the pandemic and pledged to "do better."
In 2021 Irving refused the COVID vaccine and New York City’s mandate kept him from practicing or playing in Nets home games, a restriction that helped strain roster chemistry and later factored into his 2023 trade to Dallas.
Smith had publicly urged the Nets to trade Irving and called his choice "flat-out stupid," remarks he now says were wrong and that he regrets.
Smith told listeners that Dr. Anthony Fauci’s recent invocation of the Fifth Amendment before a Senate committee created "grounds for suspicion" that contributed to his reassessment of how unvaccinated public figures were judged.
The apology is largely symbolic: it shifts a prominent media voice’s public framing of the episode and could prompt wider reappraisals of pandemic-era coverage, though it does not alter the underlying facts of Irving’s decisions or career path.