Last night ESPN did a segment on recently injured Portland Trailblazers center Greg Oden, summoning the completely underutilized Stephen A. Smith via satellite to comment from Orlando.

What the ALL CAPS is he doing in Florida? Smith hasn’t had a column in the Inquirer since August 17th, and nothing has been mentioned about his status with the paper since the Inky’s smarmy August 22nd announcement that he was being “reassigned” (a.k.a. demoted) to roving reporter.

In response to a Daily Examiner e-mail today, SAS said that anything about the Inky dustup was to be handled by his D.C.-based lawyer, Johnine P. Barnes, of Baker Hostetler. Ms. Barnes had no comment either, but did say she had issued a formal statement on August 27th to various media outlets. She forwarded it along:

“At this time Stephen A. Smith does not have any comment regarding any of his professional duties and responsibilities. Stephen is evaluating the journalistic freedom of a writer and will comment on his professional responsibilities at an appropriate time in the future.”

Apparently, freedom takes to you … Orlando.

So, most likely, Smith’s not happily accepting the Inquirer reporting job, and we probably won’t be reacquainted with his dynamic prose anytime soon. Plus, judging by Ms. Barnes’s areas of expertise — “various phases of employment law, including litigating and defending administrative claims of harassment; retaliation and discrimination on the basis of age, race, sex, and disability; wrongful discharge and breach of contract issues” — it appears his graceful exit will be completed by the Inquirer’s legal team.

David Aldridge, Philadelphia turns its lonely eyes to you.

Stephen A. Smith Due to Return to Reporting [Inquirer]

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Lawyers, Media, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by A.J. Daulerio on 9/14/07 in Lawyers, Media, Sports