A beef has erupted between injured Chicago Bulls star Lonzo Ball and ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith. It all began earlier this week when Smith said on First Take that a source had told him that Ball was having difficulty sitting and standing. Ball, who will miss the 2023/24 NBA season, is continuing to rehab from a torn meniscus suffered in January 2022. In response to Smith, Ball posted a video on social media, asking Smith who his sources were as he showed that he could indeed sit and stand with minimal effort.
Instead of taking the L, Smith decided to double down. “You really going to sit poolside on the bench and think because you getting up and sitting down… that makes you healthy? … Bro, you ain’t healthy,” Smith said on First Take. Smith then proceeded to further address the issue on The Stephen A. Smith Show and may have inadvertently admitted to serious journalistic malpractice in the process.
Smith Claims Source Is A HIPAA Violation
“Would you like me to tell you the names of the doctors that operated on you? I know the actual doctors…..if I said it it’s because someone close to you told me," Smith claimed during a two-minute about Ball's comments. Now if Smith wasn't ESPN's biggest revenue stream, this two-minute clip would have just ended his career. What Smith has done here is admit, or at least claim, that his source on Lonzo Ball's injury is the Ball's medical team. That's a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) violation. HIPAA regulates how your personal medical information is handled by healthcare providers and insurance companies. One of the things that the legislation protects against is medical professionals disclosing your medical information without your consent. If Smith is telling the truth, someone on Ball's medical team illegally gave that information to Smith.
But the buck doesn't stop there. Smith, who has been a journalist and broadcast since before HIPAA even existed, should know better than this. This is not information that you disclose. As mentioned, this would end the career of a lesser journalist. Of course, it's not like ESPN is going to fire or punish Smith, especially after losing out on Shannon Sharpe. But somehow, Smith found a way to turn his L from earlier in the day into an even bigger L. Ball and ESPN are yet to respond to this frankly shocking revelation from a seasoned journalist who absolutely should know better.
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