“The fact that you got a foreign player that doesn’t speak English, believe it or not, I think contributes to harming the game to some degree, when that’s your box office appeal,” Smith said during Monday’s “First Take.” “It needs to be somebody like Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, those guys. And unfortunately at this point in time, that’s not the case.
“When you talk about an audience gravitating to the tube, or to the ballpark, to actually watch you, I don’t think it helps that the No. 1 face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he’s saying, in this country. And that’s what I’m trying to say.”
A few hours after the comments went viral, Smith posted a two-minute video standing by what he said. People were misinterpreting his words, he said.
By Monday night, however, Smith had issued a full-fledged, written apology.
“In this day and age, with all the violence being perpetrated against the Asian-American community my comments — albeit unintentional — were clearly insensitive and regrettable,” Smith wrote.
Read the full story at USA Today | Sports.
