Stephen A. Smith Blasts Canada For Leading Their News With Hockey

Canada is known for loving their hockey and no matter how well its teams do in other sports, nothing will get Canadians more riled up then the Stanley Cup Finals. If you watch Canadian television, you’ll notice that despite the Toronto Raptors making it to the NBA Finals this year, it’s the Stanley Cup Finals that ends up being talked about first. Oddly enough, not a single Canadian team is playing for the Cup this year as the Boston Bruins and St-Louis Blues are tied up at one game apiece. 

Stephen A. Smith of ESPN’s First Take is in Toronto to do a live taping of the debate show and immediately noticed the country’s obsession with hockey. Smith got up and addressed the crowd in attendance for the show and gave them a piece of his mind when it came to the news coverage of the NBA Finals. 

Essentially, Smith takes issue with the fact that Canadians would rather talk about a series that doesn’t concern them, as opposed to the NBA Finals which features the only NBA team in Canada. 

Canadians outside of Toronto aren’t exactly the biggest fans of the city so it’s not surprising that non-Torontonians would want to forget about the Raptors, although Smith does make a great point.

If Canada embraced basketball just a little bit more, perhaps they would have more teams in cities like Montreal.