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Stephen A. Smith pulls back after ranting that Lamar Odom 'was on crack'

Stephen A. Smith, ESPN’s outspoken host of First Take and a former columnist at the Inquirer, isn’t one to usually back away from his opinions.

But on Saturday, the boisterous sports talker clarified the comments he made in a particularly nasty rant against Knicks president Phil Jackson, where Smith loudly (and laughably) exclaimed that former NBA star Lamar Odom “was on crack.”

“His very first move as the executive was to sign Lamar Odom… who was on crack!” Smith said, repeating the line several times to his somewhat bewildered co-host Max Kellerman.

Following the rant, Saam Zangeneh, Odom’s lawyer, sent a letter to ESPN slamming Smith’s decision to mock the former basketball star’s struggle with addiction.