‘I don’t give a d**n’: Stephen A. Smith says race cannot excuse Karmelo Anthony in Austin Metcalf murder case

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith did not soften his words after Karmelo Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf.According to multiple sources, Smith addressed the case Friday on his YouTube channel after Anthony was found guilty in connection with Metcalf’s death at a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, in April 2025.

Both teenagers were 17 at the time.

Stephen A. Smith says he wanted to defend Karmelo Anthony, but the facts did not let him

Smith said he wished the case gave him room to argue for Anthony. It did not.“I would give anything to be able to say something definitively in Karmelo Anthony’s defense,” Smith said, according to Basketball Network. “If there was a shred of innocence to the incident itself, I would say so. I don’t want to see another black young man going to jail.”That line mattered because Smith did not frame his reaction as political theater.

He said he looked at the case and landed on the verdict.Per reports, Smith also said, “Karmelo Anthony mrdred Austin Metcalf. There is no other way to slice it.”

The case has drawn national attention because it involved race, self-defense arguments and a fatal confrontation between two teenagers at a school event. The reporting cited by Basketball Network said Anthony tried to shelter under the Memorial High School team tent before Metcalf’s twin brother, Hunter Metcalf, asked him to leave.

Austin Metcalf then stepped in, and the encounter escalated.Basketball Network reported that Anthony pulled a knife from his bag and stabbed Metcalf in the chest. Anthony later fled the scene. Metcalf died from his injuries.Smith’s point was direct. He said the debate should not erase the victim.“I don’t give a d**n about what your race or ethnicity is,” Smith said. “Just because you’re white and young doesn’t mean you deserve to be murdered.

And just because you’re black and young … doesn’t give you a license to murder someone… That’s what happened.”

Austin Metcalf’s death became a national argument, but Smith brought it back to the act itself

The case did not stay inside a courtroom. It moved into the national media cycle, where commentators debated race, sentencing and whether Anthony had received fair treatment.Former ESPN host Jemele Hill also commented on the case. OutKick reported that Hill said she felt “terribly sad” after Anthony was represented by a white attorney.

OutKick also reported that Hill compared the case to those of George Zimmerman and Kyle Rittenhouse, who were acquitted on self-defense grounds.Smith took a different route. He did not center the attorney, the politics or the noise around the case. He centered the death of a 17-year-old.That is why his comments landed sharply. Smith often speaks about racial bias in American life and the justice system, but he said this case did not give him evidence to defend Anthony’s actions.Anthony will serve 35 years in prison. Metcalf never got to leave that track meet. For Smith, that was the part no debate could talk around.