The Dallas Cowboys lack mental toughness.

LeBron James can never surpass Michael Jordan.

The most fiery of these opinions invoke a sense of outrage — or blasphemy, to use one of Smith’s favorite words. And the theatrics extend to the digital realm, where in a series of recent tweets, Smith turned his attention to Washington Wizards star John Wall. After the injured point guard announced he would miss the rest of the season after heel surgery, Smith asked whether the pressure on Wall was too much, tweeting, “I’m hoping this brother returns IN SHAPE, ready to validate that $170 mil he’s about to get over the next 4 seasons.”

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Wall soon responded, without mentioning Smith by name.

“It don’t bother me,” Wall said. “It’s like this: If you have a personal problem with me, come talk to me like a man.”

These were just the latest volleys in a season-long back-and-forth between broadcaster and point guard, which in turn was just the latest feud between Smith and a prominent NBA star. Kevin Durant once accused Smith of lying, prompting a Smith retort. James once questioned Smith’s sourcing, prompting a Smith retort. In each case, the athletes were sucked into the debate, unpaid co-stars of Smith’s programming.

“I’m not scared of anyone,” Smith said in a recent interview. “I am licensed to give my opinions. ESPN doesn’t pay me to be quiet or hide or worry about whether this or that athlete likes me.”

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He added: “If you’re the Washington Wizards, how do you not have a problem with John Wall? They are paying this man, and he’s not in shape to play.”

No one doubts Smith’s fearlessness in the hardscrabble world of sports opinion. But a more interesting question might be whether he seeks out these confrontations. After all, you’ve got a better TV show when you’re talking directly to players instead of about them.

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The pattern can feel familiar. Earlier this season, Smith knocked Wall for his work ethic, noting the guard’s fondness for the nightclub Rosebar, to which Wall responded, “What, not supposed to party once in a blue while?"

That laid the ground for their latest Twitter spat.

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“I don’t want to hear a damn thing from Wall about talking to him man-to-man,” Smith tweeted. “I showed at one game and waited for him in the locker room; he wouldn’t come out.”

Wall tweeted back, “Lol bra [you] walked passed me wit ur head down … [I don’t care] who u know from my camp, stop hidin.”

The script was similar a few years ago when Smith suggested free agent-to-be Durant was considering a move to the Los Angeles Lakers, a rumor that Durant took offense to. “I don’t talk to Stephen A. Smith at all,” Durant said. “No one in my family, my friends do. So he’s lying.”

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“You do not want to make an enemy out of me,” Smith fired back on TV.

During the 2017 offseason, Smith reported that James was unhappy with then-teammate Kyrie Irving over a trade request. “Boooo!! Get another source,” James tweeted.

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In each instance, Smith became more than a commentator. He was an active participant in the action, driving the NBA narrative simply by opening his mouth.

Smith, though, doesn’t see it that way.

“I don’t think folks appreciate how much I don’t care,” Smith said. “I’m being very, very serious. I don’t do things for reaction. I’m a journalist by profession. I have been doing this for 25 years."

Norby Williamson, executive editor of studio production at ESPN and Smith’s boss, echoed that sentiment.

“ ‘Is so-and-so a journalist?’ is like a question from 1982,” he said. “The definition of journalist has evolved. There’s reporting, but there’s also interpretation now. Some people think it evolved in the wrong direction, but I’m not sure it did. But absolutely, he’s a journalist.”

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Williamson continued, “As long as it’s not a personal attack, as long as it’s researched and as long there’s balance to it, we’re paying people to give informed, responsible opinions.”

Asked whether it was good business to have Smith beefing with players, Williamson said: “It’s good for him to be an essential character in the coverage of the NBA, but I’m not big on courting controversy. I’m not wild about a Wall and Durant going back and forth with him. I’m not sitting here going, ‘This is great today.’ ”

To Williamson, players’ reactions to Smith are simply a sign of his stature. Smith has been reporting on the NBA for a quarter-century, going back to his days covering the 76ers for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Today, he is ubiquitous on ESPN, and he has nearly 4 million Twitter followers, which gives him a reach that might be unparalleled in sports media. He is a brilliant television performer and has earned the visibility and the clout that comes with it.

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“I want to be careful because I don’t want to say other people’s voices don’t matter,” Williamson said. “But his voice matters with our audience on a different level. It matters with the people he covers and comments on, and you can see that in the way people react to him.”

Watching Smith and Wall go back and forth, you could squint and see parallels at the White House, where CNN reporter Jim Acosta has regularly and publicly sparred with Trump administration officials. The stakes are far different, of course, but Acosta, too, has become his own distinct character in the ever-developing drama of the Trump presidency.

Two years ago, Acosta described CNN as “overjoyed” after he had a lengthy argument in the White House briefing room with Trump adviser Stephen Miller about immigration. CNN replayed the exchange repeatedly, their reporter now a star in the story.

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Asked about Acosta and CNN, Smith replied: “I don’t see the correlation. I want you to show me one person that tells you our network wants our network to be part of the story. They have never said that. They accept, because of the reach we have and the potency we possess, there will be a personality covering the story, but that’s different.”

Still, the potential upside for ESPN is obvious. Back when Smith was feuding with Durant, he announced dramatically on Twitter one morning, “I will respond to [Durant on ‘First Take’] right now!!! Then later too, on my radio show.”

Two years later, after Durant was an NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors, his mother, Wanda, appeared on “First Take.”

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“I just think you were kind of harsh,” she told Smith of the criticism he had hurled at her son for signing with the Warriors.

“For you, I’m sorry,” Smith said.

Everyone smiled.

It was, indeed, great TV.