We may not be the biggest Stephen A. Smith fans in the world (does he have fans? would this help them?), but we may in fact be the biggest fans of ESPN commercials. They are consistently fantastic. And for all of Stephen A. Smith’s flaws, he may in fact be a good actor. In fact, the fact may in fact be that he is a legendary actor trolling us all. I subscribe to this belief, halfheartedly.

It’s not often you find that Stephen A. Smith is the least insufferable person in a room with at least three people (I seriously kid, love ya Stephen A.), but alas, that’s what Richard Sherman and Skip Bayless did on First Take Thursday afternoon. Sherman laid a verbal smackdown Bayless, and you’ll wind up never having loved First Take more. Watch what went down.

The Los Angeles Lakers are in disarray heading into All Star Weekend. Luckily, Stephen A. Smith stopped by the Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” desk to diagnose their problems based on his uncomfortably close friendships with each of the team’s star players.

It doesn’t take much to rile up Stephen A. Smith nowadays, or any days, but the Super Bowl blackout had him fuming. Now I’m sure many of us, especially Ravens fans, felt that Baltimore was jipped out of some valuable momentum after starting the second half with a rollicking kick-return touchdown courtesy of Jacoby Jones.

We wouldn’t kid about these things because we care about you. Apparently five days of ESPN’s First Take just isn’t quite enough, so the show will be expanding to six days a week with the inclusion of Saturdays (8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.). Rob Parker will be the primary debater, with Cari Champion hosting and a slew of to-be-named-later co-hosts yapping their holier-than-thou heads off.

The internet missed another Stephen A. Smith pottymouth firestorm by half a syllable. Video, after the jump.

Stephen A. Smith was on ESPN’s First Take this morning, as always, and was ranting about Kobe Bryant being ready for the opening game of the season. His disgust was in prime form, however, because we think he may have let the N-word slip out of his mouth with a “n— please.” We’ll let you decide for yourselves.

Jay Pharoah’s Stephen A. Smith impression got a bunch of attention went he debuted it back in May, and this past weekend, he brought it back to the Weekend Update desk. Did you know that Stephen A. Smith is a close personal friend of Rex Ryan’s? Neither did we. Video, after the jump.

Here’a clip of ESPN’s First Take that aired yesterday, in which Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless were set to “discuss” (read: scream like morons) Tim Tebow’s latest GQ Magazine cover, in which he’s posing like a crucified Jesus. It appears Skip is about to launch into one of his impassioned and impervious rants when the television feed abruptly cuts to commercial. (Go to :58)

Frank Caliendo might do a better Stephen A. Smith than Stephen A. Smith himself. Check out the comedian’s impersonation from yesterday’s First Take. [h/t Bro Bible]