ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith defended Josh Donaldson on Monday over the New York Yankees third baseman calling White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson “Jackie,” which Anderson decried as racist.

The incident happened during the White Sox-Yankees game at Yankees Stadium on Saturday where both benches cleared.

Following the game, Donaldson, who is White, said that the “Jackie” comment was part of a long-running joke with Anderson, who is Black. In a 2019 Sports Illustrated interview, Anderson called himself “today’s Jackie Robinson.”

“So first inning, I called him ‘Jackie.’ Let me give you a little context of that,” said Donaldson. “In 2019, he came out with an interview, said that he’s the new Jackie Robinson of baseball and he’s going to bring back fun for the game, right? In 2019, when I played for Atlanta, we actually joked about that in the game. I don’t know what’s changed.”

“My meaning of that is not in any term trying to be racist, by any fact of the matter. It was just off of an interview with what he called himself,” he added. “Obviously he deemed that it was disrespectful and look, if he did, I apologize. That’s not what I was trying to do, by any matter.”

Appearing on First Take, Smith said that “instances” such as the feud between Donaldson and Anderson “annoy the living hell out of me.”

Smith went on to defend Donaldson.

“Here’s what upsets me about this. We are having a conversation about race and I can’t sit here and tell you that anything Josh Donaldson said was racist,” he said. “I think that it is actually wrong for people to attach racism or ‘racist’ to Josh Donaldson today or for this incident.”

Watch above, via ESPN.

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