Stephen A. Smith destroys his nemesis in withering takedown after she 'prayed' for ESPN star's downfall over controversial payday

Stephen A. Smith has hit out at people who 'can't get a job' talking about him after Michelle Beadle admitted she was 'praying' on the downfall of the ESPN personality.

Beadle has feuded with her former colleague for years, and saw her SiriusXM timeslot taken over by Smith back in June.

And after she criticized Smith's controversial sponsorship deal with mobile gaming company Papaya, he unleashed a fiery tirade on Friday.

'I hear people talking about me on SiriusXM and who they would have preferred and who they would have wanted or whatever. I've been doing this for 30 years,' he began on Mad Dog Sports Radio, via Awful Announcing, without naming Beadle. 'I've been blessed and fortunate that when I'm doing stuff in this industry, I win.'

'You got some people that were in this business and they talk smack now cause they can't get a job in the business cause they didn't do a good enough job when they were in the business, so now they gotta talk smack and their reputation is they're talking to people.

'Well, what you got going on? It's all of that that comes with it, because somewhere along the way, they didn't do what it took to resonate continuously. And that's why they're on the outside looking in… they don't have a job in the industry. Don't think they don't want one. They do. They just didn't know how to act, and they didn't know how to be productive enough to keep a job.'

Smith's fiery comments came after Beadle ripped Smith for his new partnership with Papaya ahead of the World Solitaire Championship (WGC) in February.

The deal was announced five months after Smith was caught playing solitaire on his phone during the NBA Finals in June, and Papaya are currently the subject of a federal lawsuit, which accuses them of rigging purported 'games of skill.'

Speaking on the 'Beadle and Decker' podcast , Beadle said: 'It's not secret how I feel about that human. I'm not a religious person, but I pray for the downfall. I really do.

'It's gross, man. You gotta have principles in this thing,' Beadle continued.

'ESPN pays him a gazillion dollars to get a lot of stuff wrong and yell. He gets caught playing solitaire during the NBA freaking Finals, the thing he's an expert in.

'He made you look like fools for handing him a blank check in the first place, because doesn't even give a s*** about the stuff that he's paid a gazillion dollars to talk about.

'Now he's turning around and turning that into a money-making opportunity… and it looks like a fraudulent c*** business to begin with.'

In documents obtained by Front Office Sports, the lawsuit against Papaya alleges that the company used bots 'masquerading as human players' in games where human players had money on the line. The company have filed counterclaims.

Back in June, Beadle and her co-host Cody Decker were fired by SiriusXM, a day after she made a passionate on-air rant about Smith taking her job.

Her feud with Smith goes back to 2014, when she ripped him for comments about NFL running back Ray Rice's domestic violence assault, where he suggested women 'provoke' being hit.

Beadle wrote on X: 'So I was just forced to watch this morning’s First Take. A) I’ll never feel clean again B) I’m now aware that I can provoke my own beating.' 

Smith was suspended for a week by ESPN and apologized for those remarks.