Speaker 1: Wait that ass up in the morning Breakfast Club. Yeah morning,
Speaker 1: everybody's DJ Envy Angela Yee, Charlemagne the guy. We are
Speaker 1: to Breakfast Club. We got a special guests in the
Speaker 1: building to the room, stephen A. Smith. What's up, y'all?
Speaker 1: How y'all doing? How I'm good, bro, I'm good. It's
Speaker 1: been crazy. I've been busy as hell and the nbac's
Speaker 1: is about to jump off too, So it's been crazy.
Speaker 1: But I'm here. I wasn't missing this. Your book is
Speaker 1: available for pre orders. Great shooting. Yeah man, it's gone well.
Speaker 1: And thank you because you was one of the people
Speaker 1: that inspired me as well a lot people both for y'all.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm proud of y'all with y'all books and
Speaker 1: what y'all have done. But I tell you, um, it
Speaker 1: was a long time coming. I really didn't want to
Speaker 1: do it. Um people have been They would have been
Speaker 1: asking me since ESPN let me go in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine to write a book, and I didn't want to.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to because I always said if I
Speaker 1: wrote a book, you know, I got to be straight
Speaker 1: up about you know, just my life and kind of
Speaker 1: the things that the kind of things I had to
Speaker 1: go through on a personal level. And then my mother
Speaker 1: got rest us. So before she passed away in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: she had always made me promise us don't ever write
Speaker 1: a book until I pass away, because she knew that
Speaker 1: I was going to talk about, you know, some of
Speaker 1: the relationships that I had grown up with Pops and
Speaker 1: others in my family and stuff like that, and she
Speaker 1: knew I was gonna do that, and she did not
Speaker 1: want me to do that while she was alive. She said,
Speaker 1: you go and do it. I'm just asking you for
Speaker 1: one favor. Don't do it until I pass away. So
Speaker 1: I had waited all of those years, and then even
Speaker 1: after I wasn't gonna do it, and then my sisters
Speaker 1: reminded me, Hey, go ahead and do it. Go ahead,
Speaker 1: guy got folded. They said, it's time. Why now, Because
Speaker 1: you've always been like a private person personally. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: still am, I just believe it or not. I still am.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot to tell. There's a lot to
Speaker 1: tell in terms of the path that I had to
Speaker 1: travel to get to where I am. And so you
Speaker 1: tell some of those stories and you try to be
Speaker 1: inspirational as y'all have done with y'all book and whatever.
Speaker 1: You know, you tell people, you know, you don't tell
Speaker 1: them every single little nugget about your life, but you
Speaker 1: tell a lot, and you tell a lot with the
Speaker 1: Golden Mina or being constructive and being inspirational and just
Speaker 1: trying to let people know, Look, you ain't the only
Speaker 1: person have been through stuff. It's a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: us have been through stuff. And we walked through that
Speaker 1: terrain and we carried ourselves on through and we through
Speaker 1: the grace of God and a lot of help from
Speaker 1: a lot of people, we were able to pull it off.
Speaker 1: So you can't too. And that's basically what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You're being You're trying to be as motivational and inspirational
Speaker 1: as you possibly can. But in the same breath, in
Speaker 1: order to do that, you got to be real. And
Speaker 1: so I just said, hey, I'm just gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Did you know what you wanted to do as a kid?
Speaker 1: You know what I always I grew up idolizing Howard
Speaker 1: Cosell and be primarily because of Muhammad Ali and his
Speaker 1: relationship with Muhammad Ali and then Brian Gumble, because I
Speaker 1: saw him doing everything. You know, it was like it
Speaker 1: was the Today's Show. It was he used to do
Speaker 1: NFL ONC. I mean, the Olypics, he did everything, and
Speaker 1: so I grew up idolizing them, and I had fantasized
Speaker 1: about that. But I also I always fantasized about being
Speaker 1: a criminal lawyer. And this is before I mean I
Speaker 1: literally did. But you know, I'm in, I'm in the
Speaker 1: I'm in I'm in the fourth grade, and I'm getting
Speaker 1: left back because I got on dig undiagnosed dyslexa dyslexa,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying, hey, you know what, ain't away I'm
Speaker 1: going to law school. I'm thinking, like, hell no, ain't
Speaker 1: doing that. But I mean I grew up watching Perry
Speaker 1: Mason and Mad Logging, this four, Law and Order, all
Speaker 1: of those crime shows that anything that had the courtroom
Speaker 1: in it I fantasized about. So I always said, you
Speaker 1: put me in a courtron, no where in hell you're
Speaker 1: gonna convince me. I'm gonna lose out on convincing twelve
Speaker 1: jurors to see my way. And I always believe that.
Speaker 1: But then the journalism came and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: it just blew up unexpectedly because even though later earlier
Speaker 1: on in my life, I didn't have that confidence. Later
Speaker 1: on I did. And when I had that confidence, I
Speaker 1: was ready to do it. But then this journalism took off,
Speaker 1: and I was like, when you know I'm doing quite well,
Speaker 1: let me stick with this. How'd you overcome to Dyslexiao,
Speaker 1: because you're one of the most articulate people speaking on
Speaker 1: television today. My older sister, Linda, she was a teacher
Speaker 1: back the day. My sister Carmen is a teacher now,
Speaker 1: my sister Abbey Gills and the education system as a superintendent.
Speaker 1: But Linda was a teacher. And Linda literally taught me
Speaker 1: how to read and write and and one of my
Speaker 1: best friends growing up, his name was Ronnie. His big brother,
Speaker 1: Tiver was also brilliant. So whenever I was over his house,
Speaker 1: Tiver was a brilliant dude, and he would teach me
Speaker 1: how to read. And then I come home to Linda,
Speaker 1: and Linda would sit me down four or five days
Speaker 1: she said, we're gonna overcome this, and you know, she
Speaker 1: would teach me how to read it right. And then
Speaker 1: in the seventh grade, I had a teacher that told
Speaker 1: my mother during the parent teachers night, he said he
Speaker 1: ain't stupid, not at all, she said. He's not focused.
Speaker 1: He drifts, he doesn't focus and concentrate on things that
Speaker 1: bore him. But when he's when he's interested in something,
Speaker 1: he's locked in and he don't miss anything. When he's
Speaker 1: like that, fine, what he's interested in and watch what
Speaker 1: you had watched? Many times do you argue with your
Speaker 1: sisters like how was your house growing up? Because you
Speaker 1: like to argue. But here's the deal, here's the reason why.
Speaker 1: Because I wasn't allowed to growing up. I got four
Speaker 1: older sisters. Bro shut the hell up. Then that's that's
Speaker 1: on the regular. So you know, you got four women.
Speaker 1: And it's like, I remember the scariest moment in my
Speaker 1: adult life because it's related to your question. I had
Speaker 1: to go on the View right after the Tiger stuff
Speaker 1: came out, and I was like, cool, So problem is, Peter,
Speaker 1: let me go. It was you know, I had gotten
Speaker 1: the Fox Sports Radio. They asked me to come on
Speaker 1: the View. I said fine, and I walked in the
Speaker 1: studio and it's Barbara Walters there. It's Barbara Walters, Joy,
Speaker 1: Joey Bayhard and Elizabeth Hasselback. All this back in those days, Okay,
Speaker 1: and I walked in. You got these four women on
Speaker 1: the set. That's cool, But the audience was like stadium
Speaker 1: seeing and it looked like they right on top of you, right,
Speaker 1: And I was the only man in the entire studio, right,
Speaker 1: There wasn't a male in sight. That I was the
Speaker 1: only spec of testosterone. It was it was like, I said, oh,
Speaker 1: how'd you want the hell about that? But the end
Speaker 1: then they was asking me about Tiger and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm trying to what are you saying I
Speaker 1: got myself into you know? To me? And it was
Speaker 1: like but then I remember, I grew up around this.
Speaker 1: I grew up around this. I knew how to handle it.
Speaker 1: And if it wasn't for my upbringing, what my fault
Speaker 1: older sisters and my mother. There's five women telling me
Speaker 1: what to do. Shut the hell up when we tell
Speaker 1: you to shut the hell up. The subject in that
Speaker 1: position too, because I feel like a lot of times
Speaker 1: as women, especially in sports, you see a lot of
Speaker 1: women who might be the only woman, yeah in the room,
Speaker 1: And so I love the reverse when that happened. We don't,
Speaker 1: we don't. It's scary. It's scary as scary as hell.
Speaker 1: I mean, to this day, that is the scariest moment
Speaker 1: in my career because you gotta remember typing out of
Speaker 1: some stuff now and I'm like, I'm walking in this studio.
Speaker 1: I'm like, there's nothing I can say. I mean, I
Speaker 1: got to figure out a way. And they were just
Speaker 1: looking at me like you even uttered the room syllable
Speaker 1: We're gonna be on you, And I was like, that's interesting,
Speaker 1: especially with like the Ema Joker stuff happening now and
Speaker 1: seeing Shacks say, I don't want to weigh in and
Speaker 1: criticize this because I've been through the things that I've
Speaker 1: been through, So you don't want to be a hypocrite. Well,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be a hypocrite. But in the
Speaker 1: same breath, if you're sitting in that chair and all
Speaker 1: of y'all can relate to this with the great show
Speaker 1: y'all have been doing for years, you gotta call it
Speaker 1: like you see it. And what we gotta do is
Speaker 1: we gotta be careful. You can talk about an incident
Speaker 1: without talking about the person. And this is what listen.
Speaker 1: You know how many people disagree with me every day.
Speaker 1: I have no issue with you attacking what I say
Speaker 1: or what situation I've addressed. That's entirely different than attacking me.
Speaker 1: I can. I can compartmentalize. And if you're sitting in
Speaker 1: that chair, you know I told shout, bro, you can
Speaker 1: avoid it all you want to T and T coming up, Bro,
Speaker 1: season get ready to start, You're gonna have to avoid it.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have to talk about it at some point.
Speaker 1: I definitely told them that. And so for me, you're
Speaker 1: dan right. I touched on it, but I touched on
Speaker 1: it from a different angle. There's no excuse for him
Speaker 1: to find himself in that position that he was in.
Speaker 1: But my position, religiously was it's none of our business.
Speaker 1: There's no reason on earth that you can justify to
Speaker 1: me why the Boston Celtics had that press conference while
Speaker 1: we're having this discussion. That was an h R matter.
Speaker 1: I've been covering sports fromas thirty years. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: every year the stories like this. Every year, you don't
Speaker 1: see it being discussed. You hear about the Can't getting fired,
Speaker 1: and you hear rumors as to why, but you don't
Speaker 1: know it's not validated by the organization. And then you know,
Speaker 1: I took it a step further and I mentioned this
Speaker 1: blackness only from this perspective, you kept him, You retained him,
Speaker 1: You didn't fire him. That means no one has the
Speaker 1: right to come and get him. You suspended him, but
Speaker 1: it was indefinite. You said, I'm gonna suspend you for
Speaker 1: a year, but then after the year, we're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna look into it. I mean, that's bs all right.
Speaker 1: You probably docked half his pay, because that's what my
Speaker 1: source has told me. You docked half his pay, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, so he doesn't he can't work, he can't
Speaker 1: go elsewhere. You docked half his pay. His futures are
Speaker 1: in arms, and you publicized his personal business because the
Speaker 1: press release, I mean, I'm sorry, the report said consensual relationship.
Speaker 1: Now you might have violate the organizational policy and all that,
Speaker 1: but it said so essentially, all of this has happened
Speaker 1: because of a consensual relationship. Now we don't know her status,
Speaker 1: and even if we did, we can't say because you know,
Speaker 1: they haven't revealed that information. You know, you can get
Speaker 1: sued for stuff like that. But here's what I know
Speaker 1: about him. He ain't married, and it was a consensual relationship,
Speaker 1: according to y'all. Think do you think we'll ever get
Speaker 1: the full story. Hell yeah, you can't. Not just that
Speaker 1: you can't do what you did with this man, and
Speaker 1: there's not going to be an uproar at some point.
Speaker 1: And I said it, and then people was getting on
Speaker 1: me about that. I said, I know plenty of white
Speaker 1: dudes that's that, that's screwing around in the office in sports.
Speaker 1: This stuff wasn't public So I know at least three
Speaker 1: dudes personally that got fired because of them. It was
Speaker 1: never publicized. We heard about it, but it was never publicized.
Speaker 1: And guess why, because they're working for another team now,
Speaker 1: not in that capacity that they were. It might have
Speaker 1: been on the lower level, but they still are employed
Speaker 1: in the same and with the same brand. Because why
Speaker 1: it wasn't publicized or put out on front streat like
Speaker 1: they say something that sure, he's not married, that's right,
Speaker 1: that's right. Allegedly one of the women are. Why are
Speaker 1: they attacking him so much for the rest if it's
Speaker 1: an organizational policy, why the woman's name is Listen, we
Speaker 1: totally agree. I'm not gonna sit up here in front
Speaker 1: and act like we disagree. What I'm saying is in
Speaker 1: the interest of making sure that all our eyes. I
Speaker 1: dieded in teas across and we don't have folks coming
Speaker 1: at us talking about why why why are we trying
Speaker 1: to make somebody else the victim. All I'm saying is
Speaker 1: it's always private. We've never heard the details you heard
Speaker 1: they got fired. You could speculate as to why buy
Speaker 1: because it's not known. Another team has no problem bringing
Speaker 1: you on board and employing you because that's never been confirmed.
Speaker 1: By having the press conference, you confirmed the stuff that
Speaker 1: was put out there about him. You said nothing about her,
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying to put her on front street.
Speaker 1: I'm saying he shouldn't have been talked about. Let him
Speaker 1: go or keep him, but keep the matter in house.
Speaker 1: They didn't do that because they wanted to suspend him
Speaker 1: and make an example of him. And it could have been,
Speaker 1: you know, enforced by somebody else. But the bottom line
Speaker 1: is it was wrong. Do you think because he was black? Well,
Speaker 1: I think that part to me. I I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: go that far, but I will say this, I haven't
Speaker 1: seen it happen to any white boys. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: it like that. I haven't seen it, and I said it.
Speaker 1: I said it on National Toughic I ain't see anybody,
Speaker 1: and everybody. Everybody backed up because they know I've covered
Speaker 1: this league and I've covered professional sports for a quarter century.
Speaker 1: And I went on national television and I said, I
Speaker 1: know plenty of white boys that's been doing their thing
Speaker 1: in the office. Nobody said it anything we didn't know,
Speaker 1: and they and everybody backed up because they know I'm
Speaker 1: telling the truth. It's just the truth, and it's it's
Speaker 1: jacked up to that. Listen, he ain't perfect and whatever
Speaker 1: he had coming to him, if the organization they had
Speaker 1: courts to fire him now because I heard that he
Speaker 1: obviously violated the organization of policy. And then plus he
Speaker 1: lied initially won approach. So now you got cause you
Speaker 1: got him debt the rights. Okay, you can't defend him.
Speaker 1: If they wanted to let them go, they could let
Speaker 1: them go, but then let him go. Don't hold them
Speaker 1: and keep him from working and keep him from going
Speaker 1: someplace else to work. You have ruined this man's career
Speaker 1: because of a consensual relationship. Ain't nothing right about that man.
Speaker 1: And then, to me, that's the point that everybody's missing.
Speaker 1: To your point, that's that's a great point. Clearly, they're
Speaker 1: protecting some one person in this situation, which absolutely him.
Speaker 1: It's just like, go delify him, play much right, that's right,
Speaker 1: throw him out to pasture, and and and black man.
Speaker 1: We know about that all too well. So people are
Speaker 1: gonna sit up there and say, Steve and A's trying
Speaker 1: to make it a race issue. Actually know you made
Speaker 1: it a race issue by how you elected to handle this.
Speaker 1: All I said was I said, fire him or keep him.
Speaker 1: But you don't do this because you've never done it
Speaker 1: to anybody else. So why is the first example of
Speaker 1: black man? I got a problem with that. What do
Speaker 1: you think about Matt barnes comments, Because I wondered from
Speaker 1: an og journalism perspective, looking at the new media as
Speaker 1: they called it, what do you think his comments? He'll
Speaker 1: never work again, he thinks if they listen, if the
Speaker 1: full he might be right. He might be right about that.
Speaker 1: He's not wrong. And I think that in Matt Barnes case,
Speaker 1: who's a good brother, by the way, he's real good brother.
Speaker 1: I think with him, here's the issue. I think he
Speaker 1: felt uncomfortable with the ledge he went out on. It
Speaker 1: wasn't so much the story itself, but the things he
Speaker 1: said initially and sometimes you find yourself in that situation
Speaker 1: where you might know all the facts, but you went
Speaker 1: too far out. It's saying what you said and you
Speaker 1: got a backtrack and people are thinking that you're backtracking
Speaker 1: totally because you went out too far. I didn't go
Speaker 1: out too far. I said exactly what I meant. I
Speaker 1: said it a week and a half ago. Damn it,
Speaker 1: I'm saying the same thing now because I know that
Speaker 1: the story is going is gonna percolate, it's going to
Speaker 1: develop even more. We're gonna hear more details coming out
Speaker 1: of it, and I'll be front. I mean, listen, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna front with you and act like we didn't
Speaker 1: hear what's going on and we don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of details that I know that I
Speaker 1: cannot say because for legal issues and what have you,
Speaker 1: you just can't do that. But trust me when I
Speaker 1: tell you it comes from a place of knowledge. I
Speaker 1: know what the hell I'm talking about, and I know
Speaker 1: how screwed over he's gotten in all this. He ain't innocent,
Speaker 1: and if he got fired, he would have deserved it, period.
Speaker 1: But you didn't have to do that. Him getting fired
Speaker 1: is one thing you publicize in his business like that
Speaker 1: is an entirely different matter altogether. He'd have lost his
Speaker 1: job with the bosson Celtics. If you handled it correctly
Speaker 1: in this instance, you might have ended his career as
Speaker 1: a head coach, and as a rookie head coach. He
Speaker 1: did what the president of basketball operations couldn't do in
Speaker 1: seven years. He took these brothers to the NBA finals
Speaker 1: in year one, year one and this, and this is
Speaker 1: the other part that y'all got to know about it.
Speaker 1: He's making about three million, three three to three and
Speaker 1: a half million dollars. Had he had another successful season
Speaker 1: and I'm not talking finals, he could have got them
Speaker 1: to the conference finals whatever. He's in a position next
Speaker 1: summer to negotiate a contract that's paying him at least
Speaker 1: triple at least nine million today's NBA company at least
Speaker 1: nine to ten million dollars. That's to go on rate
Speaker 1: for a lot of these brothers are right. So now
Speaker 1: you've squashed that because what leveraging position does he have.
Speaker 1: He can't come to you and negotiate a deal that's
Speaker 1: gonna get him a raise next year. You've stripped him
Speaker 1: of everything because of a consensual relationship. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it was personal. I know that it was handled
Speaker 1: in a way that I don't think enough people are
Speaker 1: breaking attention to. It's an HR matter, y'all. It's an
Speaker 1: HR matter. If it happened with one of y'all, if
Speaker 1: it happened with me, if it happened to anybody, it's
Speaker 1: none of our business. Man, it's an internal matter. Now,
Speaker 1: if it's not, if it's not consensual and you're talking
Speaker 1: about something else, sexual assault, rape, something like, that's a
Speaker 1: different matter. You're breaking the laws. But if it's legal
Speaker 1: and consensual, it's none of our business. That's why we
Speaker 1: got to have another conversation about the power of self control.
Speaker 1: Brothers got to learn discipline. Like, there's certain situations you
Speaker 1: just shouldn't put yourself into, and that's one of them.
Speaker 1: That's right, which is why I say, if they fired him,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have said the word you put yourself in
Speaker 1: that position? What are you doing? What are you doing?
Speaker 1: You you're you're a rookie head coach. You just got there, okay,
Speaker 1: and you find yourself in this position. There's no excuse. Now, listen,
Speaker 1: from the beginning of the time, men have had problem
Speaker 1: resisting women. I mean, I mean from Adam and Eve
Speaker 1: for crying out lot. It's very very predictable. That's why
Speaker 1: a little bit like what she's like. I mean, I
Speaker 1: would like hopefully Stevens people get exercise something that they
Speaker 1: can straight. But I mean, listen, there's no question about it.
Speaker 1: And especially and as black man, we gotta understand this. Yeah, times,
Speaker 1: times are what they are, and we believe progress has
Speaker 1: been made, but we also recognize that there's a long
Speaker 1: way to go, and so the rules are still different
Speaker 1: for us than it is for white men. Is call
Speaker 1: it what it is. You gotta know that and your
Speaker 1: responsibility to yourself and your community, and and folks on
Speaker 1: the come up that idolize you because of the position
Speaker 1: that you're in. You know, you gotta be careful, though,
Speaker 1: you gotta be careful look at a position. I mean,
Speaker 1: come on, man, come on, man, you you think you
Speaker 1: think that if I haven't had opportunities to get with
Speaker 1: folks in the industry and whatever, you ain't playing that game.
Speaker 1: You know, they ain't worth my check. They they're not
Speaker 1: worth what I built to try and accomplish for myself.
Speaker 1: I'm not going that route. That's just me. They'll send
Speaker 1: people that somebody like, yes, and they had, and they
Speaker 1: had and they have to listen. You can't put you
Speaker 1: can't put it past anybody. Because you got people and
Speaker 1: they listen, They're gonna come at you in a variety
Speaker 1: of ways. I've been in situations where I've been proposition
Speaker 1: covering the NBA Playoffs, NBA Finals, and I'm not saying
Speaker 1: this is exactly what happened, but I wondered who said
Speaker 1: them because the women were a little bit too aggress
Speaker 1: I'm like, like, I don't think I look like Godzilla,
Speaker 1: but I ain't that damn attractive. Now. This is a
Speaker 1: little bit too aggressive here. I mean, why they acting
Speaker 1: like they got to get with me something? Something's fishy
Speaker 1: about that, you know what I'm saying. Not didn't know,
Speaker 1: but you have that suspicion and that and that and
Speaker 1: that success, that intuition. You gotta you gotta get it self,
Speaker 1: protect them, You gotta be like, you know, this is
Speaker 1: just a little too good to be true. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, ain't right about this? You know, I
Speaker 1: mean you know what I mean, Me me, me, you know,
Speaker 1: me meting a honey or whatever. Ain't fun, all right
Speaker 1: that you know that happens with all of us. But
Speaker 1: you know, three women coming up to me at the
Speaker 1: same time. I say, you know, thank you, but no
Speaker 1: thank you, and they still come in. They don't want
Speaker 1: to take no for an answer. They're trying to find
Speaker 1: out what hotel I mean, in what hotel room I mean?
Speaker 1: Rather because we were in the lobby of the hotel.
Speaker 1: It's happened in Dallas years ago, during the finals between
Speaker 1: Dallas and the Miami Heat. And I'm sitting there like
Speaker 1: this is too good. Hell, these women, these women want
Speaker 1: me like this. You know. Hell, no, I'm not going
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a confident I'm a confident brother, but
Speaker 1: damn no, I'm not fooling for that. No past now, yeah,
Speaker 1: no mercy. Yes, so this is more in the field
Speaker 1: of politics. Yes, well, it's not limited to just politics.
Speaker 1: It's it's politics, it's news, it's pop coaching, entertainment is Listen,
Speaker 1: each and every single one of you. I expect, I
Speaker 1: hope expect to have y'all on as a guest. I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of issues that I like to talk about,
Speaker 1: and what what what what's beautiful about the show. This
Speaker 1: is the freedom that y'all have to tackle a multitude
Speaker 1: of issues. Understand that I've been in sports my entire career.
Speaker 1: I never had that latitude. Now it seems that way
Speaker 1: at times, because we tackle issues on first take that
Speaker 1: you wouldn't anticipate on sports television. But the reason for
Speaker 1: that is that some way, somehow it found its way
Speaker 1: into the sports landscape. So it gave us a license
Speaker 1: to talk about issues. You can talk about Colin Captick,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you found yourself getting into
Speaker 1: politics because of then President Trump is how he politicized
Speaker 1: and hijacked the narrative and all of this other stuff.
Speaker 1: So you find yourself sifting into that area. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, it's been sports, and I've been confined
Speaker 1: to that. This is different. It's my podcast, I own it.
Speaker 1: I'm in one hundred percent control of the content for it.
Speaker 1: It's not associated with Disney and ESPN in any way,
Speaker 1: and so for me, it's it's just about talking about
Speaker 1: the issues that are percolating, the people who matter, the
Speaker 1: difference makers, the kind of impact they intend to have,
Speaker 1: and personalizing those conversations. I'm still gonna give my monologus.
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna get my closing remarks. You're gonna always
Speaker 1: hear from me in terms of how I feel on
Speaker 1: an issue on a case by case basis, but in
Speaker 1: the same breath that's gonna It's really about talking to
Speaker 1: the people that are influencers and difference makers, and more importantly,
Speaker 1: letting the audience know who to listen to. Like I'm
Speaker 1: not one of those people when it kind of politives.
Speaker 1: I got my own thoughts and opinions, but I will
Speaker 1: be the first to say I don't know. This is
Speaker 1: what I see and based on the evidence, this is
Speaker 1: what I deduce from. But you should talk to this
Speaker 1: person and this person. You should listen to this show
Speaker 1: and that show. I'm not somebody that's gonna look at
Speaker 1: it and say listen to me and don't listen to
Speaker 1: anybody else. No, I want you to listen to those
Speaker 1: other people because I listen to them. I want to
Speaker 1: hear what y'all have to say, what your thoughts are,
Speaker 1: what your opinions are, et cetera, et cetera. And if
Speaker 1: we disagree, we disagree, and if we agree, we that's
Speaker 1: that's even better. But it's all good Okay, I saw
Speaker 1: saw good. I saw you the other day, and you
Speaker 1: said you weren't gonna be so hard on Kareem season. Yes,
Speaker 1: but I did. I'm I'm trying. I'm trying to move forward.
Speaker 1: I'm trying. I'm not trying to go to the past.
Speaker 1: But when I saw Kareem's comments where he called him
Speaker 1: a comical buffoon, I did wonder what you thought about that.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call him I wanted to call Kyrie a
Speaker 1: buffoon at all. I'm not gonna question the intelligence of
Speaker 1: a brother, although he has said some bizarre things in
Speaker 1: the past, the world is flat and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: He said his uncle is gonna have a conversation with you.
Speaker 1: I'm not his uncle. Well, well yeah he did. Actually, Well,
Speaker 1: here's the deal. Kyrie's father is from the Bronx, and
Speaker 1: so there's a couple of Cats and the Bronx that
Speaker 1: know me well. They he grew up with them, I've
Speaker 1: known them throughout my adult life. They've been mentors and
Speaker 1: friends and all of that other stuff. And so I
Speaker 1: laughed about it because they're my boys. I should hell,
Speaker 1: I give you some of their names, Rod Stricken, Gary Howard,
Speaker 1: Garry Howard, is a former executive sports as executive sports
Speaker 1: editor for the Milwaukee Journal censinnel at a time with
Speaker 1: sixteen hundred papers throughout the daily papers, daily newspapers. About
Speaker 1: this country where you only had about two black sports editors.
Speaker 1: He was one of them. He's former deputy sports editor
Speaker 1: and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and he was the one that
Speaker 1: got me hired to the Philadelphia Inquirer before I got
Speaker 1: into television and all of that. So that's one of
Speaker 1: his boys, his dad's boys. You got Rod Strickland, who's godfather.
Speaker 1: You got Gary Howard, you got his brother, Gary Howard's brother,
Speaker 1: Reggie Howard. I know these brothers and so, and of
Speaker 1: course Kenny Smith from T and T because he knows
Speaker 1: the men like family and so you know, they all
Speaker 1: reached out to me at one point in time or another. Stephen,
Speaker 1: hey man, you know, lay off whatever. And I said, Yo, fellas,
Speaker 1: I said, y'all caught up in how I deliver and
Speaker 1: how I talk. You're not listening to my content. The
Speaker 1: only thing I said about the brothers, you gotta show
Speaker 1: up to work. You don't show up the work, you
Speaker 1: don't get paid. You can talk all that stuff you
Speaker 1: want all the time. I had a problem taking the vaccine.
Speaker 1: I don't have any problem with anybody who was quite
Speaker 1: you know, apprehensive about taking the vaccine. I was talking
Speaker 1: about a different discussion. The different discussion is they all
Speaker 1: live in Brooklyn because of you. You wanted them there
Speaker 1: and they all signed on. They said, Yo, we got
Speaker 1: to go for the chip and ship. We can't do
Speaker 1: it unless we vaccinated because they're gonna get in our way.
Speaker 1: Everybody said, we down. But you, oh, you know what,
Speaker 1: Jaylen Brown didn't take the vaccine. Well, Massachusetts didn't, had
Speaker 1: Porson didn't had that policy at place New York does.
Speaker 1: It ain't fair. Andrew Wiggins Golden State, a hell city,
Speaker 1: San Francisco had that policy. Andrew Wiggins didn't want to
Speaker 1: take the vaccine. They were like, yeah, man, we're trying
Speaker 1: to win the chip, and that's what he did. I said,
Speaker 1: that's what I was addressing. So you could talk about
Speaker 1: putting something in your body and all that stuff, and
Speaker 1: I get it, and that's real, no question about it.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, you're trying to
Speaker 1: win the chip or not. And then it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: I said, look, that ain't the only time you missed work.
Speaker 1: You've been missing games for years. It's eleven years. You've
Speaker 1: never played more than sixty games in the season before
Speaker 1: times in eleven years. So I pointed out that stuff
Speaker 1: and I said, you ain't gonna get paid. You can
Speaker 1: book it. And so when people saw me on the air,
Speaker 1: they were like, oh, you're trying not to get the
Speaker 1: brother paid. Once again, you don't pay attention to my career.
Speaker 1: I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. I didn't tell
Speaker 1: them not to pay them. I'm saying, this is what
Speaker 1: they're telling me. You ain't gonna get this money now.
Speaker 1: And I had owners like, he ain't getting that money.
Speaker 1: And what happened the summer. He can't get that money.
Speaker 1: He had to opt in and play the final year
Speaker 1: of his deal because, as he admitted, there were not
Speaker 1: but so many options. What have I been telling y'all
Speaker 1: all year? And so now we fast forward to this season,
Speaker 1: Bradley Bill got two hundred plus a million, Zach Levine
Speaker 1: and Chicago got two hundred plus a million. I want
Speaker 1: Kyrie to get his money, but you are spectacular box
Speaker 1: office caliber talent that we deserve to see. His problem.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, is that we're beneath him. It's like
Speaker 1: he's so brilliant and he's such a savant that he
Speaker 1: sees things that none of us see, or damn it,
Speaker 1: what we really want to see, as you ball, We
Speaker 1: really want to see as you playing forty one nights
Speaker 1: a year at Barclay Center at least at least how
Speaker 1: about thirty okay, getting a roll, put in more than
Speaker 1: sixty games in the season, and be the show stopper
Speaker 1: that you are. So you know, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: disrespect him like Kareem did. I think that's unnecessary. But
Speaker 1: you gotta remember see Kareem's civil rights activists, his brother's
Speaker 1: deepest hell. He's been around a long time. He's one
Speaker 1: of the greatest who's ever lived. He's qualified to say
Speaker 1: what he said. I wouldn't go that far, but I
Speaker 1: do think the frustration seeps him because you're looking at
Speaker 1: him and you're saying, come on, bro, some of the
Speaker 1: things that you're saying, some of the positions that you're taking,
Speaker 1: you retweeting stuff about conspiracy theories and all of this.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the kind of stuff that damages you.
Speaker 1: It damages the brand, and it makes you look bad
Speaker 1: and somebody need to tell you. That's all I would
Speaker 1: have said if I was Kareem as a closer calling
Speaker 1: them names. But that's just me. Should to retire, I
Speaker 1: think so. I'm not sure because we don't know all
Speaker 1: the details. I will tell you if I were him,
Speaker 1: I'm suing somebody, and I'm not usually that dude, but
Speaker 1: I'm suing somebody. For him to take the hit Sunday
Speaker 1: in Buffalo. You get up, you stumble, you fall back down.
Speaker 1: And for them to say it was a back issue,
Speaker 1: it was not a head issue. Understand what concussion protocols.
Speaker 1: You usually take six to seven days. He had another
Speaker 1: game in four four days. Okay, you put his life
Speaker 1: in danger because he's back out there now. To the
Speaker 1: In fairness to the Miami Dolphins, they swear we followed
Speaker 1: all the necessary protocols. We did everything right. We stand
Speaker 1: by that. Well, why the hell the independent doctor that
Speaker 1: you had, why did you release him? Why did he
Speaker 1: get dismissed? Because you didn't do everything right? And anybody
Speaker 1: with two odds can see that brother who was in
Speaker 1: a world of trouble. You put him back in the
Speaker 1: same game Sunday. Then you turned around you played them Thursday,
Speaker 1: and everybody tells you the second concussion is what's the
Speaker 1: most dangerous. The first concussion does damage, but the second
Speaker 1: one is where your life can really really be in danger.
Speaker 1: And in my opinion, he shouldn't be allowed to play
Speaker 1: the for the rest of the season, at the very least.
Speaker 1: At the very least, and considering concussions and how big
Speaker 1: these brothers are compared to him, the next hit, you
Speaker 1: don't know what kind of damage that could do. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you this. You gotta go And I
Speaker 1: ask you this question a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 1: I wonder if your thoughts to change because I asked
Speaker 1: you and it's all said and done. When we're talking
Speaker 1: about just basketball, who will be well, who would this
Speaker 1: error be remembered by? Curry or Lebron James? Who will
Speaker 1: go down as the guy for this error? Just basketball?
Speaker 1: Nothing else, nothing outside of the court, nothing just on
Speaker 1: the court. For me, I can't separate that. I have
Speaker 1: to say Lebron, But it's exactly because of what you
Speaker 1: don't want me to touch on. See, when they talk
Speaker 1: about Lebron, you can't avoid talking about everything. When you
Speaker 1: talk about Curry, you can't help, but talk about only basketball.
Speaker 1: There's nothing else that he gives you. Lebron gives you
Speaker 1: more because of the issues he's willing to tackle, his
Speaker 1: willingness to speak out, how he's been a target by
Speaker 1: some people, and what have you? Just basketball, Stephen ain't
Speaker 1: just I think Listen Curry is a bad, bad brother.
Speaker 1: He's the greatest shooter who ever lived, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: But the onslaught has come lately, Lebron has been I'm
Speaker 1: going with Lebron because Lebron came into the league with
Speaker 1: that kind of fan fear, delivered ultimately with four championships
Speaker 1: and ten NBA Finals appearance straight. Yeah, but eight straight,
Speaker 1: no question. I heard you say something on the show.
Speaker 1: You said that you're talking about wild chambering and Bill Russell.
Speaker 1: You say that that you can't give it to will
Speaker 1: Over Bill because Bills. It's a good point. It's a
Speaker 1: good point. It's a good point. I can't even front
Speaker 1: it's a good point. Jean Charlemagne, I can't deny it
Speaker 1: because to me, Curry's my favorite player. But I can
Speaker 1: test tell you as a guy that goes to the
Speaker 1: arenas man, when when Lebron walks in it's just a
Speaker 1: different field. It's a different As much as you love
Speaker 1: Curry and as much as you love watching Golden State,
Speaker 1: and as entertaining as they are, and I think he's
Speaker 1: the greatest you, who ever lived, greatest to you, the
Speaker 1: god ever created. Its just that dude, Right when Lebron
Speaker 1: walks into a building, bro it's a different animal to encourage.
Speaker 1: Repeat this year and gets will by the way, you know,
Speaker 1: I picked him. I picked him to repeat what do
Speaker 1: you think? Then he repeats fifth three? Yeah? Got him? Okay,
Speaker 1: got him? Probably probably, especially if he doesn't beating him,
Speaker 1: especially if he gonna be there. I think they're going
Speaker 1: to players though. I think they're gonna be all right
Speaker 1: with Stephen A. Smith Straight Shooter. Pre order it now.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you for joining us. Appreciate you gonna come
Speaker 1: up a little early next time. We got more comment man,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to you. Can I mentioned something before I
Speaker 1: go back. HBCU Week at Disney at Disney World. I'll
Speaker 1: be there this Thursday and Friday. Um, we just celebrating
Speaker 1: the Disney's involved with HBCU Week. In the last two
Speaker 1: and a half years, we generate over twelve million dollars
Speaker 1: in scholarships for over two thousand students. So they're gonna
Speaker 1: be down at Disney World on Friday and First Takers
Speaker 1: is airing. We're televising the show live from Disney World
Speaker 1: on Friday for HBCU Week, so check it out. Well,
Speaker 1: there you have it, Stephen A. Smith. Appreciate you, bro,
Speaker 1: Thank you this club. Good Morningst.