Speaker 1: Morning. Everybody is DJ n V Charlemagne the guy. We
Speaker 1: are the breakfast club. We got our guest host with
Speaker 1: us Lilight here this morning, and we got our guests person.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to see, but also not happy to see why.
Speaker 1: He knows why. Yes, Steve Smith, gentlemen, welcome whatever, It's
Speaker 1: always good. You know, this man dedicated the whole last
Speaker 1: chapter to his book Damn Near Slander, and cowboy fans
Speaker 1: mad at it. I'm like, why I wouldn't say slander.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say slander. I was being factual, and once
Speaker 1: again I was proven to be correct. I mentioned you
Speaker 1: on on on, get up the other morning. It's ridiculous, man,
Speaker 1: these these Dallas cowboy fans and like cockroaches everywhere. I
Speaker 1: told them, I said, just be patient, eybody. They was
Speaker 1: winning games. Everybody's the signed. I said, just be patient,
Speaker 1: it's coming. And sure enough, when the lights got brightest, wow,
Speaker 1: you'll be happy to though I had no expectations for
Speaker 1: the playoffs, They'll tell you I had none. After thought
Speaker 1: they were gonna lose the temple. Okay, well, you do
Speaker 1: understand you're an anomaly. You never I'm most cowboy friends.
Speaker 1: That's what you have to do. You have to do
Speaker 1: because they're gonna break your heart broke. That's right. That's
Speaker 1: what the Knicks do to me. That's what the Cowboy's
Speaker 1: gonna do to you. That's right. Now. We can talk
Speaker 1: about sports all day, But you got a book out,
Speaker 1: an amazing book, by the way. Now you go into
Speaker 1: your life about this book. Usually you don't talk about
Speaker 1: your personal life at all. We never hear about your
Speaker 1: personal some of these stories that I've been hearing, I
Speaker 1: was like, really have no idea, So why did you
Speaker 1: decide to talk to go so in depth about your
Speaker 1: personal Well, first of all, the seat that I sit
Speaker 1: in every day doing first take on the ESPN. You know,
Speaker 1: I pride myself and my character assassinated people. I talk
Speaker 1: about what you do now who you are. But nevertheless,
Speaker 1: by being in that seat, similar to the seat that
Speaker 1: y'all have, if you're gonna do something like that, then
Speaker 1: you know what you owe it to the audience to
Speaker 1: let them know who you are, where you come from,
Speaker 1: what your perspective is, et cetera, et cetera. And I
Speaker 1: got to give both of y'all props, actually all three
Speaker 1: of y'all props, because all of y'all have been authors,
Speaker 1: and the fact that the matter is the kind of
Speaker 1: lime light that y'all have been in the seat that
Speaker 1: y'all sit in. When you start writing about something you
Speaker 1: know you you ultimately feel an obligation to let people
Speaker 1: know who you are, what you're all about, what your
Speaker 1: perspectives are. And so to me to see people do that,
Speaker 1: I knew that it was. If I was going to
Speaker 1: write a book, there was only one way I could
Speaker 1: go about doing it. Ain't know the some damn sports book.
Speaker 1: It's got to be about me, who I am, how
Speaker 1: I think, why I came to be, how I am,
Speaker 1: the way that I think, et cetera. I thought I
Speaker 1: owed that to the audience, and the only reason I
Speaker 1: hesitated once I got left Go Let Go by spin
Speaker 1: of two thousand and nine. In two thousand and eleven,
Speaker 1: people were coming to me to write a book, and
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted it to be about, you know,
Speaker 1: my life, et cetera, et cetera. And my mother at
Speaker 1: the time, who had just gotten diagnosed with cancer, one
Speaker 1: that she lost in twenty seventeen, got rested soul. She said,
Speaker 1: she made me swear, you will never write this book
Speaker 1: while I'm alive. I understand why after we reading it,
Speaker 1: because I'm sure it had to do with your relationship
Speaker 1: with your father, yes, which I felt like exactly why. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you addressed the topic most men don't discuss enough, and
Speaker 1: that is our relationship with our fathers. How difficult was
Speaker 1: it to explore that topic? It was hard. And the
Speaker 1: reason why it was hard it wasn't the writing process.
Speaker 1: It was the editing process, which y'all all know. You know,
Speaker 1: you write it, but they look at it the editing processes.
Speaker 1: So when they're editing, it's calling upon you to revisit
Speaker 1: and revisit over and over and over again. And I
Speaker 1: didn't wait until the book was finished to like show
Speaker 1: it to my sisters. I got four older sisters, and
Speaker 1: I didn't wait until the book was finished. When I
Speaker 1: wrote those specific chapters, I sent it to them and
Speaker 1: they didn't talk to me for two weeks. And I
Speaker 1: thought they were originally upset. They weren't upset. They were
Speaker 1: just saying, we had buried these memories a long time ago.
Speaker 1: And they said, and you brought it back up. We don't.
Speaker 1: We ain't knocking you for it. We understand, but it
Speaker 1: just hurt a lot to revisit some of those experiences
Speaker 1: because we had buried them for the longest time, and
Speaker 1: the details that you had they couldn't believe that I
Speaker 1: remembered because I reminded them, and they were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this happen, this happened. That happened. No hero, Yeah, my
Speaker 1: dad he wasn't. I feel like the things you said
Speaker 1: about him in the book are the things you wanted
Speaker 1: to say about him at his funeral. Yeah, that's accurate. Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: I told him to his face. I didn't say anything
Speaker 1: in a book that I didn't tell him to his face,
Speaker 1: So let me be clear about that. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: he passed away, fourteen months after my mother passed away.
Speaker 1: And when he passed away, I called my sister Carmen
Speaker 1: the morning of his funeral, and they had mapped out
Speaker 1: the funeral, and you know, the pastor was gonna give
Speaker 1: the cermony, he was gonna eulogize him, all this stuff,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'm doing the eulogy, and Karmen was like, God, no, Steve,
Speaker 1: please please, Steve, don't do this. Don't do this. She said,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna say? I said, you'll find out
Speaker 1: when you get to the funeral and she's like, Steve,
Speaker 1: don't do this. What would mommy want? What would mommy want?
Speaker 1: You know what mommy would say? Said, I got it,
Speaker 1: and I was gonna go in and I was gonna
Speaker 1: literally say everything that you see in the book. And
Speaker 1: and I peo. I called paste Arperna something told me
Speaker 1: to call him. You know, I've been going to see CC.
Speaker 1: I have no pastor Banar for thirty years. And so
Speaker 1: I said, let me call him. And I called him
Speaker 1: and told him what I was feeling. And he was like,
Speaker 1: you right to feel that way. I'm very familiar with
Speaker 1: your story. He said, You're not wrong. He said, but
Speaker 1: the Bible talks about God's grace and God's mercy, and
Speaker 1: he said, and you might want to think about that
Speaker 1: before you decide to speak your truth. And when I
Speaker 1: eulogized my father, I went up. I went up on
Speaker 1: the stage after everybody gave all the paudables, all of
Speaker 1: you know, all all the nice things, the pleasant trees
Speaker 1: they had to say about him, and I walked up
Speaker 1: in the first words out of my mouth was, that's y'all,
Speaker 1: memories of him, memories of my family. We have an
Speaker 1: entirely different story. And I saw my cousin Derek kill
Speaker 1: over like oh no, please. And I saw my brother
Speaker 1: in Lay. I was like, oh lord, he's about to
Speaker 1: go in. And I saw a neighbors that were in
Speaker 1: the audience that I hadn't seen in years that just
Speaker 1: showed up for my dad's funeral, and they were like,
Speaker 1: literally lipsacred to me, Please, please don't do this. And
Speaker 1: I said, my father was not a good man, I said.
Speaker 1: But then I brought up my mother. I said, my
Speaker 1: mother knows nothing about sports. I'm Steve and A I
Speaker 1: worked for ESPN. The world knows, the sports world knows
Speaker 1: who I am. My mother says, EPs and whatever it is,
Speaker 1: I don't know. But she didn't even know the letters,
Speaker 1: I said. But she knew what a home run was,
Speaker 1: she knew what a or no hit it was. She
Speaker 1: knew what a stolen base was. She knew it because
Speaker 1: of him, Because she loved my father so much that
Speaker 1: she knew baseball because of him. I said, So there
Speaker 1: evidently was something very special about him to have a
Speaker 1: woman like my mother. And then I talked about a
Speaker 1: lot of the happy moments that he gave us and
Speaker 1: then I ended it by saying, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, he's still my dad and I love him,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I would have gotten to that
Speaker 1: point if it wasn't for Alborno. What made you change
Speaker 1: your perspective of how to talk about him for the
Speaker 1: book was because you could add more context, because I
Speaker 1: could add the full context. And not only that, I
Speaker 1: owe it if I'm gonna write it, you know, but
Speaker 1: then you know they I didn't know it was gonna
Speaker 1: be like seventy eight to eighty thousand words, but I
Speaker 1: literally wrote ninety thousand words. I wrote the book myself,
Speaker 1: and when no ghostwriting, it was me. I wrote this book.
Speaker 1: I did the audio. There was another voice, it was me,
Speaker 1: and I just said, if I'm going to do this,
Speaker 1: then I owe it to everybody. I mean, and you know,
Speaker 1: because of the business that I'm in, I imagine talking
Speaker 1: to you, you or you. I can see the questions,
Speaker 1: you know, because I'm experienced enough to know what's coming.
Speaker 1: I know what I would ask, I know what I
Speaker 1: would think about, and I wanted to make sure that
Speaker 1: I left no doubt as to where I stood. And
Speaker 1: you know what I was trying to say, and that's
Speaker 1: what I did. And I have a question. So, even
Speaker 1: even though obviously you know how you felt when you
Speaker 1: were writing the book, because it was your thoughts and feelings,
Speaker 1: was there a sense of like that therapeutic element, like
Speaker 1: you know, and people actually put the words on paper
Speaker 1: and write it down and read it and look at it.
Speaker 1: A lot of authors say like it's a form of therapy.
Speaker 1: It's like I finally got it out in my head
Speaker 1: and on the paper. Possibly, So I'm not I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that I didn't feel that way, but
Speaker 1: there was a bigger emotion coming from it, La la I.
Speaker 1: When you know, when my mother passed away, I was
Speaker 1: a mama's boy. I loved the dearly. We were very tight,
Speaker 1: and I was devastated for a long time. What I
Speaker 1: would tell you is while everybody else around us was
Speaker 1: very sad, the emotion that I had was fury. And
Speaker 1: the fury that I had was that, you know, this
Speaker 1: is five years ago. I got my first big contract
Speaker 1: from the ESPN in twenty fifteen. I got the second
Speaker 1: one in twenty twenty three, years after she passed away.
Speaker 1: But I was there and I knew that I was
Speaker 1: in a position where obviously I could give to her,
Speaker 1: But I was getting to a position where it was
Speaker 1: so much more that I could give to this woman
Speaker 1: who had done everything for us and worked two jobs
Speaker 1: sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, one week's
Speaker 1: vacation a year for twenty plus years because she had
Speaker 1: to because he wouldn't do his job. And so because
Speaker 1: of that, to see her in the grave before him,
Speaker 1: and to see her deprived, she was seventy six years old.
Speaker 1: My mother was at a point where let her go
Speaker 1: on a couple of cruises a year and she's in heaven. Well,
Speaker 1: obviously I'm in a position to do more than that
Speaker 1: for her, and so for me, for her to pass away,
Speaker 1: I was furious. So when it came time for his funeral,
Speaker 1: it it just galled me, the thought of everyone showing
Speaker 1: up to celebrate someone who had taken so much away
Speaker 1: from her. He took away from us too, But that's
Speaker 1: all right. Stuff happens. Nobody's perfect. Mistakes, deal happened. But
Speaker 1: when it came to my mother's a different kind of animal.
Speaker 1: You can make mistakes in life and a relationship to
Speaker 1: fall apart. I'm man enough to say, Okay, that's your
Speaker 1: all business. Longer you ain't put your hands on my mother.
Speaker 1: We good, that's you'all business. What was unforgivable to me
Speaker 1: was not paying any bills, allowing her to work the
Speaker 1: hours you were supposed to be working, to have the
Speaker 1: obligations you were supposed to have, supposed you're supposed to
Speaker 1: take off. Said you had a conversation with him, when
Speaker 1: you had the conversation before he died, what was his reasoning? Well,
Speaker 1: this was years early. I would tell you about five
Speaker 1: years earlier. We were in my dining room, were in
Speaker 1: my mother's dining room, and my father was one of
Speaker 1: those dudes that were stubborn to the end that he
Speaker 1: didn't he never saw that he was wrong until he
Speaker 1: absolutely had to. And so he's in there and his
Speaker 1: older brother, my uncle Freddie, was sitting next to him,
Speaker 1: and my father was like, you don't know what the
Speaker 1: hell you're talking about. You don't realize what I've done
Speaker 1: for you. I said, you haven't done anything for me.
Speaker 1: You know, you haven't done anything for me. Don't give
Speaker 1: him too much of the book now, right exactly? And
Speaker 1: I said, and I said that, and you know, he
Speaker 1: started arguing with me and my uncle Freddie looked at
Speaker 1: him and he said, by Soul. That was his middle name,
Speaker 1: by Soul, And he said, shut the fuck up. He said,
Speaker 1: this is Stephen. He's a journalist for a living. You know,
Speaker 1: he knows what you what you haven't have not done
Speaker 1: Chapter in verse, you have no shot. Just be quiet.
Speaker 1: And my father just sat back and just took it,
Speaker 1: and I just I just left it alone from there.
Speaker 1: You know, I think the relationship with your father the
Speaker 1: most important part of the book because it opens up
Speaker 1: so much other stuff, Like you talk about how watching
Speaker 1: your father and your mother's relationship made you never want
Speaker 1: to get married. Yeah, and you talked about things in
Speaker 1: the book. I didn't know. I didn't know you had
Speaker 1: two baby mamas. How didn't you gonna feel about that? Well, well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I don't expect them to like it,
Speaker 1: because it's the one thing that my mother was ashamed
Speaker 1: of of my entire life. I've been on this earth
Speaker 1: fifty five years. She passed away when I was forty nine,
Speaker 1: going on my fiftieth birthday, and that was the only
Speaker 1: thing that my mother was ever ashamed of before because
Speaker 1: I wore you know, I had condoms on lock, like
Speaker 1: like like credit cards. It was like, I didn't leave
Speaker 1: home without them. You know, I was never going to
Speaker 1: compromise myself by putting myself in that position, and then
Speaker 1: I lost my way and so because of that, you know,
Speaker 1: my mother was like, Okay, so now that you did,
Speaker 1: you screw this up. She said, there's only way one
Speaker 1: way you can make up for it. You have to
Speaker 1: be the best father that you could possibly be. You
Speaker 1: have to make sure what you made a promise to
Speaker 1: me about from the time that you was sixteen years old,
Speaker 1: that you will never be like your father. She said,
Speaker 1: that's what I expect, and so be since that moment
Speaker 1: in time. That's why I when Kobe passed to win,
Speaker 1: everybody's told about that girl dad, that girl Dad's like
Speaker 1: it resonated with me in a very significant way, because
Speaker 1: I mean, my daughters are everything to me and so
Speaker 1: you know, and I've always lived by this philosophy. But
Speaker 1: it's the same with my mom. It was with my
Speaker 1: mom as it is with my daughters. You know, I
Speaker 1: think I'm not comfortable unless they comfortable. I don't need less,
Speaker 1: they eat, don't I don't go on vacation until they
Speaker 1: go on vacation. I don't live a passion of fluent
Speaker 1: life unless they live in it. I make sure that
Speaker 1: they're taking care of first. And the thing that I
Speaker 1: was that I shamed her with is also the things
Speaker 1: that I've made her very proud about. She was very
Speaker 1: proud of the father that I am, and I'm very
Speaker 1: proud of the father that I strive to be. It's
Speaker 1: a never ending process. I am not looking forward to growing,
Speaker 1: you know, growing older with two daughters, thinking about the
Speaker 1: man I once was before I became a daddy, you know,
Speaker 1: praying and hoping that they don't run in to a
Speaker 1: young stephen A. Um, you know, I'm definitely, I'm definitely
Speaker 1: that dude. But I'm also very very happy and very
Speaker 1: proud of the father I am, and having two beautiful
Speaker 1: daughters has made me a much better man and a
Speaker 1: much better human being and far far, far more compassionate
Speaker 1: than I ever thought i'd be. And I know we
Speaker 1: don't got much time because you gotta get the state
Speaker 1: due first take, But it's so much just skip ever
Speaker 1: get in trouble for anything, he said on first take,
Speaker 1: because you talk about the times, or you can you
Speaker 1: talk about the time that you got in trouble on
Speaker 1: first take, and I'm like, well, Skip had crazy opinions too,
Speaker 1: and the opinions you had weren't necessarily like I never suspension.
Speaker 1: I never recalled Skip getting in trouble. Wow ever um
Speaker 1: in terms of a suspension or anything like that. Um.
Speaker 1: When I got suspended, I was furious. I did not
Speaker 1: believe I deserved it. I was pissed off to the
Speaker 1: highest degree because I just thought that, you know, it
Speaker 1: was made into something that it wasn't. And so for me,
Speaker 1: whatever my opinions are, I don't mind anybody coming at
Speaker 1: me about that. This is what we feel about what
Speaker 1: you said. It's when they try to branch it out
Speaker 1: and turn it into something that it was not. That's
Speaker 1: what pisses me off. Because what happens is when you
Speaker 1: have Disney Disney. And I'm not knocking Disney for this
Speaker 1: at all. Listen, man, we got stockholders, got shareholders, you
Speaker 1: got people to apiece, and so you got to pay
Speaker 1: attention to everybody. You ain't after black white and hispanic appeal.
Speaker 1: You have to mass appeal. You want it all. And
Speaker 1: so as a result of that, you have to pay
Speaker 1: attention to everything and everybody, And so when that noise
Speaker 1: is made, my boss at the time felt compelled to
Speaker 1: respond to the noise, and when he got suspended forty
Speaker 1: eight hours earlier, he told me I wasn't gonna be suspected,
Speaker 1: and then you know, he turned around spend to me,
Speaker 1: And so for me, it was I've learned a lot,
Speaker 1: I'm a lot better and what I try to do.
Speaker 1: And all of y'all can attest to this. At one
Speaker 1: time or another, We've all had private conversations. I whispered
Speaker 1: something in y'all ear about something to watch out for.
Speaker 1: I'm very, very big about these are the mind fields
Speaker 1: watch out because what I'm saying is, as a product
Speaker 1: of corporate America, somebody that's been in corporate America for
Speaker 1: over thirty years, I kind of know where the mind
Speaker 1: fields are. And so as a result of that, I
Speaker 1: might see cats on the come up that I think
Speaker 1: is going to be in my position or an even
Speaker 1: higher position. And I'm saying, come in, let me make
Speaker 1: sure I tip you off to this. Watch out for this,
Speaker 1: watch out for this, watch out for that, because I
Speaker 1: want y'all to succeed. I don't want y'all to field
Speaker 1: who the hell wants to be successful alone. Oh lja.
Speaker 1: It shocked me too. But he listen, he he walked
Speaker 1: off the sets that I ain't coming back until my
Speaker 1: man comes back on because he knew it was wrong too.
Speaker 1: But I was really shocked that he took that position.
Speaker 1: I certainly didn't ask him too, and I'm appreciative of that.
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean I mean, shoot, we still disagree ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent of the time, but I did appreciate the fact
Speaker 1: that he took that position on my behalf. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, who the worst fans are they? Cowboy fans
Speaker 1: that skip fans or the Navy fans Cowboy fans. Nobody's worse.
Speaker 1: Nobody's worse. But I will tell you I would tell
Speaker 1: the Navy got at you a little bit. First of all,
Speaker 1: let me be very very clear, I don't give a damn.
Speaker 1: I want to be very very clear about that doesn't
Speaker 1: phase me, It really really doesn't. I'm just after you've
Speaker 1: known you know me for years. I'm just built that way. Rihanna,
Speaker 1: if she had a problem, that would have bothered me,
Speaker 1: not her fans. I want I challenge anybody to tell
Speaker 1: me one negative thing I said about that wonderful performing
Speaker 1: young lady, I no nuance to it, and you just
Speaker 1: said nat. You said Rihanna doesn't perform as well. Let
Speaker 1: me give you any time. Let me give you, let
Speaker 1: me hook you up on the inside. Sherry Shepherd's team.
Speaker 1: I'm promote my book last Tuesday, Sherry Shepherd's team comes
Speaker 1: up to me and they said, since you're here, we
Speaker 1: want to debate like format. We want to have fun
Speaker 1: with it. I said, okay, bring it, no problem. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what they were gonna ask, right, but the
Speaker 1: problem so I'm expecting a debate, right, And I knew that.
Speaker 1: I was just in the room talking about Beyonce because
Speaker 1: one of my all time favorite performance Beyonce with Bruno
Speaker 1: Mars and cold Play is one of my favorite now
Speaker 1: obviously Jay, you know Doctor Dre and snooping him last year.
Speaker 1: I mean that, I mean Lord Ha Mercy, I mean
Speaker 1: I'm mad I wasn't there, but that's I think that
Speaker 1: Beyonce might be the greatest female performer of all time.
Speaker 1: That's how I feel about it. I think Rihanna's fantastic.
Speaker 1: I think Rihanna's fantastic. By the way, both of them
Speaker 1: got my money because I bought both albums. Okay, So
Speaker 1: my attitude was Rihanna's great, but I'm thinking you got
Speaker 1: a lot to live up to because there's only one Beyonce.
Speaker 1: Now you agree, fine, you disagree? Fine, How we get
Speaker 1: to the point why he got a pit two black women? Again? Really?
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't. I just can't be a fan both.
Speaker 1: But I prefer Beyonce over Rihanna. That's a crime. Now,
Speaker 1: And I didn't know that. In your book you talk
Speaker 1: about learning lessons, yes, and you have gotten in trouble
Speaker 1: for that before when you pushul Curry against Savantage. That's right.
Speaker 1: Listen first of all this yeah, ye, fair question, la la,
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna I'm gonna talk. I didn't know. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that. Yes, yes, let me explain what happened.
Speaker 1: So Steph Curry is in Game six of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: Lebron and Kyrie are coming. They won Game five after
Speaker 1: Draymond got suspended, bo getting Eagle Dollar got hurt. They
Speaker 1: win game five. Game six, they coming at Golden State.
Speaker 1: They're down twelve with about four minutes left and Steph
Speaker 1: Curry fouls out. Steph Curry pulls out his mouthpiece, tries
Speaker 1: to throw head to the official. But missus it's a
Speaker 1: fan by accident. Blah blah blah, i Issia Curry goes ballistic.
Speaker 1: What y'all may not have known was that. And I
Speaker 1: love i Usia Curry, I mean, and no problem, no throwing,
Speaker 1: no shade on her whatsoever. I'm just telling what happened.
Speaker 1: Prior to the game, she had tweeted that she was
Speaker 1: upset because they were backed up in traffic. Now, Jay
Speaker 1: Z and Beyonce were coming to the game, but nobody knew.
Speaker 1: So the Cleveland a reader and the Gundery or whatever
Speaker 1: it was, right, the quickest Loans a reader, they held
Speaker 1: up the traffic. So she was mad about that and
Speaker 1: was talking about how the wives and the family or
Speaker 1: the players for Golden State would being inconvenienced. She complained
Speaker 1: something else about the officiating blah blah blah. So crazy,
Speaker 1: but stop so so so what happened is that she
Speaker 1: did that and then she went off after Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: you know, fouled out all of that other stuff. What
Speaker 1: I said was, you are representing your man at that
Speaker 1: particular moment in time. Anything that you do, it's not you,
Speaker 1: it's the wife of him. And so because of that,
Speaker 1: you have to guard yourself and be careful. Skip comes
Speaker 1: back at me and says, oh, please, you know what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? Blah blah blah blah, And I'm
Speaker 1: jumping in like, wait a minute, you will get on
Speaker 1: Lebron about anything. How all of a sudden this escapes you.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So that's how the whole
Speaker 1: Savannah Aisha thing came up, because what I was saying
Speaker 1: was if this was Lebron, you would have found an
Speaker 1: excuse to jump on him. And we all know that
Speaker 1: Savannah is phenomenal. So when are you talking about? That's
Speaker 1: all I was saying. My regret was at the same time,
Speaker 1: I didn't say, you are Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Clinton.
Speaker 1: You cannot get yourself into some nonsense because she running
Speaker 1: for the president. You understand you can't be out there
Speaker 1: messing up because it's going to bring attention to her
Speaker 1: while she's trying to win the presidency. I didn't bring
Speaker 1: that up because I wasn't thinking about that in a moment.
Speaker 1: But I'm only bringing that up as an example that
Speaker 1: I should have mentioned because I wasn't trying to make
Speaker 1: an agenda thing. I'm saying, if if la LA is
Speaker 1: in a public position, if you or you are in
Speaker 1: a public situation in the moment and there's a tension
Speaker 1: that some your spouse or your significant other could potentially
Speaker 1: bring to you that could detrimental, that that can make
Speaker 1: a detrimental to what you're trying to accomplish. They can't
Speaker 1: get in the way of that. That's all I was
Speaker 1: trying to say. I've been in that position. The thing
Speaker 1: is that also nobody in this room has been married
Speaker 1: to an NBA player before. Day in and day out,
Speaker 1: You're hearing about things that are going on. You're getting
Speaker 1: invented to about everything. You have emotions, You act off
Speaker 1: emotions sometimes, so every night you're hearing about this whatever's
Speaker 1: being said, and it's just building up and you get
Speaker 1: protective and then something just set you off and you
Speaker 1: want to say something because you realize your spouse has
Speaker 1: continuously taken the high road. I said earlier, I remember
Speaker 1: a time we talked about it before you came, when
Speaker 1: I think I treated something at Skip Bayliss because I
Speaker 1: was like, yo, enough with the mellow slander every single
Speaker 1: day and he's not saying anything, and I'm just like
Speaker 1: this is enough because now it's affecting the household, it's
Speaker 1: affecting the mood, it's affect so it becomes a bigger thing.
Speaker 1: That's like, somebody got to say something. Now. Is it
Speaker 1: a right time and place for those things? Of course,
Speaker 1: But when you care about somebody, when you're protective, and
Speaker 1: when you're competitive, we're all competitors, and you act off emotion,
Speaker 1: you say things that might not be the right time
Speaker 1: the right place, but at that time you're not thinking
Speaker 1: like that. That's absolutely true. And my point is is
Speaker 1: that I didn't blame how Esha Curry for anything. You know,
Speaker 1: I was saying in that moment, you can't do that.
Speaker 1: I've never said a word about her prior to that, right,
Speaker 1: and so I said that. And when I said that,
Speaker 1: horror response was you paid two black women against each other?
Speaker 1: And I was like, what how we get to that?
Speaker 1: So that we did? Whether you realize it or not, Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: I didn't look at it that way, but that's fine.
Speaker 1: If you're saying that I did, okay, well, then now
Speaker 1: I'll correct it. So what happens is I go back
Speaker 1: to the office and a few days later, after the
Speaker 1: finals is over, and It's like a damn Morgue. Executives
Speaker 1: are walking around the head. I'm like, what did happened?
Speaker 1: And they were like, man, what you did? It was bad?
Speaker 1: It was bad. And I find out weeks later the
Speaker 1: sports Center, the six o'clock Sports Center that was supposed
Speaker 1: to be given to me. I was supposed to host
Speaker 1: First Take in the morning and the six o'clock Sports
Speaker 1: Center by myself at night. And it was taken away
Speaker 1: from me because of that. So what's gonna be taken
Speaker 1: away from you because of Rihanna? Nothing? Nothing, and you
Speaker 1: know something and and and if it ever does find
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, there's a level
Speaker 1: of authenticity that has to come with what we do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be me, damn it. That's how I feel.
Speaker 1: I did not say a negative word about Rihanna. I
Speaker 1: think she's sensational. I'm just to Beyonce fan. When you
Speaker 1: go into your I don't care. And if anybody tells
Speaker 1: me differently, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna even discuss
Speaker 1: it because you're lying. We go home. We all got
Speaker 1: our favorite artists, we all have our favorite actors and actresses,
Speaker 1: we all have that there's a particular show we like
Speaker 1: watching more than others. There's a particular particular music we
Speaker 1: like listening to more to others. It doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: we don't like this person, this person, and that person.
Speaker 1: It just means we have our favorites. That is not
Speaker 1: a crime. And then they playing context. There was no contact.
Speaker 1: But I didn't know I would have to. How did
Speaker 1: I know this was gonna happen? You gotta remember you
Speaker 1: living this world. I'm doing sports. I didn't even know.
Speaker 1: Did you know that I didn't know about Navy until
Speaker 1: last week? Really, I had no I don't care about that.
Speaker 1: What I cared about, To be honest with you, the
Speaker 1: one concern that I had was right on this show
Speaker 1: when Angela I was talking about why are we pinting
Speaker 1: two black women to get Oh my god, I'm glad
Speaker 1: I wasn't here that morning because I'm like, what the
Speaker 1: hell are you talking about? So if I sit up
Speaker 1: there and I listen, I'm not apologizer for this. For example,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people that I like. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of women that I know that are cool people.
Speaker 1: I don't like too many people more than I like
Speaker 1: La La La. LA's always known that I ain't apologizing
Speaker 1: for it to anybody. But if you say more than now,
Speaker 1: you can't listen. I'm not gonna do like somebody. I
Speaker 1: don't feel like. You don't know. If I sit up
Speaker 1: there and I say you ugly, you gotta stick attitude,
Speaker 1: I don't like you. That's different. If I sit up
Speaker 1: there and saying, look, you know you sensational woman, but
Speaker 1: you ain't la la damn, that might be something you
Speaker 1: got to get over. You got to get over that.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I mean, listen, listen. I'm
Speaker 1: not a lot of people. So what somebody says Stephen
Speaker 1: that you ain't know Kendrick Perkins, So what that's your opinion.
Speaker 1: Last time I check, the check still comes. I still
Speaker 1: got my job. I'm still going to work every day.
Speaker 1: I'm still the number one show. You can tell that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can say what you want to say.
Speaker 1: It doesn't it doesn't affect me. Now. If you sat
Speaker 1: up there and say you ain't, that's a different time
Speaker 1: of it. That's a different conversation. But if I if
Speaker 1: you have someone that you prefer more than me, so
Speaker 1: what but so because so do you just feel like
Speaker 1: in your position you really just cannot care what anyone
Speaker 1: thinks about you, because I feel like people always want
Speaker 1: to say like, I don't care what anybody But there
Speaker 1: is a point that everyone does care and everyone has
Speaker 1: a place where they truly do want to be. But
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I don't care about what people think
Speaker 1: in general, lah Lah. I'm saying there are certain things
Speaker 1: we can't care about because we know it's not as
Speaker 1: unfair and as inhumane as people are trying to make
Speaker 1: it out to be. If I sat up there and
Speaker 1: I disrespected Rihanna and I said I don't care, that's
Speaker 1: a problem because she doesn't deserve that. She's home, she's
Speaker 1: a new mom, she's a beautiful artist, she's doing her things.
Speaker 1: Most people would dream to have the life that she's had.
Speaker 1: She's earned it. I got nothing but mad lover and
Speaker 1: respect for her. If I said something disrespectful like that
Speaker 1: and I didn't care, that's a problem. That's a lack
Speaker 1: of humanity. I would never do that. What I'm saying
Speaker 1: is it's not a crime to say I'm a huge
Speaker 1: Beyonce fan. There is only one and you are about
Speaker 1: to go on the same stage. She has blessed not once,
Speaker 1: but twice, and there is a standard to live up
Speaker 1: a bar. There's nothing wrong. You come on first take.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, y'all, there's a bar that's been set. I've
Speaker 1: said it. You come on breakfast Club, there's a bar
Speaker 1: that's been set. Y'all said it. You do what the
Speaker 1: things that all the different things that you're doing with
Speaker 1: power and now being method. I'm seeing you, I'm watching
Speaker 1: what you're doing. You know you continue to ascend. Well,
Speaker 1: damn everybody can't measure up to you. Now, that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they're whack. That doesn't mean they're not gifted. It
Speaker 1: means they're not you. You got you gotta line in
Speaker 1: the book that kind of sums that up. You say
Speaker 1: on first take. We capitalize on the kind of polarization
Speaker 1: people supposedly at phor what's the word I believe So
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember. I mean, I read it, I
Speaker 1: read it eleven times. But in terms of what like
Speaker 1: what you're discussing like, it's the kind of polarization. You know,
Speaker 1: people act like they don't life, but when we do
Speaker 1: it all the time. But what I'm saying is this,
Speaker 1: you you wake up and you pay attention we all
Speaker 1: do it. You have a show, you know what's trending,
Speaker 1: you know what's newsworthy, you know what's percolating and as
Speaker 1: it was, and not only that, you know who percolates.
Speaker 1: And so because of that, it determines what subject matter
Speaker 1: you're going to tackle, because you're not doing the show
Speaker 1: for you, You're doing the show for the audience you're
Speaker 1: trying to reach. And I have an audience that has
Speaker 1: an expectation as it pertains to content. And so when
Speaker 1: we're talking about sports and it's me, there's a level
Speaker 1: of expectation that they have as it pertains to the
Speaker 1: issues I'm willing to tackle. I'm mindful and cognizant of that,
Speaker 1: and I operate accordingly. And when somebody questions that, I
Speaker 1: would remind them I've been number one for eleven years,
Speaker 1: every month, every year for eleven years, so evidently I
Speaker 1: kind of have an idea of what people want to see.
Speaker 1: And hear, all right, no, I know, you gotta go.
Speaker 1: I got one more question because it ties into all
Speaker 1: of this and the No Safety Net chapter. You know,
Speaker 1: you talk about basically personalities who attack other personalities for
Speaker 1: things they say. Because you talk about it, I think
Speaker 1: it was the ray Right scandal last everybody got upset
Speaker 1: with what you said about that, and I feel the
Speaker 1: same way. I'm like, man, if you got a microphone
Speaker 1: in front of you, you're going to say something at
Speaker 1: some point that you're going to get backlash. Four. So
Speaker 1: I don't understand when I see other personalities like calling
Speaker 1: for other personality to be fired. Can't wait? Yeah, what
Speaker 1: it is is? And remember this, all three of y'all here,
Speaker 1: Remember what I'm about to say. When you're winning, they
Speaker 1: always coming for you, because, unfortunately, particularly in this day
Speaker 1: and age, their definition of winning the closest they can
Speaker 1: get to it is knocking you off your perch instead
Speaker 1: of creating one for their own. It's inevitable. And and
Speaker 1: it's just like when he used to call me donkey
Speaker 1: of the day and all of this other stuff, and
Speaker 1: people expected me to have a problem with him when
Speaker 1: I first met you. What did I say? Had no
Speaker 1: problem with him? Whatsoever? You say? Because he didn't attack me.
Speaker 1: He attacked what I felt about a particular issue. I
Speaker 1: know the difference. They wanted to create that divide. You're
Speaker 1: not creating that because I'm gonna root for y'all and
Speaker 1: I want y'all a root for me, and I'm a
Speaker 1: root for a whole bunch of brothers and sisters to
Speaker 1: make it. But in the same breath, you have to
Speaker 1: be real and authentic about what's going on in the
Speaker 1: moment that it's going on, and do what you can
Speaker 1: to enlighten folks. If you feel you have an enlightening
Speaker 1: point of view, that's what you do, and you let
Speaker 1: the tips to where they make. People who don't win
Speaker 1: are real good about doing what you describe. Let them
Speaker 1: keep doing it because it reminds you that you will winner.
Speaker 1: Otherwise they wouldn't be talking about you. I want to
Speaker 1: end it with something that's true because I learned a
Speaker 1: lot from you and I feel like it's vice versa.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to say this because I was really
Speaker 1: sitting here thinking about what we were talking about earlier,
Speaker 1: and I want to say this. You know, it is important.
Speaker 1: Everyone can have an opinion and who you like better,
Speaker 1: who is your opinion. But I will say this as
Speaker 1: a black woman, let's acknowledge and celebrate the fact that
Speaker 1: we have two amazing, talented black women who were able
Speaker 1: to do the halftime show at the Super Bowl. Outside
Speaker 1: of sports fans and players. The majority of people I
Speaker 1: know that's the reason they watched the Super Bowl, not
Speaker 1: for who's playing. They're watching for that halftime show. So
Speaker 1: let's acknowledge an uplift and applaud the fact that on
Speaker 1: such a huge forum you had Beyonce and now you
Speaker 1: have Rihanna as a black woman. I'm proud of that.
Speaker 1: That's something that makes me proud. That doesn't take away
Speaker 1: from your opinion on who you like more or whatever whatever,
Speaker 1: But at that moment, for me, it's about uplifting the
Speaker 1: fact that we need to celebrate that. Well, let me say, well,
Speaker 1: let me end up by saying this, I completely agree
Speaker 1: with that one thousand percent. And what you're saying and
Speaker 1: what you would prefer is entirely different than someone throwing
Speaker 1: out an accusation that my sentiment was making it a
Speaker 1: divide between we ain't two black women. That's a difference.
Speaker 1: You're just simply saying they're both great. Let's celebrate them,
Speaker 1: no problem, no problem whatsoever. That's entirely different than and
Speaker 1: understanding that they're both the reason that majority people are
Speaker 1: even watching. You guys are watching for the sports aspect,
Speaker 1: and sure, majority people are watching right. But what happens
Speaker 1: is is that when we question people's intent because they
Speaker 1: express something differently, what happens is then you didn't lose
Speaker 1: those folks, those folks that they like that because they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: here they go with this, and I'm like, no, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, Rihanna is phenomenal, and she's
Speaker 1: got her own army or navy as they say Beyonce,
Speaker 1: it's got her crew. They're both fantastic, they both sell
Speaker 1: out stadiums and arenas. They're both making gobs and gobs
Speaker 1: of money and they've earned it. Okay, much love and
Speaker 1: respect to you. Ain't no doubt about it. I'm root
Speaker 1: for I ain't rooting against her. I'm just a Beyonce fan.
Speaker 1: I think with these microphones, uh, you know. And it's
Speaker 1: something that we would debate to the end of time.
Speaker 1: Intention versus impact, Yes, because it's a lot of times
Speaker 1: my intention wasn't to offend, but then somebody like a
Speaker 1: lot got to be like, nah, you know you offended.
Speaker 1: You know you impacted that person in a negative way
Speaker 1: in those moments. You just got an apologize to keep
Speaker 1: it moving. Yeah, you know, I understand which is which
Speaker 1: is what I did. But let me be very clear,
Speaker 1: people didn't like your apologize all that. First of all,
Speaker 1: Leslie Jones on Comedy sent you so, and she's supposed to.
Speaker 1: That's what she does. I wasn't offended by it at all, right,
Speaker 1: because she's great. I can't hand bro it's there struggling,
Speaker 1: but I'm fifty five. It ain't like I'm thirty five
Speaker 1: walking around with five. You know what, if you got it,
Speaker 1: you know, I might visit. I might hit then I
Speaker 1: got some time. I might visit here cluff for men,
Speaker 1: because you know I you know, I don't think I'm Godzilla,
Speaker 1: but ain't the most attractive dude the world. But if
Speaker 1: my headline moved forward, I might have a m that
Speaker 1: might be hopeful that I got some Manala rice water
Speaker 1: drops for you. Okay, work it better work. Let me
Speaker 1: text her right now, because then they're gonna get on
Speaker 1: me forgetting that as another system, because if it don't work,
Speaker 1: I'm blaming. I'm blaming you. Right now, I'm just telling you,
Speaker 1: I'm blaming. I'm blaming. You're recommending this for me. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm telling you that right now.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that right now. I appreciate y'all, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. I just want to tell you one
Speaker 1: last thing. You know, we have a new studio, okay,
Speaker 1: so now we have the option to go to you
Speaker 1: when we need some questions. So next time next season,
Speaker 1: the Cowboys start losing and I need to go to
Speaker 1: you for some backup or some like a zoom call
Speaker 1: right right to that camp. We could put pat you
Speaker 1: right in. I got you, and you could just I'm
Speaker 1: killing you. I got you. I got boy going to
Speaker 1: the super Bowl next year. I can tell you I
Speaker 1: can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do
Speaker 1: it's the back can't. I can't. Y'all. Ridiculous, man, ridiculous