Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: I apologize for people that's going to be offended by it.
Speaker 2: When I'm in front of the camera, I just don't
Speaker 2: know how to put it. I believe I'm the best
Speaker 2: on the planet. I am not worried about anything or anybody.
Speaker 2: You put the camera in front of me, you put
Speaker 2: the lights on, I believe I will be a dominant
Speaker 2: presence in front of anyone's camera.
Speaker 3: That's just how I feel.
Speaker 1: Steven A.
Speaker 4: Smith, holy smokes man, like, that's one where I feel
Speaker 4: like the bar is very high. We watch one TV
Speaker 4: literally every day, listen to his podcast, and my only
Speaker 4: trepidation about it is like, well, what does he have
Speaker 4: left to say? Turns out a lot. What did you
Speaker 4: take away from it?
Speaker 5: I just resonated with him talking about his mother, his father,
Speaker 5: when he talked about opening the fridge and not having
Speaker 5: any food there. There's so much there. But he's so authentic,
Speaker 5: and he's so confident, and he's fifty six, Jason, and
Speaker 5: I really do think that he's entering his prime.
Speaker 4: This is a guy who basically says I didn't understand business.
Speaker 4: I got fired and I realized I did not understand
Speaker 4: what was going on behind the scenes, and then he
Speaker 4: resets and sets about learning that. And now, to your point,
Speaker 4: he's unstoppable in part because now he yets it.
Speaker 5: Well, that part resonates big time with me because him
Speaker 5: getting fired in my suspension and then the resetting and
Speaker 5: the lessons learned. But the way I see it, if
Speaker 5: you fast forward now fifteen years, for him is probably
Speaker 5: the number one most influential voice in sports and almost
Speaker 5: pop culture, is a trifecta of lessons learned, great relationships,
Speaker 5: amazing work ethic, yeah, and supreme confidence.
Speaker 4: Your point about like what he's building is so fascinating
Speaker 4: because we talked about this notion of where the media
Speaker 4: is going and how he reacts to it. And I
Speaker 4: loved his answer when I asked that, which is basically
Speaker 4: like I've already I've already figured it out.
Speaker 5: And everywhere he goes he's a pop culture hero. I
Speaker 5: know that he came to one of the Timberwolves games.
Speaker 5: He sat next to me, and I thought I was
Speaker 5: sitting with like Muhammad Ali. Right, people in Minnesota loves
Speaker 5: Stephen A. Smith, and I didn't think that was going
Speaker 5: to happen. Right, He is very powerful and again he's
Speaker 5: just getting started.
Speaker 4: And he's leveraging that. He's, you know, making a million
Speaker 4: bucks a year a little bit more, gets fired from ESPN,
Speaker 4: basically has to go away, come back only on the radio,
Speaker 4: not on TV. Making four hundred thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 4: Fast forward to now twenty plus million dollars annually is
Speaker 4: most likely what he's going to get.
Speaker 5: He's earning every part of whatever that twenty million dollars
Speaker 5: plus ends up. He's earned every dollar and he now
Speaker 5: knows it.
Speaker 3: On this episode of the Deal, Stephen A.
Speaker 4: Smith, all right, so we like to start the show
Speaker 4: having people introduce themselves.
Speaker 3: Tell us who you are stephen A. Smith, ESPN, Stephen A.
Speaker 3: Smith's Show.
Speaker 2: I guess that says it all now, New York Times
Speaker 2: bestselling author.
Speaker 3: I like that one. Yeah, that's a good one. That
Speaker 3: works for me too.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, I love the way they've started off
Speaker 2: this far, Soto.
Speaker 3: I'm very very pleased. I'm very pleased.
Speaker 4: All right, So well, let's actually start there, because you
Speaker 4: two obviously know each other. Now I believe your friends,
Speaker 4: Yes we are, But I dare say that before you
Speaker 4: knew each other, you knew of each other. What did
Speaker 4: you know of him, what'd you think of him? Well, obviously,
Speaker 4: his baseball career spoke for it elf. Obviously he's had
Speaker 4: his trials and tribulations.
Speaker 2: But I always considered him a good dude, somebody that
Speaker 2: would get in front of the camera talk to people,
Speaker 2: was personable, very relatable, tried to be fair minded and whatever,
Speaker 2: and was just an outstanding great player. And so that
Speaker 2: was the guy that I knew on the baseball field,
Speaker 2: and I didn't know him in any other capacity at
Speaker 2: that particular moment in time. And if I don't know
Speaker 2: you at all, I'm going to be incredibly, incredibly objective.
Speaker 2: When I get to know you, I'm going to still
Speaker 2: be objective in terms of pursuing truth and.
Speaker 3: What have you.
Speaker 2: But if you're my guy, you're my guy, and I'm
Speaker 2: going to go out publicly and I'm going to be
Speaker 2: unapologetic about the fact that this is my guy. And
Speaker 2: it's not just about being friendly. It's about looking at
Speaker 2: a person and looking at them for who they are
Speaker 2: and saying, that's a person I want to be friends
Speaker 2: with because they're a really good person.
Speaker 3: And that's how I feel about Alex Rodriguez. What did
Speaker 3: you know about him?
Speaker 5: Well, obviously I knew he was someone that was very
Speaker 5: respected in my circles and especially in New York being
Speaker 5: a Yankee. One of the things that was endaring was
Speaker 5: that he was a Yankee fan, So immediately that was
Speaker 5: a great connection. And one thing about steven A and
Speaker 5: this is kind of when we got to know each other.
Speaker 5: I went to my tough time in twenty fourteen when
Speaker 5: I served my suspension, and he was critical about me.
Speaker 5: So once I talked to him, I asked for his advice.
Speaker 5: And one thing about steven A, if you don't want
Speaker 5: to hear the truth, don't ask.
Speaker 3: For his advice.
Speaker 5: And he gave me some tough love, you know, And
Speaker 5: that kind of started what I call a very very
Speaker 5: good relationship, is very respectful. And then watching him over
Speaker 5: the last ten years, I mean, he had his downtime
Speaker 5: when ESPN let you go and you came back. I
Speaker 5: had my downturn on my suspension. In the last decade
Speaker 5: for both of us has been a lot better. But
Speaker 5: I think the common theme is we come from the bottom,
Speaker 5: we don't forget what we came from. But more importantly,
Speaker 5: I think we've learned from some of them, At.
Speaker 3: Least I have.
Speaker 5: I know you have as well, Stephen, and it's been
Speaker 5: great to watch him develop to this mega media superstar.
Speaker 4: If you think back to your early days, how did
Speaker 4: those early experiences family decisions, you made, decisions that were
Speaker 4: made for you. How did it affect you as a businessman?
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I was incredibly ignorant to business.
Speaker 2: But I think for me, if I had to crystallize
Speaker 2: where business came to the forefront of my mind was
Speaker 2: when I got fired in two thousand and nine. You see,
Speaker 2: there's a difference between making money and learning business. When
Speaker 2: you're trying to make money, what you're doing is you're
Speaker 2: going out there, you're performing. You're praying that some sort
Speaker 2: of a meritocracy will be in existence, you'll be recognized
Speaker 2: for your attributes and your production, and ultimately you'll be
Speaker 2: fairly compensated for it. When you think about business now,
Speaker 2: you're looking at the entire landscape and you're monitoring what's
Speaker 2: transpiring not just before your very eyes, but around you.
Speaker 2: And you're looking at the stratosphere that you're venturing into
Speaker 2: or that you're in the midst of, and you're paying
Speaker 2: attention to the tea leaves. You're paying attention to what's
Speaker 2: going on, et cetera, et cetera. Because when I got
Speaker 2: let go by ESPN due to a contract dispute, it was.
Speaker 3: An incredibly humbling experience.
Speaker 2: I went from having four jobs to zero in one meeting,
Speaker 2: just like that. I didn't think it was fair. I
Speaker 2: didn't think it was right. I thought I got hold.
Speaker 2: I thought I got screwed over big time. And I
Speaker 2: was very, very upset. But I was overwhelmed, not just
Speaker 2: with sorrow but with fear. Because as I was driving
Speaker 2: home from Connecticut back to Hollis Queens, New York, to
Speaker 2: my mom's house, I pulled over on the side of
Speaker 2: the road and I just put my head in my
Speaker 2: hands because I was like, I've lost everything, and I
Speaker 2: had no game plan. I had no plan B. I
Speaker 2: had walked around thinking that folks yelling my name, screaming
Speaker 2: my name, CMN commercials, I'm on TV, I'm popular, boom,
Speaker 2: this is who I am, this is what I'm worth.
Speaker 2: I had no knowledge, no clue whatsoever, of what my
Speaker 2: true worth was because I wasn't attached to anything that
Speaker 2: was perceived as being a revenue generator. And if I
Speaker 2: didn't have knowledge about my business. Then they got to
Speaker 2: define my worth, not me. And so as a result,
Speaker 2: when I wanted X amount of dollars and they said
Speaker 2: I wasn't worth it, I couldn't prove to them that
Speaker 2: they were wrong because I had no platform or no evidence,
Speaker 2: no dabta whatsoever that validated that. And I didn't know
Speaker 2: that until they let me go. And when they let
Speaker 2: me go, and I went about the business of licking
Speaker 2: my wounds and then ultimately trying to resurrect my career.
Speaker 2: What I zeroed in on was mastering the business that
Speaker 2: I was in and ultimately positioning myself where I would
Speaker 2: be able to define my worth and lo and behold.
Speaker 2: I've had three contracts since, and I think it's fair
Speaker 2: to say that I've kind of figured stuff.
Speaker 5: Out, and another one coming, by.
Speaker 2: The way, another one coming. My contract ends in June
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five. I'm sure we'll be talking before then,
Speaker 2: and hopefully things will work out. If it doesn't, it doesn't,
Speaker 2: and that's business, and that's something that I believe I'm
Speaker 2: going to be prepared to handle. Let's just say this,
Speaker 2: this ain't two thousand and.
Speaker 3: Nine, Steven.
Speaker 5: I do want to go back because we do share
Speaker 5: a lot in common, more than the pinstripes. Yes, the
Speaker 5: fact that we both fell and my suspension. You're firing,
Speaker 5: But what lessons did you learn?
Speaker 3: And I don't think i'd be where I am today.
Speaker 2: I was arrogant, and I was the worst kind of
Speaker 2: arrogant because I was stupid while I was arrogant. When
Speaker 2: I say I was arrogant, I never mistreated people. I'm
Speaker 2: never humane and humane when I'm talking about is just
Speaker 2: an overwhelming level of confidence and who I am in
Speaker 2: what I do in this business, and I just I'm
Speaker 2: one of those guys and I am to this, you know, for.
Speaker 3: Better or worse.
Speaker 2: I apologize for people that's going to be offended by it.
Speaker 2: When I'm in front of the camera, I just don't
Speaker 2: know how to put it. I believe I'm the best
Speaker 2: on the planet. I am not worried about anything or anybody.
Speaker 2: You put the camera in front of me, you put
Speaker 2: the lights on, I believe I will be a dominant
Speaker 2: presence in front of anyone's camera. That's just how I
Speaker 2: feel because I'm that comfortable with it. And so for
Speaker 2: me having that attitude, I thought that was all I
Speaker 2: needed because people knew me and they screamed my name
Speaker 2: in the streets. But you got to be educated about
Speaker 2: your business, about the business in hand. Do you generate revenue?
Speaker 2: That's what business is about. And I realized that I
Speaker 2: was a victim of being a newspaper person because so
Speaker 2: many newspaper people pay no attention to business. They pay
Speaker 2: attention to the affinity they have with the audience and
Speaker 2: what's reciprocated, and they will let that speak for them
Speaker 2: because for years that's what it did.
Speaker 3: But the advent and the introduction.
Speaker 2: Of sports talk radio and then ultimately television, of course
Speaker 2: it was always there, but especially in this day and age,
Speaker 2: the bait format ultimately need a podcast stratgy.
Speaker 3: There's so many different avenues.
Speaker 2: Not to mention social media and how that could potentially
Speaker 2: be monetized, because I don't care how good your product is.
Speaker 2: If people ain't buying it, money ain't being generated. If
Speaker 2: money ain't being generated, bodies are gonna fall because they
Speaker 2: don't have the revenue to pay the folks that are producing.
Speaker 2: And when you deduce things from that simplistic perspective, it
Speaker 2: goes a long way towards humbling you. And then this
Speaker 2: is the black element. As a black man. It's very
Speaker 2: very important that I say this. The more knowledgeable I became,
Speaker 2: the more I learned to depersonalize things. When I was
Speaker 2: let go in two thousand and nine, I'm a black man,
Speaker 2: I'm doing this, I'm doing that. They gonna let me go.
Speaker 2: They want to do this to the white guy. That
Speaker 2: was the mentality. And tell my mother, as I wrote
Speaker 2: in my book, Straight Shooter, looked at me and gave
Speaker 2: me a tray with some bagels and eggs and some tea,
Speaker 2: and put a handheld mirror in front of me, and
Speaker 2: she said, I'm just wondering when you're gonna look at yourself.
Speaker 3: She said, this ain't about all of that is about you.
Speaker 2: You would have one complaining. You would have won talking
Speaker 2: about your bosses. That way, you would have won lamenting
Speaker 2: the state of affairs at work and all the stuff.
Speaker 2: She said, I'm not saying you should have been fired,
Speaker 2: but would you have wanted you working for you at
Speaker 2: that time the way that you were? She said, I'm
Speaker 2: saying it's time to look at yourself. If she hadn't
Speaker 2: told me that, I would have kept licking my wanes
Speaker 2: and thinking that it was them instead of me, and
Speaker 2: I think that once I became more knowledgeable.
Speaker 3: About the business, the biggest lesson I learned.
Speaker 2: Is that all of a sudden, you depersonalized stuff because
Speaker 2: you can see why certain decisions are mean, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden it makes sense. So if you ESPN
Speaker 2: and you expected to generate about fifty million in revenue,
Speaker 2: but you only generated.
Speaker 3: Thirty, well that would explain why I got less. But
Speaker 3: if you got more, it would also explain why I'm
Speaker 3: asking for more.
Speaker 2: And so you know what's it going to be. And
Speaker 2: that's the mentality, and that's what I've learned. The biggest
Speaker 2: lesson I learned was the importance of mastering my business.
Speaker 2: It's not just from a negotiating standpoint, not just to
Speaker 2: empower myself as a as a talent, but as a man,
Speaker 2: learning to separate emotion from business.
Speaker 4: And so the key thing that happens in your sort
Speaker 4: of resurrection journey, as it were, is Dave Roberts comes
Speaker 4: to you. What gave him such confidence in you?
Speaker 2: Dave Roberts, everybody knows he and I are very very close.
Speaker 2: Of course, I love him deally. He is an absolute
Speaker 2: nightmare to work for. If you are not one thousand
Speaker 2: percent committed to winning. This man lives, eats, and breathes winning.
Speaker 2: He is not a pleasant person to be around. If
Speaker 2: you are losing. He is dogged about it. And there's
Speaker 2: one talent he believes that it's like him, and you're
Speaker 2: looking at him. You know, I'm not you know, if
Speaker 2: I lose, I lose what, I'm not gonna sleep. Well,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to rest. I'm not gonna drop in
Speaker 2: the ratings and stand still and accept that. I'm not gonna,
Speaker 2: you know, be near the top of the heat and
Speaker 2: not shoot for the top. I'm not going to be
Speaker 2: at the top and settle. I'm not built like that.
Speaker 2: And he knows, and he always said, you're a machine.
Speaker 2: And you know he got that from a story Mark
Speaker 2: Shapiro tells Mark Shapiro again as the president you know
Speaker 2: over there William Morris, dvor and Mark Shapiro. When he
Speaker 2: he brought me in the ESPN in two thousand and three,
Speaker 2: he was told at the time he rod he was like,
Speaker 2: who's this guy, Stephen A.
Speaker 3: I'm at Fox. I'm at Fox Sports.
Speaker 2: At the time, Kevin Frasier, who's the host of Entertainment Tonight,
Speaker 2: who was once at ESPN. That's one of my buddies.
Speaker 2: He and I've been friends for thirty years. And he
Speaker 2: was working on NBA shoot Around is what it was
Speaker 2: called at the time, and he went to Mark.
Speaker 3: He said, this is what we need. Mark's like, who's
Speaker 3: this guy? Kevin said, the best.
Speaker 2: You have to get him, and according to Shapiro, he
Speaker 2: had twenty.
Speaker 3: Five direct reports.
Speaker 2: And he went into a meeting and asked what everybody
Speaker 2: thought about me, and every single individual in that room said, hell, no,
Speaker 2: don't bring him here.
Speaker 3: He's not a cup of tea.
Speaker 2: We don't want them. He's not for us, he's for them.
Speaker 2: Do not bring him here. Everyone except Norby Williamson, he
Speaker 2: was indecisive. What do you want to do. I guess
Speaker 2: he's worth a chance. I don't know what you want.
Speaker 2: But everybody else was an emphatic no. And Shapiro said,
Speaker 2: I've never seen anybody have such universal dissension against them
Speaker 2: in a meeting like this. Get him here for an audition.
Speaker 2: I want to see him. I go up there for
Speaker 2: an addition, and eighteen different people interviewed me.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: And the last was a guy by the name of
Speaker 2: Mike McQuaid, who was an exceptional senior coordinator producer at
Speaker 2: ESPN for years. And he looked at me and all
Speaker 2: he said to me, he was, you know, you're at
Speaker 2: Fox and it's cool, but you know, essentially compared to
Speaker 2: us in the world the sports, right, you know, they're
Speaker 2: the little fish.
Speaker 3: We big fish.
Speaker 2: He said, you the big fish in the little pond.
Speaker 2: How you gonna feel about being the little fish? You know,
Speaker 2: the little fish in a big pond. And I looked
Speaker 2: around and I said, I mean no disrespect to anybody,
Speaker 2: but I ain't gonna be in a little fish in
Speaker 2: anybody's pond. Turn the lights on, put on the camera,
Speaker 2: and watch me do what I do. And he said,
Speaker 2: all right, let's go, and he put me in the studio.
Speaker 2: It was at two fifteen pm. At two forty five pm,
Speaker 2: we finished at three o'clock. I was on the road
Speaker 2: heading back to New York. At three point thirty, my
Speaker 2: agent at the time called me and said, we just
Speaker 2: agreed to a three year deal for ESPN.
Speaker 3: Watch.
Speaker 2: A peer on them was watching and he called it
Speaker 2: the greatest audition he had ever seen. And that's how
Speaker 2: it started.
Speaker 4: And so I do want to go back to that
Speaker 4: moment where you come back because you start this rebuild.
Speaker 4: It's clear then, and you've described it in talking about Dave,
Speaker 4: it's clear that you had a much I don't know
Speaker 4: if you had a better grasp, you had more focus
Speaker 4: on the numbers and what you had to deliver.
Speaker 3: Is that fair? Yes? So where does it go from there?
Speaker 4: How do you build that sort of business and sort
Speaker 4: of almost analytic foundation to take the next step.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, you have to assign yourself.
Speaker 2: And I talked to a a Rod about this, you know,
Speaker 2: I was like, listen, man, you're going to do baseball.
Speaker 2: This is a beautiful thing because obviously this man is
Speaker 2: a savant when it comes to the diamond and I'm
Speaker 2: looking at him and I'm like, the games, live events,
Speaker 2: that's always a winner. You're a part of that. You're winning, right.
Speaker 2: If you're not a part of that, what do you do?
Speaker 2: You can make all the sports and appearances in the world,
Speaker 2: to use ESPN as an example, but if you ain't
Speaker 2: hosting this show, nobody knows when you're coming on. One
Speaker 2: day is an analyst, another day is another analyst, another
Speaker 2: day is somebody else.
Speaker 3: So it's not appointment viewing.
Speaker 2: That means what happens is ultimately they could deduce what
Speaker 2: the number is and they don't necessarily have to attribute
Speaker 2: it to you because you're not a consistent presence on
Speaker 2: the show. As a result, they get to dilute your impact,
Speaker 2: therefore dilute your worth and as a result, say do
Speaker 2: you hold your horses in terms of what you think
Speaker 2: you're worth? This may not necessarily be soow So when
Speaker 2: Skip Bayless came to me, and Skip Bayless was like, hey, man,
Speaker 2: I need you on the show. I'm getting my ratings
Speaker 2: and what have you. But to do something with somebody
Speaker 2: every day, it needs to be somebody I know I can.
Speaker 3: Trust, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2: One of the things that I had to pay attention
Speaker 2: to and ultimately had to heed was that that's five
Speaker 2: days a week, every day ten am. That means the
Speaker 2: audience knows exactly where to find me, which means that
Speaker 2: if these ratings jump up, there's no way they can
Speaker 2: deny the impact that I had because I'm right there.
Speaker 2: And so because of that, I went to the show.
Speaker 2: We skyrocketed to number one on ESPN two. Okay, we
Speaker 2: were doing the unthinkable. We were beating some of the
Speaker 2: sports centers in ratings, which is something that you know,
Speaker 2: the elder statesman in the business was swearing we would
Speaker 2: never be able to do. And then from that point forward,
Speaker 2: it was just calculative measures that took place along the way.
Speaker 2: Skip Baylor's was ultimately going to leave because he was
Speaker 2: going to get.
Speaker 3: Offered a boatload of money from Fox.
Speaker 2: I had dreams of making sure that we transitioned from
Speaker 2: ESPN to to ESPN one because ESPN one always has
Speaker 2: more viewers. So if we're right there, that's definitely going
Speaker 2: to facilitate us grasping a larger audience as those larger
Speaker 2: numbers come in. All of a sudden, here we are,
Speaker 2: and who's the constant. You've got Skip Bayles's he's in,
Speaker 2: he's out. You got Max Kellum and he's in, he's out.
Speaker 2: You've got Kerry Champion, You've got Molly Carum, You've got
Speaker 2: all of these contributors. Who's the one constant, Steve a
Speaker 2: beat at one constant.
Speaker 4: I don't want to get too far away though, from
Speaker 4: that initial decision though, to pair with Skip, because I
Speaker 4: think the three of us can agree that fundamentally changes
Speaker 4: sports media. You and Skip had a relationship you had
Speaker 4: seemingly dissimilar backgrounds, but actually, when you peel it back,
Speaker 4: you're both incredibly hard working journalists at the core. Because
Speaker 4: if we think about deals, that's probably one of the
Speaker 4: best deals you do is getting into a partnership with
Speaker 4: Skip Bayless.
Speaker 3: Scared Bayless is insane and I'm not. Yeah, let's get
Speaker 3: that out of the way.
Speaker 2: And I say that affectionately, and he knows what story
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell.
Speaker 3: It's two thousand and five.
Speaker 2: Bob Lee is hosting sports centers on Sunday morning, the
Speaker 2: Great Bobbley. And in hosting those sports centers, there was
Speaker 2: a segment okay, old school news school.
Speaker 3: They had talked about it.
Speaker 2: Bobly ultimately took a hold of it and had Skip
Speaker 2: and Eye On in separate rooms in a studio right
Speaker 2: here in midtown Manhattan, and Skip would say our landish
Speaker 2: things sometimes of what people thought were outlandish, and some
Speaker 2: athlete got in trouble, and Skip Baylor's goes a national
Speaker 2: television on a Sunday morning at eleven AM, to be exact,
Speaker 2: and this man says, no athlete should be allowed outside
Speaker 2: after eleven pm. He said, nothing good happens at nighttime.
Speaker 2: Nothing good happens at night. Every athlete in that contract
Speaker 2: should have an eleven pm curfew. And I'm literally laughing,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, how old do you skip? How old
Speaker 2: you have lost your mind?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: And so we finished the segment and we come out
Speaker 2: of our separate rooms and I was like, man, that
Speaker 2: was hilarious.
Speaker 3: Man, that was funny. Way to go. Man.
Speaker 2: He looked around, He's leaning to me. He said, I'm serious.
Speaker 2: He said, no athletes should be allowed out after the clock.
Speaker 2: Is nothing good that comes from being out after eleven
Speaker 2: o'clock at night. And that's when I knew if we
Speaker 2: ever paid, it's gonna be big time. Because I naturally
Speaker 2: thought nothing like him.
Speaker 3: Naturally he thought nothing like me. We were polar opposites.
Speaker 3: It wasn't something that had to be manufactured.
Speaker 5: So Stephen, that was then, Yes, it is now. Yes,
Speaker 5: you've had multiple co hosts. Yeah, I love what you
Speaker 5: guys doing Mondays and Tuesdays, earn Foot on all of that.
Speaker 5: The question is the rating wars, right, who's winning?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 2: It was me close, not even close. And I don't
Speaker 2: say that with joy, believe it or not, because I
Speaker 2: want to win. I want to be number one but
Speaker 2: I think a couple of weeks ago we won by
Speaker 2: a ten to one margin.
Speaker 3: It's been very, very lopsided.
Speaker 2: And I take no joy in saying that, because I
Speaker 2: want SKIP to be successful. I'm going to always be
Speaker 2: grateful for what he did to me. Keishawn Johnson's a
Speaker 2: friend of mine. Michael Irvin is a friend of mine.
Speaker 2: You know, Richard Sherman is a friend of mine. I'm
Speaker 2: not rooting against these guys. I just want to be
Speaker 2: number one. But you know, first take is definitely it.
Speaker 2: This is at a time when linear television, you know,
Speaker 2: is doing the ling shows a get canceled.
Speaker 3: We're going up in the ratings.
Speaker 2: I literally had a conversation with the bosses, like, look,
Speaker 2: if I'm going to continue to do this show, it
Speaker 2: can't be about that, because now I'm competing against myself.
Speaker 2: I'm proud to say that I wake up every day
Speaker 2: with two thoughts in my mind, how do I make
Speaker 2: my bosses more money and how do I get some
Speaker 2: of it. I can say stuff like that about being
Speaker 2: at ESPN because I know I don't show up to
Speaker 2: work thinking about just myself. I show up to work
Speaker 2: thinking about facilitating success for the company. And so I
Speaker 2: want all of these guys to succeed. In these ladies,
Speaker 2: I see you know them all. You see them all
Speaker 2: every day. Anything they need from me, I'm happy to
Speaker 2: do it. The bosses need something for me, I'm happy
Speaker 2: to do it. I'm here to win for all of us. So,
Speaker 2: but I'm not going to apologize for wanting to win
Speaker 2: for me too, right.
Speaker 4: And so that leads to I think a fascinating conversation
Speaker 4: about this moment that we're in that you're addressing directly, Stephen,
Speaker 4: which is the media landscape is radically changing. Even the
Speaker 4: business model sure they're at ESPN is changing. You think
Speaker 4: about you know, Logan Paul, You think about Pat McAfee,
Speaker 4: you think about Dude Perfect licensing content to ESPN. This
Speaker 4: world is going to change. How do you ensure that
Speaker 4: you change your business with it?
Speaker 3: I've already done it. The Stephen A. Smith's show is
Speaker 3: owned and operated by me, has nothing to do with ESPN.
Speaker 2: You have people and respect to everybody who does it
Speaker 2: because it's a money making business. The podcast Stratospy that
Speaker 2: we live in props to you guys for doing what
Speaker 2: you're doing. I'm proud of everything that I see and
Speaker 2: I want everybody to succeed. But when you look at
Speaker 2: those guys, they have podcasts. I have a show. What
Speaker 2: do I mean by that? I came out of my
Speaker 2: own pocket and I built my own television set in
Speaker 2: my own television studio. I'm trying to produce content for
Speaker 2: linear television and the streaming stratosphere. I can sit up
Speaker 2: there one minute and I'm doing a thirty minute sports show.
Speaker 3: Another minute, it's an hour show on politics.
Speaker 2: That can go up against real time with Bill Maher,
Speaker 2: The Daily Show or something like that. You look at
Speaker 2: the set, you might peak at it and say, man,
Speaker 2: this looks like a late night show Stephen Cober, Jimmy Fallon,
Speaker 2: Jimmy Kimmel. Yes, it's true. Hell, I could do something
Speaker 2: for Bloomberg News if I knew as much as y'all
Speaker 2: did about business.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm just saying that. For me, that's what I'm after.
Speaker 3: I wasn't out to do a podcast.
Speaker 2: Everybody else was doing a podcast number one and number two.
Speaker 2: I didn't need to necessarily do that because even though
Speaker 2: the landscape is changing, I'm still winning in linear television,
Speaker 2: and by the way, it's winning and streaming because you
Speaker 2: have to remember there is such a thing called ESPN YouTube.
Speaker 2: People can talk all the stuff that they want about
Speaker 2: the you know, ESPN's and Less households, and it was
Speaker 2: one hundred million, and then it dipped to eighty nine,
Speaker 2: and then eighty two.
Speaker 3: And then down to seventy one.
Speaker 2: What they're leaving out is that the audience hasn't left ESPN.
Speaker 2: They're just watching it differently iPads, smartphones, laptops, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And oh, by the way, in my first year doing
Speaker 2: the Stephen A.
Speaker 3: Smith Show on YouTube, which is separate and apart from
Speaker 3: all of that, I already have six hundred and fourteen
Speaker 3: thousand subscribers averaging over eight million views pro.
Speaker 2: So I'm just getting started. My attitude is I've already adjusted.
Speaker 2: It's just a matter of what I'm going to be
Speaker 2: incentivized to do. I'm not going to be apologetic about this.
Speaker 2: I want to and I intend to get paid. But
Speaker 2: in the same breath, I also want to be somebody
Speaker 2: that whether it's ESPN and Disney or someone else, looks
Speaker 2: at and has faith in to help build find different talents,
Speaker 2: scout and the value and create different shows and different
Speaker 2: platforms for content I want to be one of those
Speaker 2: guys as well.
Speaker 3: Steven A.
Speaker 5: That's one other things that we also have in common
Speaker 5: is a great friend and mutual mentor in Mark Shapiro.
Speaker 3: What did you learn from Mark Shapiro?
Speaker 2: Mark and I have a special relationship. You know, it's rare,
Speaker 2: and I'm just gonna say it. Plain to be a
Speaker 2: black man from the streets in New York City, it
Speaker 2: is rare that you find yourself in a position to
Speaker 2: have the kind of relationships that I've been blessed and fortunate.
Speaker 3: Enough to have. And Mark Shapiro is certainly up there
Speaker 3: with some of the great.
Speaker 2: Relationships that I've had. He's a businessman, make no mistake
Speaker 2: about it. He does not always deliver me good news.
Speaker 2: We do not always agree, and we will butt heads.
Speaker 2: And if you don't know us, you'd be like, what
Speaker 2: the hell is wrong with them? Why do they talk
Speaker 2: to each other like that?
Speaker 3: What you don't.
Speaker 2: Understand is that we could talk to each other like
Speaker 2: that and be like, all right, man, I meet you
Speaker 2: for dinner in an hour.
Speaker 3: All right, man, I see you next Tuesday. Were going
Speaker 3: to the next game together?
Speaker 2: A right, when you have somebody like Mark Shapiro, in
Speaker 2: your life.
Speaker 3: I just can't say enough of you.
Speaker 2: He's alive, he's energized, He's constantly swinging for the defenses,
Speaker 2: and he goes for it. And it's pretty impossible to
Speaker 2: be in his presence and be somebody who's complacent, who
Speaker 2: doesn't want to work hard, and who doesn't care about results.
Speaker 2: If you're trying to win, you don't mind being around him.
Speaker 3: And he is the only I love Irian Manuel as well.
Speaker 2: We've had a great relationship for years, but I don't
Speaker 2: apologetically tell anybody I'm at William Morrison Deavor because Mark
Speaker 2: Shapiro is there. It's a personal relationship that I've had
Speaker 2: with him for over twenty years. He is the man
Speaker 2: that hired me when he was going to six Flags,
Speaker 2: when he was going running Dick Clark Productions, when he
Speaker 2: was all of these years that he was away from me,
Speaker 2: he would still call and provide input and do what
Speaker 2: he could to protect me, what to elevate me. He's
Speaker 2: always always had my back and I've always appreciated that.
Speaker 4: We talked a bit about Mark Shapiro, and if you
Speaker 4: haven't listened to our episode with him yet, go back
Speaker 4: and check it out. Coming up we discuss how Stephen
Speaker 4: a went from a local journalist to the face of ESPN,
Speaker 4: plus how mentorship and accountability played critical roles in his success.
Speaker 4: And so as we talk about sort of mentorship and guidance,
Speaker 4: you know, one very clear through line in your book
Speaker 4: are these series of and they are mostly men in
Speaker 4: your life, and often they are men of color, Black
Speaker 4: men who you know, whether it's Big House Gains, your
Speaker 4: coach at Winston Salem, you know, whether it's Dave Roberts,
Speaker 4: but even thinking about John Thompson, thinking about John Cheney,
Speaker 4: what role did they play and how does that act
Speaker 4: differently from a mentorship perspective. I am notably asking this
Speaker 4: as the white guy he's setting here for you well,
Speaker 4: because there's an activism thread there too that I think
Speaker 4: comes into or worldview.
Speaker 2: You could say activism and you wouldn't be far off,
Speaker 2: but it's really not about that. Instead of activism, I'll
Speaker 2: use another word with the letter A, accountability. These are
Speaker 2: pioneers from the black community that toiled through the terrain
Speaker 2: in a very very significant way, created and provoked change,
Speaker 2: made differences, and ultimately had to confront hardships that weren't
Speaker 2: given to the typical person out in this world. You
Speaker 2: John Thompson, you have to go through a lot to
Speaker 2: get to where you are. You John Cheney, you have
Speaker 2: to go through a lot to get to where you are.
Speaker 2: And for me to be in a position that, I mean,
Speaker 2: let's not forget Sunny Hill in Philadelphia. Can't forget him,
Speaker 2: Can't forget Rob King, former editor at the Philadelphia Enquirer,
Speaker 2: the Great Bryant Gumble and the path that he paid.
Speaker 2: I grew up admiring Ed Bradley, although I didn't have
Speaker 2: the pleasure of meeting him. God Rest the soul. Former
Speaker 2: sixty Minutes reporter. You see iconic figures that come from
Speaker 2: your community. There's a standard they established and when they
Speaker 2: come to you and they approach you and they're talking
Speaker 2: to you about things, here's what you have to remember.
Speaker 2: They're talking to you for a reason because they believe.
Speaker 3: You have the potential to do and accomplish the things
Speaker 3: similar to what they did.
Speaker 2: And they're letting you know. There's a responsibility that comes
Speaker 2: with it. There's an expectation. You know, Reverend Jackson came
Speaker 2: up to me with that one time. Al Shopton came
Speaker 2: up to me with that one time. I got a
Speaker 2: call from Barack Obama one time that came. You know,
Speaker 2: throughout the years, you see people coming up to you,
Speaker 2: and it's something in my mind that I appreciate greatly
Speaker 2: because it reminds me that it's not just about me.
Speaker 3: Excuse me, You're here, be mission minded. You ain't here
Speaker 3: for just to check. You ain't here just to do
Speaker 3: a good job and go home. You don't get to
Speaker 3: do that because you have the power to influence lives.
Speaker 2: Therefore, you have a responsibility to strive to do so
Speaker 2: in a very positive way.
Speaker 3: And if it's with a hard, hard truth, so be it.
Speaker 3: But you're doing it for the right reasons. And so
Speaker 3: to me, that's the difference.
Speaker 2: And I've often said this because there are white individuals
Speaker 2: that I've looked up to, that I've admired for many,
Speaker 2: many years, and that I've talked to on a constant
Speaker 2: basis that's given me advice, counsel tools. One of those
Speaker 2: people that I talk to religiously that I love very
Speaker 2: dearly is Bob Iger. You know, I don't, I have never,
Speaker 2: nor will I ever ask Bob Iger for anything but advice.
Speaker 3: You do not leverage relationships like that.
Speaker 2: This man and what he did to take me under
Speaker 2: his wing, to care about me enough just to give
Speaker 2: me guidance. Okay, it was a big thing. He didn't
Speaker 2: have to do that. I'm not gonna I could leave
Speaker 2: ESPN this year. I got nothing negative to say about
Speaker 2: that man.
Speaker 3: That's my guy.
Speaker 5: Kind of advice that Bob give you, he gave me.
Speaker 3: A boatload of advice. He also told you.
Speaker 2: You reminded me about the importance of business, not to
Speaker 2: take things personal, to educate yourself about what you need
Speaker 2: to educate yourself about, so you don't take things personally,
Speaker 2: so you don't personalize it in a fashion that compromises
Speaker 2: your ability to perform. And then also understanding you don't
Speaker 2: always have to give into this need to fight every
Speaker 2: battle and to come out swinging. You don't take relationships
Speaker 2: like that and leverage that for something more. You do
Speaker 2: what you do because other opportunities will always be available
Speaker 2: to you when you're learning.
Speaker 3: From wise individuals.
Speaker 5: StepN and I know you've interviewed everyone from like Michael
Speaker 5: to Magic as a young black man coming up, watching
Speaker 5: these guys from Afar, writing about them in Philly and
Speaker 5: the Ally News. What are some of the people that
Speaker 5: you've admired, that have given you advice, and that you
Speaker 5: sound like Michael Jordan and Kobe when you're talking about
Speaker 5: I want to be number one?
Speaker 3: But how did they influence you?
Speaker 5: Both from Afar and now it's friends or mentors.
Speaker 2: Well, when you're great, when you speak, folks have no
Speaker 2: choice but to listen if they want to win. And
Speaker 2: you know you're sitting here doing this podcast. Here's the
Speaker 2: reality of the situation. No matter what you've been through,
Speaker 2: there's no doubt that greatness was in your career. So
Speaker 2: when you suit it down, I'm sitting in Minnesota with you.
Speaker 3: You got your black suit on you. I'm like this
Speaker 3: brother's an owner for the NBA team, you know, saying
Speaker 3: is going to own an NBA team.
Speaker 2: I'm loving this right now. Earned not given, you know,
Speaker 2: because you made smart decisions along the way. Every decision
Speaker 2: was wrong. You made a lot of wise decisions, a
Speaker 2: lot of smart decisions. The Kobe's of the world, the
Speaker 2: Mjs of the world, I mean.
Speaker 3: People like that. You just watch guys and you watch
Speaker 3: them work, and most of the I'm watching rather than asking,
Speaker 3: because I'm a pretty keen observer.
Speaker 2: And so when I think about a guy like Kobe
Speaker 2: two thousand and two thousand and five, two thousand and six,
Speaker 2: Kobe Bryant trial and stuff is over. He settles the case,
Speaker 2: he's back, he's playing ball, never stopped, and he's doing interviews.
Speaker 2: You know, he's still talking to people after games and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. But he never sat down and gave
Speaker 2: it one on one to anybody. And then he gave
Speaker 2: it to me. And he comes into the quite frankly
Speaker 2: studios that's the name of the show back into on
Speaker 2: ESPN two from two thousand and five to two thousand
Speaker 2: and seven, and I was sitting there like, like, yo, man,
Speaker 2: people like my interviews, they like to said, they telling me,
Speaker 2: you know, I'd be like Oprah. And his exact words was,
Speaker 2: f Oprah harpo. I don't want to hear Oprah again.
Speaker 2: You insult her when when you say.
Speaker 3: Oprah harpo, she owns the Oprah Winfrey Show, she.
Speaker 2: Owns her own brand. That's what I want for you
Speaker 2: one day. And that's what he said to me, which
Speaker 2: is why, even though I loved him so much and
Speaker 2: we were pretty tight for a media member to a player,
Speaker 2: it broke my heart when he passed away in that
Speaker 2: helicopter accident because I was with him three weeks earlier
Speaker 2: on New Year's Eve, hugged one another, talked with one another.
Speaker 2: We were partying together at New Year's Eve and we
Speaker 2: were talking about doing something together for ESPN because he
Speaker 2: knew that I was about to start my production company
Speaker 2: and I was aiming to make things happen. So he
Speaker 2: was a guy that I just considered to be a savant,
Speaker 2: just a brilliant, brilliant mind. And then when it comes
Speaker 2: to just elements of winning. What touched me about the
Speaker 2: last dance with Michael Jordan was that Michael Jordan said
Speaker 2: things in the last dance that Michael Jordan had been
Speaker 2: telling me for years.
Speaker 3: And so I'm watching him and he was like, you
Speaker 3: might have and the.
Speaker 2: Part where he got really, really emotional and he called
Speaker 2: for a break and he was like, you might have
Speaker 2: a problem with me. That's because you never want anything,
Speaker 2: you know, he was talking to whoever he was talking to.
Speaker 2: The sacrifices that come with it. You didn't do this,
Speaker 2: you know, you didn't know what it takes. You didn't
Speaker 2: know what it took to get to this point. The
Speaker 2: sacrifices that were made and I take all of that
Speaker 2: and I look at my life.
Speaker 3: I've got two daughters, I got full older sisters.
Speaker 2: Both my parents passed away in twenty seventeen and eighteen, respectively,
Speaker 2: and I've got fifteen nieces and nephews. And there's a
Speaker 2: lot of moments that I've missed. I don't have regrets
Speaker 2: about that. It had to be done. We want welfare,
Speaker 2: government cheese and bread, then spend long in it, but
Speaker 2: we starved. I know what rats and roaches in the
Speaker 2: house look like. I know what it's like to open
Speaker 2: the refrigerator and they'd be absolutely positively nothing in there.
Speaker 3: I know what it's like to walk around starving.
Speaker 2: I know I've been there, and I'm like, I'm never
Speaker 2: going back. And my daughters will never experience that, and
Speaker 2: my sisters will are done experience that, and my nieces
Speaker 2: and nephews ain't experience that. Whatever I gotta do to
Speaker 2: be great enough to ensure that we don't have those concerns,
Speaker 2: I will do. And if that means that they get
Speaker 2: to spend Christmas and Thanksgiving together. But I gotta be
Speaker 2: on the road at work. I gotta be traveling, I
Speaker 2: gotta be at a game. I gotta sacrifice time, that
Speaker 2: family time. Yes, it hurts, No, I don't like it,
Speaker 2: but I know what the alternative is in my world,
Speaker 2: and the alternative has always been something unacceptable for me,
Speaker 2: and I'm just not going there. So it's a decision
Speaker 2: I made a long time ago and I don't look
Speaker 2: back from them.
Speaker 4: And to that end, you know, as Alex has alluded to,
Speaker 4: you're in the verge of being almost certainly the highest
Speaker 4: paid sports commentator in the business. In your book, you
Speaker 4: talk about your late brother. He visualized that for you.
Speaker 4: He manifested it.
Speaker 3: He visualized it two months before he died.
Speaker 4: You manifested it. So as you think about that, I
Speaker 4: know you think about him a lot. And what's happened
Speaker 4: in those intervening years. Were you always confident this is
Speaker 4: where it would end up?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: No, I wasn't confident that it would end up where
Speaker 2: I am today. I thought that I would be successful.
Speaker 2: I thought that I would be pretty good, if not great.
Speaker 2: I thought that you would respect me, you would see me,
Speaker 2: you would know me. But I never thought I would
Speaker 2: be in the position that I'm in right now. I'm
Speaker 2: in a position right now where I literally, I mean,
Speaker 2: I tell him.
Speaker 3: I just I did.
Speaker 2: My pastor has a podcast, and he had Beyond the
Speaker 2: other day. It's always nervous being around him because I'm
Speaker 2: trying to get there.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm trying to get there. I'm not quite
Speaker 3: there yet, but I'm like past I'm trying. I'm really trying,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: And he's known me for thirty years and knows everything
Speaker 2: about my life inside and out because he's my spiritual father,
Speaker 2: and I confide in him about a lot of things.
Speaker 3: Thinking about your question, he asked me the same thing,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 2: Said, I knew I'd be successful, but I didn't know
Speaker 2: this would happen. Yeah, we talk about I could be
Speaker 2: the highest paid. Well, let's talk about that for a second.
Speaker 2: ESPN has done nothing wrong to me in that regard.
Speaker 2: When I signed my contract years ago, I was the
Speaker 2: highest paid.
Speaker 3: Then, Yep, they treated me right. Things just happened, you know.
Speaker 3: Other folks came down the pike. Pat McAfee, Kick and Tail.
Speaker 2: In the YouTube stratospy over two million hours, built the
Speaker 2: show over seven years.
Speaker 3: He deserved, That's what he got. Troy Aikman and Joe
Speaker 3: Buck are institutions. They deserve.
Speaker 2: What I mean, I can't even express to you what
Speaker 2: it is to have them. Troy Aikman, I respect the
Speaker 2: hell out of Joe Buck, but I don't really know him.
Speaker 2: I love me some Troy Achman. That's my that's my brother.
Speaker 2: I love Troy Aikman, you know. And he's phenomenal.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: You think Kirk Kurbs, she's been there for years. You
Speaker 2: think all of these other guys, they've been there for years.
Speaker 2: It was their turn. The only reason I ever asked,
Speaker 2: I answered any questions about me being the highest paid.
Speaker 2: It was me saying, hello, it's my turn. You know,
Speaker 2: my contract's coming up. I've been number one. I was
Speaker 2: number one then, I'm still number one now.
Speaker 3: It ain't too many dudes.
Speaker 2: It's fifty six years of age, twenty years in the
Speaker 2: television business.
Speaker 3: That's number one for the last twelve years.
Speaker 2: And when I say number one, I'm talking about every
Speaker 2: week and every month and every year for twelve years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's how I feel.
Speaker 2: But that doesn't mean that ESPN is wrong or Disney
Speaker 2: is wrong for feeling otherwise.
Speaker 3: If you feel otherwise, you feel otherwise, then I'll have
Speaker 3: to find somebody who does feel like I feel.
Speaker 2: And you know, we'll go from there. But the biggest
Speaker 2: thing for me is that people try to act and
Speaker 2: they're trying to pit it like it's going to be.
Speaker 3: Some negotiating war. No, it's not. This is what I
Speaker 3: bring to the table.
Speaker 2: Do you value and appreciate me enough to give me
Speaker 2: what I think I deserve or not? If you don't,
Speaker 2: I respect that. I hope you respect the fact that
Speaker 2: somebody else might. And we go from there. But so
Speaker 2: many times people think that I'm talking about ESPN. I'm
Speaker 2: not talking about ESPN. I'm talking about the business. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about everybody. Hello, we live in America. I thought
Speaker 2: this was capitalism. I thought we tried to inch as
Speaker 2: close to my meritocracy as we possibly could.
Speaker 3: I thought we were about winners.
Speaker 2: If you're going to pay folks, isn't it it's supposed
Speaker 2: to be people who would win for you. They didn't
Speaker 2: pay him to lose. They didn't pay Derek g to
Speaker 2: the lose. They didn't pay Michael Jordan to lose. I
Speaker 2: don't recall that you get paid to win. I've won, now,
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean I can't. I don't have to keep winning.
Speaker 2: I understand the responsibility that comes along with it. But
Speaker 2: what I'm saying to the industry, when I got let
Speaker 2: go in two thousand and nine, y'all left me for dead.
Speaker 2: He thought I was done. I'm not talking about again
Speaker 2: Disney's man. I'm talking about contemporaries in the business. The
Speaker 2: articles they were writing, the smack they were talking, they
Speaker 2: were writing my appetash, talking major, major nonsense.
Speaker 3: And it's okay because you were doing your.
Speaker 2: Job and you have a right to your opinion, and
Speaker 2: based on the facts at that particular moment in time,
Speaker 2: I gotta give you credit for deducing that that was
Speaker 2: the situation and that was your opinion. Well, what you're
Speaker 2: gonna say now, because I'm here, and by the way,
Speaker 2: I'm fifty six and I'm coming I'm not done. Lost
Speaker 2: forty pounds, Calester royal level drop by one hundred points,
Speaker 2: insolent resistant levels from twenty seven to or two, body
Speaker 2: fat from twenty nine point four to ten point four.
Speaker 3: I'm not messing around. I'm on a mission.
Speaker 5: You look like you're forty six and not fifty six.
Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I think I look a little younger
Speaker 2: than that. But say, I'm saying, stevehn At.
Speaker 5: What thing that you know, like Nick, my nephew is
Speaker 5: an enormous fan of you, like other millions young people. Right,
Speaker 5: But they forget Steven A, the writer in Philly that
Speaker 5: wasn't making millions and millions of dollars. My question to
Speaker 5: you is how much to being a writer help you?
Speaker 5: Being so good on television everything? Because it provided substance.
Speaker 5: It got me addicted to having something to say.
Speaker 2: When you're a columnist, you have to wake up every
Speaker 2: morning and you have to be about the business of
Speaker 2: what is the most attractive story to write about today?
Speaker 3: What will compel and ingratiate you with the reader? Okay?
Speaker 2: And do you have interesting content to provide? In some
Speaker 2: cases three, four or five times a week? Can you
Speaker 2: do that? When they called me screaming a I listened carefully.
Speaker 2: I don't mind you saying I'm loud. I don't mind
Speaker 2: you pointed to me being bombastic and demonstrative on occasion.
Speaker 2: What I mind is if I sense you utilizing that
Speaker 2: stigma to evade or omit my career, Dad, I will
Speaker 2: not tolerate. I was in those press boxes, I was
Speaker 2: in those clubhouses, I was in those locker rooms. I
Speaker 2: traveled on the road over two hundred and twenty five
Speaker 2: days a year covering the Philadelphia seventy six ers. I
Speaker 2: did that and the NBA Playoffs and the NBA Finals,
Speaker 2: And prior to that, I was covering college sports, and
Speaker 2: prior to that, I was covering high school sports.
Speaker 3: I was the one that started out.
Speaker 2: As an intern for the Winston Salem Journal, and then
Speaker 2: I went over to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Then I
Speaker 2: went to the Greensboro News and Records, where I'm literally
Speaker 2: working from eight thirty to six pm every day doing
Speaker 2: calendar items, school lunch menus and all of this other stuff.
Speaker 2: And then from seven pm to midnight I worked for
Speaker 2: free covering prep sports in the Piedmont Triad area in
Speaker 2: North Carolina. They wouldn't pay me because they had no money,
Speaker 2: so I used it because I wanted the experience to
Speaker 2: generate filines so I could build my.
Speaker 3: Portfolio and ultimately get a job in this business.
Speaker 2: I'm the one that started out at the New York
Speaker 2: Daily News as a reporter. From April of nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: three to August of nineteen ninety three, I had to
Speaker 2: cover homicide. This is the stuff I've done, so when
Speaker 2: I'm sitting there and I'm looking at people and they're
Speaker 2: talking like, you know, he's loud and he's one basketing,
Speaker 2: he's demonstrative.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at them like, you can kiss my ass.
Speaker 2: Excuse my language, you can do that, because what you're
Speaker 2: trying to do is you're trying to ignore any.
Speaker 3: Race that I did what you did to get here?
Speaker 3: All right, stephen A.
Speaker 5: Smith from New York, there's so many young people out
Speaker 5: there admire you look at for you, watch your journey.
Speaker 5: If they want to be the next stephen A Smith,
Speaker 5: what advice would you give them?
Speaker 2: Be committed to the work and the journey, not the results.
Speaker 2: Forget the sizzle because all that glitters ain't gold. You
Speaker 2: got to be about to work because ultimately that's going
Speaker 2: to be your saving grace, the work that you're willing
Speaker 2: to put in, the sacrifices that you're willing to make,
Speaker 2: the fact that you're not addicted to the glitz and glamour.
Speaker 3: It ain't all it's cracked up to be.
Speaker 2: Keep in mind, when I got let go in two
Speaker 2: thousand and nine, everybody knew, so being known and being
Speaker 2: a celebrity and you know, being this everybody knew when
Speaker 2: I fell flat on my face when I failed. When
Speaker 2: my epitaph was being written and I was considered done
Speaker 2: in this industry. Everybody knew my name is paraded all
Speaker 2: over the place. That wasn't fun. So don't be too high,
Speaker 2: don't get too low. Be as even keel as you
Speaker 2: possibly can. Exercise humility, have that in a confidence, because
Speaker 2: they're gonna come to you and they're gonna try to
Speaker 2: break you down. Because, especially in this day and age,
Speaker 2: with the advent of social media and everybody feeling like
Speaker 2: they have a voice, criticism is more prevalent than ever before.
Speaker 2: We have to understand it in today's society on far
Speaker 2: too many occasions, folks, definition of success is bringing you
Speaker 2: down to dare level because they can't elevate.
Speaker 3: Themselves to yours.
Speaker 2: And when you understand that, and then you be about
Speaker 2: the business of doing your job, mastering your craft, and
Speaker 2: committing yourself to being the best at what you do
Speaker 2: on an everyday basis. Every day is a new day.
Speaker 2: You got to get up and do it again. When
Speaker 2: you commit yourself to that, you're on your way. If
Speaker 2: you're looking for shortcuts, just get out the way now
Speaker 2: because you ain't going So you ain't gonna win. If
Speaker 2: you look at for shortcuts, you ain't gonna win.
Speaker 3: You will fall love that. Thank you very much, Thank
Speaker 3: you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
Speaker 1: The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Victory Veyaz and Lizzie Phillip. Our story
Speaker 1: editor is Sir Dartha Mahonta. Our system producers are Stacy
Speaker 1: Wong and Cale Brooks. Blake Maples is our sound engineer.
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