Speaker 1: Welcome back all the Smoke, episode eight. Man, I got
Speaker 1: a super special guests. Man, I don't get excited for
Speaker 1: too much ship. Y'all know that the honorable. But this
Speaker 1: dude right here, man welcome, oh, Man, appreciate, Man, thank you, appreciate.
Speaker 1: You have to be here for y'all. You know that.
Speaker 1: I do have a question. Can I start off with
Speaker 1: an interview? Why I'm on the couch with you but
Speaker 1: he's sitting in the King's seat like, I mean, well,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm just wondering. I mean, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: explain to you, and I'm explaining to okay, because you know,
Speaker 1: both of us are great team players, right We're both
Speaker 1: playing our role. I play a great role of feeding
Speaker 1: off him, and that's the better seat as far as
Speaker 1: the production and all that. So he belongs that belong,
Speaker 1: I belong, true, calm and mellow, all that stuff is
Speaker 1: different differently. That's but let's get to it. Man. Tell us,
Speaker 1: I mean I compare you to an athlete from a standpoint,
Speaker 1: if you're recognized everywhere you go. We know all the basics,
Speaker 1: but tell us who Stephen A. Smith is from your
Speaker 1: upbringing right here in New York Native of Hollance, Queens.
Speaker 1: Born in the Bronx, raised in Queens. Um I raised
Speaker 1: by the greatest mom in the world. God rested social
Speaker 1: passed where a couple of years ago. Back to the
Speaker 1: long battle with cancer. She's married to my dad for
Speaker 1: sixty sixty one years. Um, that's her old school, old school,
Speaker 1: you know he you know, he and I had our
Speaker 1: differences because you know, he could have treated a better,
Speaker 1: but he's still my dad and I loved him. Um.
Speaker 1: But because of that, I was extra tight with her.
Speaker 1: And I was the youngest of six, had an older brother.
Speaker 1: He died in a car accident to Waco, Texas in nine.
Speaker 1: Was like in this van there was a salesman traveling
Speaker 1: salesman and it was fifth team people in one of
Speaker 1: those sales man and the driver was messing with the
Speaker 1: radio and stuff like that, and um, it flipped over
Speaker 1: numerous times. And he was the only one that died. Right.
Speaker 1: He was right my years and I was. My brother
Speaker 1: was twenty five when he died and I was sixteen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I know that affected my life. So I'm here
Speaker 1: you talk about it now, and it was it was
Speaker 1: crazy altering because first of all, you start questioning a
Speaker 1: lot of things. It's like you're growing up and this
Speaker 1: is your big brother who supported you. I got left
Speaker 1: back in the fourth grade because I got the first
Speaker 1: grade reading level. I remember cats in the neighborhood laughing
Speaker 1: at me, laughing like I was a dummy, I was
Speaker 1: an idiot or whatever. And the reason why I bring
Speaker 1: that up is because if there's ever anything that inspired
Speaker 1: me that made me hungry, it was making sure that
Speaker 1: that laughter would never arrive again. So the reason why
Speaker 1: it's relatable to this conversation talking to y'all, who I've
Speaker 1: been interviewing for years as NBA is is that I've
Speaker 1: always been no nonsense, but I've always been straight. You know,
Speaker 1: you see me coming. If I got an issue with you,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you know. If I got something I
Speaker 1: gotta report, you ain't gonna like I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 1: You know, all of that other stuff, All of that
Speaker 1: stuff comes from, believe it or not, that because when
Speaker 1: people were laughing, they weren't just laughing in front of
Speaker 1: your face. They were laughing behind your back. They were
Speaker 1: ridiculing you. They were minimizing you, were diminishing you. And
Speaker 1: then somehow, some way, they would come in your face
Speaker 1: and they would smile and didn't act like they were
Speaker 1: supportive of you, and they weren't. So I was always
Speaker 1: a kind of person growing up knowing that my mother
Speaker 1: was straight with me. But sometimes you have relatives that
Speaker 1: weren't straight for you, friends that weren't straight with you.
Speaker 1: I always proude of myself and being a person that
Speaker 1: would be straight, that would be fear. You see me coming.
Speaker 1: You might not like it, but I will always hit
Speaker 1: you here, will meet you in the back, and would
Speaker 1: be it'll be right here. And so that same approach
Speaker 1: is what I took with me wherever I went. And
Speaker 1: so I went to school, and I was stupidly telling
Speaker 1: my mother I didn't want to go to college, so
Speaker 1: she made me go to a trade school, Thomas Edison
Speaker 1: Vocation On Technical Height School right here in Queens, where
Speaker 1: I learned electrical installation. But then they discovered I could
Speaker 1: play some ball. I wanted as good as y'all, but
Speaker 1: I could ball, I could shoot, and I had heart,
Speaker 1: And so I got a scholarship to Winston Salem State.
Speaker 1: But it was after I did junior college at f
Speaker 1: I T, which was fashions to the technology laugh at
Speaker 1: me about it. But I had two things going for us, right, Oh, no,
Speaker 1: no doubt. I had two advantages. Number one, we were
Speaker 1: thirty five and fours the junior college ranged fifteenth in
Speaker 1: the nation. And number two, it was primarily a girls
Speaker 1: school and the other dudes were homosexuals. That's dead business,
Speaker 1: don't get me right. But what I'm saying, those who
Speaker 1: were not left it all to us. So college was
Speaker 1: beautiful to me. That was before I went down to
Speaker 1: Winston Salem and playing for big house games. And when
Speaker 1: I tried out for him and one of the guys
Speaker 1: that used to play at the University at Winston Salem,
Speaker 1: his name was Harold Funny Kid, played in the seventies.
Speaker 1: Brought me down there for a tryout and coach put
Speaker 1: me on the squad against the starters, and I hit
Speaker 1: seventeen straight three pointers, sign me the scholarship on the spot,
Speaker 1: you know. But my first year, they had cracked my
Speaker 1: knee cap in half. When I cracked my knee cap
Speaker 1: and half, first of all, I was I was down
Speaker 1: there at a hundred pounds. I was a little pleased,
Speaker 1: So that's bad enough then, But then I cracked my
Speaker 1: knee cap in half. It was a D two school,
Speaker 1: so they didn't have the facilities like the big schools
Speaker 1: had to help you rehabilitate, had to come home for
Speaker 1: rehabbing all of that other stuff. And my mother said, well,
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do? And sure enough, I could write,
Speaker 1: I could report, um, I could do all of those
Speaker 1: different things. And a critical and persuasive writing teachers saw
Speaker 1: me and said, you're a born sportswriter. Let me take
Speaker 1: you out to lunch next week and talk about it.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know, but he took me out to lunch.
Speaker 1: It was with the sports editor for the Winston Salem Journal.
Speaker 1: He took me to his office. The man met me,
Speaker 1: hid me with than five minutes to start off as
Speaker 1: a clerk and everything. And then I just went from
Speaker 1: doing that to being a beat writer for Wake for
Speaker 1: our soccer to ultimately doing internships in Winter Salem, Greensboro,
Speaker 1: Atlanta before getting my first job at the New York
Speaker 1: Daily News is a high school sports reporter. Stayed there
Speaker 1: for fourteen months. Philadelphia Inquiry came calling. I did, went there,
Speaker 1: got promoted like nine times, covered eight every days of
Speaker 1: his career, the whole bit. And that's basically, it's basically, well,
Speaker 1: tell me tell me about in the eighties, growing up
Speaker 1: with the basketball in the eighties out here in New York.
Speaker 1: To man, listen, let me tell you something. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, see to me, I grew up idolizing Dwayne
Speaker 1: Pearl Washington. Gress Pearl was something spect to me. He
Speaker 1: was the greatest college ball player I I've ever seen
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan, and everybody was like they was. Don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong, they want another level eventually, but on the
Speaker 1: collegiate level. At that time, when this brother rode in
Speaker 1: the severe cues, I'm telling you right now, I remember
Speaker 1: one of the most memorable moments watching Dwayne Pearl Washington
Speaker 1: was when he lost the Big East title to Mark
Speaker 1: Jackson and st John Mark Jackson, Walter Berry, Willie Glass,
Speaker 1: all of those cats at the garden and it was
Speaker 1: the last play they had. I think it was either
Speaker 1: Jackson or Willy Glass. I think it was Mark Jackson.
Speaker 1: You're here the jump shot, and the next thing you know,
Speaker 1: it's only a few seconds left, and Dwayne Pearl Washington
Speaker 1: grabbed the ball and pushed it up the court and
Speaker 1: literally danced through five dudes and then went in for
Speaker 1: a layup and it missed, like back in the river.
Speaker 1: You could remember was that this kid's handle was so nasty.
Speaker 1: I remember Jeane Smith that Georgetown was considered this defensive eight,
Speaker 1: and Pearl, you know, buckled him to his knees and
Speaker 1: a whole bit. So I grew up in that eraor
Speaker 1: watching Dwayne Pearl, Washington, watching Kenny Anderson, Ross Mark Jackson
Speaker 1: obviously in the whole bit. So that was the error
Speaker 1: that I grew up in and and playing ball at
Speaker 1: that time, just traveling in the streets and everything like that.
Speaker 1: You have to have hard, you have to have hard.
Speaker 1: And you was going up against cat from all over
Speaker 1: the country. Well they had hard. To New York thought
Speaker 1: it was it, but then you what you really got
Speaker 1: assist a New York City Cats catball one on one,
Speaker 1: but that actual team concept. All the places managers other
Speaker 1: places had avengager because in New York it was the hardware.
Speaker 1: It was Rutgers Park. You could go to Stating. Now
Speaker 1: you can go to Brooklyn, you can go right here
Speaker 1: on west Ford Street, Rutgers Hall and one and Lennox.
Speaker 1: You had all of those places, and you had Katch
Speaker 1: who could dance and be one on one. But part
Speaker 1: of our problem as New York basketball players was disciplined,
Speaker 1: you know, playing within a team structure, not taking over,
Speaker 1: taking control, believing that you were it. The dudes that
Speaker 1: got that were the successful ones, the Kenny Anderson's, the
Speaker 1: Stephen at one point, stuff like that. I always knew
Speaker 1: Marvin is gonna better than Phelippe Lopez. I wasn't caught
Speaker 1: up in that he was he was the man. He
Speaker 1: was the man because he went to Rice and I
Speaker 1: was a high school It's right for the New York
Speaker 1: Daily News at the time, and I was the first
Speaker 1: one that wrote the article, y'all keep talking about this
Speaker 1: cat Philippe. Is this dude here, step on Marlbury. That's
Speaker 1: going to be specially because when I looked at Phelipe,
Speaker 1: I pay attention stuff, nice sleek frame. The friended defendant
Speaker 1: was fundamentally sound, but did not have a reliable jump
Speaker 1: shot at all. And I said, that is not Marbury's problem.
Speaker 1: Marbury could get to the whole at will. He could
Speaker 1: pull up from ft, he got a handle, he could pass.
Speaker 1: He was a pure point guard and didn't mind ripping
Speaker 1: you apart while playing a teen game. So I always
Speaker 1: knew he was going to be better, but it was
Speaker 1: cats like Karee Read that played and ultimately went to ice.
Speaker 1: He's are the guys that I go watch God Sham
Speaker 1: God wells. It was all world with the handle, but
Speaker 1: the jump shot was suspect. If God Sham God had
Speaker 1: a jump shot, I'm telling you right now, would have
Speaker 1: been and you and they couldn't Gard and even the
Speaker 1: closest thing to Pearl in terms of his handle, in
Speaker 1: terms of his hand and what he could do with
Speaker 1: his boy handles skill, but he couldn't finished from the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Shad one of my twins, we were in au turnament
Speaker 1: one time when they were ten years old, and he
Speaker 1: pulled the Sham God and I blew my mind and
Speaker 1: it worked and he hid it and passed my other twin.
Speaker 1: He hit at corner three and I asked, it was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, when you know what that move is called,
Speaker 1: who made that move up? I just seen CP three
Speaker 1: do it, Dad, like they don't understand where it comes from.
Speaker 1: And that kind of and that kind of takes me
Speaker 1: back to you seen from the legends in New York
Speaker 1: to the early eighties of the NBA. The nineties two
Speaker 1: thousand to what the game is today? Walk us through
Speaker 1: that transition of style of play and what you think
Speaker 1: about it from now to then. Well, I think that.
Speaker 1: Listen in the eighties again, because I was playing, and
Speaker 1: I was young, and I wasn't a journalist. All you
Speaker 1: saw is where you were at. So you in New York,
Speaker 1: you saw New York, but we new York is so
Speaker 1: we think we know, we think we know, but we
Speaker 1: don't really know, because unless you're traveling, you really really
Speaker 1: don't know. And again, that individuality came to it. You
Speaker 1: saw more of a team concept in the nineties because
Speaker 1: remember from a from a collective standpoint, team orient at
Speaker 1: the standpoint where you think basketball in the eighties, you
Speaker 1: thought joya paranoia, You thought John Thompson, you ain't Michael Graham,
Speaker 1: Michael you know, Michael Jackson. Point guard Reggie Williams was nasty.
Speaker 1: He could play all of those cats, right, So you
Speaker 1: had that, But their signature was defense. They could shut
Speaker 1: you down and literally rip your heart out of your chest.
Speaker 1: They're scared to live in hell out of you. That's right.
Speaker 1: Then you go Villanova with the four corners at Pickney,
Speaker 1: McClean and those boys that might have disrupted them that
Speaker 1: one thing. They held the damn ball for the whole
Speaker 1: damn Final National Championship game. But it was what it was, okay.
Speaker 1: And then of course you saw Syracuse St. John's, all
Speaker 1: of those cats coming uh with Kenny Anderson, remember Leaf,
Speaker 1: the Weapon three Georgia tech n Oliver Dennis got three days,
Speaker 1: the whole crew. You saw all of that. So that
Speaker 1: was going into the nineties. Even though you saw individuality,
Speaker 1: what to me really took it to another level was
Speaker 1: talk in U N l V. Greg Anthony, Stacy Algman,
Speaker 1: Larry Johnson and the crew. You saw these guys right,
Speaker 1: They defended and they played together. And even though I'm
Speaker 1: not sure people really think about it the way that
Speaker 1: I do, I give Larry Johnson a whole lot of
Speaker 1: credit because he was miniature in height, but he was massive, big, strong,
Speaker 1: and he was a man amongst boys in the low post.
Speaker 1: But he was the ultimate team player. He didn't care
Speaker 1: he could score and would give you his twenty on
Speaker 1: any given night. But other nights where other Cats were
Speaker 1: doing their thing, he was absolutely fine. Greg Anthony took
Speaker 1: pride in defending you ninety four feet and putting you
Speaker 1: on lockdown, Anderson Hunt could shoot from three Stacy Agman
Speaker 1: would dunk on their face one minute and then block
Speaker 1: your shot and du up another. So when you had
Speaker 1: all of this going on, okay, Dan, remember they were
Speaker 1: the rebels we called George Town, the rebel you know,
Speaker 1: rebellious rebels. Oh, the running rebels, I'm saying. So you
Speaker 1: see all of that happening, and you see them go
Speaker 1: against Duke and annihilate them by thirty for the national championship.
Speaker 1: The next year comes out, they got Grand Hill less time.
Speaker 1: They faced you n l v in the semifinal and
Speaker 1: they take you and l v our very very close game,
Speaker 1: but they took him out. And that's where Hurly and
Speaker 1: Christian Layton and those boys ascended. When you saw that,
Speaker 1: you start, I believe that was the transition to a
Speaker 1: more team concept. Only from this perspective, you saw a
Speaker 1: white cats because obviously Larry Bird, let you know, white
Speaker 1: boys can play, to make no mistake about it. You
Speaker 1: saw that and you had the respect. But in the
Speaker 1: same breath that was as an individual. Collectively, you didn't
Speaker 1: think a collection of them was going to take you out, right,
Speaker 1: even though we all know who no basketball, you don't
Speaker 1: win beat that un l VT without Grand Hill. We
Speaker 1: couldn't take away from the heart that Hurly and late
Speaker 1: in the show and going up against so you saw cats.
Speaker 1: And even though again the game was individualized to a
Speaker 1: strong degree because of the eighties and because of the
Speaker 1: ascension of Michael Jordan's you know, because you remember you
Speaker 1: had Magic and burd going at and even though they
Speaker 1: were the marquee dudes that were being advertised, they played
Speaker 1: for elite teams, so there was a team concept. It
Speaker 1: was Jordan at individualized stuff in our eyes, and so
Speaker 1: we got caught up in the Jordan and Jordan and Jordan's.
Speaker 1: Then it was a ninety two that we got reminded
Speaker 1: of Hurly late in a team And so now you
Speaker 1: started really really thinking about basketball the way it should
Speaker 1: have been thought about all along. You started looking at
Speaker 1: individual talent, but how they pissed with the team. And
Speaker 1: then you get into the finances because you didn't have
Speaker 1: a rookie salary capitals, the rookie wage scale. You got
Speaker 1: big dog coming out of Burd due he saw for
Speaker 1: sixty nine. He wanted he got sixty Yeah, I think,
Speaker 1: so what what what What happened is it was Big
Speaker 1: Dog number one. Then you had Grant Hill and Jason
Speaker 1: Kidd both getting pretty much the same amount of dollars.
Speaker 1: Right then you had um See Webb coming out. But
Speaker 1: the same time as Penny Hardaway. All right, that rookie
Speaker 1: wage scale again wasn't in full effect at that particular
Speaker 1: moment in time, so you were still able to look
Speaker 1: at things from a team concept, but in the same
Speaker 1: breath you started paying attention to the individuals. You couldn't
Speaker 1: help it because of the money individuals were getting paid.
Speaker 1: But again, even though Big Dog was a scoring machine,
Speaker 1: these guys were relatively unselfish. Him, especially Grant Hill and
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd, didn't care if he scored at all. He
Speaker 1: would be happy giving you fifteen twenty a sinst the
Speaker 1: night if he could. So when you saw that, it
Speaker 1: heightened the level of team concept having that mentality, and
Speaker 1: to me, it really really changed the way things happened,
Speaker 1: because when you saw these cats getting that money as
Speaker 1: number one, number two, number three, oh pick. On one hand,
Speaker 1: you wanted the money as an individual, but the people
Speaker 1: that were bringing you on board insisting that you fit
Speaker 1: into a team. What happened is. It's sort of changed
Speaker 1: your mindset because we you had cats like yourself and others,
Speaker 1: not literally y'all at the time, but figuratively speaking, guys
Speaker 1: like y'all looking at the game from a business perspective. Okay,
Speaker 1: why should I make this sacrifice? What's in it for me?
Speaker 1: This cat getting paid but the rest of us ain't
Speaker 1: and sot. At that point, now you start looking at
Speaker 1: the business and being reminded what made Magic money, what
Speaker 1: made Bird money, what made Jordan money, ultimately what was
Speaker 1: going to make you all money, and you start looking
Speaker 1: at it in their game really really transformed from a
Speaker 1: business mindset, because I think more business minded players came
Speaker 1: into the league at that time than ever before around
Speaker 1: our time, and and we are I do fit in
Speaker 1: that category because especially after I win the championship and
Speaker 1: the Spurs, I started looking at teams where I fit
Speaker 1: into the system, right, can I can have some longevity there?
Speaker 1: And and and and the game that did transcended that
Speaker 1: because that was a big part of us, and we
Speaker 1: were free agents. We had to find out where we fit.
Speaker 1: We just couldn't go anywhere right now. It's definitely people
Speaker 1: don't understand how important I mean, if we're getting into
Speaker 1: this area that being drafted in a certain organization or
Speaker 1: situation fits, and you had that when someone asked a
Speaker 1: fan asked the question, if KG was drafted to the
Speaker 1: Spurs and him Tim Duncan switch spots, who is the
Speaker 1: greatest power forward of all time? And do they have
Speaker 1: the same success with KG and Pop? For me, personally,
Speaker 1: I'm able to look being a student of basketball the
Speaker 1: way that I am, I'm able to look at things
Speaker 1: in a different light. Like, for example, KG was special,
Speaker 1: but his frame and the style of play he preferred,
Speaker 1: I don't think that would have been more successful in
Speaker 1: San Antonio that Tim Duncan was. I don't believe that
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan, to me is is the greatest powerful who
Speaker 1: ever played basketball. That's how I view it. That's how
Speaker 1: I view it. Now. Why do I say that? Because
Speaker 1: for me, from a principal perspective, the word power forward matters.
Speaker 1: You're a fool, even though you can have an outside
Speaker 1: game and step away from the basket like KG did,
Speaker 1: like Chris Bosh ultimately did, like Blake Griffith still tries
Speaker 1: to do the fact that the matter is is that
Speaker 1: excuse me? I got news for both of y'all, and
Speaker 1: I challenge anybody to deny this is true. Take away,
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan, who's the best powerful that ever lived? You
Speaker 1: know who? I would say, Kevin Michael Money in the
Speaker 1: post ten and in Unstoppable and under Unstoppable, it was
Speaker 1: an automatic two points. What I'm saying to you is
Speaker 1: that if you are a quote unquote powerful it I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about the hybrid game that they've asserted into
Speaker 1: the mix head where they've changed the positions, they've renamed it,
Speaker 1: and they want to tell you this is what I
Speaker 1: want to hear. All that when you talk about the
Speaker 1: position point guard, shoot guard, small forward, powerful, its center,
Speaker 1: all the forward spot. Tim Duncan hated correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, Hate it when you put him at the five,
Speaker 1: hate it being listed at the wanted no parts of it.
Speaker 1: He knew what he was and when you gave that
Speaker 1: brother the ball, it didn't matter what he was facing
Speaker 1: the basket or whether his back was to the basket.
Speaker 1: You put that brother seventeen feet and end. It was
Speaker 1: a nightmare decision. It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare.
Speaker 1: So for me when I look at KG, when I
Speaker 1: look at KG, as being an elite talent who happened
Speaker 1: to play power forward that had perimeter skills, but he
Speaker 1: wasn't no prototypical, quick, essential power forward the way that
Speaker 1: Tim Duncan was, even when KG had his back to you,
Speaker 1: he was still looking for the turnaround jump shot. Tim
Speaker 1: Duncan might dunket on you, he might they go up,
Speaker 1: he might cross you, he might hook you, he might
Speaker 1: shoot it turn around the bank shot. It was an
Speaker 1: arsenal the likes of which we haven't seen. And that's
Speaker 1: how I look at Tim Duncan, and that's why I
Speaker 1: would say he is the greatest power forward that I've
Speaker 1: ever seen, along with ten rebounds and eight blocks. Like,
Speaker 1: let's go back to um kind of when you started
Speaker 1: your professional career, tell us what, tell us what that
Speaker 1: was like? Because you know, people always, like I said,
Speaker 1: I kind of compared you to an athlete from a standpoint.
Speaker 1: They see the finished product, they see you on ESPN
Speaker 1: and all the success you're having now, but your journey
Speaker 1: was anything but the journey. Well listen, man, people where
Speaker 1: they've written these articles about me. I lived off with
Speaker 1: tune efficient kool aid stop. I'm from New York City.
Speaker 1: I'm from the streets of Hollis Queens, New York City,
Speaker 1: and I was working in Archdale, North Carolina for the
Speaker 1: Greensboro News and Record. I started off as an editorial
Speaker 1: assistant doing aggon material and school lunch man like in
Speaker 1: in in a sports department for a newspaper. All of
Speaker 1: these little things that you see where this shows you
Speaker 1: a sheet with the scores and everything. The computer from
Speaker 1: a digital perspective is things that formulate a page and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. And you gotta type all of that
Speaker 1: stuff in there just to make sure it's framed correctly
Speaker 1: and it fits in the paper. If you do it
Speaker 1: wrong here, wrong there, the copy comes off the paper
Speaker 1: and then you gotta make sure it fits all of
Speaker 1: this stuff. So I had to do all of those
Speaker 1: things right. And that was in my daytime when I
Speaker 1: was getting paid. And then I would get off at
Speaker 1: six and drive throughout the Try States, you know, the
Speaker 1: Piedmont Tried area in North Carolina, covering high school football
Speaker 1: from seven pm until midnight for free. I didn't get
Speaker 1: paid for it. I did it just to accumulate clips
Speaker 1: to build a resume, to show that I was really
Speaker 1: committed to being a sports writer. That led to internships
Speaker 1: in Atlanta back at Winston Salem before I got the
Speaker 1: high school sports rang job at the New York Daily News.
Speaker 1: So then when you get into the business, Um, Isaiah
Speaker 1: Thomas and I are tight to this very day. He
Speaker 1: forgot why. And one day, a few years ago, I
Speaker 1: told Isaiah, I said, you don't you you forgot who
Speaker 1: you are? He said, what you're talking about? I said,
Speaker 1: you gave me my first interview. Isaiah Thomas was approaching
Speaker 1: his retirement year with the Detroit Pistons. He was a
Speaker 1: two time champion. I was a high school writer and
Speaker 1: a guy by the name of Tim Donovan who does
Speaker 1: media relations pr for the Miami Heat. All of these years,
Speaker 1: Tim was working at the pat Riley doing the knicks
Speaker 1: at the time. I was a high school sportswriter. You
Speaker 1: ain't supposed to have access to those what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: but Tim, but Tim knew I wanted to be an
Speaker 1: NBA writer, and Tim Donovan was like, come on, I'll
Speaker 1: help you out and gave me access to the locker room.
Speaker 1: You know, he didn't have to do that, so he
Speaker 1: gave me like, he gave me access to it, and
Speaker 1: obviously I knew my place, so I wasn't trying to
Speaker 1: get in the way or whatever. I was just watching,
Speaker 1: study and learning, etcetera, etcetera. And one day Isaiah Thomas
Speaker 1: came in as still before he retired with the Pistons,
Speaker 1: and he was doing interview with the media, and I
Speaker 1: said to him, I'm an inspiring sports writer. It would
Speaker 1: really help me if I could get an interview with you.
Speaker 1: He said, can you do it now? And sat down
Speaker 1: with me and gave me a twenty five minute and
Speaker 1: uh in, Nate tiny Archibald did the same exact thing
Speaker 1: for me once I became a full time high school
Speaker 1: sports writer. So it's like I didn't get here by accident,
Speaker 1: but I didn't get here by myself. There was a
Speaker 1: whole lot of people that extended me a help in hand.
Speaker 1: When I was at the Winston Seal of Journal, there
Speaker 1: was an all white staff led by Terry Oberley, but
Speaker 1: I still remember the copy of it this very day.
Speaker 1: Dan Loman, Steve Man, Phil rit Shack, and all of
Speaker 1: these guys that I haven't seen in years, that I
Speaker 1: haven't worked with in nearly thirty years. But they were
Speaker 1: the guys that would sit me down and say Okay,
Speaker 1: this is a piss poor job. You wrote this sentence wrong,
Speaker 1: you wrote that graph wrong, you missed this fact, this fact,
Speaker 1: that fact. And they literally taught me journalism. And so
Speaker 1: as a result, when you go through those experiences and
Speaker 1: you see the work was put in in order to
Speaker 1: get people to way they are and how they extended
Speaker 1: to help in hand. Listen, I ain't just a black man.
Speaker 1: I'm a brother, you see what I'm saying. So you're
Speaker 1: not expecting a bunch of white cast extand their help
Speaker 1: with man. But when they did that, and as like whoa,
Speaker 1: you know what, you're looking at the world a little
Speaker 1: bit differently because you're like, you're reminded that, yeah, we're different,
Speaker 1: but we're the same. And everybody got a heart, and
Speaker 1: everybody's golfing, and everybody's got compassion and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: and they want to extend to help and hand other people.
Speaker 1: And that's what they did for me. And all they
Speaker 1: asked in return is that I didn't make make make
Speaker 1: I made sure not to make their effort being vain.
Speaker 1: When you you said you wanted to go for this,
Speaker 1: that's why we helped you go for it. So even
Speaker 1: to this day, nobody's more prouder than me than those guys.
Speaker 1: And you'll see a guy like Isaiah Thomas. I get
Speaker 1: a text from Isaiah Thomas every month. It's one of
Speaker 1: the biggest reasons why because he remembered after I told him,
Speaker 1: this is what you helped stop me, and you remember
Speaker 1: what I said. So it's like being true to what
Speaker 1: you do. And again it dictates the approach to some
Speaker 1: degree because you know the sacrifices that you made. I
Speaker 1: remember when a cat came, you know, they came to
Speaker 1: me and they wanted me, uh to have a job
Speaker 1: in Seattle. I was gonna go unless the New York
Speaker 1: dality news came. They had a job for me and
Speaker 1: and and Fresnel. I was gonna go unless unless the
Speaker 1: New York dedity news came. It was like, no matter what, whatever,
Speaker 1: the sacrifices that are that need to be made. I
Speaker 1: think to this very day, I've never been married because
Speaker 1: of that, because I was always ready to get up
Speaker 1: and go. Because when you're growing up and you pouring
Speaker 1: you living off tune efficient cooler. From the time you're
Speaker 1: in college, you taste government cheese and bread. When you're younger,
Speaker 1: you sat up there and watch your mother work two
Speaker 1: jobs seven days a week, sixteen hours a day for
Speaker 1: twenty years with one week's vacation, NonStop. You go through
Speaker 1: all of that. It's not that love don't matter, it's
Speaker 1: not that family don't matter. It's nothing that. It's that
Speaker 1: I'm not going back to that become numb to a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff, and whatever, whatever sacrifices need to be made,
Speaker 1: I'm going to make to get ahead. And that's always
Speaker 1: been my approach. So when I talked to professional athletes,
Speaker 1: particularly those of us that are professional athletes black folks,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there like, I know your story. I've been through,
Speaker 1: but there's a flip side to it. The same dude
Speaker 1: that's gonna support you because I get your story is
Speaker 1: the same dude that's gonna hold you accountable because I
Speaker 1: know your story. So when you sit up there, you're
Speaker 1: doing stupid ship. You see what I'm saying. That's compromising
Speaker 1: everything you worked for. Few are gonna be harder on
Speaker 1: you than me because I know what you went through
Speaker 1: to get there, and you're just gonna blow it for that.
Speaker 1: That's how I'm looking at it, and that's been my
Speaker 1: approach throughout my entire professional career. As I reported, these
Speaker 1: guns so would have been some of the major obstacles,
Speaker 1: so to speak, within this professional Well, first of all,
Speaker 1: you you you don't want to use the word racist,
Speaker 1: because it's not that people are saying you black. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hold you down. And it's that simple. It happens.
Speaker 1: But it's not just that. Sometimes it's the kind of
Speaker 1: person they want you to be. Sometimes it's what they
Speaker 1: think they can get out of it. Sometimes it's okay,
Speaker 1: it's not your turn. Like when I thought about, for example,
Speaker 1: let me get political with y'all for a second in
Speaker 1: this regard. One of the things that I always held
Speaker 1: against the Democratic Party, for example, was when Hillary Clinton
Speaker 1: ran against Trump this time around, what was my issue?
Speaker 1: Nothing to do with politics to me, And it's not
Speaker 1: hor i'm talking about. I'm talking about in general. The
Speaker 1: mindset was, it's hard turn. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that's the same thing that exists in
Speaker 1: corporate America. There nobody is getting ahead without a help
Speaker 1: in hand. There is always someone in a position of
Speaker 1: power that you need to be at champion and the
Speaker 1: supporter of yours. You will not ascend on your own volition.
Speaker 1: Give damn how good you all give, damn how talented
Speaker 1: you are. You better know somebody, and it better be
Speaker 1: somebody in a position of influence who's interested in helping you.
Speaker 1: Otherwise it's just not gonna happen. It's just not gonna happen. Right,
Speaker 1: So I say all of that to say somewhere along
Speaker 1: the way, not that it's the core decision maker, but
Speaker 1: as somebody that's respected and connected enough where if they
Speaker 1: champion you, it's a big boost for you. You gotta
Speaker 1: make sure you have that. That's why when I give speeches,
Speaker 1: I talk about it ain't just about having a mentor,
Speaker 1: it's about having a cheer lead as well. You need both.
Speaker 1: You you do need somebody that prevents you from falling
Speaker 1: into that abysses and staying there. But you also need
Speaker 1: somebody that's attached to the industry. You're aspired to it,
Speaker 1: you're inspiring to excel in. They're connected enough to guide
Speaker 1: you through the mind fields. You need both. And so
Speaker 1: for me, that was always my approach. And but again
Speaker 1: to address the obstacles question, the problem that you run
Speaker 1: across sometimes, particularly you're younger and talented, they want to
Speaker 1: hold you back because there was always somebody else in
Speaker 1: the line whether to get where you are. They might
Speaker 1: have been older, supposedly paid more dues or anything like that.
Speaker 1: And what I'm mindful and cognizant of is what wins.
Speaker 1: If they've been there that long and they and they
Speaker 1: haven't gotten it yet, doesn't that tell you? Shouldn't that
Speaker 1: tell you that maybe they ain't the chosen one. You
Speaker 1: have people in positions of power that resists that thought.
Speaker 1: Their mentality is to make you wait because they had
Speaker 1: to wait. And sometimes it's appropriate, but a lot more
Speaker 1: often than we realize, it's not. And so having those obstacles,
Speaker 1: there was plenty of people He don't need to be
Speaker 1: a beat writing yet, he don't need to be an
Speaker 1: NBA column that yet, he doesn't need. At the time
Speaker 1: that I became the twenty first African American in the
Speaker 1: history of this country to be a general sports columnist
Speaker 1: in March A, two thousand and three, they were like, Na,
Speaker 1: he don't need that yet. Well, I said, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things you're telling me I don't need. But
Speaker 1: you capitalizing all of what I'm provided, do you want
Speaker 1: to win or not? And so you saw first to
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Inquirer, then ESPN ultimately and ultimately Fox as well,
Speaker 1: and then ESPN again ultimately you saw them capitalizing on it,
Speaker 1: and it raised my level of awareness and consciousness because
Speaker 1: it taught me you must have something to offer somebody.
Speaker 1: They can say whatever they want, but at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, when you go to these folks, you
Speaker 1: have to make sure it ain't just about you. This
Speaker 1: is what I want, this is what I deserve, this
Speaker 1: is what I need. No, there must be something in
Speaker 1: it for somebody. You're asking of something from them, because
Speaker 1: the likelihood of them giving you what you want while
Speaker 1: getting nothing in return is slim the nun if it's
Speaker 1: not beneficial as artificial, did you go exactly? And and
Speaker 1: and that's just that's just as real as it gets.
Speaker 1: And so for me when those were the obstacles because
Speaker 1: my lack of knowledge at the time, you do tend
Speaker 1: to get caught up. You almost have that athlete's mentality. Meant,
Speaker 1: please put them in front of me. I'm mom dan
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, I don't give a damn who it is.
Speaker 1: But in reality, what I learned, and this is where
Speaker 1: sports really really helped my life, and covering gods like
Speaker 1: yourself help my life immensely. You sit up there and
Speaker 1: you look at certain situations, and the athletes themselves teach
Speaker 1: you how envious and jealous you can be. Y'all assume,
Speaker 1: not literally, y'all, but you know what I'm saying, athletes,
Speaker 1: y'all assume it's because of the money. Of course, that
Speaker 1: has something to do with it, if you can pay
Speaker 1: your bills and live a lofty lifestyle compared to reporters
Speaker 1: that are covering you, of course, but that's not the
Speaker 1: big thing. The big thing is the freedom you appear
Speaker 1: to have. Yes, you have to show up to the games,
Speaker 1: and yes you have to show up the practice, but
Speaker 1: there's so many hours in a day that you just
Speaker 1: get to live your life and be you, and you
Speaker 1: get to do other things that transcend the world of sports.
Speaker 1: While so many folks in this world are limited the
Speaker 1: pigeonholes and marginalized in a fashion that they can't escape
Speaker 1: from because they don't have the juice to do it,
Speaker 1: the fact that y'all have the juice to do it
Speaker 1: is where a real strong level of envy comes from.
Speaker 1: And not envy as in jealousy, envy as inish. I
Speaker 1: wish I could do that. But if I can't do that,
Speaker 1: why can't they appreciate the fact that we can't do
Speaker 1: it and they can instead of snubbing their nose at us.
Speaker 1: That's what a lot of times to see. Reporters don't
Speaker 1: get into these conversations with y'all like that because either
Speaker 1: they feel intimidated, they don't feel you hither, they don't
Speaker 1: feel you listen. In my opinion, they don't respect y'all enough,
Speaker 1: And my attitude is I've always had respect for it.
Speaker 1: There's that y'all know me for years. You know, y'all
Speaker 1: could come talk to me about anything. Let's let's let's roll.
Speaker 1: Which is why again I could be hardcore because I know, Okay,
Speaker 1: this cat got this going on. I know I didn't
Speaker 1: report it. I know the limitations to what I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: Y'all been around me, y'all know the sh I know,
Speaker 1: and there's plenty of times I'm like that, Yo, I
Speaker 1: don't do that. This is the game. I know why
Speaker 1: you funked up last night. That's between us. Now. I
Speaker 1: might let you know handle that because you look bad
Speaker 1: and you need I know, but I ain't gonna say what,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna let you know. But I don't want
Speaker 1: I don't want you to say it's coming from the
Speaker 1: right place. You gotta quote that. I'm gonna read that.
Speaker 1: I thought was very interesting. For the jay Z's, lebron
Speaker 1: Shacks and the others, I don't consider them the American dream.
Speaker 1: I consider me the American dream. They're the American fantasy.
Speaker 1: If you got a one in a billion shot of
Speaker 1: being them, but you can you can be Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith elaborate on that. It's the truth. Jay Z music mogul,
Speaker 1: billionaire with Beyonce as his wife. Yeah, think think about
Speaker 1: uh Shaquille O'Neill, one of the greatest players to have
Speaker 1: ever lived, four time champions, seven ft three hundred and
Speaker 1: fifteen pounds doing what he does. The Kobe is the
Speaker 1: Lebrons of the world, freaks, ultimate freaks of nature. And
Speaker 1: even if you could be them as a talent, could
Speaker 1: you pull off everything they've put They've pulled off in
Speaker 1: terms of transcending their business, their world of sports, the
Speaker 1: world that we live and understand something they can talk about, communism,
Speaker 1: fascism and all of this other stuff. I am of
Speaker 1: the belief that everybody's a capitalist in their own way.
Speaker 1: Everybody's trying to get their shared they're not trying to
Speaker 1: get just their little piece, and everybody gets the same.
Speaker 1: There's something inside of you that says, I gotta get
Speaker 1: more to validate who I am, and that I'm not typical.
Speaker 1: I'm not normal. I'm a bit atypical. I'm not ordered eary,
Speaker 1: you see what I'm saying. So my point is that
Speaker 1: when you look at those guys, understand that that's not
Speaker 1: everyday stuff, that's not every year stuff. That's generational stuff
Speaker 1: that we're talking about for the select few. Me got
Speaker 1: left back in the fourth grade, first grade a reading level,
Speaker 1: struggle with reading and writing, pounded the payment, got my education,
Speaker 1: grew up, broke, starved at times, had a poor family,
Speaker 1: but we stuck together for some reason, by the grace
Speaker 1: of God and the most wonderful mom in the world.
Speaker 1: All those things happen. And what did I do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm successful right now. That's fine. I'm fifty two. I've
Speaker 1: been in this business since. It took me twenty eight
Speaker 1: years to get to the point that I'm at right now.
Speaker 1: I'm living large. Now, I'm I'm living large right now,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, but it took twenty eight years, and so
Speaker 1: for me, it's like, understand, you're not them, but look
Speaker 1: at my path and tell me what is it about
Speaker 1: my path that you can't accomplish. I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: say I'm not special that I didn't accomplish something. I'm
Speaker 1: saying what I accomplished is achievable for a vast majority
Speaker 1: of folks in this world. Not necessary really monetarily. I've
Speaker 1: been blessed in that regard as of late. But I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the path that I took to the success.
Speaker 1: Take away the money for a second and just look
Speaker 1: at the path. Who can't do what I did if
Speaker 1: you really really think about it. I couldn't be Jay
Speaker 1: Z on my worst day, on my best day, lebron
Speaker 1: Kobe shocked people like that. No, but reading and writing
Speaker 1: and knowing how to report and busting your tail and
Speaker 1: studying and just grinding every day. I got this the
Speaker 1: old fashioned blue collar way, and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people can achieve that. And I'm glad you asked
Speaker 1: me that question cause I understand that more because then
Speaker 1: a lot of people might not even start off with
Speaker 1: the hand that you was dealt the hand, you know,
Speaker 1: they might be dealt a better hand. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: you asked because I understand the question, because I didn't
Speaker 1: understand it when you first said. I definitely understand what
Speaker 1: I told you that you are to us, you are
Speaker 1: the lebron in broadcasting. I would say thank you to y'all.
Speaker 1: That's not just about me. I'm not saying I had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with it, but it's like, listen, I
Speaker 1: tell Ai this, AI called me and and undercover wise
Speaker 1: AI and emotional do and he called me once a
Speaker 1: week and tell me he loved me once a week.
Speaker 1: Same here, and we love him back. Man. Man, that's
Speaker 1: my that's my little brother. Were very we're very, very close.
Speaker 1: And that's saying a lot. If you know anything about
Speaker 1: our history and some of the things I had to
Speaker 1: write and say, you know, they can't. You know, it's
Speaker 1: shocking that we are as type of people don't realize
Speaker 1: we've always been tight. And a lot of times when
Speaker 1: we didn't talk is because I jumped in this butt
Speaker 1: because of what he was doing, and I didn't report it,
Speaker 1: but it didnt stopped me from cust of the mouth
Speaker 1: going off because well, you know what, you brought this right.
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is is that I never failed
Speaker 1: to thank him. I don't think anybody is more. And
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to sit up there and say he
Speaker 1: don't deserve, you know, the credit or whatever. There is
Speaker 1: no way in my mind I would be in sitting
Speaker 1: here today with the success that I've enjoyed if it
Speaker 1: wasn't for Aliniviously. I mean that guy to have to
Speaker 1: be the superstar that he that he was and to
Speaker 1: embrace you in a sense way everyone doing. I don't
Speaker 1: give it THEMN what report he talked to, I'll give
Speaker 1: them what interviews he did. I don't give it. His
Speaker 1: availability is unavailable, inaccessible. I don't give a DMN. With
Speaker 1: everyone knew stephen A and Ai. Everybody knew that I
Speaker 1: wasn't fly on the wall. So I was in the
Speaker 1: c web trade in two thousand three from Sacramento to
Speaker 1: out here, and that's when I, uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: met I met you early on and saw the connection,
Speaker 1: and it kind of tripped me out because that's not
Speaker 1: you know, not that you guys are the enemy, but
Speaker 1: you know, most guys don't get that close to the
Speaker 1: other side, so to speak, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So that's early on when I started understanding and kind
Speaker 1: of following your path and understanding, man, you really know
Speaker 1: what it's like to be in our not even knowing
Speaker 1: your backstory, but you put the time and to know
Speaker 1: what it's like to be in our shoes, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why. You know, a lot of
Speaker 1: athletes don't respect people that haven't done what we do
Speaker 1: because we don't think they have an appreciation and understand
Speaker 1: how hard it is. But you put the time in work,
Speaker 1: being a former hooper, being right there in the mix
Speaker 1: with us to understand. So when your criticism comes across,
Speaker 1: it's from a good place and it's warranted. But even
Speaker 1: what you saying that, I still got to give the
Speaker 1: credit to him because he was at the top of
Speaker 1: the heat popularity was and this dude had no reason
Speaker 1: to trust anybody, you understand, and certainly not me because
Speaker 1: I grew up. You play like, yeah, do you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying? But but he I knew he fits
Speaker 1: right in my alley because what he respected most was realness,
Speaker 1: and he knew I wasn't gonna lie to him, and
Speaker 1: so that went a long way and and you know
Speaker 1: the kind of things. And I never get in it,
Speaker 1: and I've never told the story, and I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: tell y'all what he said. But he went the hell
Speaker 1: off on Larry Brown so bad one time, told me
Speaker 1: to tearing the tape recorder on and went, but Listed
Speaker 1: told me that he didn't say turn it off. He
Speaker 1: said turn it on and went but Listed and he
Speaker 1: said things about Larry Brown that would have that would
Speaker 1: have got him traded at the very least, okay, because
Speaker 1: he couldn't stand Larry Brown at first. Right. And he
Speaker 1: came back the next day and he says, Stephen, ain't
Speaker 1: you write that story. It's gonna kill me. Kill me?
Speaker 1: And right in front of him, I turned the tape
Speaker 1: record off. He said done. I go back to the
Speaker 1: Philadelphi Inquirer. I said, kill a story. They're like what
Speaker 1: I said. I said, kill a story. It's not going
Speaker 1: on the paper. I promised him, it's not. It's not.
Speaker 1: There'll be plenty of stories to write. We right, just
Speaker 1: like that. Understand now, I'm telling you it's the kind
Speaker 1: of story that could have made my career. Anybody else
Speaker 1: get this story. It's coming out it could have made
Speaker 1: my career. It never happened because you gotta touch on
Speaker 1: somebody's humanity. And again, I know what kind of man
Speaker 1: I am, which is why I will go hard as
Speaker 1: certain cats. I got a problem with a few players
Speaker 1: in today's game, Make no mistake about it, because it's
Speaker 1: the chirping, it's the whisper. And if y'all don't know,
Speaker 1: if as long as y'all have known me, I know
Speaker 1: both of y'all will vouch for this. Kobe convous for this,
Speaker 1: d Way avouch to see speak, avouch for this, mellow others.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that canvous for this. All
Speaker 1: you got to do is come talk to me. You.
Speaker 1: I don't have to agree with you. I don't have
Speaker 1: to you. We could cut each other out, you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter, but we can talk as men. What
Speaker 1: I don't have any respectful is the chirp all that.
Speaker 1: And when we talk about my history my career, you
Speaker 1: know who two or three of the blazers that I
Speaker 1: was most tight with throughout my reporting career Derrick Coleman. Oh. Now,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, a lot of kids. But let
Speaker 1: you know why, because they never lied to me. You
Speaker 1: two never lied to me. If you couldn't say something,
Speaker 1: you didn't say something. Or you say, Stephen, I ain't
Speaker 1: touching that you say because you knew I understood. No, Stephen,
Speaker 1: I ain't going there. And that's all I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: It's like, do you know what what I would have
Speaker 1: to deal with if I wrote something about Oak without
Speaker 1: talking took, you know, or DC or somebody like that. Oh,
Speaker 1: hell no, I don't want that problem. I don't want
Speaker 1: that problem. I don't know. Oh I need to talk
Speaker 1: to you where you at. Because what I'm saying, he's
Speaker 1: he's a man, and it's like you're going deal with
Speaker 1: him on the real MJ another cat, real you know,
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I don't have any tolerance or any
Speaker 1: patience for the chirp and it's weak man, you know.
Speaker 1: And so a lot of times you got these cats.
Speaker 1: You got your Twitter account, you got Facebook, you got
Speaker 1: all of this other stuff. Okay, that's fine. Well I
Speaker 1: do have seven million social media Um, I do have
Speaker 1: a two hour daily national television show. I do have
Speaker 1: a nationally syndicated radio show. Um, I am getting paid
Speaker 1: a little bit. I'm not broke. You're gonna get back
Speaker 1: I mean, we really want to go here? We really
Speaker 1: want to go here? Or can we talk like men?
Speaker 1: Just a conversation? And because I think one of the
Speaker 1: things that I've proven in my career, if I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: I'll say I'm wrong. And oh, by the way, if
Speaker 1: I say something publicly wrong, I'm not gonna apologize privately.
Speaker 1: I'll go right on national television. Yo, he got me.
Speaker 1: I was wrong. You see what I'm saying. You you
Speaker 1: don't have to be the way these cats are. And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying all. I'm not saying most, but there's
Speaker 1: a few of them that's just weak when it comes
Speaker 1: to just communicating as men. And I don't respect that.
Speaker 1: I don't respect that at all because I'm not that way,
Speaker 1: and I don't expect them to be that one time
Speaker 1: because I think that we can intimate because they know
Speaker 1: what what it was being said is real. So you
Speaker 1: can be mad about it, probably, but not just that.
Speaker 1: Here's where I don't have respect. You could come to
Speaker 1: me and it could be real. I never forget when
Speaker 1: a I was mad at me and we didn't talk
Speaker 1: for almost two years and cats were sitting up there
Speaker 1: as Yo, man a, I can't wait to see you. Man,
Speaker 1: he gonna he gonna do something to were talking. We're
Speaker 1: talking like that, you can ask this. And and I
Speaker 1: rolled down to Atlanta. I made a special trip. I
Speaker 1: went down with Atlanta. I had my boys. I rolled
Speaker 1: up there. I told you about like, look I gotta
Speaker 1: handle this. I need a man thing hand. So I
Speaker 1: walked out. I went down there, a I came there.
Speaker 1: He met up with me, and he humbled me in
Speaker 1: a way that I've never been humbled in my career
Speaker 1: because he said, you were right, you were wrong. He said,
Speaker 1: it's just that I saw your name in the head
Speaker 1: he said your name on the body line. And that
Speaker 1: hurt me. And I said, damn, you know, because I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there, I'm like, I'm doing my job and I'm
Speaker 1: looking out and this ship. I didn't say. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot that I couldn't have said, but I
Speaker 1: didn't say it, and I wouldn't say it. But it
Speaker 1: still hurt me because it was like, he's right. I mean,
Speaker 1: I had to do my job because you know, you're
Speaker 1: missing in action. I got a job to do. But
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is all he was saying. He wasn't
Speaker 1: saying that I shouldn't have written it. He was explaining
Speaker 1: where his hurt came from. In other words, the same
Speaker 1: exact story, word for word verbatim could have been written.
Speaker 1: And if it was somebody else's name with the boy,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't have cared. It was that it was me
Speaker 1: and it. And it just reminds to me, Yo, man,
Speaker 1: our relationship is not typical. We got a special relationship.
Speaker 1: You mean a lot to us man, whether whether you
Speaker 1: know it a lot, you mean a lot to us man,
Speaker 1: and so and so for me, I just what I
Speaker 1: try to do is that's why I go out of
Speaker 1: my way. I'm like, look, i'm gonna look for you,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call you, I'm gonna come talk to you. Yo,
Speaker 1: keep doing this and I'm gonna have to do this, stop,
Speaker 1: fix this whatever, whatever. Do this. You know, this is
Speaker 1: your person stuff. You ain't gotta worry about that. I
Speaker 1: ain't got nothing to say about that. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say this about you on the court. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: this about you know you come into practice later, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do something like that. And so when you have
Speaker 1: that kind of mentality, you just wish that people saw
Speaker 1: you as like I'm just looking at that them, like, Yo,
Speaker 1: do you have you seen what I've been doing. I
Speaker 1: don't have to talk to you. I get paid to
Speaker 1: talk about you, not to you. I go out of
Speaker 1: my way to travel, go to games, and do all
Speaker 1: of this stuff to talk to you. I don't have
Speaker 1: to do that. There is nothing in my contract obligating
Speaker 1: me to talk to y'all at all. I can simply
Speaker 1: watch the games and give my opinion. But I travel
Speaker 1: across this country talking to you, trying to cultivate a
Speaker 1: relationship with you, Just so you know, Yo, man, you
Speaker 1: got something to say about me, I got something to
Speaker 1: say in response. I'm sitting here talking to y'all a day.
Speaker 1: There's no excuse on God's green earth while I should
Speaker 1: go on the air and talk about mad Mons and
Speaker 1: Stephen Jackson without calling you. What possible excuse? But possible?
Speaker 1: I mean, if something happened, I need to first y'all.
Speaker 1: I haven't spoken to them. I'm going to speak to them,
Speaker 1: just as as much as I can say. Until I
Speaker 1: speak to them. And there's certain players in the league
Speaker 1: to this very day that I like that I don't try.
Speaker 1: I try not to say damn worried about them until
Speaker 1: I talk to them, because some of them scared of
Speaker 1: living hell, like you're gonna damn, I'm gonna head now
Speaker 1: they're calling me. Now that's right. But but but again
Speaker 1: in the right way from the standpoint, they pick up
Speaker 1: the phone and call y'all. Respect that. You know you
Speaker 1: got some cast they're hanging wrongs, call you the agents,
Speaker 1: call yeah, all that other stuff, like for example, whether
Speaker 1: it was d Way, it was a c P. Especially
Speaker 1: Kobe and somebody, no, man, I see their name. I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: I don't messed up. What did I going on? Real quick?
Speaker 1: What did I just respecting to there we go and
Speaker 1: I know that, and I know that, and that's what
Speaker 1: I respect. It's too many cats that chirp and whisper
Speaker 1: and use hanging wrongs to do it. And that's what
Speaker 1: pisses me. Or you know them, you know, I know,
Speaker 1: I know, you know you and they know we know
Speaker 1: they do and they know we know. Because there's no
Speaker 1: excuse for it. It really really is, it really is.
Speaker 1: We're living in a climate today that's really touchy. Like
Speaker 1: you said, we don't like to bring race into it,
Speaker 1: but race plays a big key and just to today's
Speaker 1: society when you when you're hot, takes to your point
Speaker 1: of views, go against culture, so to speak. And I've
Speaker 1: seen it up later and Jack and I talked about
Speaker 1: it off camera. Right, Tell me what it's like when
Speaker 1: they try to question your blackness or or what you
Speaker 1: stand for just because you don't agree with First of all,
Speaker 1: that pisses me off. That's one of the that's one
Speaker 1: of the few things that pisss me off. I usually
Speaker 1: have alligator skin. I know it don't seem that way
Speaker 1: because I'm ranting the raven on the air waves, but
Speaker 1: I sleep well at night. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about most things people say. I don't
Speaker 1: give a damn. I'm gonna do what I do. But
Speaker 1: when they question my blackness, first of all, is a
Speaker 1: couple of several layers where you find that offensive. First
Speaker 1: of all, do you know who I am? Do you
Speaker 1: know what battles that I have fought in corporate America
Speaker 1: to facilitate opportunities for black people? Asked ESPN, asked the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Quira, asked the New York Daily News, ask Fox
Speaker 1: ask young brothers and sisters in this industry, the things
Speaker 1: that I have done to pave the way and pave
Speaker 1: the road to them. Those folks don't know what they
Speaker 1: talk about. That's number one. Number two, Who the hell
Speaker 1: are you to define blackness? What is the definition of blackness?
Speaker 1: Because we gotta be careful with stuff like that, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, you got folks in there. I'm not a Republican,
Speaker 1: but you got folks that sit up there in the
Speaker 1: second they see a black Republican, they say he's a
Speaker 1: sellout or was colin power or sellout serving in our military,
Speaker 1: serving serving this country? Was he a sellout? Really? Are
Speaker 1: you sure about that? Did you know that Dr Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Jr? Had Republican ideals? Did you know that?
Speaker 1: Do you listen to folks like Minister Farrakhan and others
Speaker 1: preaching about the same things the actual conservatives preach about
Speaker 1: in terms of handling your own business, being an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: owning your own stuff, not dependent on the government or
Speaker 1: anybody else to do things for you that you could
Speaker 1: potentially do for yourself. Do you know? And what is
Speaker 1: your definition of blackness? And then the third element to
Speaker 1: it that really really alarms me is what's your incentive
Speaker 1: for doing that. Now, let's sit here. It doesn't We're
Speaker 1: sitting here. We talked, let's be really nobody running from it,
Speaker 1: this whole Kaepernick stuff that we're damn So let's analyze
Speaker 1: this for a second. Colin Kaepernick takes a knee. It
Speaker 1: was for police brutality. It was for racial discrimination and
Speaker 1: racial inequality. As I said on first take, what black
Speaker 1: man will possibly have a problem with that? Of course
Speaker 1: I didn't have a problem with where I took issue
Speaker 1: was your execution after you need you took a knee,
Speaker 1: Because now it's about where you're going from here. So
Speaker 1: he Eric read and others, you're going after black folks. First,
Speaker 1: it was Malcolm Jenkins, a brother plays for the Philadelphia Eagles,
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl championship with the New Orleans Saints.
Speaker 1: He sits up there, he's talking with you, trying to
Speaker 1: include you into the mix because they're negotiating with owners
Speaker 1: to address the issues you said you wanted address. You
Speaker 1: didn't say anything about you wanting the job. You didn't
Speaker 1: say that. You said police brutality, racial discrimination, okay, racial oppression.
Speaker 1: You wanted those issues addressed. What did they do? The
Speaker 1: league itself negotiates an eighty nine million dollar payout to
Speaker 1: the players coalition. You didn't want to be a part
Speaker 1: of that. That's why you weren't a part of it.
Speaker 1: Eric Read accused him of co opting the movement. We
Speaker 1: understand that. I don't agree with it, but we understand it.
Speaker 1: What Malcolm Jenkins is saying is you took a knee.
Speaker 1: Now what are you going to do? You said you
Speaker 1: wanted the issues address. We're trying to get the issues address.
Speaker 1: It could be more for billionaires, but they how millions.
Speaker 1: They than what I mean. Else, it's better than a zero. Right,
Speaker 1: you have a problem with it, I get it you,
Speaker 1: Eric Read. You approached his brother at midfield during the
Speaker 1: coin tours of a game on a Sunday afternoon. You're
Speaker 1: ready to fight this bro. You get ready on the
Speaker 1: football field against him, but instead you want to go
Speaker 1: street on the football field because you don't like what
Speaker 1: he did. Jay Z music mogul. Everybody loves jay Z
Speaker 1: mad respect from the hood, talks about it, preaches about it,
Speaker 1: uplifts people highest brothers and sisters. Mantra, you understand saying
Speaker 1: been doing great things throughout his life while building his
Speaker 1: own empire. He standing he sits before Roger Goodell. They
Speaker 1: announced this deal. They announced the deal. His words weren't
Speaker 1: the greatest when he sat up there and said, you
Speaker 1: know what, we're beyond kneeling. But people forget that. Ten
Speaker 1: seconds earlier he said, I have no problem with anybody nearly.
Speaker 1: You can do what you want to do. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: where do we go from here? Why? Because he's plotting
Speaker 1: I got thirty one billionaires to deal with, thirty two actually, okay,
Speaker 1: thirty two billionaires to deal with. I might get an
Speaker 1: ownership steak in this. I might be the first brother
Speaker 1: to ever owner NFL team, which at that time, I'm
Speaker 1: going to position myself to be for the league to
Speaker 1: be more inclusion every so all of us could get
Speaker 1: so a lot of us can get paid. And in
Speaker 1: the meantime, I'm not gonna hoot and holler, but behind
Speaker 1: the scenes, I'm gonna work to get Colin Kaepernick this
Speaker 1: trial right. Eric Read comes out calls undespicable. Right, Colin
Speaker 1: Kaepernick says nothing right. Ray Lewis Hall of Fame linebacker
Speaker 1: playing for the Baltimore Ravens. He's behind the scenes on
Speaker 1: the Steve Bashotti for the Baltimore, Ravens a billionaire. It's
Speaker 1: thinking about break This is before Lamar Jackson, mind you,
Speaker 1: he's thinking about bringing him on board. Right, Just chill,
Speaker 1: just chill. What happens. Colin Kaepernick's lady at the time
Speaker 1: compares Jay ray Lewis and Steve Brashotti to the characters,
Speaker 1: and Jane Go played by Samuel L. Jackson and Leonardo
Speaker 1: DiCaprio squashes that opportunity. Right now, we fast forward to
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago. Why is stephen A on the
Speaker 1: air so piste off? Because when I was in the
Speaker 1: process of generating four million dollars in scholarships for underprivileged
Speaker 1: kids at historically black colleges and universities where I had
Speaker 1: that event at the University of Delaware State that Magic
Speaker 1: Johnson and Troy Vincent and them showed up too. Right,
Speaker 1: We raised four million dollars in scholarships. Four hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy plus kids got scholarships because of that one day event.
Speaker 1: Right while I'm promoting that, I go to a radio
Speaker 1: station to do an interview. I've never seen Colin Kaepernick's
Speaker 1: lady in my life. I've never spoken to her anything
Speaker 1: like that. She has somebody come out there. They're incredibly
Speaker 1: respectful and classy. They tell me what their dismay is over.
Speaker 1: They felt like I got a few things wrong. I
Speaker 1: firmly disagree with that, but that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1: I sit up there, I look at that in the face,
Speaker 1: and I said, Okay, here's my number. This is my number.
Speaker 1: I promise you, from this day forward, I will never
Speaker 1: utter a word about you a Colin Kaepernick. You don't
Speaker 1: put right there on my phone. I will read from
Speaker 1: the damn thing if I have to never have to
Speaker 1: worry about that again. You have my word. We're cool.
Speaker 1: She doesn't stop there. What she says is college Kaepernick
Speaker 1: deserves this. He took made this sacrifice for us. He
Speaker 1: deserves the opportunity, etcetera, etcetera. Will you help us? Fine? So,
Speaker 1: who's behind the scenes. It wasn't just Jay Z and
Speaker 1: the host of other people. It was also me and
Speaker 1: a slew of other reporters who will remain nameless, that
Speaker 1: were behind the scenes trying to get this guy the workout.
Speaker 1: Because you all were saying, nobody called so we were
Speaker 1: doing this. So yes, when the NBA proposed it, it
Speaker 1: was shaking the NFL. I'm sorry, it was kind of shaky.
Speaker 1: We understand that. You know, they could have done it better.
Speaker 1: They could have gave you more notice, they could have
Speaker 1: gave you more time to prepare, They could have done
Speaker 1: a lot of that was That was my major gripe
Speaker 1: with with the transparency factor into me, the NFL has
Speaker 1: proven they can't be trusted in a certain in several
Speaker 1: different Here's why that argument falls on death hears, because
Speaker 1: you knew that when you wanted the job. Now if
Speaker 1: we all sitting here talking amongst ourselves and we're cool,
Speaker 1: were brothers, right, and all of a sudden, I give
Speaker 1: you a reason to not trust me, that's entirely different.
Speaker 1: Not only do you not trust them, you suited them.
Speaker 1: Your father grievance against them, You settled. You're settled. Who settled?
Speaker 1: Who fathers a grievance against the company settled? And that
Speaker 1: still says I want a job with you. So of
Speaker 1: course you didn't trust them. We understood this. So my
Speaker 1: point is that with all of that going on, right,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there going like this, Okay, you said no
Speaker 1: one called you. I happen to know that jay Z
Speaker 1: and Rock Nation was leading the call behind the scenes
Speaker 1: working with the NFL, the owners that have the owners
Speaker 1: didn't want to do it. They literally said, bump down.
Speaker 1: We made ten million of revenue already. Okay, you know
Speaker 1: how much money. I'm a couple year o. More than
Speaker 1: a year ago. We got two six million a piece
Speaker 1: for our television deal alone. We got the ratings back.
Speaker 1: Folks are walking through the turnstiles. We're good. And not
Speaker 1: only that, we got four top league MVP candidates and
Speaker 1: all other black quarterbacks. We don't need him. We all
Speaker 1: have to do this. And I was told jay Z
Speaker 1: was like, oh, hell no, yes you do. No, I
Speaker 1: can't do this. We ain't going out like that. I
Speaker 1: need you to make sure you get his brother opportunity.
Speaker 1: So what do they do? Everybody? If you notice, you
Speaker 1: go back and look at the tape of first take.
Speaker 1: Got my social media guy right there, he's got my evidence.
Speaker 1: You got people there, three four teams gonna show walk.
Speaker 1: I was the one that went on the air minimum
Speaker 1: twenty four showing up. How I get that information? Why
Speaker 1: would I say that? Think about that? Everybody else said
Speaker 1: two or three. I went on the air and said,
Speaker 1: does that not give you an indication? And I'm kind
Speaker 1: of plugged into this, and so I'm like, look, y'all,
Speaker 1: it's it's being done. And then not only that, I
Speaker 1: got a call three days before the workout, after being
Speaker 1: told by various coaches and what have you. Usually when
Speaker 1: a free agent has a workout with the team, they
Speaker 1: don't have more than so y'all talking about five days
Speaker 1: like it's a small window. We usually only give them
Speaker 1: one day because if they're ready, they're ready. If they're not,
Speaker 1: they're not. And everybody was talking about all the next year,
Speaker 1: next year. No, they wanted to workout because they were
Speaker 1: gonna give him a job. I was literally told, now,
Speaker 1: whether it's true or not, guys will never know. And
Speaker 1: I don't know you know that, but I'm telling you
Speaker 1: what I was told, quote Colin Kaepnick will have to
Speaker 1: throw the football into the stands to not have a
Speaker 1: job in two weeks. Two weeks I went on the
Speaker 1: air and said, so, I text his camp and said, so,
Speaker 1: I was completely ignored, completely ignored. Suddenly, no return text,
Speaker 1: no white got anything to say. And I'm saying, Yo,
Speaker 1: this is what's going down here about to get a
Speaker 1: job in the National Football League. Teams showing up, So
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you hear this waiver of stuff
Speaker 1: and or and I'm not decrying anything. I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not questioning it. What I'm saying is you can't tell
Speaker 1: me a condition you faced in that scenario that you're
Speaker 1: surprised by because if you're already your evident lack of
Speaker 1: trust for them, but they also have a lack of
Speaker 1: trust for you, because they're fearful that if a team
Speaker 1: themselves on their own calls you up but you don't,
Speaker 1: they don't believe you're good enough to make a team,
Speaker 1: you're gonna accuse them of something that's gonna have them
Speaker 1: by themselves in the league, in the mix, in the
Speaker 1: eye the storm, media wise, so they wanted to use
Speaker 1: the NFL as cover. Roger Goodell got Roger Grell in
Speaker 1: the NFL agreed to provide that cover and said they'll
Speaker 1: call us so the heat wouldn't be on the individual teams.
Speaker 1: And not only did twenty six different teams show up,
Speaker 1: Not not only did they show up, but you know
Speaker 1: what else happened. Most of them were black black officials
Speaker 1: in the pipeline to be pro personnel guys, gms, etcetera. Etcetera.
Speaker 1: Because their whole thing is, like most black folks, we
Speaker 1: agree with Colin Cap. We appreciate the kneeling and the protesting,
Speaker 1: and those brothers were set by the owners and owners
Speaker 1: like you make that call, they were coming to town.
Speaker 1: So my point is when you heard me on the
Speaker 1: air going off, that's why I was going off. And
Speaker 1: I'm explaining all of this, and all anybody sees this,
Speaker 1: I don't agree with Cap or Eric Reid, and he
Speaker 1: ain't a real brother. He like you know, Uncle Tom
Speaker 1: and all of this other stuff. And I'm like, really,
Speaker 1: this is the same dude that's on national television all
Speaker 1: the time putting my behind on the line addressing issues
Speaker 1: that we need address. You really really think it's an
Speaker 1: accident that whether it was Max Keller, know Skip Bayliss
Speaker 1: or anybody before him, or anybody that you say you
Speaker 1: think it's an accident these topics come up on first take.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you all the question everybody's been reading
Speaker 1: about my contract, everybody's been reading about I'm being the
Speaker 1: face of ESPN. Do you think these issues will come
Speaker 1: up or first take as often as they do if
Speaker 1: I did not say okay, it comes up because I
Speaker 1: allow it to come. If I said no, don't touch it,
Speaker 1: it ain't coming up works. So I'm sitting there, like,
Speaker 1: what do you think is going on here? Do you think?
Speaker 1: You know with Max and his his racially conscious self
Speaker 1: and being invited to the ball of aecues which I
Speaker 1: appreciate his here's the deal, here's the deal. You don't
Speaker 1: think I know he's gonna receive that kind of reception.
Speaker 1: You think I don't know that, And I know what time.
Speaker 1: I know he's going to receive that kind of reception.
Speaker 1: I know that it's best coming from him in certain situations,
Speaker 1: rather than the angry black dude who's disgusted at the
Speaker 1: man continuously trying to keep us down. No here from him.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, but you see people from our community
Speaker 1: and it's like you don't see this. I mean, when
Speaker 1: you when you think about you know, you think about Selma,
Speaker 1: you think about montgomer Where you think about from an
Speaker 1: historical perspective, the things that black folks went through in
Speaker 1: order for us to get to this level, the thing
Speaker 1: that black folks going through in order to get to
Speaker 1: this level. Tell me when it was a success, when
Speaker 1: there wasn't a plan it's always a plan because if
Speaker 1: you just do something happ has it, people are gonna
Speaker 1: say it's hap hazard and they're not gonna take it seriously.
Speaker 1: How do you not know that? How do you not
Speaker 1: get that? So that's where the questioning of my blackness comes,
Speaker 1: because I got news for you. I don't give a
Speaker 1: damn how much money they want to report that I'm
Speaker 1: making in the news. And by the way, they're wrong
Speaker 1: about it. Let me tell you something right now, I
Speaker 1: make a whole hell of a lot more money if
Speaker 1: I was to sell out that some people try to describe.
Speaker 1: And that is a fact. It's deep and and that's
Speaker 1: the one thing, Like I said, I referenced us a
Speaker 1: few times. People know the on air personality of who
Speaker 1: you are, just like they knew who they thought Jack
Speaker 1: and I were, and we were able to, you know,
Speaker 1: utilize our platform and kind of speak on it. That's
Speaker 1: what I kind of wanted to do today with you,
Speaker 1: is just to allow people to see the other side,
Speaker 1: because people to get a you know, a show, you know,
Speaker 1: a look at the show and think, I know Stephen
Speaker 1: AA is all about and and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: At first use to bosament, I just had to understand
Speaker 1: that people don't know that don't know me, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter what they think about it. But at the
Speaker 1: same time it's tough because the people that do know you,
Speaker 1: understand where you're come from. Women, they always agree with
Speaker 1: what you're saying. But you know, Jack has a great quote.
Speaker 1: You know, we can disagree but still have respect for
Speaker 1: each other. And I think too often today it's all
Speaker 1: the way or nothing. Well, the thing about it is
Speaker 1: the operative word there is all like for example, you
Speaker 1: see me on TV, that's me. That's a part of me.
Speaker 1: It's not all of me, you know, And who shows
Speaker 1: the entire arsenal? We don't have to. You call what
Speaker 1: the moment calls. You show what the moment calls for.
Speaker 1: You know, when when look at you sitting here talking,
Speaker 1: is that the Matt bonds we still on the court
Speaker 1: when now you no, Now you I'm trying to tell
Speaker 1: you right now, your far more moll matter now and
Speaker 1: off the court, always in the locker room than you
Speaker 1: were on the court. But you see there see people
Speaker 1: see you, They see your tats, they look at that,
Speaker 1: they listen to they watch you on the court, and
Speaker 1: they think that you're ignorant, and then they go into
Speaker 1: a locker room and they are blown away by your
Speaker 1: level of intellect. This brother, Steve always been really real.
Speaker 1: Is a heart attack? You couldn't. There was no excuse
Speaker 1: to talk about Stephen Jackson without talking to him, because
Speaker 1: he was talking. He would give it to you. It's like,
Speaker 1: what possible. It's like I have nothing to say. I mean,
Speaker 1: what one mine? Who say to this brother? All I
Speaker 1: gotta do is go up to them and ask him
Speaker 1: if I say, you're Steve Man, I'm about to say
Speaker 1: this on the air. You got something? Hell, you got
Speaker 1: something to say? And he say, so, guess what? You
Speaker 1: take the power away from me to just editorialize and
Speaker 1: just say what I want to say? Nah, not if
Speaker 1: I'm a decent, respectable professional, Because as a decent, respectable professional,
Speaker 1: I have an inherent obligation to make sure your voice
Speaker 1: is just as profound about mine. If not, so when
Speaker 1: it comes to you, you see, if you speak, then
Speaker 1: I got nothing to say. And when you see me, listen, man,
Speaker 1: I told you before I had a situation and and
Speaker 1: and and John wall is a good guy, and he
Speaker 1: and I will eventually talk one day or whatever. But
Speaker 1: last year we had this issue. He was upset because
Speaker 1: I mentioned a nightclub that he was at right in
Speaker 1: d C. Fellas, I don't do that, tim Z, didn't.
Speaker 1: That man right there, that man right there came to
Speaker 1: me and showed me the video of him at the club,
Speaker 1: and so I said it. You can't be there thirty
Speaker 1: six hours before the game, when people already questioned that
Speaker 1: you in shape. You can't do it. That's all I said.
Speaker 1: That's all I said. And so all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'm going from city to city and I'm catching cats,
Speaker 1: and you you know, he like you dimed him out.
Speaker 1: I didn't know such thing, because if TMZ hadn't reported it,
Speaker 1: I'd have never mentioned it. I would have just said
Speaker 1: you better be ready, you better play. I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: said anything about the club, but sent you on the
Speaker 1: clubs being seen on video. You know, cats out the back.
Speaker 1: So what I'm saying is I go to d C
Speaker 1: to see him. Brother in the training room won't come out.
Speaker 1: I'm standing at his locker because they said he had
Speaker 1: a problem with me. I flew to d C from
Speaker 1: New York in a moment's notice, only forty five minute flight,
Speaker 1: but damn and I I'm busy. I still did it.
Speaker 1: I flew to d C, stood in front of the locker.
Speaker 1: The brother wouldn't come out. And then a week later
Speaker 1: and said, I just wish somebody would be mad enough
Speaker 1: to see what they got to see in my face.
Speaker 1: I got I gotta play ticket that I paid for
Speaker 1: that shows you know. I did come to say, you
Speaker 1: know whatever, this face. But what I'm saying is there's
Speaker 1: numerous cats, including YouTube. I would never have to do
Speaker 1: that too, not in a million years, if nothing else. Young, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm coming out. I'm coming outside, yo, stephen Na, let
Speaker 1: me do that the media. We're gonna have this conversation
Speaker 1: where we've done. But you just see all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: You got cats like they're looking at you like they
Speaker 1: want to do something to you. I'm a grown man
Speaker 1: and I'm not about That's right. I'm fifty two years old.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to get into no fight or nothing
Speaker 1: like that. But I am from Holly's Queens. You really
Speaker 1: really think you just gonna do something to me and
Speaker 1: nothing's gonna happen to you, like really, so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm again, I'm not talking. I'm not trying to be violent.
Speaker 1: That ain't me. I'm not I'm not saying that. It's
Speaker 1: like exactly respect on both ways. Now we could. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that. But you really really think
Speaker 1: I have no friends. I just I'm just left out alone.
Speaker 1: By the way, I made a lot of money for ESPN.
Speaker 1: You just think they're just gonna let something. I mean,
Speaker 1: you really really think that when I walked the streets alone,
Speaker 1: I really alone, you know, just like you just listen
Speaker 1: to people sometimes like really you really like you're just
Speaker 1: don't You're just don'ta do something right? And it's like
Speaker 1: and then you just you're saying all of that to
Speaker 1: say for what cause? If you have a problem, you
Speaker 1: come to me. If I'm wrong, I will admit it,
Speaker 1: I will apologize, and I will correct the record. If
Speaker 1: I'm right. I'm staying in my ground. But even as
Speaker 1: I stay in my ground, I still might let it
Speaker 1: go and just be like, no, this ain't worth it. Exactly.
Speaker 1: I ran up to um, y'all see me before I
Speaker 1: had beef with Big Dog Robinson in the year's past. Man.
Speaker 1: I ran up to a son, his son that go
Speaker 1: to State was playing Houston. I saw a son the
Speaker 1: first thing I said to his son. I walked up
Speaker 1: to him and I said, yo, man, you see me
Speaker 1: beefing with your dad. Whatever. Let me tell you two things.
Speaker 1: Number One, I was wrong. Number Two, I said, it
Speaker 1: will never happen again. Now I didn't specify. It wasn't
Speaker 1: that I was wrong about what I felt at the
Speaker 1: time or anything like that. I was wrong for allowing
Speaker 1: it to get to the level that it was that
Speaker 1: it got to because we've both grown men, and you
Speaker 1: know what, that's your son and he's in the league,
Speaker 1: and I don't want that young man running around thinking
Speaker 1: that you know what, me and your father had beef.
Speaker 1: So guess what you gotta be. No, I'm not that dude,
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying. And not only that, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a man who's a father, and I'm a proud
Speaker 1: black man. And I want you not to say that
Speaker 1: I had any reason to question it, but I want
Speaker 1: you to continue to love your father and to look
Speaker 1: at him for the good man that he is. Just
Speaker 1: because we might have had a beef don't mean that
Speaker 1: he's a bad guy. And I told him, when I
Speaker 1: see your father, I'm apologized to him and shake his
Speaker 1: head because I don't want that kid running around trying
Speaker 1: to elevate himself in this league and thinking that, you know,
Speaker 1: you got to worry about somebody like me and what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, because of some some nonsensical beef with
Speaker 1: your dad, there ain't no beef. Ain't no beef. Big
Speaker 1: Dog and I had a disagreement. But I'm sure he's
Speaker 1: a good brother. I know a lot of people to
Speaker 1: say a good brother. And when I see the man,
Speaker 1: I'm apologized to him because I don't want his son
Speaker 1: in this league thinking something like that. That's just the
Speaker 1: human side. Man. You gotta you know, you see a
Speaker 1: lot of these cats, man, and it is really a
Speaker 1: damn shame that they've gotten away from manhood and simply
Speaker 1: having a discussion and squashing stuff. It's really sad that
Speaker 1: cats different and it's different. And I put you, I
Speaker 1: put you up there with Stewart Scott, you know, with
Speaker 1: Michael Wilbon, the guys that have paid the way for
Speaker 1: us and man Matt talked about the show. We wanted,
Speaker 1: We really wanted to come on the show. Not that
Speaker 1: we talk about a lot of stuff. We want to
Speaker 1: give you your props to getting your flowers too, because
Speaker 1: you paid the way for us and a lot people
Speaker 1: see the things you say and automatically disagree, but they
Speaker 1: don't understand that you're not one. You're doing a job,
Speaker 1: but this is your real feelings. This is your real feeling,
Speaker 1: This is how you feel. And when people get outside
Speaker 1: their feelings and understand that this is coming from a
Speaker 1: genuine place. You're not just saying stuff for a check,
Speaker 1: or you're not just saying stuff just to piss somebody off.
Speaker 1: This is your life, you know what I'm saying. When
Speaker 1: people understand that, then they can see a different you.
Speaker 1: And we've been seeing that. But that's one reason why
Speaker 1: we wanted you on the show to give you a flower,
Speaker 1: because we understand. I appreciate what I'm saying. We definite understand,
Speaker 1: but I definitely man, listen, I got love for both
Speaker 1: of y'all. Man, I've loved y'all for a long time.
Speaker 1: Y'all good brothers, man, and y'all real it's hell, And
Speaker 1: that's what I respect the most. Man, is if they
Speaker 1: did not that we've ever had any issue here. And
Speaker 1: I had a disagreement about weed on social man, suposed
Speaker 1: you're saying for some reason. I mean, people are acting
Speaker 1: like that's gonna be a problem. I was like, what
Speaker 1: did he say? I'm like, I don't understand what he
Speaker 1: said that I'm supposed to be offended by that. And
Speaker 1: that's why immediately when I said, y'all are not getting that,
Speaker 1: that's my man. We disagree, and damn it, he was right,
Speaker 1: he said, I said, he said I was ignorant, right,
Speaker 1: I was like speaking staying off the show. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a hot topic right now. I think
Speaker 1: as someone who's used it since I was fourteen, Jack
Speaker 1: is you know, just as long it's something that we
Speaker 1: really feel navigated us through our career, um and really
Speaker 1: helped us on and off the court, um, knowing what
Speaker 1: the consequences were at times if we got caught. But
Speaker 1: it to me it didn't. They still weren't enough for
Speaker 1: me to not continue to use it. And you're taking
Speaker 1: a very strong stance, and I understand what your stances.
Speaker 1: I'll let you explain about from my understanding, this don't
Speaker 1: do if it's gonna suck your money up. So going
Speaker 1: on going on with you, but but but but I'm
Speaker 1: glad you said. But it's really that simple it's never
Speaker 1: been Once again, I have to go back to my
Speaker 1: roots without telling family, friend business. I'm from Holly's Queen.
Speaker 1: Really really think that I have an issue with people
Speaker 1: smoking weed. I mean, I've known that if been surrounded
Speaker 1: by it all my life. It's not an issue. It's
Speaker 1: an issue when you let it affect your money. That
Speaker 1: is my issue. I have never getten o meet personally.
Speaker 1: I've never wanted to do it. The reason why is
Speaker 1: this my mentality? Is this anything that inebriates me in
Speaker 1: any way potentially empower somebody else, Which is why I
Speaker 1: leaned on your statement when you said about my ignorance
Speaker 1: about it, because I'm like, I'm glad you said that,
Speaker 1: because I am. I don't pretend to know. I never
Speaker 1: pretended to how to? How to? Hell? Do I know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying? To use this? I have been I
Speaker 1: have covered an NBA game in the past where a
Speaker 1: dude was wobbling back and forth and literally couldn't stake
Speaker 1: instructions from Larry Brown because he was high. And that
Speaker 1: was not Alan Iverson. Okay, let me be very very
Speaker 1: clear that happened right in front of my face. But
Speaker 1: I also saw cats that you know you could. I
Speaker 1: let you can see it, you know, over the whole bit,
Speaker 1: and it didn't affect them to have Some of them
Speaker 1: played better with it, so I got it. My flip
Speaker 1: side to it is that there's a reason I had
Speaker 1: to bring Snoop Dog on my show because Snoop Dog
Speaker 1: had to articulate my like, I think I have a strong,
Speaker 1: you know, command of the English language. I think I
Speaker 1: speak fluent English, And I'm like, I don't understand why
Speaker 1: to help people can't understand what I'm saying. I am
Speaker 1: not saying you shouldn't do it, because you shouldn't do it.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, if you work in a league where they're
Speaker 1: telling you it's going to affect your money, as hard
Speaker 1: as you work to get that money, why give it
Speaker 1: away for that now? If you wasn't giving it away
Speaker 1: from that, I'm good with it. If you sat up
Speaker 1: there with like this, look, man, I make ten million
Speaker 1: if I do this in my course, be fire undred
Speaker 1: thousand steven there, I could afford it. I got nothing
Speaker 1: to say. I got nothing. It's like, okay, okay, this
Speaker 1: makes sense. But when you are literally wanting and crying
Speaker 1: about how the league should change their policy, as some
Speaker 1: players have done while you in the game, just because
Speaker 1: you can't get your way up right. I usually equate,
Speaker 1: and I'll bring children into that equation for for an example,
Speaker 1: all of us the fathers here, just imagine for a second. Well, Daddy,
Speaker 1: I need you to change this rule because I don't
Speaker 1: like it. It doesn't work for me. Excuse me, who
Speaker 1: do you think you are? You have the right to
Speaker 1: do what the hell you told? Period. This is not
Speaker 1: a democracy. I don't give a damn what Oprah tells you.
Speaker 1: It ain't a democracy, Okay, not in this house. You're
Speaker 1: gonna do what you're supposed to do because you are
Speaker 1: the child and I am the adult. Well, essentially, that's
Speaker 1: what a league is saying to you. In a roundabout way,
Speaker 1: not to disrespect you, but there's a power structure. You
Speaker 1: volunteered to play. You wasn't drafted. This is what you
Speaker 1: told when you know the rules, when you're signed the contract.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, and so if you know the rules,
Speaker 1: understand you're going to be held accountable for it. I'm
Speaker 1: just of the mindset, as I said earlier, I'm not
Speaker 1: just a black man. I'm a brother. I don't have
Speaker 1: anything against anybody, but I love my brothers man, and
Speaker 1: my attitude is, if I see you doing anything that
Speaker 1: I think is detrimental to you, I'm going to let
Speaker 1: you know. And if I know you personally, then it's
Speaker 1: gonna be personal and meaning I'm going to approach you personally.
Speaker 1: If I don't know you, but I have this platform,
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna use the platform to send that message.
Speaker 1: If you find yourself in the news, what I will
Speaker 1: never do is din you out. I'm never telling you
Speaker 1: and course you your money, but if you allow yourself
Speaker 1: to get caught in you in the public, now, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna speak on it. If I saw you, it could
Speaker 1: be anything. It's weird, it could be anything. If you
Speaker 1: you've had other issues that you've had to deal with YouTube,
Speaker 1: then Stephen, they come up to your coming, right, That's
Speaker 1: right what I said. You see what you do? What
Speaker 1: you what are you doing? No? No, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: say this, do this, do that because we need you
Speaker 1: back in the league getting your money. Do you gotta
Speaker 1: do period? And I would want you all to do
Speaker 1: to say for me, my whole argument in the stance
Speaker 1: that you know understanding that we really really just feel
Speaker 1: now being former athletes, that we can kind of be
Speaker 1: the shield for it. And I'm working with you see
Speaker 1: a line of cannabis research program. But but but to me,
Speaker 1: they're pumping is full of opioids to get us back
Speaker 1: on that field. I mean, we're possessions to them, and
Speaker 1: we understand it's it's a process and whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And you know, we're high paid a commodity for them,
Speaker 1: but they're causing. So they'll pump you full anything, shoot
Speaker 1: you full towards all I have you on all kinds
Speaker 1: of procription drugs that are masking one thing, causing a
Speaker 1: long term effect on the other hand, But then want
Speaker 1: to penalize you for cannabis. You know, I was in
Speaker 1: the drug program towards the end of my career and
Speaker 1: got close with a couple of guys that were running
Speaker 1: there and they told me, you know, over two hundred
Speaker 1: guys and you're just for that alone. You know, let
Speaker 1: me respond to that. That's a very smart, cogent argument,
Speaker 1: cannot be disputed. Here's your problem. That's their rules, now,
Speaker 1: their rules that you agreed to bide by. So in
Speaker 1: other words, if we put if we if we're putting
Speaker 1: our big boy pants on, and we address the stuff
Speaker 1: the way that it needs to be addressed. You could
Speaker 1: make that argument. Hell, take it all the way up
Speaker 1: to Capitol here for crime out low. There are ways
Speaker 1: to do it, but it's a slow, grueling process that
Speaker 1: nobody wants to go through. Totally, totally, totally understand. Here's
Speaker 1: the problem. It's still their rules and it's their money.
Speaker 1: You want so at some point in time, while you're
Speaker 1: making an argument, knowing that they're wrong once again, we
Speaker 1: could even go and switch the subject and we could
Speaker 1: go back to capitic or anybody else. Sure they're wrong.
Speaker 1: What black men, you know, has been in a working
Speaker 1: environment where we felt the rules were totally fair. Just
Speaker 1: who that is? Because I never met him. I've never
Speaker 1: met I have never met guess what, I don't know
Speaker 1: white people who felt all rules were fair to them.
Speaker 1: It's the world we live in, and at some point
Speaker 1: in time, what has measured is your level of discipline
Speaker 1: in the face of adversity, because that's what separates the
Speaker 1: men from the boys. For example, y'all are doing this
Speaker 1: pockets to intelligent brothers that are real You know you're
Speaker 1: gonna cut through the chase you're gonna get stuff. All
Speaker 1: of this stuff is true, But you didn't put a
Speaker 1: camera here and here and here and just sit here.
Speaker 1: You gotta crew of people around you, right, So why
Speaker 1: are these people working with you? Because they have faith
Speaker 1: in you better, not just to make you better, but
Speaker 1: they have faith in you. They have faith in your
Speaker 1: ability to perform and that you're going to exercise the
Speaker 1: discipline that it takes to reach new whites. Look, we
Speaker 1: can sit up there and talk about first take number
Speaker 1: one man. They did some rating. They said to me
Speaker 1: Stephen as the number one talent in sports media. Right, Fine,
Speaker 1: here's why I'm really getting paid. I'm trustworthy. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: show up to work and I'm not gonna try to
Speaker 1: let them down. I'm not gonna be somebody that says,
Speaker 1: bump y'all. I got my money. I'll do what I want,
Speaker 1: when I want, how I want, Because remember my dollars
Speaker 1: a guarantee to you, a wiggle room out of my
Speaker 1: stuff other than the mortal's clothes, like anybody else as Oh,
Speaker 1: my mom's a guaranteed. Though that say it if it's true.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. My my mother's guaranteed. You
Speaker 1: don't get that without trust. They said, we trust you
Speaker 1: to do that. So for me to do anything that
Speaker 1: deviates from that, it's an indictment against me because now
Speaker 1: I've shown when I'm not trustworthy, and that word is
Speaker 1: gonna spread and circulate and then people are gonna be
Speaker 1: real lovely to do business with me because I'm not trustworthy.
Speaker 1: It's like, how do you not see that? Particularly as
Speaker 1: black people knowing what disadvantages were operating under. And that's
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. You know, y'all asked me to
Speaker 1: come here and do an interview with y'all. Y'all were
Speaker 1: waiting for me. I won't wait for y'all because it's
Speaker 1: y'all show. So guess who was here waiting. Now, imagine
Speaker 1: what it would have been like if I got here
Speaker 1: before you. You see what I'm saying, It's like, just
Speaker 1: just use your logic and understand. This is the world
Speaker 1: that we're living in and when you talk business with people,
Speaker 1: it's not just about your ability. It's about your ability
Speaker 1: to be trusted, and that's what you have to have.
Speaker 1: And this, to me, whether it's we or anything else,
Speaker 1: is just the latest increment or the latest example the
Speaker 1: latest obstacle that's in your path, testing whether or not
Speaker 1: you can be trusted to handle your business in spite
Speaker 1: of the circumstances being less than ideal for you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of players don't understand when they fail drugs this,
Speaker 1: or where they get caught in the streets, they hurt
Speaker 1: in the cause. All the work Alps doing one. You know,
Speaker 1: you said it's a slow grind. It is a slow ground,
Speaker 1: but we're getting there. He got David Stern and say
Speaker 1: we should be legal. He got, so it's a slow grind.
Speaker 1: But when guys failed drug tests or get caught they
Speaker 1: are they don't stand. They're hurting the cause and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be longer and longer before is legal. It's all
Speaker 1: little things. It's all the things like for example, you know,
Speaker 1: usually I'm suited and you know, y'all can dress like that.
Speaker 1: Y'all could do that. I can't all the time because
Speaker 1: of the platform that I have available to me and
Speaker 1: the people who are watching on the come up, y'all
Speaker 1: have earned the right to sit here exactly. How y'all
Speaker 1: you remember this though, the first time, that's right, I
Speaker 1: saw you that I did one show. In the second time,
Speaker 1: by saying, you say, put a suit on, put the
Speaker 1: suit only what I told him, and I put the
Speaker 1: suit on. I had four year career with ESPAN. Remember that.
Speaker 1: And by the way, it's not finished. It's not I'm
Speaker 1: coming for you. That I'm trying to make the point
Speaker 1: that I'm trying to make is that I didn't tell
Speaker 1: him to put a suit on because I like a suit.
Speaker 1: I said, they you you in such a way, they
Speaker 1: view you in such a way. So when I'm talking
Speaker 1: to y'all, I'm saying, look, man, I got mine, but
Speaker 1: it ain't no fun being successful by yourself. You want
Speaker 1: to preach me. I mean I talked to a whole
Speaker 1: but of cats, trying to reach back and help the
Speaker 1: best way I possibly can because I want them to
Speaker 1: be successful. And I think that. You know, when I'm
Speaker 1: talking to athletes or whatever and I'm getting on them
Speaker 1: and you see me going off, if you notice, I'm
Speaker 1: looking pissed because I want you to succeed. I'm not
Speaker 1: happy that you struggling. I'm not happy that you feel it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait a minute, do what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: Then venture out. As Denzel once said to me, do
Speaker 1: what you have to do so you can do what
Speaker 1: you want to do. That's what it's all about. And
Speaker 1: that's the and that's the kind of message that I
Speaker 1: think we all should be preaching collectively before we get
Speaker 1: out of here. We're growing up in Queens, all the
Speaker 1: ups and downs Hooper, finding your way, finding your voice,
Speaker 1: finding who you are. Did you ever think he'd be
Speaker 1: on the brink of being the highest paid sports personality ever? No,
Speaker 1: I never thought that. M It's an incredible honor. I
Speaker 1: don't talk about my money, but I will say I've
Speaker 1: been taking care of thoroughly. Did you get You got
Speaker 1: the contract pretty much here. I still got to sign it.
Speaker 1: But we've agreed. We've agreed, We've reached a verbal agreement. Um,
Speaker 1: that's why you've seen the news. And I'm incredibly grateful. Um.
Speaker 1: I know I worked my butt off, I know I've
Speaker 1: earned it, but they still didn't have to give it,
Speaker 1: you know. And so you know, for me, You've got
Speaker 1: a lot of people who get paid and to them
Speaker 1: they've arrived. My attitude is I've gotten paid. Now let
Speaker 1: me show you why I get paid what I got paid.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, it does elevate some things in
Speaker 1: your life. And it's not just your quality of life,
Speaker 1: it's the quality of the impact you're capable of having
Speaker 1: on people. Because when you read about me and you
Speaker 1: hear about what I'm doing or what I've achieved, who's
Speaker 1: not gonna listen to what I have to say. It
Speaker 1: still motivates. It motivates, eats us, It motivates, it motivates everybody.
Speaker 1: And so for me, I look at it, I never
Speaker 1: saw it coming. Not to disdegree, I'm incredibly humbled by it.
Speaker 1: But in the same breath, I know the journey that
Speaker 1: I took to get here, and I know that I
Speaker 1: bust my butt to get here. But it also leaves
Speaker 1: me humbled because I'm grateful. I'm grate food to you.
Speaker 1: I'm grate food to you. I'm grate food to Ai,
Speaker 1: I'm grateful to Kobe, I'm grate food to Shack. I'm
Speaker 1: great food to a host of professional athletes across the world,
Speaker 1: across all spectrums of the sports world who always reached
Speaker 1: back to help me. And so for me, it's like
Speaker 1: it's it's it's very very special to me because all
Speaker 1: those people called to say you deserve this, all of them,
Speaker 1: and so I recognize that, and what it lets me
Speaker 1: know is don't fade, don't go away from what I
Speaker 1: did to get myself here. That's right, that's right, the
Speaker 1: responsibilities having lessons, they've elevator. But it's okay because now,
Speaker 1: more than ever before, I'm in a position where I'm
Speaker 1: going to be able to reach back and to give
Speaker 1: a help in hand because I got more people listening
Speaker 1: to meeting ever before. And so as a result, it
Speaker 1: says to me, a right, Steve, you ain't perfect, You
Speaker 1: make mistakes like everybody else, but the grind that you own.
Speaker 1: Stay on that grind and always remember how you got here.
Speaker 1: And more importantly than that, helped those brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: that want to be helped, you know, and beyond they
Speaker 1: just black folks, his wife, folks, everybody. But I am
Speaker 1: partial to my own in regards to the fact that
Speaker 1: there are a small number of us that have been
Speaker 1: able to really really do it. So it's not anti anything.
Speaker 1: It's not anti white, it's not anti Asian, Hispanic, or
Speaker 1: anything like that. But I'm a black man and so
Speaker 1: for me, I'm gonna always always want to help my
Speaker 1: own in the best way that I possibly can, and
Speaker 1: I think the greatest way to do it is by
Speaker 1: a really highlighting and identifying the mind fields that can
Speaker 1: really knock you off whatever pedestal you're aiming to get on.
Speaker 1: If you don't, the greatest disservice you could do to
Speaker 1: your own community is to never tell them about the
Speaker 1: mind fields. Just let them go on and do what
Speaker 1: they're gonna do. Never say a word. I don't do that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure that I let cats know y'all
Speaker 1: come in, just so you know just what's going on.
Speaker 1: You need to mind what's going on here. And that's
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna do to y'all. If I see y'all,
Speaker 1: y'all doing this podcast and everything, and this ain't the
Speaker 1: only thing you're gonna be doing because y'all got some
Speaker 1: special here. Telling you this is special special what y'all
Speaker 1: got going here, I mean that this is a big
Speaker 1: time because y'all, y'all work. Y'all really really work together,
Speaker 1: and it's a beautiful thing to see. But if I
Speaker 1: see y'all going in the wrong direction, you'll hear from me.
Speaker 1: I know what you do, like what you're doing, what's up?
Speaker 1: You gotta talk what's going on? We want to thank
Speaker 1: you man, uh, like I said Jack mentioned earlier, but
Speaker 1: we really do appreciate you. Like I said, we don't
Speaker 1: always agree, but we appreciate the path, the journey. We
Speaker 1: got to learn a little a lot more today, um,
Speaker 1: and we look up and inspire to be you now
Speaker 1: and you here. We worked with someone a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. They came on setting. It's like I want
Speaker 1: to be the next stephen A Smith, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So we just just like I said, give
Speaker 1: your flowers right here. Hats off to you man, keep
Speaker 1: doing what you're doing and keep on it down. Man,
Speaker 1: you Boomer assize and and Jo told me to tell
Speaker 1: you they love your work. Boom a size and he
Speaker 1: made it a point. World. I don't say as they
Speaker 1: made the point for me to tell you you do
Speaker 1: great work. And he appreciate your great guy. He does.
Speaker 1: He does a great job. He does a lot of
Speaker 1: philanthropic philanthropic things, and he deserves a lot of credit
Speaker 1: him and his wonderful family. But I think that that
Speaker 1: means a lot to me because a couple of times
Speaker 1: it was like I disagree with Boomer, but I went
Speaker 1: out of my way to make sure ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: I disagree with this, Yeah, I got him, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And I think that there's more of
Speaker 1: that that people need to learn to grasp. That's what
Speaker 1: we talked about when you could agree without being disagree.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't really disagree about the whole week.
Speaker 1: We really, I mean, I get it. I totally understand
Speaker 1: particularly you're right. I was ignorant to it. Okay, you know,
Speaker 1: but I have my beliefs, you have yours. But y'all
Speaker 1: always be my brother's man and we and we're good.
Speaker 1: And guess what iron sharpens iron? If we all agreed
Speaker 1: with everything, how do we ever learn? We don't elevate
Speaker 1: that way. You don't elevate that way doesn't work. That's
Speaker 1: a rat Man Episode eight, New York, Steve and a Man.
Speaker 1: We can't thank you enough man. Check us out, Showtime Basketball,
Speaker 1: YouTube are all platforms this stream. I love that all
Speaker 1: love them. Man, appreciate you a little guy, Thank you too,
Speaker 1: bas