WEBVTT - WEEKLY REWIND: Stephen A Smith Stops By and More! 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:05.160 Wait that ass up in the morning Breakfast Club. Yeah morning, 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:09.440 everybody's DJ Envy Angela Yee, Charlemagne the guy. We are 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:11.200 to Breakfast Club. We got a special guests in the 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.600 building to the room, stephen A. Smith. What's up, y'all? 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:18.520 How y'all doing? How I'm good, bro, I'm good. It's 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:20.919 been crazy. I've been busy as hell and the nbac's 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.160 is about to jump off too, So it's been crazy. 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:25.119 But I'm here. I wasn't missing this. Your book is 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:27.920 available for pre orders. Great shooting. Yeah man, it's gone well. 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:29.639 And thank you because you was one of the people 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:31.400 that inspired me as well a lot of people both 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:33.080 for y'all. I mean, I'm proud of y'all with y'all 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.600 books and what y'all have done. But I tell you, um, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.720 it was a long time coming. I really didn't want 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:40.720 to do it. Um people have been They would have 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:43.080 been asking me since ESPN let me go in two 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.400 thousand and nine to write a book, and I didn't 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.199 want to. I didn't want to because I always said 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:49.159 if I wrote a book, you know, I got to 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:51.280 be straight up about you know, just my life and 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.239 kind of the things, the kind of things I had 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:55.600 to go through on a personal level. And then my 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:57.920 mother got rest us. So before she passed away in 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.040 twenty seventeen, she had always made me prom us, don't 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.760 ever write a book until I pass away, because she 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.560 knew that I was going to talk about, you know, 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:08.560 some of the relationships that I had grown up with 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:10.880 Pops and others in my family and stuff like that, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:12.880 and she knew I was gonna do that, and she 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:14.760 did not want me to do that while she was alive. 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:16.880 She said, you go and do it. I'm just asking 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.360 you for one favor, don't do it until I pass away. 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:21.280 So I had waited all of those years that then 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:24.679 even after I wasn't gonna do it, and then my 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.679 sisters reminded me, Hey, go ahead and do it. Go ahead, 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.160 guy got folded. They said, it's time. Why now, because 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:33.399 you've always been like a private person personally. Yeah, I 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.319 still am, I believe it or not. I still am. 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:37.039 But there's a lot to tell. There's a lot to 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:38.600 tell in terms of the path that I had to 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.280 travel to get to where I am. And so you 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.440 tell some of those stories and you try to be inspirational, 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:45.640 as y'all have done. With y'all book and whatever. You know, 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:47.840 you tell people. You know, you don't tell them every 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.280 single little nugget about your life, but you tell a lot, 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:52.600 and you tell a lot with the golden mina of 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.920 being constructive and being inspirational and just trying to let 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:57.840 people know, Look, you ain't the only person have been 0:01:57.880 --> 0:01:59.520 through stuff. It's a whole bunch of us have been 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.680 through stuff. And we walked through that terrain and we 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:03.960 carried ourselves on through and we, through the grace of 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:05.520 God and a lot of help from a lot of people, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.000 we were able to pull it off. So you can't too. 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:10.320 And that's basically what you're doing. You're being You're trying 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:13.480 to be as motivational and inspirational as you possibly can. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:15.280 But in the same breath, in order to do that, 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:17.800 you got to be real. And so I just said, Hey, 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:19.400 I'm just gonna do it. Did you know what you 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:21.320 wanted to do as a kid? You know what I 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.920 always I grew up idolizing Howard Cosell and be primarily 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.480 because of Muhammad Ali and his relationship with Muhammad Ali 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.960 and then Brian Gumble, because I saw him doing everything. 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:34.160 You know, it was like it was the Today's Show. 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.079 It was he used to do NFL on ABC and 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.480 the Olymics. He did everything, and so I grew up 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.200 idolizing them, and I had fantasized about that. But I 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:45.600 also I always fantasized about being a criminal lawyer. And 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:51.720 this is before I mean I literally did. But you know, 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:54.040 I'm I'm in the I'm in I'm in the fourth grade, 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.959 and I'm getting left back because I got on undiagnosed 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.960 dyslexa dyslexa, and I'm saying, hey, you know what, ain't 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:04.040 away I'm going to law school. I'm thinking, like, hell no, 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.840 ain't doing that. But I mean I grew up watching 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.960 Perry Mason and Mad Logging This four, Law and Order, 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:12.800 all of those crime shows that anything that had the 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.320 courtroom in it I fantasized about. So I always said, 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:17.920 you put me in a court, ain't nowhere in hell 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.320 you're gonna convince me. I'm gonna lose out on convincing 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.600 twelve jurors to see my way. And I always believe that. 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.720 But then the journalism came and all of a sudden 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.320 it just blew up unexpectedly because even though later earlier 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:32.400 on in my life. I didn't have that confidence. Later 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.800 on I did. And when I had that confidence, I 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.480 was ready to do it. But then this journalism took 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.520 off and I was like, you know, I'm doing quite well. 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:42.680 Let me stick with this. How'd you overcome to Dyslexiao, 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.040 because you're one of the most articulate people speaking on 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:49.200 television today. My older sister, Linda, she was a teacher 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:51.960 back the day my sister Carmen as a teacher. Now 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.400 my sister Abbey Gills and the education system as a superintendent. 0:03:55.680 --> 0:04:01.400 But Linda was a teacher. And Linda literally taught me 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.880 how to read and write and and one of my 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:07.080 best friends growing up, his name was Ronnie Is. His 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.080 big brother, Tiver was also brilliant. So whenever I was 0:04:10.120 --> 0:04:12.520 over his house, Tiver was a brilliant dude, and he 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:14.080 would teach me how to read. And then I come 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.360 home to Linda, and Linda would sit me down four 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.200 or five days she said, we're gonna overcome this, and 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:20.840 you know, she would teach me how to read it right. 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:22.840 And then in the seventh grade, I had a teacher 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.359 that told my mother during the parent teachers night, he 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:27.760 said he ain't stupid, not at all. She said, he's 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.160 not focused. He drifts, He doesn't focus and concentrate on 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:34.719 things that bore him. But when he's when he's interested 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.200 in something, he's locked in and he don't miss anything 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:40.760 when he's like that, fine what he's interested in And 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.200 watch what you had? Watch many times? Do you argue 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.000 with your sisters like how was your house growing up? 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:50.040 Because you like to argue. But here's the deal, here's 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.600 the reason why. Because I wasn't allowed to growing up. 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.280 I got four older sisters. Bro shut the hell up. 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:00.800 Then that's that's on the regular. So you know, you 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:03.720 got four women. And it's like, I remember the scariest 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.240 moment in my adult life because it's related to your question. 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.800 I had to go on the View right after the 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.240 Tiger stuff came out, and I was like, cool, Soto, 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.760 problem is, Peter, let me go. It was you know, 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.719 I had gotten the Fox Sports radio. They asked me 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:21.560 to come on the View. I said fine, and I 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.080 walked in the studio and it's Barbara Walters there. It's 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.839 Barbara Walters, Joy, Joey Bayhard and Elizabeth Hasselback all this 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.320 back in those days, okay, And I walked in. You 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.039 got these four women on the set. That's cool. But 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.560 the audience was like stadium seeing and it looked like 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.159 they right on top of you, right, And I was 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:44.839 the only man in the entire studio, right, There wasn't 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.200 a male in sight. That I was the only spec 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.120 of testosterone. It was it was like, I said, oh, 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:53.200 how did you hear the hell about that? But the 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:55.720 end then they was asking me about Tiger and I 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:59.400 was like, well, you know, I'm trying to what are 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:04.919 you saying I got myself into you know? To me? 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.599 And it was like but then I remember I grew 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.000 up around this. I grew up around this. I knew 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.360 how to handle it. And if it wasn't for my upbringing, 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.719 what my fault oldest sisters and my mother. There's five 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:16.480 women telling me what to do. You shut the hell 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:18.240 up when we tell you to shut the hell up. 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.839 The subject in that position too, because I feel like 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.080 a lot of times as women, especially in sports, you 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:25.720 see a lot of women who might be the only woman, 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.520 yeah in the room, And so I love the reverse 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.080 when that happened. We don't, we don't. It's scary. It's 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:35.200 scary as scary as hell. I mean to this day. 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.640 That is the scariest moment in my career because you 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:40.200 gotta remember typing out of some stuff now and I'm like, 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.200 I'm walking in this studio. I'm like, there's nothing I 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:46.799 can say. I mean, I got to figure out a way. 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:48.800 And they were just looking at me like you even 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.640 uttered the room syllable We're gonna be on you. And 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:53.920 I was like, that's interesting, especially with like the Ema 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:56.800 Joker stuff happening now and seeing Shacks say, I don't 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.640 want to weigh in and criticize this because I've been 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:01.320 through the things that I've been through, So you don't 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:02.800 want to be a hypocrite. Well, you don't want to 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:04.480 be a hypocrite. But in the same breath, if you're 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.240 sitting in that chair and all of y'all can relate 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:07.680 to this with the great show y'all have been doing 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:09.400 for years, you gotta call it like you see it. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.120 And what we gotta do is we gotta be careful. 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:15.680 You can talk about an incident without talking about the person. 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.280 And this is what listen. You know how many people 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:22.800 disagree with me every day. I have no issue with 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:27.880 you attacking what I say or what situation I've addressed. 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:32.880 That's entirely different than attacking me. I can. I can compartmentalize. 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:34.840 And if you're sitting in that chair, you know I 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.360 told shout, bro, you can avoid it all you want 0:07:37.400 --> 0:07:39.680 to T and T coming up, Bro, season get ready 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:41.760 to start, You're gonna have to avoid it. You're gonna 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:43.880 have to talk about it at some point. I definitely 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:45.920 told them that. And so for me, you're dan right. 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:47.960 I touched on it, but I touched on it from 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.640 a different angle. There's no excuse for him to find 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.960 himself in that position that he was in. But my position, 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.720 religiously was it's none of our business. There's no reason 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:00.360 on earth that you can justify to me why the 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.680 Boston Celtics had that press conference while we're having this discussion. 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:09.080 That was an h R matter. I've been covering sports 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:13.640 formas thirty years. I'm telling you every year the stories 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.360 like this. Every year you don't see it being discussed. 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.280 You hear about the Can't getting fired, and you hear 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.360 rumors as to why, but you don't know it's not 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.640 validated by the organization. And then you know, I took 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.000 it a step further and I mentioned this blackness only 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.640 from this perspective, you kept him, you retained him, You 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.360 didn't fire him. That means no one has the right 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.120 to come and get him. You suspended him, but it 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.400 was indefinite. You said, I'm gonna suspend you for a year, 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.880 but then after the year, we're gonna we're gonna look 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:46.000 into it. I mean, that's bs all right. You probably 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:48.040 docked half his pay, because that's what my source has 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.440 told me. You docked half his pay, And I'm like, 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:55.680 so he doesn't he can't work, he can't go elsewhere. 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.600 You docked half his pay, his futures up in arms, 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:05.000 and you publicize his personal business because the press release, 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:10.079 I mean, I'm sorry. The report said consensual relationship. Now 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:13.040 you might have violate the organizational policy and all that, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:18.640 but it said so essentially, all of this has happened 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.600 because of a consensual relationship. Now we don't know her status, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.880 and even if we did, we can't say because you know, 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.320 they haven't revealed that information. You know, you can get 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.160 sued for stuff like that. But here's what I know 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:33.480 about him. He ain't married, and it was a consensual relationship. 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.480 According to y'all. You think, do you think we'll ever 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:40.440 get the full story. Hell yeah, you can't. Not just 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.040 that you can't do what you did with this man, 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:46.760 and there's not going to be an uproar at some point. 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:48.520 And I said it, and then people was getting on 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:50.280 me about that. I said, I know plenty of white 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:54.400 dudes that's that, that's screwing around in the office in sports. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.160 This stuff wasn't public so I know at least three 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.440 dudes personally that got fired because of it. It was 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.520 never publicized. We heard about it, but it was never publicized. 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:06.960 And guess why, because they're working for another team now, 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.319 not in that capacity that they were. It might have 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:12.920 been on the lower level, but they still are employed 0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:17.800 in the same and with the same brand. Because why 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:20.160 it wasn't publicized or put out on front streat like 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.520 they say something that sure, he's not married, that's right, 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.600 that's right. Allegedly one of the women are. Why are 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.120 they attacking him so much for the rest if it's 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:35.679 an organizational policy, why the woman's name is Listen, we 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.280 totally agree. I'm not gonna sit up here in front 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:40.880 and act like we disagree. What I'm saying is in 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:44.280 the interest of making sure that all our eyes I 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.040 dieded in teas across and we don't have folks coming 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:49.280 at us talking about why, why why are we trying 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.720 to make somebody else the victim. All I'm saying is 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:56.880 it's always private. We've never heard the details you heard. 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.679 They got fired. You could speculate as to why, but 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:03.880 because it's not known, another team has no problem bringing 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.720 you on board and employing you because that's never been confirmed. 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.480 By having the press conference, you confirmed the stuff that 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.760 was put out there about him. You said nothing about her, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.040 And I'm not saying to put her on front street. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.760 I'm saying he shouldn't have been talked about. Let him 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.360 go or keep him, but keep the matter in house. 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.360 They didn't do that because they wanted to suspend him 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:28.920 and make an example of him. And it could have been, 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.760 you know, enforced by somebody else. But the bottom line 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.160 is it was wrong. Do you think because he was black? Well, 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.200 I think that part to me. I'm not gonna go 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.880 that far, but I will say this, I haven't seen 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.400 it happen to any white boys. I'm gonna tell it 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.280 like that. I haven't seen it, and I said it. 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:45.640 I said it on National TOUGHIC. I ain't see anybody, 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.440 and everybody. Everybody backed up because they know I've covered 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.360 this league and I've covered professional sports for a quarter century. 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.120 And I went on national television and I said, I 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:57.400 know plenty of white boys that's been doing their thing 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:02.240 in the office. Nobody said anything we didn't know, and 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.280 they and everybody backed up because they know I'm telling 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.360 the truth. It's just the truth, and it's it's jacked 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.400 up to that. Listen, he ain't perfect, and whatever he 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:12.680 had coming to him, if the organization they had courts 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.000 to fire now because I heard that he obviously violated 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.040 the organization of policy. And then plus he lied initially 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.200 won approach. So now you got cause you got him 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.880 debt the rights. Okay, you can't defend him. If they 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:24.559 wanted to let them go, they could let them go, 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:28.439 but then let him go. Don't hold them and keep 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.960 him from working and keep him from going someplace else 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.680 to work. You have ruined this man's career because of 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.480 a consensual relationship. Ain't nothing right about that man. And then, 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:40.640 to me, that's the point that everybody's missing. To your point, 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:44.240 that's that's a great point. Clearly, they're protecting some one 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.400 person in this situation which absolutely him. It's just like, 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:49.679 go golify him, play much right, that's right, throw him 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.679 out to pasture, and and and black man. We know 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:53.760 about that all too well. So people are gonna sit 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:55.640 up there and say, Steve and A's trying to make 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:57.599 it a race issue. Actually know you made it a 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.720 race issue by how you elected to handle this. All 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.760 I said was I said, fire him or keep him. 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:05.640 But you don't do this because you've never done it 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.280 to anybody else. So why is the first example of 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.120 black man? I got a problem with that. What do 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.960 you think about Matt barnes comments? Because I wondered from 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:16.120 an og journalism perspective looking at the new media and 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.520 they called it. What do you think his comments? He'll 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.920 never work again. He thinks if they listen, if the 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.480 full he might be right. He might be right about that, 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.719 he's not wrong. And I think that in Matt Barnes case, 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.199 who's a good brother, by the way, he's real good brother. 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.679 I think with him. Here's the issue. I think he 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:37.520 felt uncomfortable with the ledge he went out on. It 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.679 wasn't so much the story itself, but the things he 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:43.560 said initially. And sometimes you find yourself in that situation 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.080 where you might know all the facts, but you went 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.720 too far out. It's saying what you said and you 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.719 got a backtrack, and people are thinking that you're backtracking 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.880 totally because you went out too far. I didn't go 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.680 out too far. I said exactly what I meant. I 0:13:57.760 --> 0:13:59.800 said it a week and a half ago. Damn it, 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.679 I'm saying the same thing now because I know that 0:14:02.720 --> 0:14:04.920 the story is going is gonna percolate, it's going to 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.800 develop even more. We're gonna hear more details coming out 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:09.520 of it, and I'll be front. I mean, listen, I'm 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:11.360 not gonna front with you and act like we didn't 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:13.160 hear what's going on and we don't know. I mean, 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:16.080 there's a lot of details that I know that I 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.800 cannot say because for legal issues and what have you, 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:21.920 you just can't do that. But trust me when I 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.240 tell you, it comes from a place of knowledge. I 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:26.080 know what the hell I'm talking about, and I know 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.200 how screwed over he's gotten in all this. He ain't innocent, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.440 and if he got fired, he would have deserved it, period. 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.920 But you didn't have to do that. Him getting fired 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.720 is one thing you publicize in his business like. That 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.840 is an entirely different matter altogether. He'd have lost his 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:45.720 job with the Boss and Celtics. If you handled it 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.400 correctly in this instance, you might have ended his career 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:51.720 as a head coach and as a rookie head coach. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.760 He did what the president of basketball operations couldn't do 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:57.240 in seven years. He took these brothers to the NBA 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:02.240 finals in year one, year one and this and this 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:03.920 is the other part that y'all got to know about it. 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:06.600 He's making about three million, three three to three and 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.760 a half million dollars. Had he had another successful season 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:12.840 and I'm not talking finals, he could have got them 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:16.000 to the conference finals whatever. He's in a position next 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:20.480 summer to negotiate a contract that's paying him at least 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.920 triple at least nine million today's NBA company at least 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:25.920 nine to ten million dollars. That's to go on rate 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.280 for a lot of these brothers are right. So now 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.640 you've squashed that because what leveraging position does he have. 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.920 He can't come to you and negotiate a deal that's 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.680 gonna get him a raise next year. You've stripped him 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:46.240 of everything because of a consensual relationship. I don't know 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.000 if it was personal. I know that it was handled 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:51.760 in a way that I don't think enough people are 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:56.440 breaking attention to. It's an HR matter, y'all. It's an 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.360 HR matter. If it happened with one of y'all, if 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:01.080 it happened with me, if it happened to anybody, it's 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:03.960 none of our business. Man, it's an internal matter. Now, 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:06.840 if it's not, if it's not consensual, and you're talking 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.640 about something else, sexual assault, rape, something like, that's a 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.360 different matter. You're breaking the laws. But if it's legal 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.120 and consensual, it's none of our business. That's why we 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:19.240 got to have another conversation about the power of self control. 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.840 Brothers got to learn discipline. Like, there's certain situations you 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.440 just shouldn't put yourself into, and that's one of them. 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.240 That's right, Which is why I say if they fired him, 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.280 I wouldn't have said the word you put yourself in 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.400 that position? What are you doing? What are you doing? 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:36.239 You you're you're a rookie head coach. You just got there, okay, 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.120 and you find yourself in this position. There's no excuse. Now, listen, 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:42.840 from the beginning of the time, men have had problem 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:47.160 resisting women I mean, I mean from Adam and Eve 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:56.240 for crying out lot, it's very very predictable. That's a 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.440 little bit happ like what she's like. I mean, I 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.960 would like hopefully Stevens people get exercise something that they 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:08.680 can then straight. But I mean, listen, there's no question 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.160 about it. And especially and as black man, we gotta 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.119 understand this. Yeah, times, times are what they are, and 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:19.040 we believe progress has been made, but we also recognize 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:22.160 that there's a long way to go, and so the 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:25.560 rules are still different for us than it is for 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.720 white men. Is call it what it is. You gotta 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:33.200 know that and your responsibility to yourself and your community 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.439 and and folks on the come up that idolize you 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:39.000 because of the position that you're in. You know, you 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:41.399 gotta be careful, though, you gotta be careful. Look at 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:43.239 a position. I mean, come on, man, come on, man, 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.400 you you think you think that if I haven't had 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.480 opportunities to get with folks in the industry and whatever, 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.080 you ain't playing that game. You know they ain't worth 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.280 my check, then they're not worth what I built to 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:57.720 try and accomplish for myself. I'm not going that route. 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.560 That's just me they'll send people that somebody like, yes, 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.800 and they had, and they had and they have to listen. 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:05.840 You can't put you can't put it past anybody. Because 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.920 you got people and they listen, They're gonna come at 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.320 you in a variety of ways. I've been in situations 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:16.560 where I've been proposition covering the NBA Playoffs, NBA Finals, 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.000 and I'm not saying this is exactly what happened, but 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:21.760 I wondered who said them because the women were a 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:23.840 little bit too aggress I'm like, like, I don't think 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.440 I look like Godzilla, but I ain't that damn attractive. Now. 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:28.200 This is a little bit too aggressive here. I mean, 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:30.720 why they acting like they got to get with me something? 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.320 Something's fishy about that. You know what I'm saying. I 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.560 didn't know. But you have that suspicion and that and 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.800 that and that success, that intuition. You gotta you gotta 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.320 get it self, protect them. You gotta be like, you know, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:44.679 this is just a little too good to be true. 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.400 You know what I'm saying, ain't right about this, you know, 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.640 I mean you know what I mean, Me me, me, 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:53.920 you know, me meeting a honey or whatever. Ain't fun 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.200 all right that you know that happens with all of us. 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:58.560 But you know, three women coming up to me at 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:01.560 the same time. I say, you know, thank you, but 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:03.960 no thank you, and they still come in. They don't 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.119 want to take no for an answer. They're trying to 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:08.800 find out what hotel I mean, in what hotel room 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:10.480 I mean rather because we were in the lobby of 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:12.800 the hotel. It's happened in Dallas years ago during the 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.359 finals between Dallas and the Miami Heat. And I'm sitting 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:23.040 there like this is too good to hell. These women, 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:29.639 these women want me like this. Hell, no, I'm not. 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.040