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