Full Show: Stephen A breaks down Draymond Green's “ANGRY BLACK MAN” comment!

Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, folks, I need you all to stop what
you're doing and listen up. You know I love this
time of year, right The NBA players are in full
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run your game. It's Orange and Blue Sky's baby, Orange
and Blue Skys. That's why my voice is so messed
up because I've been so hyped. My beloved New York
Knicks are up to against the defending NBA champion Boston

(00:55):
Celtics today I'll give you my picks for Saturday's game
at Madison Square Garden, so let's get right to it.
First up, will Jalen Brunton score more or less than
twenty six and a half points.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm gonna go with less on this.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I think it'll take a collective effort from the New
York Knicks to win this game. I think Boston's gonna
come in ready. I don't see this as one of
those games where Jalen Brunston is gonna explode, maybe more
so in game four or five than it is in
game three. For some reason, I suspect somebody else is
gonna step up. I'm gonna go with Jalen Brunson with
less than this game. Next up, Michel Bridges scores more

(01:31):
or less than fourteen and a half points, I'm gonna
go with more, especially if he did it in the
fourth quarter. Imagine what he's gonna do in the first
three at Madison Square Garden. Next up, will Jason Tatum
score more or less than twenty seven and a half points.
I'm gonna go with less. He's due for an explosion.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I get it. I just don't suspect it'll be game three.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
So I'm gonna go with less. And why am I
going less with this? Because finally, Jalen Brown, here's the question,
is he gonna score more or less than twenty two points?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'm gonna go with more.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I think the one who's gonna explode in game three
is going to be Jalen Brown.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
That's where I'm at with it.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
So that's less for Jalen Brunson, more for Michel Bridges,
less for Jason Tatum, more for Jalen Brown. That's how
I'm viewing this. Go to Prize Picks app and check
out the Steven A. Smith Show community play. It's boosted
twenty five percent. You know I either way you slice it,
it doesn't take away from the fact that I'm still

(02:26):
hoping my New York Knicks the part victorious.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
You know what I'm saying. Welcome to the latest edition
of The Stephen A.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Smith Show, coming at you as I love to do
at the very least three times a week over the
digital airways or YouTube, and of course iHeartRadio as always,
I like to take a moment to thank my subscribers
and followers for the love they continue to show me.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Keep it coming, and I'm gonna keep on coming.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
To continue to like and follow the show, just click
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Speaker 2 (02:57):
Smith Show family.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
And while you're doing that, please make sure to pick
up a copy of my New York Times best selling books,
Straight Shooter, a Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes,
now in paperback. Just go to straight shoot to book
dot com to get yourself a copy. Once again, that
straightshoet book dot com to get yourself a copy. Let
me get right into it, because obviously, as you can tell,
my voice is pretty much shot. My nick fandom got

(03:19):
the best of me, and as a result could I
could barely speak Considering a day that I had already
having to do my day job in the morning, then
having to do this, and then having to go to
the studio to do NBA Countdown on ESPN and ABC
all week and long. I got to conserve my voice
to the best of my abilities. So I'm not gonna

(03:39):
keep you too long today, but I got a few
things that I needed to get to because I thought
they were important. Number one would be the story of
Draymond Green that's been percolating obviously over the last few hours.
That's where we're gonna get started with the NBA playoffs
in Minnesota, where it wasn't a good knife for mister
Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors. The Timberwolves beat
and beat up on the Warriors courtesy one seventeen to

(04:00):
ninety three last night to even up their Western Conference
that the final matchup at one game apiece. Obviously, they
did so because the Golden State Warriors didn't have Steph Curry,
who suffered that strained hamstring in Game one after scoring
thirteen points in the first thirteen minutes. Nevertheless, that still
wasn't the biggest headline last night Minnesota's victory in Game two,

(04:22):
I'm talking about. The biggest headline coming out of the
game was Draymond Green and how he had picked up
his fifth technical foul of the playoffs. Draymond was assessed
a dead ball technical foul in the second quarter after
he flailed his left arm at nas reed for the
Minnesota Timberwolves. Okay, Draymond is now two technicals, two technicals

(04:44):
short of receiving an automatic one game suspension in these playoffs.
On top of all that, Draymond had a verbal altercation
with the fan, reportedly who was ultimately ejected for directing
a racial slur at Draymond words. Green gave a quick
statement to reporters saying he believes there is an agenda

(05:06):
against him. Take a listen to what Draymond Green had
to say here.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
It is look like the angry black man.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
I'm not an angry black man. I'm a very successful,
educated black man with a great family, and I'm great
at basketball. I'm great at what I do. To put
the agenda to try to keep making me look like
an angry black man is crazy. I'm sick of it.
It's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
I thought about what I wanted to say about this
particular subject, because, to be quite honest with you, it's
pretty delicate, and I think that there's something that needs
to be mentioned off the top right here.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
When we're talking about Draymond Green. There's two stories to
tackle here.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
One is the reported racial epithet thrown in his direction
while he was on a bicycle during the game. That's
not the first time this has happened, not the second
or third or anything like that. I never forget when

(06:11):
Lebron James was in Atlanta and he had a fan
removed from the game. Lebron has never done something like
that to call for a fan to be removed from
the game. They certainly said some out of pocket stuff
to him. I remember Russell Westbrook sworen everything he loved
to a fan that if he said something else, Russe

(06:34):
was gonna come for him. Russell Westbrook has never done
something like that. I remember Russell Westbrook was departing from
a game in Philadelphia and a fan threw popcorn all
over him when he was a member of the Washington Wizards,
and he had to be refrained or restrained from going
after the fan. I remember when I was a beat

(06:56):
writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer covering the Philadelphia seventies Sixers,
and it was a big story about a racial epithet
that was thrown in the direction of Alan Iverson while
he was in Indiana playing against the Pacers. There were
folks who tried to deny it. It wasn't gonna fly
because I was standing right there that one. I was
an eyewitness account too. I saw and heard what that

(07:18):
man said to Alan Iverson. So when Draymond Green pointed
out what he pointed out, or a fan being removed. Rather,
I'm glad the fan was removed. I wasn't there. I
can't contextualize the Sixuary situation. I don't know enough of
the facts, but I do know that if the team

(07:39):
in the arena security felt compelled to remove the fan
and it was verified that something racial had been said
to Draymond Green, I don't blame him.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
For being pissed off.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
The other thing about the angry black man, I think
it's important to point this out. Why I gotta be
angry black man. I'm not talking about Draymond Green saying that.
I'm saying white men don't get angry, Latinos don't get angry,
Asian Americans don't get angry, Jewish folks don't get angry.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Why is it always? And one of the things that.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I religiously stated because I remember for years I was
considered the angry black man, and then people saw me
on TV morning they knew so I knew how to
laugh and have a good time and all of this
other stuff. But you know, I'll use and I say
this affectionately because everybody knows how much I love them,
and everybody knows that we're pretty tight. But my man

(08:44):
mad Dog Russo, he has earned everything that he has,
and I'm very, very proud of him and mad Dog Russo.
Our what are You mad About? Segment on First Take
every Wednesday morning is absolute hilarity. He is hysterical and
I love it. But do you think I could get
away with being mad Dog stephen A? You think I

(09:07):
could get my own channels? Mad Dog stephen A? You
think I could have a segment that says, what are
you mad about?

Speaker 2 (09:14):
It's not Mad.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Dog's fault, but it's an indication that you know, it's amazing.
When white folks get riled up, it's passion, and when
black folks get riled up, it's angry. So, as my
man Mike Willboud said on NUTS inter National Television this morning,
he wakes up most morning's angry.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
But the reality is that we'd be justified if we
were with some of the things that we have to experience,
some of the things we are experiencing at this moment
in time. And once again, if you are white and
you are not racist, and you don't engage in racial
profiling and stereotype and and stigmatizing and all of that stuff.
I am not talking about you, but the experien that

(10:00):
you have in America of not this world as a
black man are pretty unique. And so when Draymond spoke
about that, there's a level of empathy that should be
touched on, it should be felt, it should be required.

(10:20):
But we're not going to go all in on supporting
what Draymond Green said without showing that he has some
level of culpability in all of this too. You know, Graymond,
Draymond Green is a good brother. Obviously, we used to

(10:41):
speak a hell of a lot more in the past
than we have in recent memory, because we haven't spoke
at all in the last year after his suspension, and
I reached out to him and told him that it
was kind of hard to defend. We really haven't spoken
much sense, and so I'm just doing that because I

(11:08):
wanted to give full disclosure before I echoed what I'm
about to say that has nothing to do with how
I feel about him. I got a lot of love
for Draymond Green. I think he's a genuinely good brother.
Off the court, he is something special. If he's wrong,

(11:33):
he'll fess up to it. If he believes he's right,
He'll stand on it. He's not trying to be disrespectful.
He's not trying to hurt anybody. And people who know
him and have gotten to know him, whether it's his philanthropy,
whether it's his charitable tendencies, whether it's his compassion, whether
it's his thoughtfulness or whatever, he's a good brother. He

(11:55):
is married, he has four children. His wife is wonderful.
His kids are absolutely his world. And when he's affected
the way that you saw him affected last night, it
resonates with me because if you recall last year when
he was going through some of the things that he
was going through and he choked Rudy Gobert, he slapped

(12:17):
a use of Nurkic and had to go through those
suspensions that I believe course the Golden State Warriors a
playoff birth. Most people believe that by the way you
looked at him and you just said, hey, this is
not great. He's been through a lot. And what do

(12:39):
I mean by that? Because those quote unquote sessions, those
zooming calls that he had to do when he initially
was suspended indefinitely by the NBA, turned into something he
was willing to do voluntarily even after being reinstated, because
it was so helpful to be on those calls, and

(13:00):
it was therapeutic for him, even though it wasn't official
therapy where you had so many people on the call
associated with the NBA, with the NBA Players Association, his agent,
Rich Paul and his agency, and the way they looked
out for him, and the way he felt free to
really express himself. With these guys. You give credit where credit.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Is due, but then.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
You see the play with nas Reed, you see the
altercations in the Houston series, and then you're reminded that
it's this fifth technical of these playoffs, that he's too
short of an automatic one game suspension, that over the
course of his postseason career, he now has thirty seven
technical fouls since entering the league in twenty twelve twenty thirteen,

(13:50):
which is fifteen more than any other player since that time,
and that his twenty one twenty one ejections are only
eclipsed by Rashid Wallace, who had twenty nine in NBA history.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
He's second in NBA history in that category.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
And so when you talk about how you're being depicted
or whatever, I don't think Draymond is lying.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
I think there's validity to what he's seeing.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
I just think he has to appreciate the fact that
he's provided folks to feel like they have validity in
accusing him of such things. If you remember, ladies and
gentlemen on this platform and on ESPN, I went absolutely
ballistic when Kevin Durant, after the whole use of nurkic
ordeal with Draymond Green, when Kevin Durant said I hope

(14:46):
he gets the help that he needs. I was furious
because I said, Yo, that's your former teammate. You're a
contemporary in the league. You know what that kind of
statement is going to connotate, and it was going to
be attached to him. You can't say that about him
like that because that's given the wrong picture and the
wrong depiction of a guy that you want two championships
with to.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
Have love for you and the whole bit. You can't
do that.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
And I'm not saying Kevin Durant ever did it on purpose.
I'm saying that you have to be careful with the
words that come out of your mouth when.

Speaker 2 (15:14):
You say something like that. And I didn't think that
he was.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
But now we fast forward to last night and Draymond
Green really really being upset because of how he feels
he's being portrayed. Well, who's portraying him that way? And
if so, why are they doing so? And what level
of capability do you have in all of this. I'm

(15:41):
not making accusations. I'm asking questions that I think Draymond
Green has to ask about himself before he's seen on
video saying that he's sick of being depicted in a
certain way. When people are able to point to these things,
and they're able to point to behavior on the court,
because it's never off the court, because dude is a
model citizen off the court, but when they're able to

(16:03):
use on the court, which is the only place most
people know you from because they don't see you, they
don't know you, they're not involved in your personal life,
they don't know you. They don't know what a great,
great dude he is, like those of us who know
him a little bit. No, all they can go by
is what they see on the court. Then Draymond has
to look at himself. And I say that respectfully because

(16:26):
according to the reports, Draymond Green said before these playoffs
or during these playoffs that he spoke with Steve Kerr,
he spoke with.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
His family, etc.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Because he felt that it was a reflection point where
he needed to look at himself and he thought he
needed to do better. Well, why would you feel that way,
because you know what's at stake. Steph Curvey's thirty seven
years of age and now he has a strained hamstring.
Jimmy Buckler is no young spring chicken anymore either, and
you Draymond Green went on national television during All Star

(16:58):
weekend and guaranteed the world that the Golden State words,
we're gonna win the championship. The one thing we know
for sure is there's no way in hell they're winning
it without you. But there's also no way in hell
they're going to win if you're accumulating technical fouls and

(17:18):
bringing this kind of a wanted detention your way. So
I'm not here to engage in condemnation. Everything is a
teachable and learnable moment, and I'm not talking about anything
off the court about Draymond Green. Great teammate, great friend,
great family man in the.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Eyes of everybody that I know who knows.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Him, and I'm pretty damn fond of him myself. Whether
we speak or not, But you gotta recognize what the
situation is. And you got to recognize that when you
are somebody in your position and you are on a
public platform and at times it appears like you're engaging

(18:08):
in volatility and stuff like that, people are gonna label you,
and that's just the way it goes. I wish he
had given more specific context to what happened last night.
He didn't want to talk to the media, and then
after that he just issued that statement and stormed off.
So it would have been nice to be able to
contextualize it a little bit better, because none of us

(18:28):
know the details about what happened. But when you say
you're being depicted as an angry black man strictly on
the court of basketball, which by the way, is pretty
much the only place most millions of viewers ever see you,

(18:49):
the numbers and the video shows that a lot of
times you do look angry. And before I go, I'm
going to end by echoing something that somebody sent me
this morning. It's an historian, but I don't have permission
to use their name, so I'm not going to give
it up. But they wrote this to me personally about

(19:11):
Draymond Green, about the Raymond Green incident. They said, quote,
there is a difference between an angry black man trope
and the reality of an angry man.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Who happens to be black.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yes, we have every right to be as angry as
any other man, but we must not exploit the angry
black man trope to absolve inappropriate or harmful behavior. We
cannot conflate the two. Let's not forget many of the
players who are fed up with Draymond happened to be black.

(19:50):
That last sentence hurt, and it hurt because.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
The players who happen to be black that that.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Historian, a well known one who's a big NBA fan,
alluded to in that text. To me, they a lot
of the players get upset because they're members of the
opposition and they see Draymond having spent years getting away
with being in the faces of referees, going off in

(20:23):
a way that they would never be allowed to so,
in their eyes, believe it or not, they view Draymond
as privileged, as somebody who's getting away with something they
won't ever get away with. Last night in Minnesota was
a perfect example. After he was issued to technical he

(20:46):
got in the face of the official numerous players were
saying they had ejected my ass. How comp they did
eject him.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
That's where Draymond has to deal with.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
That's the reality, and in the end, being on the court,
that public platform is where most people see you.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
So if you don't want people.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Seeing you a certain way, it's not just about who
you are off the court, which is a great man
and a champion and good people. It's also about, or
it's primarily about what you are on the court, because
that's where you're seeing most. That's all I have to

(21:33):
say about Dremond, at least for the time being, until
more context is provided. Of course, I'm hoping he'll do
just that, But then if he doesn't, maybe that would be.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
For the best too. We shall see. We shall see.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Got some on court action to get into involved in
the NBA. But rather than hear from me on that,
who better to talk to than my man Brian winto
Is from ESPN. He's up next right here on the
Stephen Aate Smith Show with a whole lot to say
about these NBA playoffs.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
Don't go away, all right, Everybody listen up with all
the big time sports action that's happening each and every day.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
The Stephen A. Smith Show wants to make sure you
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Speaker 2 (22:51):
Run your game.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Joining me now to discuss the NBA Playoffs is my buddy,
the senior NBA analyst inside as well. It does a
fabulous job for ESPN. Love working with them, love having
them on my daytime. Show First Take every weekday morning.
The one and only Brian win torses with me right now.
What's going on?

Speaker 6 (23:15):
Man?

Speaker 2 (23:15):
How you doing? How's everything?

Speaker 6 (23:16):
I'm happy to be here, But I find it hilarious
that you blew out your voice. See, you didn't budget
when you started your week. You know you didn't budget
for two maybe one cold open with the Orange and
Blue sky right. You didn't have it in your range
to do two cold opens with the Orange and Blue Skies.
And now you're paying the price. You're lucky it's the weekend.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
I'm paying the price, my man. I definitely am. Let
me ask you this. You've been covering this series, you've
been in Boston. What was it like for you personally
to be in Boston witnessing what was happening to the
reigning defending NBA champions at the hands of the New
York Knicks in Games one and two, specifically the fourth

(24:00):
quarter and an overtime in Games one and two.

Speaker 6 (24:03):
When you're the better team, Let's just be honest, the
Celtics are the better team by measure of the regular season.
At least, you usually play with the swagger, and when
you're at home, you usually play with the swagger, and
when you're the defending champions, you usually play with the swagger,
and certainly the Celtics. I've seen him do it in

(24:23):
Game two when the game started, when the Knicks started
tightening up the score, the entire building went tight. It's
not something I've experienced before. And Jalen Brunson was absolutely
He comes into the game nine minutes to go and

(24:44):
he starts going to work three pointer drive, step back
lay up at like four minutes and forty five seconds.
I don't remember who hit the shot. It might have
been Bridges, and all of a sudden, it's five points.
Where everything goes read it's five points inside five minutes.
It's clutch time. And I said out loud, these sobs

(25:10):
did it. They got it to crunch time. They got
it to clutch time, because that was the thing. It
was like, you know they're down twenty, they're actually down sixteen,
because you know in game one they were only only
they were only down nine starting the fourth quarter. Anybody
can come back from nine to down. You don't have
to be special. They started the fourth quarter in Game

(25:30):
two down twelve in the fourth quarter, so they had
done a good job. It was twenty, they cut it
and then it went to sixteen. It was actually sixteen.
That was a different three possessions greater to overcome. And
so when they even got it to crunch time, I
was like, damn, they did it again. And then they
just walked them down and the building was tight, And

(25:52):
it's just not something you expect with the team with
what the resume of the Celtics.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Is Game one and two.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
In your eyes, more about what the Knicks are in
terms of their clutch knowing that a guy like Jalen
Brunson and clutch time has outscored the entire Celtics team
by fourteen to twelve. Or is it about a diminished
product that we're seeing in the reigning defending NBA champions
that is the Boston Celtics. I know what Tatum brings,
I know where Brown brings. They're both three hundred million

(26:19):
dollar plus plays. You got new ownership in Boston, They're
gonna have to make decisions about the future. You've articulated
all of those things very clearly over the last few
days or so. But are we seeing a diminished Boston
Celtics or just the team suffering the hiccup that's expected
to get it together this weekend.

Speaker 6 (26:37):
Very savvy question. I think the answer is both. I
think you see a Knicks team that is extremely confident
when they get into the end of a close game.
Jalen Brunson, he he is so calm when he's under pressure.
It's crazy, Like he gets into tough situations when he's
got a live dribble and you're like, how's he getting

(26:58):
out of this one? And he does. You know, they
put a six to nine guy on him and you're like,
how's he getting out of this one? He gets open,
he is, he's got. He is at the top of
his game, at the top of his confidence level, and
it's a master at work. So that's absolutely happening. But
also the Celtics are diminished. One, I think their confidence

(27:20):
is shaken. I think you see in some of the
decisions that Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown make at the
end of these games. And two, they don't have Porzingis.
Porzingis isn't right and that's probably the most unpredictable thing
in this series. What's gonna happen with Porzingis Because Porzingis,
I wouldn't say he was their curve ball because he
can hit you at the right hook. I would say

(27:41):
he was like their slider, and especially if you were
having difficulty, you know, scoring from the perimeter. You know, yeah,
he's he's a deadly outside shooter, but you know you
can throw it to him in the post and he
can seven foot three, he can turn around and cause proubles.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Let me stop you right there with Porzingis because I
heard you on the air talk and the other day
when you on air with me, you want to air
would get up on ESPN talking about how you spoke
to Porzingis. He doesn't know what's going on, but he's
just flat line fatigue is kicked in, and I'm just
looking at numbers here. In two regular season games against
the knixt the season, he's averaged twenty four and a
half points on fifty percent shooting from the field forty

(28:17):
five percent shooting from three point range. In his playoff
series against the Knicks, he's got a total of eight
points on three or nine shooting, one for one on
a three point a one free throw attempt, no blocks,
eight rebounds in twenty seven minutes total. He clearly has
been a virtual no show because he just hasn't been
on the court for the Boston Celtics. Do we know
specifically what is wrong with porzingis We don't.

Speaker 6 (28:41):
He was he got sick in February. He tried to
fight through it for a while, then they ended up
shutting him down and they started, you know, calling him questionable,
and all of a sudden, he's out three weeks. Eight
games he missed, and when he came back, he said
they couldn't diagnose it and they were having a he
was having a real hard time with fatigue. I think
actually they said it was like a upper respiratory and

(29:02):
so you're thinking, you're seeing a guy who's coughing, you know,
running nose, et cetera. That's he doesn't He doesn't come
off sick. He may have wind issues, there may be
a lung thing. For sure, I'm not saying that's not true.
He doesn't look like a guy who's got the flu.
But what he's having a big problem with, from what
he says, is fatigue. He crashes and I think he

(29:28):
had been in it. By the way, when he came
back from that time away, his first five games, he
was really good, like it looked like, okay, he's pasted
it you're you're talking about stats in this series. He
was terrible against Orlando. Terrible is not a fair word.
He was. He was not productive against Orlando, certainly not
to his to his normal level. And in Game one
he was fighting it. It really came back in Game

(29:50):
one of this series and the halftime he just he
didn't have energy, and so they brought him off the bench.
In Game two, Stephen a uh and and the reason
run off the benches because I think they're trying to
save his energy. So what I think they're hoping is
he gets two days to rest before Game three and
he can recover. But he has had He referred to

(30:10):
it as a big crash, that he was managing it
and then all of a sudden, it won big crash.
That's obviously concerning.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
I need two quick answers to this, to these two questions.
If the Boston Celtics lose this series, what will it
mean for this franchise.

Speaker 6 (30:32):
I don't know, because I don't know what the new
owner's appetite for spending is. I know that this is
a team that's proven to be a championship team that
if they hold it together, I would say they would
come out next year and be a top three team
to win it again. It's also going to cost five
hundred million dollars. And here's the thing, it'd be one
thing if you own the Boston The guys who've bought

(30:52):
the Boston Celtics have owned it since two thousand and one,
two thousand and two, they paid a couple hundred million
dollars for it. If it's not paid off, I'm sure
it probably is very close to paid off. They at
the end of the day, you know, they're not paying
a massive mortgage on the team. So if you have
to pay five hundred million, then you lose a couple
hundred million. That's one thing. You're dealing with a couple

(31:13):
hundred million dollars loss. Now, if you're buying the team
for six billion, they're actually buying fifty percent of the
team for about three billion. You have to write a
three billion dollar check. However, you're getting that money. This
is not Steve Ballmer buying the team. Steve Ballmer when
he bought the Clippers literally said here's a cashier's check
for two billion dollars. He didn't borrow money. He's like,
here you go, that's not the case. Here these guys

(31:35):
are leveraging to get this, which is not I'm not.
I mean, six billion dollars is a ton of money.
So now you're going to have a mortgage payment. So
imagine you're in a house and you know, and you
own the house outright, no mortgage payment. Now you've now
bought the house. You bought a new house that's thirty
times the price. You got a big mortgage payment due
every month. Now if I tell you that the house

(31:59):
costs a bunch of money to operate and everything like that,
now you're making two payments. You're paying for the operation
of the house and you're paying the mortgage payment. That's
what's coming for the Celtics owners. I don't know what
they're gonna do. They have not because the deal isn't closed.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
They're not gonna say so.

Speaker 6 (32:14):
I don't know, but I know this five hundred million
dollars is a lot of money. That's not just like
an inconvenience that you get. You're gonna have to pay
for a payroll.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
The Knicks win this series, how far can they go?

Speaker 6 (32:28):
Steven A. If the Pacers get get two more wins
over the Cavs and the Knicks get home court. I
realize they've been better on the road than home. The
Knicks get home court against the Pacers, hey man, they
went to seven games against the Pacers last year when
Ogieobi was out and Jalen you know, got got hurt.
That's a that's a I think the Knicks will be
favored in that series, depending on everybody's health. I mean,

(32:50):
it would be tight. The Pacers have been really good.
Maybe it's a toss up, but considering that the Knicks
were the Knicks in my view, had the toughest draw
in the league because they were looking at for them
to win, they were looking at Detroit. Got to be
Boston without well Detroit for sure, Detroit in Boston, Boston
without home court. Then you're thinking Cleveland without home court.

(33:13):
Then they'd be Oklahoma City without home court. Talk about
a gauntlet. If they get into a series against the
Pacers where it's a toss up series that they have
home court in or they're playing well, it's one of
the greatest turnarounds in situations that you could ever see
in an NBA playoff setting.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
What about the Indiana Paces Real quick for a second,
how surprised are you that they've looked this good.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
I know there's been injuries.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
DeAndre Hunter, Evan Mobley, Darius Gland didn't play in game two.
They got a pivotal Game three coming up tonight, no
doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
They got to win this game.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
But still in all, we can't take away from what
we've seen from the Indiana Paces who closed out you know,
you know, Milwaukee, and not only did you do that,
but we saw Tyrese Halliburn actually speak up against his
own father because of how father acted in Giannis's face.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
We didn't talk about that, And now here they are.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Halliburton, who was voted quietly privately by no name players
who wouldn't attach their name to it as being overrated.
He's balling out to me they have no one great,
but a whole bunch of dudes that are really really
good and they can beat anybody at this point, real quickly.
That's my synopsis of the Indiana Paces.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
What's yours?

Speaker 6 (34:24):
If they have somebody grade, it's their coach. He's a
great coach and he's a great player coach at Carlisle,
yes he is. They lost on New Year's Eve to
go to sixteen and eighteen. Halliburton was hurting early. They
had some other injuries since January first. They finished the
season thirty four and fourteen. That was not a four seed,
that was a two seed masquerading as a four seed.

(34:46):
That was a fifty eight win pace that they played
on that from January first. They have depth, they have speed,
they have a style of play, and they have a
closer and they have proven that they can pull it
out their They have twice been down seven points in
the last minute of the game and one in the playoffs,
so maybe it's a little bit fortune there, but they

(35:08):
are a formidable, formidable team.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Moving out to the West. How nervous were you about
Oklahoma City? You've been raving about them all year when
they lost Game one, when Jokic did what he did,
When we see Russell Westbrook playing the way that he played,
when we saw Aaron Gordon playing bully ball. How nervous
were you for your thunder before they annihilated the Nuggets
in game two?

Speaker 6 (35:28):
There were two things about that first game that we'll
worry So. Number one, they couldn't get any supporting scoring
for Shay Gildess Alexander, by the way, he had a
great game too. Shay has not had a good postseason
so far. This is a guy who's going to be
named MVP probably next week. His numbers are okay, but
they weren't great. That's what that's that's one thing. Secondly,
so then and they don't have a second score that's reliable.

(35:51):
Sometimes they have a second score, but they don't have
a guy out there that they can count on to deliver,
and that's what cost him in Game one. The second
thing was chet Holmgren got totally dominated by Jokic. And
I mean, obviously Holmgren can't play Yokic the same way.
I it'st the Zubach plays them. They're not built the
same way. But three times in the last couple of years,

(36:11):
the Thunder have been in high leverage situations and come
up small. One was in the playoffs last year to
the Mavericks. They had home court in that series, the
series was tied, they melted down the trust of that
series to their offense, completely abandoned them and Luca snatched them.
And then this year in the n Season Tournament where
they played Milwaukee, where they just absolutely laid an egg.

(36:31):
That was a moment for them to win something as
a group. They totally laid an egg then in Game one,
losing home court advantage out of the gate. So I've
seen them under pressure all of a sudden, not be
able to score when it matters, and they have the
MVP that shouldn't be the case. So that was more pressure.
Moments are coming and I expect them to overcome that
because they are. They have every tool that you need.

(36:53):
But there is that sense of mystery about how it's
gonna happen, What's gonna happen when when that challenge occurs again.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Switching over to Warriors Timberwolves, Obviously we're looking at them.
Steph Curry's going to be out with the strained hamstring.
The likelihood is that for at least games three and four,
and possibly Game five.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
What do you peel away?

Speaker 1 (37:17):
You saw the Warriors win in Game one. You saw
Steph Curry score thirteen points in the first thirteen minutes
before he goes down. We saw Draymond Green hit four
three pointers in the first half. We saw Jimmy Butler
come on strong in the second half. We saw none
of that in Game two, after Finch held Anthony Edwards accountable.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
We saw McDaniel's show up.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
We saw Julius Randalls show up, we saw ant Man
show up.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
And the three have.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Combined to hold Jimmy Butler that like thirteen percent shooting
from the field to win. One of those three are
guarding him. So what do you make of this series
thus far at this particular.

Speaker 6 (37:52):
Moment, There's two things that have got to happen. One,
Jimmy Butler has got to be more of an offensive engine.
They can't score without Steph. Other, offensive efficiency plummets by
like twenty five ish percent when he hasn't been out there.
They just can't survive that. I understand they're not going
to totally replace him. That's clear. Jimmy's got to be

(38:13):
more of a factor offensively scoring the ball. The second
thing is this team after the Jimmy Butler trade was
a good defensive team. They're in defensive numbers improved. And
in Game one, they won that game because not because
of what they did without stuff, because they only gave
up eighty eight points. Now, some of that was the Wolves.
They didn't handle their business that well and that's why

(38:33):
Chris Finch got on them. But in Game two, the
Wolves made sixteen three pointers and ESPN's tracking said that
every single one of them were deemed open. There's no
other game in the database in the playoff history where
a team has gotten sixteen all sixteen three pointers. Your

(38:53):
sixteen or more three pointers were open. They've got to
play better defense. The only way to do this is
to pinch it from both ends. You've got to play
your max level defense and you've got to get some
more scoring. That's how you close the gap in this situation.
They don't have to do it three more times. They're
not winning this series without stuff anyway. They need to
do it one more time, at least at home, probably

(39:14):
in Game three or four, to give the window for
Steph to come back in Game five or six and
give them a fighting chance and what's hopefully a three
game series.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Switching to Draymond Green, obviously he made news for a
different reason, and I appreciate your participation in the discussion
with myself and Mike Wilbond on ESPN's First Take earlier
this morning. And I'm certainly not asking you to elaborate
on his comments about being portrayed as an angry black man.
I took care of that in the first segment at
the top of this show. But what I wanted to

(39:44):
ask you is is that in terms of Draymond Green's image,
in your estimation as somebody who covers this league and
as somebody who walks the streets with people coming up
to you about what you know about this league, what
would you qualify or classify as the perception that Draymond

(40:07):
Green has And how fear or unfeared do you think
it is.

Speaker 6 (40:11):
I think people in the league feel like he's one
of the great defensive players in the last twenty five years,
one of the great influence influencers of the game, where
he can control the game, especially for a guy who
is not a scorer, his ability to control the game
without being a scorer or have a big influence on
the control of the game, because of his screen setting,

(40:33):
because of the way he can defend, because of the
way he can take the you know, take the ball
off the glass, go down and be the point center.
The way he can play two man basketball with Steph
where they're just basically reading each other. They're impossible to
prepare for because when the two of them are working together,
it's just read and react, read and react. And he's
just such He's so quick on his feet and so
smart and makes him so savvy, and people in the

(40:56):
league think that he savely controlled the officials, that he's
sly like a fox in the way he does things
and the way he applies pressure to the officials and
the way he you know, is so demonstrative and and
they feel like there are many times when he can

(41:17):
manipulate the officials to sort of lean them in one
way or the other because of the way he behaves
that there is that, Yes, there are times when he
loses control, but a lot of it is totally calculated,
that what he is doing is putting the officials into
a corner to achieve a certain edge. There is an
admiration for him within the league for them, however, he

(41:38):
also loses control. For as savvy and nuanced of the
game that he plays, there are times when that all
goes up the window. He loses control, which has happened
unfortunately a number of times. This is a guy who
I think there's no chance the Warriors win the twenty
twenty two title without him. He was absolutely brilliant during
that season and in that playoff run. I know he

(41:59):
had a complicated fire work. I think he got benched
at one point, but he was brilliant in closeout game.
No way they went without no way they went without them.
So the twenty twenty sixth title, Draymond's got both hands
on that ring, and he he derailed the twenty twenty
three season by sucker punching his teammate, and he damaged
the twenty twenty four season by the suspensions that that

(42:21):
fourth then ended up significantly forcing the Warriors into the
play in And obviously his role in the other in
the previous three titles is unquestioned. But just in the
last three seasons, he's hairy, not carried, but like good,
shoulder to shoulder with Steph to win the title and
undercut two seasons, and this year he's working hard. We're

(42:42):
going to find out which way it's going to go.
And you know, the Warrior's eyes are wide open. They
totally understand what it means to be in business with
Raymond Green. They've they've dedicated themselves and protected them and
rededicated themselves over and over. But that is the dynam
player that you're getting, a guy who is a genius

(43:02):
and brilliant who also can do things that can hurt
you badly. But he can't take back.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
What about what he said coming into this series, if
not the playoffs overall, where he said he sat down
and spoke with Steve Kerr, he spoke to his family,
and he had to do some reflection, looking at himself
and thinking about what he needed to do better. Where
did that come from? If we're sitting here today and
he's going off about how he's being portrayed.

Speaker 6 (43:29):
We've heard it all before. You know. He did a
story with an ESPN Our Warriors reporter Omong masuk Or.
He detailed after he was suspended indefinitely for the Rudy
Gobert incident last year, they made him go to like
essentially counseling sessions, but it wasn't just with a counselor.
It was with a whole bunch of different people who

(43:51):
basically acted as a village for him. And he didn't
want to do it and he was annoyed by it,
and he discussed how it really helped him and how
he started to lean on it. And it was a
beautifully done story giving insight into Draymond's thinking and how
he's trying to better himself. And you come away from
that story saying, this is a very earnest raw and

(44:12):
impersonal view of how he's fighting his challenges. And then
he goes out there and commits five technicals and two
flagrants in nine games. And so you can see why
the people closest to Draymond have complicated relationships with the situation.
They treasure him, they love him, they protect him, and
he absolutely drives them crazy, and he he and he

(44:35):
absolutely leads them to victory. He's one of the more
complicated great players of this generation.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Before we go, if I tell you, I'm going to
give you this series and you tell me what you
believe it will.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Be after four games Cleveland, Indiana.

Speaker 6 (44:51):
Three one Indiana Nicks Boston two two, I'm gonna duck.
I'm gonna duck. I'm two blocks in the garden. I'm
gonna duck. The the next is gonna be so angry.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
You think you're telling me you believe that the Boston
Celtics are walking into Madison Square Garden and they're gonna win.
They're gonna take both games of Madison Square Garden away
from the New York Knicks.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Is that what you just said? Is that what you
just said, Brian went.

Speaker 6 (45:14):
I don't believe it, but I think that's what's gonna happen.
I don't believe it because I do believe in the
Knicks ability. Every way I know to evaluate the game
is saying to me that the Celtics should be winning
these games, but they're not. So I look at it
and say, the Celtics can very easily be up too low.

(45:38):
And my my analysis side of my brain says the
Celtics will win the next two knowing everything that I know,
but I have to admit I can't quite identify why
the Knicks one games one and two. So the analysis
side of everything is being defeated. And that's what is

(45:59):
happening for the whole Celtics organization right now, that their
analytical analysis philosophy is being defeated by the Knicks. Confidence.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
Okay, okay, see Denver three one.

Speaker 6 (46:13):
I'm sorry, I think there'll be two two going back
to Okay, see.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
He's gonna go They're gonna split in Denver.

Speaker 6 (46:19):
I know I Game three is gonna tell me everything.
You know. Oklahoma City could win by twenty five and
you're like, okay, this is a five game series. But
I think Denver has to press very hard in Game
three and if if Denver pulls that out, then I
think you're looking at too too. That the Oklahoma City

(46:43):
losing Game one at home opened the door for that
to be a long series, assuming that they can get
one more home.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Minnesota, Golden State.

Speaker 6 (46:53):
Sorry to say, but I got three to one Minnesota.
I was so just I was so hardened by their
effort in game two. They are going home. They could
get a hot shooting game. I mean, that's the thing
about the Knicks. The Knicks haven't shot the ball well yet.
You know, the Knicks can undo any analysis by just
getting hot. You can get hot at home. But I'm

(47:15):
leaning more towards Minnesota. Three. Minnesota is twenty two and
five in his last twenty seven games. They are playing
really well, just like Indiana is playing really well.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Brian Wentross, appreciate you man. Keep up the great work.
We'll talk next week, all.

Speaker 6 (47:28):
Right, thanks for having me. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
You do the same well, only Brian Windrows right here
on the Steven A. Smith Show over the digital airwaves
or YouTube, and of course iHeart radio.

Speaker 2 (47:39):
Coming up.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Donald Trump taps another Fox News host, Jane Piro, as
interim US attorney for Washington DC and Joe Biden, a
former president, is talking and says he would have beaten
Donald Trump last November. Really, I tried to be nice, y'all.
I really tried to be nice. But I got some

(48:00):
things that need to be said. So I'm gonna say
it an oh hint, it ain't gonna be too nice.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
More to Steven A. Smith Show. Come me away in
a minute. Welcome back to Stephen A. Smith Show. Let's
get to Washington, d C.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Where President Donald Trump says he will appoint He will
appoint Fox News host and former prosecutor Janine Pirou as
interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia. He made
the announcement on his Truth social platform, and here's what
it read in part quote, I am pleased to announce
that Judge Janine Piro will be appointed Interim United States

(48:43):
Attorney for the District of Columbia. Janine was assistant District
Attorney for Westchester County, New York, and then went on
to serve as county judge and district attorney, where she
was the first woman ever to be elected to those positions.
Janine is incredibly well qualified for this position and is
considered one one of the top district attorneys in the
history of the state of New York. She is in

(49:04):
a class by herself. Congratulations, Jeanine end quote. Piro has
been a long time ally of Trump, dating back to
her time as a.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Prosecutor in New York.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
She was also an early support of his twenty sixteen
campaign and publicly defended him during the Access Hollywood tape scandal.
Just so you know, ladies and gentlemen, for those of
you expected me to have a problem with it, I
might have a little problem with it, but not for
the reasons you think. Jeanine Piro appears to be qualified.

(49:36):
I've read her resume. He put that out there for you.
She is a former prosecutor. There's nothing to dispute there. Okay,
so this is not about her qualifications. Here's my issue.
I'm getting to a point, and I think we all
should be alarmed. And if I was talking to the
President for a lengthy interview, which.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
I would love to have.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
By the way, fealty to him, loyalty and devotion to
him seems to be the criteria for these jobs, as
opposed to one's qualifications and one's pursuit of that job.
Now Janee Piro's on The Five. The Five is a

(50:21):
very successful show. I watch it often. I'm actually a
fan of Harold Ford Jr. Let me state that for
the record, and much to the sagrin of a lot
of you, I actually like Jesse Waters. I think he
does a great job. I didn't like when he vibed
with DeSantis on black history issues, particularly pertaining to slavery.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
That really pissed me off about Jesse Waters. But that's
about it.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
In terms of him pursuing facts and covering politics the
way that he does, I have no problem with him, Okay,
and the rest of them on I think it's a
damn good show.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
But when I think about.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Janine Piro, you see, when something like this happens, I
am I in a position where I get to question
your objectivity. Now, in fairness to her, she's a been
a longtime supporter of Trump and she hasn't waivered one bit.
I guess, in my own way, I wish more people

(51:25):
were like Harrold Ford Jr. Because even though he's clearly
a Democrat who supports the Democratic Party in the same breath,
he doesn't hesitate to point out some of the things
that they do wrong. Now, I don't get to watch
every show, and I'm not trying to castigate her in
any way. I'm simply making the point that Trump leaning
towards five. I mean, you're leaning towards Fox News. He

(51:45):
except I'm gonna keep bringing up that name. I understand
he served our country honorably as a soldier, but to
go from being a weekend host on Fox News to
being the Secretary of Defense for the United States of America,
overseeing three and a half million people, seems insane.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Non fairness to him.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
The Megan Kelly's of the world have been on this
show defending that. I've spoken to Mark Levin, I've spoken
to Sean Hannity, I've spoken to Will Kane, people like that.
They all supported all right, fine, I'm just saying it
is a bit alarming because it seems at times like

(52:30):
the primary prerequisite for a job and the Trump administration
is to love on Trump. I'm not saying he should
hire somebody that hates on him. I'm not saying he
should hire someone who would be disloyal. I'm not saying
he should hire somebody that can't stand him. But damn
the people that he's picking are folks that would say

(52:53):
and do anything it appears for him, and I don't
know how wise that heart is. But I'm not gonna
sit here and tell you she's not qualified for the position.
I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that because
she is a former prosecutor who has knowledge of the law,

(53:17):
and when people that I spoke to, she had a
damn good reputation as a prosecutor. Whether they were telling
the truth or not, I don't know. I'm just saying
what they told me, so I can't say but so more,
but so much more than that, it pales in comparison
to what I really really want to get to. And

(53:37):
that's former President Biden, who appeared on The View yesterday
and took responsibility for President Trump's the story of return
to the White House. Biden maintains he would have beaten
Trump had he stayed in the race, and pushed back
on claims of any cognitive decline in his final year
in office. Here's a portion of what President Biden's comments

(53:57):
from the show yesterday about Vice President and Kamala Harris
and her failed presidential run. Here's what he said, quote,
I wasn't surprised, he says he wasn't surprised by her
failed presidential run, not because I didn't think the vice
president was qualified to be president.

Speaker 5 (54:12):
She is.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
She's qualified to be president of the United States of America.
I was surprised because they went the sexist route, the
whole route. This is a woman, she's this, she's that. Really,
I've never seen a successful and consistent of a campaign
undercutting the notion that a woman couldn't lead the country,
and a woman of mixed race and quote BS, that's

(54:36):
straight BS.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
See, I'm not gonna let y'all get away with that.
I'm not gonna let you get away with that. They said.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
We were hearing the same thing about Hillary in twenty sixteen.
Hillary won the popular vote, all the three billion votes.
She didn't win an electoral college vote. Why was that?
James Cote comes out with some report about deleted emails
thirty three thousand plus a couple of weeks or so

(55:05):
before the election.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
What missogyny got to do with that?

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Kamala Harris goes on a view, knowing that you had
open borders, knowing the crisis that caused in this country,
knowing that there was an economy that was compromised by inflation,
knowing there was crimes in the streets, knowing there was
those kind of things going on, and she went on
the view when they asked if there's anything that she

(55:33):
would do differently that you were doing in your administration,
President Biden, she said, I really can't think of anything.
Everybody knows that's where she sealed her fate. Everybody knows that.
But that doesn't even come close to equating the damage

(55:55):
you did, sir, You and the former first Lady Jill,
both of you now, Joe Biden, I'm not going to
blame with so much because that's her husband and she
was standing by her husband. So when he went on
the stage June twenty seventh for debate and completely looked

(56:16):
inept off or out of sink and everything in between,
it was you that walked out on that stage minutes
later and said you want to thank him and applaud
him for doing an outstanding job. You answered every question,
You did this, you did that, and then you go
on the view and admit it was a flat out lie.

(56:37):
It was a flat out lie, and that you knew
you were lying. You went on the view and you
said he was awful it was bad, But that ain't
what you told the voters out there. And now you're
hiding behind the notion that you weren't gonna let one moment,
one bad moment ruin a presidency.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
Well it was one bad moment. Actually it was many
because we saw him.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
There were times that we saw him and he had
no business being seen.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Remember when.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Former President of Barack Obama had to guide him off
a stage where he didn't know where he was going.
Remember when he was at the World Summit in G seven,
if I remember correctly, and everybody was standing together, but
he was fading away and drifting away, and they had
to guide him back to the line.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Remember that.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
Remember the times that he was mumbling incoherently. There was
an analyst that came on Chris Cuomo's show. I think
it was scar of Mucci if I remember correctly, but
I'm not sure. Anthony Scaramucci, and he came on Chris
Cuomo's show on News Nation and he said the night

(57:48):
of June twenty seventh, when Joe Biden debated Donald Trump,
he said that he looked like an elderly person in
a nursing home waiting to be fed.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Apple sauce and as sad as that vivid.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Kind of picture depicting the president at the time was.
No one refuted it, no one, which brings me to
the other point. You see, none of that is a
big deal, sir, if you're over eighty years of age, which.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
Is no shame in it.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
And you served this country the way that you served
in the Senate for decades, in the presidency for the
three previous years. But in twenty twenty when you were elected,
Before you took office in January twenty twenty one, you
swore to the American public that you were there to
be a transitional president.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
You were coming for one term.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
You just wanted to get America's house back in order
and get us removed from the chaos that had ravaged
us for years in the streets of America. And you
were supposed to be transitional. You got there, the Dems
fought off a red wave, nullified it. Actually it wasn't
what the Republicans thought it was going to be. The

(59:16):
Democrats won the midterms, and you were feeling yourself and
you didn't want to surrender power, so you went back
on your word as a transitional president. Your wife did
everything she could to cover for you, knowing that there
was slippage. And now we're walking around and what are
we hearing right now, President Joe Biden. We're hearing that

(59:40):
at eighty two years of age, okay, which is what
you are about to be. You're talking about writing a book,
and the book is going to be out about a year,
and that's about right around the time that the midterms
are coming out, that the midterms.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Were take place.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
So is it possible that what you're doing, is what
you're saying, is I'm gonna come out with a tell
all book and I'm gonna dime everybody out, and I'm
gonna call out the Democratic Party so you can somehow
get in the way or whatever success they're hoping to
reap in the twenty twenty six mid terms.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Is that what you're doing, sir? Sure sounds like it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
See, this is the sickening part of politics. This is
what they mean when they talk about people eating their
own because you ain't giving a damn. You didn't want
to leave office after promising you would serve one term.
You tried to stay in power, and somehow they were

(01:00:47):
able to hoodwink you and then embracing the presidential debate
against Donald Trump, three months before any presidential debate had
ever taken place. You got exposed. And then what do
the Democrats do? They put Kamala Harris in there bypassing
primaries like every other candidate would have to experience, in
large part because in twenty twenty she couldn't even get
to Iowa. And then you saw the American public on

(01:01:10):
this is what we want, this is who we want.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Et cetera, et cetera. Come to find out it's a
whole bunch of lives.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
But the reality is is you're not far removed from it,
Joe Biden, because had you kept your word and committed
yourself to being a transitional president and making room very
early for candidates to come down the line for the
Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States, all
the things that, all the things that happened in the

(01:01:38):
aftermath would not have been necessary, but you didn't care. Instead,
you want to talk about what for the good of
the country. How could you possibly think you would have
been Trump when inflation was taking place, when open borders
had ravaged us, when they were you in Ukraine against

(01:02:00):
Russia was fomented even more when almoster was rarely monsters.
Really conflict took fold with all of this stuff happening,
Mons removed from office when no one really cares to

(01:02:20):
hear from you at this particular juncture. You're going to
go on the BBC network and then in the aftermath
of that the view and you're gonna bad talk Kamala Harris.
You say you wasn't, But when you say you would
have beaten Trump and that you knew she would have lost,
that's bad talking her. Why did you leave out that

(01:02:41):
you didn't put in a position to win.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Because you refuse to step away.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
If you had kept your word about being a transitional president,
and you had made it very clear early that you
would only serve one term.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
It would have paved the way for.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Her to run for the office and campaign with ample
time to do so. If she is what you say
she is, that she's qualified to be the president of the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
United States of America, you could have helped.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Her, not just coming into the last minute and then
give her an endorsement to take a shot of reportedly
at Barack Obama and the George Cloones of the world
and others.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
You could have helped her, but you didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
And now, when you have an opportunity to walk away
into the twilight and live your final years, you're talking
about coming out with a book. It has to be
a tell oil to get you any money, it has
to be a tell oill. It's a sinister game, and

(01:04:00):
you know it's bad when you can't stop playing it
in your eighties. I'm not taking any tweets. I have
nothing more to say. I got too much to do
this week, and I'm about to get out of here.
But it's a damn shame. It's a damn shame all
of this stuff that the left wants to complain about

(01:04:23):
with Trump, all of this stuff that they want to
complain about, whether it's Elon Muskin dozed from weeks ago,
or it's the tariffs over the last few weeks, or
it is what's he gonna do with Harvard, or what's
he gonna do with freedom of speech? Or what's he
gonna do with HBCUs and all of these other damn questions.

(01:04:51):
If Biden had kept his word and stepped away, if
the Democrats had held them to it, had the strength
to hold them to it. And by Democrats, I'm not
talking about just elected officials. I'm talking about donors. All

(01:05:14):
of this noise might have been prevented. Once again, my
latest example of you bringing it on yourself. You brought
it on yourself. Before I get on out of here,
I want to show y'all my latest acting exploits on
network television this week for those of you didn't see

(01:05:35):
me on Law and or the Thursday night in NBC.
By the way, take a look now, Oh lord, you
hold on the new glasses new glasses.

Speaker 7 (01:05:51):
Yeah, I'm representing the Nick movement. I was gonna put
the hoodie on while we was while.

Speaker 5 (01:05:57):
We was recording.

Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
No no hoodies?

Speaker 6 (01:06:01):
Know what? What?

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
What? What hat do you have on my?

Speaker 5 (01:06:04):
Oh my hat? It's it's a it's a trucker hat.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
Just okay, it's a truck I had for somebody that
never drives a truck. Okay, go ahead, where's the tower
the Nick towers that the Nick tow on you had?

Speaker 5 (01:06:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:06:16):
And since you're an actor now you and Spike Lee
needs to link up this weekend? Why make a movie
because we all voted that you don't need to be
nowhere near the garden, you know him?

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
Why not? Why not? Spike?

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
I understand why you would say me, uh, and I'll
be there Monday, by the way, But why not Spike.

Speaker 7 (01:06:36):
I mean, you're famous for saying we haven't won since
seventy three. Spike had the same seat for forty years.
It gotta be you, what gotta be me? No, it
has to be him, Like we haven't won since Spike
has been sitting there.

Speaker 5 (01:06:49):
So give me the scene.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
It's our fault. It's our fault to see it.

Speaker 7 (01:06:53):
Since I picked the Knicks, unlike you every show that
you know in the seventh place platforms and pick the Celtics.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:07:02):
And then when the stream Orange and Blue skies when
we win.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Hoder you well listen because I'm happy. Just because I
picked them to lose doesn't mean I wish it that
they lose. It just that I didn't believe they're a
better team. And I still don't believe they're a better team.
They're not better than the Boston Celtics. I don't know
what's going on with the Boston Celtics right now, but
actually I do.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
But let me ask you, what do you think is
going on?

Speaker 5 (01:07:21):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
Educate me please.

Speaker 7 (01:07:23):
I was just about to say, since I'm really an analyst,
I said that we have two people that we refer
to as wingstock. They're coming through in the clutch every time.
Not offensively, you said, who's that?

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
Who's that?

Speaker 7 (01:07:40):
Mickel Bridges, Michel Bridges and og. But we're gonna go
to your clip first that you were trying to show it.
Then we're gonna get right back to this. We got
some stuff to sort about.

Speaker 2 (01:07:51):
So you interrupted.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
You interrupted my law and order clip that I was
gonna show just to just to get your camera time.

Speaker 7 (01:07:57):
Now, just to tell you to stay clear of the
garden this weekend, to stay clear.

Speaker 5 (01:08:00):
We just need you to stay clear. Give me, give
me a seat.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Can we watch the scene.

Speaker 5 (01:08:05):
Let's watch watch, Let's watch watch, Let's watch it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
You make eight million a year, man, and you broke
they get out here.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
You can believe me today or you can believe the
bank when they come and take the keys to your house.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
You gotta make changes, bro And oh, by the way,
I'm keeping my five percent. You ain't getting that back.
It's the problem. You really just asked me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:29):
That turn around. What does Jimmy do? How about telling me?
How about Marco?

Speaker 2 (01:08:37):
I don't know, man, They're just part of it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
How many people you think you have on your payroll
for six eleven. But it's time to be real. You
ain't Lebron, you ain't k D you damn show, ain't
it man? You will grinder rotation player. You damn sho
ain't large enough to be having some entourage. You got

(01:09:01):
a big damn heart, But you just turned thirty. If
you're lucky, you got three maybe four years life.

Speaker 8 (01:09:07):
So you're saying you want me to fire some of
my boys. Come on, Ted, No, that ain't cool.

Speaker 2 (01:09:16):
I want to keep out cool. I don't care about cool.
I can't about you. I can't about your family, your kids,
your future. That's what I'm thinking about. So guess what.
Your agent ain't asking you to get rid of some
of your boys. I'm asking you to get rid of
all of them, every living one of them. That's not
so easy.

Speaker 8 (01:09:33):
I grew up with them when all of this was
just a fantasy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
I owe them, I owe them. You want me to
do it for you, nephew, that's pretty damn good. You
got you gotta give it up. That's pretty damn good.

Speaker 5 (01:09:49):
It's pretty it's pretty.

Speaker 7 (01:09:51):
It's pretty good because I prepared you for that moment,
your whole life. It looked like you was talking to me.
It looked like you was talking to me and you
know what I'm talking.

Speaker 5 (01:09:59):
About now, and you're not.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
It looked like I was talking to you. Yes, except
that you never have employed the loving people in your life.
You see what I'm saying that that's the only problem.
That's the only problem with that analogy.

Speaker 7 (01:10:09):
Not yet, but it's coming. So you know one other
thing that you're gonna have a problem with. You was
about to let the show in without mentioning Mother's Day.
M hm yeah, so since so, since we're rich now,
I asked your sister, I'm like, what you want from
Mother's Day? And you know her, I don't want any object.

(01:10:31):
I just want you to come to church, something like church.

Speaker 5 (01:10:35):
So she's like, yeah, it's Saturday at three.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
Watch watch your mouth. Be very careful with what you're
about to say. Be very careful, don't be stupid.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
Saturday at three. Okay, we know what else is Saturday
at three?

Speaker 6 (01:10:47):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
So she asked you to come Saturday.

Speaker 7 (01:10:49):
At da talking about pastor Anthony wants Pastor Anthony is
his first name?

Speaker 5 (01:10:54):
Carmelo.

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
Yeah, it's let me tell you something right now, are
you ready? For this, Josh, wait.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
For this, high five, virtually high five, because I agree
with you one thousand percent, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:11:09):
Absolutely absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
We can't have trying to get you to church on
Saturday afternoon at the same time the.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
Knicks comes starting. Now, that's she can't do that. She
can't do that a Sunday that will have been but
a Saturday afternoon.

Speaker 7 (01:11:21):
And that's what I and since we speaking about that,
my seat on Saturday, I can't be outside the garden
that day. And can you at least do that so
that the fans could believe that you're a fan.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
I can get you a seat in the upper deck
in the.

Speaker 5 (01:11:38):
I get you need to be on the floor. I'm
taking over it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
I can't. I can't. I can't do that. I can't.
You just don't have that kind of pull yet.

Speaker 5 (01:11:48):
No, it's not.

Speaker 7 (01:11:49):
It's not poll You got one hundred million in the bank.
It doesn't matter how much it costs. It can't cost
that much.

Speaker 5 (01:11:54):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Well, well, well, education, education, whatever salary are earn, it
comes by month, you know, bi weekly, so and it
don't start really till this summer. So it's not like
I mean, it ain't got nothing in the bank. I
don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 7 (01:12:13):
Speaking on one hundred that we just got, But what
about the forty before that? I know all your contracts
don't play with us. We've been riched. I'm about to
switch this, switch this hood up.

Speaker 5 (01:12:22):
We've been riched. We just richar now, all right?

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
So why is it that I don't you know? First
of all, I wouldn't want a hoodie like that. Secondly,
you need to take the damn thing off and put
Josh or the Knicks or something. You need to stop
walking around with that before somebody beat your ass and
take the damn hoodie. Since you witch, since you're rich,
you could take it right. Thirdly, that we didn't get
to the most important question.

Speaker 2 (01:12:43):
You didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
You didn't really articulate what you thought about my acting performance.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
I thought I was pretty damn good. I really did.
I really did.

Speaker 5 (01:12:51):
I'm saying you just give it up and you was good.

Speaker 7 (01:12:53):
I need to see you do a role that's different
from how you act in real life. You always in
somebody's face, You always hound somebody, what the dude that's
right in your realm and they know that. I need
to see you play something else, like like somebody's husband.

Speaker 5 (01:13:08):
What you ain't never been there, I've.

Speaker 2 (01:13:11):
Never been somebody's husband, white husband.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
While you ask, I mean that that that that that's
relatively easy, that's relatively easy for me. I'm not the
one devoid of etiquette. Knowing how to treat a lady
and knowing how to make sure she feels special. That's
not the problem I have. I mean, I mean, who's
the one that needs help? Who's the one that needs
therapy in that department?

Speaker 7 (01:13:34):
Not?

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
That would be you?

Speaker 7 (01:13:35):
So so without the money, without the money, minus the money,
right me?

Speaker 5 (01:13:40):
And you want the same woman. You think you're gonna
get it?

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
Why what not? I said? Without the money?

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
Who do you think you learn most of the Assuming
you have gifts, who do you think you learned them from?
Who have you been seeking advice from all of these decades?

Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
Excuse me? See see that's the lack of respect you
have right there.

Speaker 1 (01:14:01):
Because I would never say that about Uncle Bays, who
God rest his soul, my big brother. I would never
say that about Uncle Frankie, God rest his soul, my
uncle who passed away in two thousands. I would never
say that about cousin Carl Derek Keith anybody, any of
the people you know, Grandpa, any of the people who
bestole a level of knowledge and wisdom. Never assume you're

(01:14:25):
superior to the teacher. See, you don't know that. That's
your damn problem.

Speaker 5 (01:14:33):
You remember what you said in here?

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
What did I say?

Speaker 7 (01:14:37):
I you know what, We're not even going We're not
gonna focus on that between me and you. If we
going after the same girl, you would never get her
without the money.

Speaker 2 (01:14:51):
So it's only money. I mean, are you telling me
we rewinding the clock?

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
And I'm this is me twenty five years younger.

Speaker 2 (01:15:00):
What's what you're doing?

Speaker 5 (01:15:02):
It could be whatever you want. I just know what
I got. Comes learned it from y'all.

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
Know you know you'd have no First of all, that's ridiculous.
You never learned. See that's the ignorance. I didn't learn
what I am truly ignorant. Excuse me I feel I feel.
But let me tell you something. Well, what your got,
naturally is DNA is jeens. So you thought you was
the first. You think it started with you. You know
what I'm saying, what you're.

Speaker 7 (01:15:24):
Talking about, I got a rich swag.

Speaker 5 (01:15:28):
Y'all couldn't have had that in the book it says y'all.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
Was poor about you have a sweat.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
You have a rich swag because you hang out and
steal from your uncle.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
That's what you do. Well.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
See, my point is that if this was twenty years
twenty five years earlier, thered be no rich uncle, which
means you wouldn't have that swag, which means that you have.

Speaker 2 (01:15:49):
To look like you broke as self.

Speaker 7 (01:15:52):
My swag is not my look. My swag is me.
What I throw on is what I throw on. If
you they're gonna be like what Steve.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
Can ask you a question.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
Well, if that's the case and you got so much swag,
you know, I know a lot of people that work
at the garden, a lot of them females.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
How come you don't know?

Speaker 5 (01:16:12):
Are you encouraging me?

Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
No? No, no, I'm sing I'm saying. I'm saying, how come
you can't get tickets to the guard?

Speaker 7 (01:16:18):
If I go that route, I could, But I don't
want you in the tablois. You know, it's a lot
going on already.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
So in other words, you're thinking to me.

Speaker 5 (01:16:27):
You know that, and you know that.

Speaker 8 (01:16:31):
M hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Goodbye man, you know, hey, Josh, for you, for you, goodbye.

Speaker 5 (01:16:41):
Here get out of it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:44):
I said for this edition to Steven A. Smithshell, y'all
take it easy. You see my nephew with the Knicks.
Yeah we there, we did.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
We like that. I'm gonna live that lie.

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
I'm gonna tell you that Boston's gonna win just so
they could lose, because that's the trend that's been flowing.
We're gonna roll with that until next time, y'all. This
is Stephen the signing off decent love.

Speaker 8 (01:17:04):
M m m mm hmm.