Lies being told about me, hashing out disagreements with Matt Barnes, NBA Playoffs, Ryan Garcia, more

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know they say that when black folks attack black folks,
you're pretty much selling Now, doesn't that mean I've been
sold out? When you consider the attacks that have been
placed against me. Think about that. I will. I'll make

(00:22):
you think about it. In the second. That is some
NBA playoff action and then some It's The stephen A.
Smith Show coming your way right now. What's up, everybody?

(00:44):
Welcome to the latest edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show,
coming at you at the very least three days a
week over the digital airwaves of YouTube. As always is
my custom, I take a moment to thank my subscribers,
my followers, because we've now eclipsed over six hundred and
thirty five on subscribers and we continue to grow and
climb each and every single day. Can't thank y'all enough

(01:05):
for the love and support. Keep it coming, and I'm
going to keep on coming. That last line when I
talked about love and support, is not something that I'm
feeling today. It's not something that I have been feeling
over the last week and a half or so. Courtesy
of the attacks that have been placed against me. I
made a concerted effort to keep quiet, and I'll tell

(01:27):
you why in a few minutes. But my silence has
come to an end. I've had enough of this, and
there's certain times and there's certain people that need to
be addressed, and I'm going to address it. By forewarning everybody,

(01:47):
No one is responsible for the words that are going
to come out of my mouth in the next few
minutes other than me. Don't look to anybody else for
culpability but me. I got a whole lot to say,
and I got names to attach to it. Nevertheless, one

(02:08):
of those names is somebody I'm gonna talk too, and
that's going to be star and host for the show
All the Smoke. That is the one and only Matt Barnes,
who co hosts that show with Steven Jackson aka Stack.
And Matt Barnes agreed to come on this show because
Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes obviously had a lot to

(02:31):
say about me on their podcast, especially Steven Jackson. I
personally reached out and extended an invitation to both of
them to come on to the show. Only one accepted,
and that was mister Matt Barnes. So I'm looking forward
to talking to him in a few moments, and that

(02:51):
should be very very interesting conversation. Needless to say, they
had something to say about me and my comments about
Donald Trump and black folks, along with my reportedly purportedly
calling into the NBA League office about Russell Westbrook being
suspended in the aftermath of his performance last Friday in

(03:11):
Game three where I thought that he was acting out
of pocket. We'll get into all of that because Matt
Bonnes and Stephen Jackson, along with many many others had
a lot to say, and I got a lot of
respect from Matt Barnes, and I really appreciate him coming
on to confront me to my face instead of chirping
over the social media airwaves when you got my number,

(03:34):
and you know, I damn show ain't hard to find. Nevertheless,
before I get into any of that, let me take
a moment to get into the NBA playoffs last night,
because the New York Knicks ended the season for the
Philadelphia seventy six ers, and they were led by Villanova
triplets Jalen Brunson, Dante DiVincenzo and Josh Hart, who scored
or assisted on one hundred and ten of the New
York knicks one hundred and eighteen points. Jaylen Brunson was

(03:55):
absolutely sensation Neal with forty one points. Obviously, the New
York Knicks gave me a heart attack because they were
up twenty two points in the first quarter, ended up
being down by a few and a half. They let
that lead evaporate, but were ultimately able to grind it
out and win over the Philadelphia seventy six and then
this first round series in six games. There you see it.

(04:16):
Jaylen buns to forty one points, thirteen to twenty seven,
shooting twelve assists, just two turnovers. He was absolutely sensational.
One of the top five players in the history of
the New York Knicks franchise over the last fifty years,
easily major love, respect and kudos to him. The New
York Knicks. I'm a little bit worried these days compared
to what I was feeling when they first opened the

(04:38):
playoff series, because I'm looking at their struggles offensively and
I'm not satisfied. I'm not satisfied. I mean, at times
last night you could see Jaylen Brunston taking the ball
and getting the ball in his hands, and you saw
others giving it to him like the damn basketball was
hot potatoes. They were scared. That worried me because that's
not gonna suffice against the Indiana Paces. I'm here to

(04:58):
tell you that right now, but I'll get in the
all of that in a minute. Props to Jalen Brunson.
As for the Philadelphia seventy six is Tyrese Maxie is
a superstar in this league. He deserves max dollars and
the franchise needs to evolve around him. Not because he's
better than Embiid, because Embiid is one of the greatest
big men we've ever seen from a talent perspective in
the history of basketball. But he's perpetually injured. His durability

(05:21):
is not reliable. And if I am the Philadelphia seventy
six Ers, I keep in bed because his versatility is
that sublime and he's that big time. But I evolve
it around Maxi because Maxie is younger, and he's more
reliable and he's more durable. I'm going to assume that
he's going to be more available to me than Joel

(05:43):
Embiid would, So I'm gonna make sure that the pieces
I evolve around him fit to serve Maxi and let
Joel and Bead adjust rather than forcing MAXI to adjust
to parts tailor made for Joel and Bid to be
around Tobias verage you in the last year, your deal,
my brother, you scored zero points in a close out

(06:04):
game six. That is not a good look. I got
love for you. I'm gonna leave it at that, but
damn bro zero with your skill set, your size, your ability,
zero two shots. I know Nick Nurse could have called
the ball for you, called it for you more, but
still that's unacceptable and I would point the finger. I
think Nick Nurse is a damn good coach. He's a champion,
won a championship in Toronto with Kawhi Leonard and all

(06:25):
of that. Let me tell you where I think Nick
Nurse made a mistake. Buddy Hill comes off the bench
after scoring two points for the series in the first
five games. Buddy Hill comes off the bench and scored
seventeen points in the first half. What the hell was
he sitting down for the second half of You got
to start him in the second half. You got to
let him come out and continue to recap it. What

(06:47):
Nick Nurse did instead was let Joel and Bid get going.
And by letting Joel and Beid get going, everybody else
stood around and watched, and suddenly Buddy hal who was
shooting threes from all over the day he had placed
in the first half, only made one in the second half,
and as a result, he only scored three points in
the second half and he finished wo He finished with

(07:07):
and the seventy six ers are going home and the
New York Knicks are advancing. But it is what it is.
Heading over to the Milwaukee Bucks Indiana Paces matchup where
Doc Rivers, this is gonna be the headline. He's lost
yet another playoff series. Fair, unfair, that's what they're gonna say.
Milwaukee made a second straight first round exit, was first
under Rivers, the bucks third coach in twelve months. Docs

(07:28):
record did not match up with his predecessor, Adrian Griffin,
who was thirty and thirteen when he got fired. Doc
Rivers is seventeen and nineteen in the regular season before
being ousted in six games. In the first round. Milwaukee
played again without two tom League MVP Janni said that
Tkumpo but Damian Lilla returned okay. He returned after missing

(07:49):
the last game with a string right achilles tendon. He
scored twenty eight points in seven and sixteen shooting. You
can't measure Doc now. You just can't do it. Now
we know to Tom Allstar Tyree's Halibert finished with seventeen points,
tents and sixty six rebounds. Pascal Siakamna added nineteen point
seven rebounds. TJ McCollum, I mean, he had twenty points

(08:11):
off the bench. That was impressive to see. But here's
what we gotta pay attention to. You can't do Doc
Rivers because he didn't have Giannison and Dane together available
and he took over the team in mid season. That
was not his squad. Okay, the coaching staff is an ideal.
You know, he's gonna tweak his coaches, He's gonna tweak
the roster to some degree. We know this next season

(08:34):
would be Doc rivers last. If he gets bounced out early,
and I think his coaching career will be over as
a head coach, that is, I think it will be over.
So that's what we're looking at when we talk about
Doc Rivers, And that's just the way that it is.
That's just the way that it is. He gotta win
next year. I knew they weren't gonna win this year,
and I knew we shouldn't expect them to win this year,

(08:55):
but next year is a different animal. And I've been
on the mindset that if Damian Lilla does not happy,
trade him. Because you don't have cap space and you
don't have young bodies, you gotta get younger, you gotta
get healthier, You need additional bodies. Brook Lopez probably needs
to go, Chris Middleton probably needs to go. Keep Bobby Porters,
keep Content, keep Giannis. But if Damian Lillard is not

(09:20):
happy in Milwaukee, if he'd prefer to be somewhere else,
do what you can get him out. This brother is
a star. Damian lill is a closer. We know how
big time he is, but I think happiness matters. He's
a professional, he'll perform, He'll do what he has to
do if he can't go anywhere. But if you can
get him someplace else and get comparable assets for him,

(09:42):
do it. Staying within that game, but moving on to
a different story, we can't avoid the subject involving Patrick Beverly,
who let his frustrations out as he threw a ball
twice into the crowd late in the Bucks season and
then lost to the Pacers. Beverly initially threw a ball
into the stands to hit a woman by the way,

(10:03):
who didn't appear to be his intended target, so it's
fair to say that, but he hit in the head.
When another fan tossed the ball back to him, he
responded by throwing it hard at that fan, which means
that's who he was originally targeting to begin with. In
a post on x Beverly wrote, quote, I have to
be better. After a video of the incident circulated online

(10:24):
and after the game, things got worse. He made more
ways by refusing to address a reporter because she does
not subscribe to his podcast.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Excuse, I'm sorry you subscribe to my pot?

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Do I subcribe to you so.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
You can't interview me?

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Then?

Speaker 2 (10:44):
No, disrespect? You subscribe?

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Okay, cool, that's cool. It was an incredibly, incredibly bad
look because there's more footage than that when he was
telling her to move to Mike et cetera, et cetera,
and it was the only woman there he treated like that.
Everybody else seemed to be males. I believe her name
is Melinda Adams works for ESPN, A fielder producer does

(11:09):
an exceptional job for ESPN. By the way, it's an incredibly,
incredibly bad look for Patrick Beverley. You cannot do that.
You cannot do that, And you can bet the house
he's gonna get suspended, even though it probably won't kick
it until the next season. You can bet the house
it's gonna cost him a significant chunk of money because

(11:31):
he threw the basketball not once, but twice. You can't
do that, Ladies and gentlemen. I know Patrick Beverley for
a decade. I love the brother, I really really do,
straight shooter, hardcore brother from Chicago. Good people's I know.
It's mama, wonderful woman, wonderful, his family is in a circle,

(11:54):
the whole bit, and he's fiery, and he's highly competitive
and all of that stuff. But you cannot do that.
And by the way, I have to do better. Really,
you gotta be more elaborative than that. Huge mistake on
Patrick Beverly's part. Huge mistake, inexcusable, no reason for it.

(12:14):
Punishment is imminent, well deserved. Now let's look to the Pacers,
the next two teams. Of course, at many spirited playoff
series in the nineties during the Reggie Miller era. They
last met in the postseason twenty thirteen, a Pace of
six game victory in the second round. By the way,
Game one would be Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
Paces beat the New York Knicks two it the three
times they faced one another this year. I'm worried now

(12:35):
I'm going with the Knicks and seven. I ain't, but
i gotta tell you I'm scared a little bit. Paces
could shoot. I watched the Paces against the Bucks in
game two the other night. I was watching the game
for twenty minutes. Y'all, lay you miss. They didn't miss,
like five six different people shooting the dead basketball.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
Not one of them miss the shot for the perimeter.
These brothers can shoot. So I'm concerned. And you know
tippt Do ain't gonna go more than eight deep. So
the Pace is gonna try to push the ball off
the court, go try to wear the Knicks down.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Knicks got a rebound, Knicks got a slow the pace
and control the pace. Otherwise Paces can take them. But
I'm still gonna pick my Knicks. I ain't going against them.
I've come too far to jump off now. I've come
too far to jump off now, ladies and gentlemen, some

(13:35):
breaking news. By the time you hear this, it won't
be breaking news. The Lakers are looking for a new
head coach. Darvin Ham is out as head coach for
the Los Angeles Lakers following two seasons at the Helm.
His first year on the job, won forty three games,
took them to the Western Conference Finals, where they ultimately
got swept by the Denver Nuggets. This past season, he

(13:56):
took them to the postseason again. They got through the
playing tournament, ended up being the seventh seed, went against
Denver in the first round. Lost. Didn't get swept this time,
got swept last year. This time he won, lost in
five games. And his two seasons nineteen seventy four, there
you see it. Two play off for appearances, one Conference
finals appearances, no finals appearances. Lost twelve of the last

(14:17):
thirteen games against Denver. Here's the sad part about this.
On a couple of levels, It's widely recognized that if
the Lakers hadn't drawn Denver, the Lakers could be going
to the conference finals because they would beat anybody else
that they played. In the eyes of a lot of people,
Denver was the worst possible matchup they could have had,
and it is what it is. I'm sad for Darvin

(14:42):
hamd because I don't think he deserves to be fired.
I don't think the roster that he was given was ideal.
I think Anthony Davis calling him out sealed his fate
after they lost in Game two in Denver and when
he said he just seemed a bit disorganized, not together.
You can't say that about a coach. When you say
that about a coach, Dodd's cast days a numbered, That's

(15:05):
just the way it goes, and I don't think there's
a way to get around that. Personally, that's my personal opinion.
I'm sad for Darvin Ham, but I think he'll be
all right. I just don't think he deserved this. You know,
Darvin Ham, Remember they win the championship in the Bubble,

(15:27):
and then they decide that they want to move on
from Kyle Kuzmer and Contavious Carwell, Pope and Alex Caruso.
Frank Vogel goes thereafter because the Russell Westbrook experiment doesn't
work out there. And then after that, Darvin Han comes
on board. Darvin Han comes on board. He inherits Russell Westbrook.

(15:48):
He wants to bring Russell Westbrook off the bench. It's armageddon,
it's dissension, it's noise and chaos there, Russell Westbrook departs,
ends up landing with the Los Angeles Clippers coming off
the bench eventually, and look at how good he looked
coming off the bench for the Clippers. So I just
think those are the kind of things that you gotta consider.

(16:08):
I'm sad for Darvingham. I don't think this is deserved
at all, but I'm not surprised. The only thing that
would suffice this for me, make this okay is if
ty Lou ends up leaving this coach of the Clippers
to come take over the Lakers, which I sincerely doubt
the Clippers will allow to happen. I know that the
Phoenix Suns wanted ty Lou last year, they couldn't get him,

(16:31):
and that's why they settled on Frank Vogel. It would
have surprised me if they wanted him again this year.
I think the Clippers would let it. Would Tyleru is
still having a year available on this contract. I think
the Clippers would let him get away to Phoenix before
they let him go down the hallway to the Lakers,
even though they won't be down the hallway come next season,

(16:51):
they'll be moving into their new arena. Personally speaking, I
feel sorry for you know, Steve Balmer, the billionaire owner
for the Clippers, because Kawhi Leonon is the absolute worst
superstar you could possibly have. He is a superstar player
when he's on the court. The problem is he misses
more than forty percent of his games during the regular season,
in more than thirty percent of his games during the postseason,

(17:13):
and he does absolutely positively nothing to promote the sport.
He just doesn't. So I do think that's problematic. I
do think that's unfortunate, but I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised,
And I also want to put this out there. He's
a player development guy. I know that Phil Handy has
been an assistant coach in Cleveland, Toronto, and LA. Each

(17:38):
place he's been, they've won championships once. He gonna get
his shot at the crown. When is Phil Handy gonna
get an opportunity to be a head coach in the
NBA level? It really really would be nice. It really
really would be nice to see him get that chance
to get that opportunity. That's all I have to say

(17:59):
about that. Have you all been watching the NBA playoffs.
I'm sure you have, but do you know what makes
watching them even more exciting? Prize Picks.

Speaker 2 (18:11):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
With a big game happening every night, Prospects is here
to help you cash in on all your basketball knowledge.
You see. Prize Picks is a daily fantasy app where
you can select two or more of your favorite players
and then pick more or less on their projected in
game stats. But Prospects doesn't stop with basketball. You can
choose from several sports, the MLB, NHL, the MMA, and

(18:32):
everything in between. I make my picks to submit early,
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and I chill and watch and get this. Prospects will
match your first depositive up to one hundred dollars. You
heard me right. Go to Prospects dot com and use
code sas. That's my initials of course, for a first
time or a first deposit match of up to one

(18:54):
hundred dollars, that's SAS. When you go to Prospects dot
com and use the promo code pick less. Guess what,
it's that easy. Now, let me turn my attention to
a subject that I didn't plan on turning my attention

(19:14):
to because, to be quite honest with you, I don't
even know who the hellless person is. I mean, I
know he used to playing Major League Baseball or stuff
like that, closing in Boston, in Philadelphia for a few
years when I wasn't there, by the way, all this
other stuff. But it's me feeling that needs to turn
my attention to former MLB picture Jonathan papple Bond, who

(19:35):
launched a quote unquote blistering attack against me after my
recent comment about Mike Trout's injury when I talked about
his history of being hurt and why he can't stay
healthy for a ball or full baseball season. Evidently, when
I was on the air with Mad Dog Christopher Russo
on Wednesday and we had a quick take about Mike Trout,

(19:56):
and I basically talked about, damn, the man is always injured.
Can I get you're on the field, you know, maybe
maybe you're hurt because you're in her Damn Angel's uniform
all the damn time. I don't know what the hell
is going on when I brought that up. When I
brought that up, apparently major League Baseball or the baseball
community were in an uproar and felps folks, and force

(20:19):
felt the need to address me before I respond. Let
me let you listen to what the hell this dude
had to say about me.

Speaker 5 (20:30):
I know this guy actually, and I knew him, or
I knew of him before he was you know, Stephen A.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Smith. I don't. I don't even understand why he needs an A.

Speaker 5 (20:43):
I've always looked at this guy like a complete joke,
and really it's just really shady, real shady guy. I mean,
this guy is more narcissistic than Donald Trump. I mean,
you're talking about one of the most narcissistic people you
could come across. And the fact that he uses his

(21:04):
middle name is A when it was probably stands for asshole.
It's such a joke to me. I look at him
in three things. I look at him as a racist.
I look at him as a xenophobic. I look at
him as a fake, like a fake person, like I'm
saying stuff just to simply be popular.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Or get views.

Speaker 5 (21:26):
For him to do this, man, it just really shows
his ignorance and this guy really is dumb, y'all.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Jonathan Papple Bond. First, let me start. I think that
when people bring up the word racist, if they looked
at you and I sitting together. I think they would
look at you before they looked at me. I've never

(21:57):
talked about you. You're irrelevant, at least until today. I
don't need clicks, sir. You know that because you know
I have the number one sports morning show and television
for the last twelve years in counting. You know that
I don't talk about baseball much. But I didn't see

(22:18):
Rob Manfred on your show. He's well mine. Has he
invited you to his office to talk baseball and have lunch?
I suspect not. I didn't even know you were a
guest on a podcast or a contributor to a podcast
until US morning. But I can go tit for tat

(22:42):
with you. What I won't do is disrespect you to
the degree that you just disrespected me. So let's just
go this one by one. You said you don't know me,
you don't really know me, but you called me a racist.
I assumed as in a phobia comment, and I'm proud

(23:04):
that you actually know what that means. Stems from me
speaking about show hel Tani. When I spoke out of turn,
I was criticized for it. I deserved to be criticized
for it. A matter of fact, Jeff Passon, along with others,

(23:29):
came on First Take to speak out against me. Remember
June Lee, a baseball writer for ESPN. They both came
on the show. If you were recall because I'm assuming
you do a little homework. I'm an executive producer on
the show. They're not on the show if I don't

(23:49):
want them on the show. But you see, when you're
a man and you know you're wrong, you man up.
And that's what I did because I was wrong. You
know what, I'm not wrong about calling you a liar.
You don't know me. What do you mean? I was

(24:13):
thrown out of a Major League baseball clubhouse. I have
been a reporter and a sports commentator for thirty years.
That has never happened in any sport. I've never been
thrown out of a locker room. I've never been thrown
out of a clubhouse. I've never had any discipline action

(24:35):
exacted against me because I have never been professionally unethical
in my career. That is a lie. Now, I could
sue your ass for lion telling such a lie like that,
but I won't. I won't waste my time. You don't

(24:55):
have to worry about that, Bro. That's a lie. And
I challenge anybody from the Phillice organization, from any organization,
for any professional sports team in this nation to say
that there's any validity to what you echoed thirty years
my brother, Google me, do your homework. New York Daily News,

(25:20):
Philadelphia Enquirer, CNN, Fox Sports, ESPN. It has never happened
ever ever. I've known some of the dudes. You caught
your teammate, you got there after I departed from Philadelphia.

(25:43):
How we walked by one another. I wasn't in the
Philadelphia clubhouse when you were there, if I remember correctly,
you didn't arrive at till twenty twelve. I was gone
from the Philadelphia Enquirer in twenty ten. What you're talking
about you in Boston, What you're gonna say next? I
show Duck at Fenway? Really, really, you're lying. You are lying, sir.

(26:10):
We don't know each other. We've never spoken to each other.
I have no reason to speak to you. And if
you are so big, bad and bold, because you could play,
I saw the numbers. I'm familiar with you. You want
to scrub. But if you so big, bad and bold,

(26:34):
and you're so sure of yourself and I was that
kind of a guy. Then how come you never said
anything because you're lying. We've never had an issue. I
don't know you, I've never talked to you, and I
certainly have never been removed from a clubhouse or a

(26:57):
locker room. I've never stolen anything. The last time I
stole something was when I was ten years old at
Sauls Delicate Delicate tested on two oh third Street at
the Hollis Avenue. I got caught trying to steal a
bag of a bag of sugar of Skittles and he
told my mama and she whipped my butt. And I've

(27:21):
never stolen again. Ever, What are you talking about? I
understand that now that your baseball career is over, you're
pretty irrelevant, and as a result of that, you have
aspirations to get at me because I'm gonna get you
the clicks that you said, I'm already trying to get

(27:42):
by the way I've been getting it without you. I
have over fourteen fourteen million social media followers. I own
and operate this podcast last show, plus I got a
day job. I never talked about you what you talk
about me? For you and your compatriots whoever the LA

(28:04):
are no disrespect but y'all were disrespectful. Why are we
being all sensitive about Mike Trout? What did I say
exactly about Mike Trout? There's one of the greatest players
in the history of baseball? Did I not under that
out of my mouth? Have I not said that I'm
a huge fan of Mike Trout, which I've said on
many many occasions. Have I not acknowledged that Mike Trout

(28:26):
is one of the greatest baseball players in the history
of this sport? I said. What I said was, damn,
I'm tired of seeing him not work. I'm tired of
seeing him at games, sitting in the stadions at a
football game or something like that. I want to see
this brother on the field because he's one of the
most sensational players we've ever seen. That's what I said.

(28:48):
He's missed two hundred and eighty of five hundred and
seventeen games since twenty twenty one. That's fifty four percent
of his games. He's old thirty five point forty five
million season through two thousand and thirty. He's been in
the league for more than a decade. He doesn't have
one single postseason win, and we know that he can't

(29:12):
do it by himself. So what I was saying was, damn,
maybe he needs to leave Anaheim. Because Matt dog Russo
was saying, I love it when players stay, stay, work
through it, build within. I said, no, let that man
go elsewhere, because he's too great to be at home

(29:33):
in September and October watching postseason action with us. Where's
the crime? Why y'all sitting in there acting like I
just finished talking about your daddy. I want to see
him play because he's great. That's it, nothing more. So

(29:55):
I joked around about it being calmer that he's probably
injured because he's contaminated by an Angels franchise that hasn't
been in the postseason since twenty fifteen.

Speaker 6 (30:08):
It's been damn near ten years since they've played. In
October in Los Angeles, they talk about the Dodgers. The
Angels aren't after thought. And because I mentioned that.

Speaker 1 (30:23):
You were going to air papal Bond knowing nothing about me,
and you would call me a racist. I'm a black man.
We have a history of experiencing racism, and a lot

(30:44):
of times those experiences come courtesy of people who look
like you, and I would never think to call you
a racist. What you said is wrong, is irresponsible, it's petty,

(31:05):
and if it was to get a reaction, it's desperate.
Because now that you don't have your planning career to
lean on anymore, I guess you need help in other areas.
That's about the most you gonna get from me. Be
a grown up, bro. The things that you said about

(31:29):
me sound like a damn racist, and I still wouldn't
call you that unless I was sure. Now to the
world of boxing. Ryan Garcia tested positive for the performance
enhancing substance ostereen the day before and the day of
his upset win over Devin Hainty last month, part a

(31:50):
voluntary anti dope and association letter sent Wednesday. The urine
samples were collected prior to the fight, but the results
weren't known until later. Garcia has ten days to request
that is be sample be tested. Garcie's a sample local
screen positive for nineteen non or no was it nor
andro sterone androsterone, but its presence it's unconfirmed until further

(32:15):
lab analysis. Garcia responded on Instagram with this video take a.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Look what's up everybody?

Speaker 7 (32:22):
I came on here to address this full fucking shit
claim that I cheated.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Everybody knows that I don't cheat. What can I say?

Speaker 7 (32:33):
You know, why didn't they come out with this before,
you know, the fight?

Speaker 2 (32:38):
If they found it before.

Speaker 7 (32:39):
Why would they let me step into the ring as
a cheater and then come out with a victory and
then they post this. You know again, these are people
that are trying to attack me for whatever reason, but
no weapon against me shall prosper. I never taken a
stereoid them out. I don't even know where to get steroids.
At the end of the day, I barely, you know,
take supplements.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Not so fast, Ryan Garcia, you can't blame Dany I
mean Haini rather and his team for an anti doping test.
You voluntarily took. You chose to take that test. What
that got to do with Devin Hainey and his deed?

(33:22):
That's on you. That's number one. Number two. I am
a fan of Ryan Garcia. I think that Ryan Garcia
has the look, he has the vernacular, he has the

(33:42):
presentation where if this dude one in the boxing ring,
he could promote the sport in ways most people couldn't
in this country. So I was rooting for him to win,
even though I love me some Devin Haty as well.

(34:02):
He just doesn't have that knockout power, box office appeal.
He's a sensational boxer, but he doesn't have that knockout power,
that box office appeal, and Ryan Garcia does so because
of that, I was of the mindset that this would

(34:24):
be a good fight. But Ryan Garcia that power that
left hook. If Haiti was gonna beat him, he would
have to outbox him unless Ryan Garcia caught him. What
I saw when I went into the ring, Ryan was
not just your quickness, not just your power, but your
overall strength over Devin Hainey, who was at one forty.

(34:48):
Ryan Garcia, you hadn't been fighting at one forty. You
weren't walking around a natural one forty all the time.
I do understand you walk around that way. I'm gona
talk about when you got in the ring, you looked
incredibly more powerful than him. The one good punch he
caught you with in the third round made you pound
your fist and say let's go, let's go, let's go.

(35:10):
You were toying with him. We didn't expect that. We
saw you get dropped by a liver shot from Javonte Davis,
even though Devin Hatey ain't no Javonte Davis. We also
saw you Ryan Garcia, get into the ring three pounds
or come to the weigh in three pounds overweight. You
showed no regard for the discipline the sport is required,

(35:33):
that the discipline the sport requires. You were supposed to
fight for the belt. At one point forty you said
you didn't give a damn about the belt, that you
wasn't gonna do what happened to you against Javontae Davis
with your dehydration clause, and so as a result of that,
you were going to come into the ring whatever weight
you wanted, and you shook hands with him and agreed

(35:55):
to pay five hundred thousand dollars per pound you were overweight,
and reportedly wrote a check for one point five million
dollars to this man to come in there fully loaded,
full strength, even though you were no longer eligible to
fight for the title, just because you couldn't shave three
pounds off yourself. That doesn't sound like somebody who's disciplined

(36:17):
enough to do whatever it takes to be as legitimate
as possible and follow the rules and regulations. Now, does
that mean you did steroids. No, we have to wait
until the b sample comes in. We have to get
and I prefer to give you the benefit of the doubt.
But the fact of the matter is, Ryan Garcia, you
don't necessarily deserve it based on your behavior leading up

(36:40):
to the fight and how you showed up at the
weigh in completely disregarding the weight. Claud Sean Porter and
Clarissa Shields did a marvelous job pre fight postfight coverage,
and one of the things they emphasized was that those
three pounds were legit. It matters, It's a significant thing.
Do you realize that Devin Hates should not have even

(37:01):
walked into the ring with Ryan Garcia. You were the
undefeated champion thirty and oh fifteen KOs, undefeated, not a
blemish on your record. You walked into that ring that
man didn't meet the requirements for your belt. So as
a result, you got in a ring with him, but
you didn't have the title on the line, but you
still had your reputation on the line. Devin Hates should

(37:23):
have said I'm out to fight. I'm walking out if
you don't meet the one hundred and forty pounds limit
for the way in I am not fighting you. That's
what Devin Haty did say. He should have said it,
but he did it. And now look at this full
screen quote that Devin Hainy responded to with ESPN on
the statement to ESPN quote, we learned about this situation
not too long ago, and it's unfortunate Ryan cheated and

(37:46):
disrespected both the fans and the sport of boxing by
fighting dirty and breaking positive, not once, but twice. I've
always been an advocate for clean fighting and this is
an example of such. Ryan owes the fans in apology,
and by his recent tweet, he still thinks this is
a joke. We put our lives on the line to
entertain people for a living. You don't play boxing. This

(38:07):
puts the fight in a completely different light. Despite the disadvantage,
I still fought on my shield and got back up.
People die in this sport. This isn't a joking matter,
Ryan Garcia. Devin Haney is not wrong with that quote.
He's not wrong. I love Ryan Garcia. I wish him

(38:30):
nothing but the best. I hope this isn't true. I
hope he overcomes this. I hope his career continues to
go forward unblemished, so he can give me the fight
that I want to see against ta Femo Lopez and
a rematch against Javonte Davis. But the fact of the
matter is, you put yourself in this position because based
on the way you were acting leading up to the
fight and your refusal to meet the weight claused conditions

(38:54):
for the one hundred and forty pounds title, you already
displayed your undisciplined nature from there. We can't give you
the benefit of the doubt because you told us you
didn't give a shit. That's just the truth, bro, That's
just the truth. Devin Haney should have never gotten a

(39:14):
ring with you. I don't know if his career will
ever be deemed the same after that beating he took,
and it was clearly because you were the bigger, stronger fighter.
Why were you that bigger and stronger. Devin Hainey believes
he knows why, and so the millions of people out there,
regardless of what you say. Hell, I want to give

(39:37):
you the benefit of the doubt, and it's a struggle,
but it would be the safe to say that I'm
in a minority. It's just the truth, bro, It's just
the truth coming up. CNN correspond to Bacari, Seller's comedian
DL Hughley and NBA player Steven Jackson all took me
the task recently. I'll tell you why, and I'll address

(40:01):
it by the way so that Matt bonds and he'll
be joining me live next to hash it all out.
You don't want to miss this part of the show,
stephen A. Smith Show. Trust me when I tell you
don't touch that down. Okay, everybody, you know what top

(40:24):
of it is. It's tom for stephen A's Weekly Picks.
If you already haven't heard, I've teamed up with the
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(40:44):
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(41:07):
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long predictions for players in the w NBA and if

(41:30):
you do the same, your entry will be boosted in
the Prize Picks promo tab. I can't wait for the
season to start, y'all. I just can't wait, So check
it out today. Now, let's look at today's winning picks.
Caitlyn Clark more or less than twenty one and a
half points per game for the season. She's a sniper.
She's a shooter. She's a shooter, and she's gonna have
the green light because she's the star attraction. It's gonna
be more than twenty one and a half points per game.

(41:52):
I'm going with more. That's the next one, as Jo
Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, the champion Las Vegas Aces,
more or less than twenty one points per game for
the season. She's the face of the league. She's big time,
she's a champion, and very few people can stop her.
And the team is loaded. I'm going with more for
Asia Wilson, more than twenty one points per game. Brianna Stewart,

(42:13):
let's get to her more or less twenty one and
a half points per game for the season. We know
she could play too. We can't sleep on her. New
York Liberty. I got to go with her as well.
Let's go with that. Let's go with more for Breonna
Stewart and New York Stand Up, New York Stand Up.
The Knicks are gonna contaminate her in a very positive way.
And the level of success they enjoying, She's gonna enjoy
some of it too. That's what that's all about it right, Last,

(42:34):
but not least, Britney Grinder, the one and only Britney Grinder.
Now that the whole Russian debacle and everything else is
going by the wayside and she's back in the States
and doing her thing and really really focused on playing
basketball this upcoming season. More or less eighteen and a
half points per game for the season, I'm gonna say less.
I think she's gonna average about seventeen a game. But

(42:56):
I think Brittney grind is gonna make noise with rebounding
and blocking shots as opposed to points. So That's where
I'm at with it, a right, Caitlin Clark, Asia Wilson,
Breonna Stewart more Britney Griner less. But we usually go
to more route with Steven, And you know why because
I like the word more because it always applies to me.

(43:21):
Welcome back to the Stephen X. Smith Show over the
digital railways of YouTube. I tried to be cool, I
really did, but so be it. It seems several people
have had some things to say about some of my

(43:44):
recent comments regarding politics. One of them is CNN correspondent
with Carry Sellers, who recently published a book called The Moment,
Thoughts on the Race, Reckoning that Wasn't and How we
all can move forward Now. For those of you who

(44:05):
may not know, Sellers is an attorney and a politician
who served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from
two thousand and six to twenty fourteen. In the book,
he had some critical observations about me, about ice Cube,
and about somebody let's just say, I'm just not gonna

(44:25):
mention his name. Here's some of what Sellers has to
say about me. Sometimes it's people who look like us,
the Ice Cubes of the world, the stephen A Smiths
and the other who will remain nameless black men who
willingly disseminated disinformation just to receive a hug from white conservatives.

(44:48):
Why do it, I don't know, but they remind me
of Samuel L. Jackson's character hugging Leonardo DiCaprio's cruel slave
plantation owner in Django Unchained. Wow, are they really doing

(45:10):
it for the cliques? Truth is, I'm still not sure
why they crave the white gaze so much. But I
would love for the early nineteen nineties Ice Cube to
write a rap about today's Ice Cube. I would love
for the Winston Salem of Lums to critique the stephen
A Smith of today. Smith Cube and that other dude

(45:31):
have become a staple of misinformation and disinformation that they
crave attention so much that they will push out half
truths and lies about black men proves one very important truth.
The situation we are in is far more complex than
we thought. It's a conundrum that we must be strong

(45:52):
and push back against, whether the lies are coming from
Russia or from our own. You know, I'm gonna touch
on the biggest subject, but let me just pause for
a second. That dude, Bacari Sellers has a book talking

(46:16):
about moving forward and that's how you come at people.
And you would look at another brother and compare him
to Samuel L. Jackson's character in Django. What's your possible

(46:39):
justification for that? And if you were so appalled by
the mere existence of people like me, why were you
and your team trying to get me on get you
on my show to promote your book? Kid? Answer that,

(47:05):
do we really want to go there? I just want
you to think about that for a second, and about
the fact that you being a contributor to CNN and
how come they call me more than you and you
get paid by them. I'm gonna lead you to think
about that before I get back to you. Let me

(47:26):
move on to the next person, because last week, comedian
DL Hughley was a guest on Big Boy TV, hosted
by legendary Los Angeles radio personality Big Boy, among the
topics discussed with my comments from the recent interview I
did on Fox News as Hannity was showing Hannity Here
was what Dlle had to say in response to what

(47:48):
he thought I said.

Speaker 8 (47:50):
What insults me is when you say something and pretend
like you didn't say it. We heard what you said,
then you said they taken me out of context. Show
me what it is that you said. It was different
than I perceived you saying. You said it right. You
said that black people relate to Donald Trump. How if
I know a black dude who in his seventies close
to the eighties is still come in crime.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
I'm not hanging out with that, nigga.

Speaker 8 (48:10):
It says more about what you think is relatable and
what you perceive as relatable. It says more about you
than it does about him. Once you got convicted of rapist, somebody,
I can't fuck with you. I don't care who you
are when you make those kind of broad statements. What
you're saying is from my perspective, From my vantage point,
these people think this, Who are you hanging around the
things an old fraudulent rapist is relatable to you, who

(48:35):
was in your sphere that you think that's okay, don't
be a pussy and tell me you didn't say it.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
You did, so I'm a pussy now. That's what d
L Hugely saying, Right, Okay, I'll deal with him in
a second two because d L Hugely was not the
only person who took issue with my comments. The Fellas
over at All the Smoke. That podcast All the Smoke

(49:00):
Matt BOMs will be on in a few minutes. Steven
Jackson won't turn down my personal invitation, did it show up,
didn't answer, but they had something to say on their podcast.
Listen to this.

Speaker 9 (49:11):
Starting off with said, black in America can relate to
Trump because of you know, the how he's being harassed
and arrested and all this kind of shit, which is
wild as fuck. And then he tried to go back
and correct us and tell us what he said but
or what he didn't say, but everyone heard what he
did say, and this shit was so outlandish that motherfucking

(49:33):
shitlock agreed with them.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
If you was on the corner with ten brothers in
your neighborhood, you wouldn't have said that. You wouldn't have
had the balls to say black people relate to Trump.
You wouldn't have said that in front of your people,
in a room full of your people. You said that
on TV because you comfortable there, and that's the narrative
that they want you to pay.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
I told you to say that.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Bro, I'm not the most intelligent person, but I told
you I'm first team common sense. That's why you say
these things on TV. So that's why people look at
you at up funny and don't give you the respect.
Everything that men Matt will say out here, we'll say
in any barbershop, on any corn, in front of any setting,
in front of anybody, because that's how we truly feel.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Nobody's telling us a certain certain things. You know. I
was glad I took a deep breath and didn't immediately
respond to a bunch of this noise, because it's just
kind of productive at times to just go nuclear like

(50:33):
I'm very very capable of doing, and I'm not gonna
do that now. In the case of Bacari Sellers, I
don't know him. I know that I respect his work.
I know that I respect what he strives to do

(50:56):
for the African American community. He's a graduate of more House.
He's a graduate of law school in South Carolina. He's
a highly intelligent man to be a legislator at the
age of twenty two, beating a twenty six year encumbent
to achieve that goal. I'm not here to denigrate that man.

(51:20):
I'm here to say that his denigration of me was very,
very excessive, matter of fact, so much so that I'm
going to tell you that the person's name that I
didn't want to mention I said, will remain nameless. I'll
say it for the issue, for the purpose of professionalism,
Jason Whitlock. It was ice Que stephen A and Jason Whitlock.

(51:42):
There you have it. I say that about Bacari Sellers
because here's my point. And I'm going to say this
one last time. Sean Hannity, the show that I was
on with Sehwan Handion, Sean Hannity asked me the same

(52:03):
question that Chris cmo had asked me just a half
hour earlier on News Nation that same night, and what
they alluded to was not black people. It was people
who were supporting Trump who happened to be black. And
they were asking me about those individuals, and what do

(52:26):
you think is happening that those people are supporting Trump.
I was answering a question about the black Trump supporters,
which clearly I am not. Did vote for Trump, ain't
vote for Trump. I believe he's divisive and he will
cause civil war in this country. I believe that the

(52:48):
presidency is a statesman's position, and if you're not committed
to bringing everyone together, then you're not somebody that should
be sitting in that office. And you have to have
the professionalism, the decor, and the decency to conduct business
across both sides of the island order to get things done.
That is my belief, and by statesmen that you have

(53:11):
to be the kind of individual that can be served
up as a role model for others to follow from
a societal perspective in terms of how we want to
conduct ourselves so we could be decent instead of anarchy
and mayhem taking place in the streets. I'm not voting
for Trump. I've been on the record for indictments ninety

(53:34):
one counts and the peach twice, numerous cases against them,
have a lot of them to me, amounted to much
ado about nothing. Yes, what have I been crying about?
I don't want you to lose to him, I want
you to implement a strategy that I think will work.
If you're gonna get on me, get on me about that,

(53:56):
get on me about me saying your strategy is not
worth Cary Sales didn't do that because he's caught up
in the sources like everybody else. You see, Ladies and gentlemen,
we could talk all of this stuff until the cows
come home. I have the right to say what I
want to say. I apologize for it being misconstrued and misinterpreted,

(54:19):
but it's ultimately on me because I'm the one who
opened my mouth. And if I'm not gonna speak cogently
and clearly enough, then I gotta own it. I accept
that I got a show that comes on two hours
a day, I speak ten hours a week live minimum.
That doesn't include Sports Center, it doesn't include NBA Countdown,
it doesn't include the inordinate amount of appearances that I make,

(54:40):
It doesn't include this podcast. I'm not gonna say the
right thing every time. I'm not gonna echo and the
right syllable and the right diction and the right tenor
my bad, my bad. But to you something like that,
to go in to breakfast club, like Bacari Seller's dead

(55:02):
and question my intellect.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
I thought we considered that racist tropes that were used
against us for so many decades, that we never do
it to each other, But you would do that to me.
Don't know you. Wish you nothing but the best, but

(55:31):
after that, I don't want to know you. God bless you.
I hope you ultimately get your own show on CNN
or someplace else that wants you, because clearly you have
aspirations to continue doing TV. There's a bigger issue going

(55:52):
on here. Folks think they're getting slick. I'm talking about
the people who spoke about me. I'm talking about the
political apparatus that exists out there. This ain't about me.
We know where I stand. I may not be happy

(56:15):
with what I'm seeing sometimes, but I know what the
alternative is, and in my eyes, that would be worse.
In my estimation. Me pointing out that there are black
people who have told Trump they feel different, it is
not something that can be ignored no matter how you feel,

(56:36):
because that's what they're telling him, and the projections are
he's going to be up in the polls. And if
he's up in the polls and he gets a certain
percentage of the Black vote. Who knows what could happen.
Me pointing that out is not the same as me
saying I wish it happens, that I want it to happen,
because I don't, and I've been on the record to

(56:56):
say that. But I don't have my head in the
saying thinking that sit idly by and watching momentum swell
is the way to go. And I only bring all
of that up because I want to get to the
real crux of this. The real crux of this, and
why folks are in such an uproar is because the

(57:19):
real subject here is the black vote. We ain't gonna
talk about that today, but it's coming. It's coming, and
those who have the decorum, the decency, the professionalism to
have substantive conversation, we are going to have that conversation

(57:43):
on this show about the black vote, the history of it,
where it was, where it's been, where it is, where
it's going. Say it about me. My background is primarily
in sports, which I love. I ain't the lice sports.
Just because I give commentary about a particular issue does

(58:04):
not mean that I'm trying to be political. I ain't
run a for office. I'm not looking for your votes.
I'm not looking to build a constituency. I don't want
to go on a campaign trail that ain't me. What
I want is for us to be knowledgeable enough about

(58:26):
the issues so we know what everybody's offering us, so
we can make smart, intelligent, productive decisions that are not
dominated by just our emotions. Emotions are part of it,
but it shouldn't dominate it. That's it. I got the numbers.

(58:50):
I got what the black vote was in nineteen sixty,
in nineteen sixty four, in sixty eight, it's seventy two.
It's seventy six, and eighty and eighty four in eighty
eight and ninety two, twenty six, they're two thousand up
to now. I got them. I've seen the trend. I
know what's going on, not to the degree of but

(59:12):
Cary tell Us would. But you know where you missed
the vote, my brother. That's how you feel about me,
How you feel about the other voters out there, because
I actually agree with most of your positions. How you
feel about the ones who don't. You're gonna talk about

(59:32):
them like that. We do you think that's gonna get you?
How productive do you think that's going to be. I
wonder what CNN would think about having a contributor that's
ready to call somebody what you called me based on
your assumptions and your assertions on your worst day. I

(59:56):
would never speak about you that way, black man on
your worst day. DL Hughlely, it's a frat brother. I've
met D. L. Hughley a few times over the years.

(01:00:18):
We all know him from Kings of Comedy, the Hugely's
on ABC Television. You got a show now with radio
run on Afternoon Drive, had a show late night show
Ceenn then quite pan out. None of that matters. He's

(01:00:41):
a highly successful individual and intelligent brother, a person that
I've had profound respect for over the years. I haven't
lost any respect for him. I'm sad that he appears
to have lost respect for me. It's his right, but

(01:01:05):
I'm not gonna keep going back and forth on what
I said. I was answering the question about black Trump supporters,
of which I am not, and what they were saying
to him. Remember in nineteen ninety eight, when a great novelist,
Tony Morrison wrote an opted in The New Yorker, and

(01:01:30):
she was talking about Clinton and how he was being
treated and how in her own in some kind of way,
it was indicative of how black folks feel in this country.
Of course, people took her a task for it. Some
people debated, some people supported us, some people didn't. I'm
not here to debate all of that because I don't
have the direct quote in front of me. I just
remember the momentum, and she had to clarify this is

(01:01:57):
what she meant when she was saying it, the perception
of always being guilty, of always having that purp walk.
I'm not saying or equating that with Trump. I'm saying
black Trump supporters do say that to him. That's it.

(01:02:20):
At the end of the day, it comes down to
that vote, right, who's gonna vote for you? What numbers
are you gonna get correct? That's the subject matter that
we're gonna have to tackle. That's why I appreciated Roland
Martin so much. Roland Martin took me the task on
his show Ladies and Gentlemen. I text him and thanked him.
I text him and thanked him because even though I
didn't agree with everything, the manner in which he played

(01:02:45):
my quote in its entiredy didn't take it out of context.
I appreciate it, he says, Stephen, this is where you missed. Stephen, Hey,
this is what you missed here, here's what you should
have did, or here's what you should have said. Fine,
next time, I might because I respect that brother and

(01:03:05):
how he came at me. He didn't forget I'm the
same brother whose show he's been on, that I'm the
same brother that supported him all of these years, that
I'm the same brother that's gonna be supporting him in
the future no matter what he does, because I know
his heart's in the right place. That's how I feel
about you, DL you on the air with Big Boy

(01:03:29):
and all that stuff. And I love how two brothers
are talking and y'all act like y'all ain't talking about
a brother.

Speaker 10 (01:03:36):
So quick to just throw me under the bus because
you thought I said. And then you're gonna sit up
there and call me a pussy because I'm not standing
on it, standing on what.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
If you own up to how your stuff could have
been misconstrued and you're clarifying this is what you meant,
that's not standing on it. If I understood how it
could be misconstrued and I own it, that's not standing
last time I checked that standing. Refusing to do that

(01:04:12):
is sitting down. Refusing to do that is hiding. Refusing
to do that is running away. But I guess you
perfect houn, d'El. You don't make mistakes. Every word out
of your mouth is just as fluid and as seamless

(01:04:35):
as ever. I don't know Bacari sellers, so I don't care.
I know d'ell a little bit, and that's a frat brother,
and I've always had love and admiration for him. Let
me just say a phone call would have been nice,

(01:05:00):
at least an effort to kind of understand what I
was trying to say. You don't owe me that, but
it would have been nice because it is most certainly
something I would have done for you. And that's why
I've gotten so quiet, because you see, when it comes

(01:05:23):
to people who touch me in a personal way, I
have to be measured, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to
confess to you, I almost cried a week ago. I'm
not the most emotional guy in the world in that regard.

(01:05:47):
I cried when I lost my mother, I cried when
I lost my brother. It's really about it. But there's
a woman by the name of Karen Hunter, who has
our own show on Sirius ex Sam Urban View Radio
Channel one twenty six every weekday from three to six pm.

(01:06:12):
I'm gonna give y'all some perspective on how close we are.
I started my career at the New York Daily News
as a freelancer before being hired to cover homicide for
the first four months before I went to the high
school sports department. The very first day I walked in there,
somebody came up to me and wrapped their arms around

(01:06:34):
my shoulders and walked me down to the newsroom and said,
I am here for whatever you need and went about
the business of teaching me how to write and how
to be a professional reporter. From day one, that was
Karen Hunter. That was the year nineteen ninety three. Twenty

(01:06:59):
four years later, my mom passed away and as my
heart was broken and they lowered my mother's casket into
the ground, when I wiped the tears away from my
face and I turned around, it was Karen standing behind me.

(01:07:27):
That's how tight we are. I have four older sisters.
I usually tell people I have six. One is a
woman by the name of Kerry Chandler, who's the former
head of HR for Disney, ESPN, the NBA, on the

(01:07:48):
armor and all this stuff. She's an hr gurup, very
very tight. The other's Karen Hunter. That's how far back
we go. And this woman who is and will forever

(01:08:09):
be my sister, allowed folks to come on to her
show and attack me for hours because of what they
construed I said. And I didn't listen to the whole

(01:08:32):
show because it was the one thing that I couldn't take,
not because of what they were saying, It was because
it was on her platform. And then she said that
would my name attached to it or anything like that,
but it could have easily been construed as that, Well,

(01:08:53):
you know something, when you're making money and you're hanging
out with billionaires and you on private jets, you can
become a bit detached from your community. My family said,
what was the matter? Because I went silent for three days,
I couldn't believe it. She did text me to come
on her show before those words weretered. I texted back

(01:09:17):
to come on. No response. I caught five times no response.
That was weeks ago, and I still haven't heard from her,
And so we clearly are living in different times right now.

(01:09:38):
How different this is to the sixties, fifties or whatever.
I don't know. I was born in nineteen sixty seven,
but I do know that in the times that we're
living in, if your political affiliations or your ideologies are
different than others because of the times that we're living in,
people don't necessarily vibe with that. My point is they don't. Again,

(01:10:01):
I was talking about others. I wasn't talking about me,
and I wasn't talking about the vast majority of black
people in America who have no plans on voting for
Donald Trump. I was talking about the few who intend
to and what they're telling Trump based off of the

(01:10:22):
question that Sean Hannity had asked. So it's been a
devastating time, but I'm a man. I'll handle it as always,
and part of handling it is addressing people on a

(01:10:43):
level they need to be addressed. And that is when
it comes to Steven Jackson. Now I say Stephen Jackson
because Matt Bonds, who will be on shortly, dressed me
in a fashion as somebody who had a real problem

(01:11:04):
with what I said and what he interpreted me saying.
And again that's on me. Stephen Jackson went in even
more so than what he had to say about me

(01:11:25):
with Trump. And I wouldn't say this if I was
on a corner with ten brothers. Stop you're lying. Brothers
talk anyway. We want to to brothers because we're brothers.
We ain't worried about what we say to each other
with differences like that. Opinions are opinions. But what he

(01:11:47):
said about me when it came to Russell Westbrook really
raped my nerves. He called me a snitch. Now, Stephen Jackson,
I could ask you, were you high? Let me take

(01:12:08):
a look before I ask again.

Speaker 9 (01:12:10):
He also said, uh, called the league office the other day,
and this one Gilly posted this and this one.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
This one hurt my soul.

Speaker 9 (01:12:19):
Man like he called the league office to see if
why Russell Westbrook was suspended. And I just don't sit
right with me and somebody he's a journalist, he needs information.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
That ship was just weak. You don't work for the league.

Speaker 3 (01:12:34):
What what what makes you think you got the power
to car and get somebody spend it, suspend it?

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
So you opening more doors to thinking.

Speaker 3 (01:12:41):
Now, okay, the times you done went on TV and
spoke bad about me and other players?

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
You was you called and put your vote in to
get people suspend it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:48):
That's what you're saying, like like that, that's crazy that
you would you would openly say that that's the weakest
thing he could have ever said on TV Matt back
to back days. I come from under the old arm
and you know what I'm saying, Like, there's people that
I grew up with that came that came out of
jail that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
I know that snitching that I ain't fucking with. He
a snitch?

Speaker 3 (01:13:05):
You snitching, Bruh, you called totally nah fuck that man.
You called the league and tried to get it suspended.
That was the league decision. Do shit like that, Brouh.
You don't do no shit like that's the weakest ship up.
I'm sorry, brou I'm not fucking with him no more.
You can be your homeboy. I can't fucking no shit
like that part.

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
Of my language. I don't give a fuck that you
don't want to fuck with me no more. I apologize
to everybody they don't like me using that language. I
just want to say that where's your facts stack, where's

(01:13:43):
your fact where's your facts? First things first, let's look
up the definition of snitch and put up here on
the full screen for y'all. In a criminal sense, the
snitch will provide information to the police of FEDS in
order to obtain lenient treatment for themselves and provide information
of an extended period of time and return for money,
or for police to overlook their own criminal activities. Quite

(01:14:06):
often someone will become an informant following their arrest by
virtue of definition alone. You're not making sense now. I'm
going to assume you were sober because she semed to
have little pep and you step a little more energy.

(01:14:28):
But I will remind you Stack You've come at me
several times in the past, and we've let it go
because you didn't know what the hell you were talking about.
You didn't have the facts. You had your emotion. I
have the facts, so let me give them to you.
Nobody's hiding. Russell Westbrook should have been suspended. I said

(01:14:49):
that shit that day. I said that the next day,
I said it Sunday. I don't give a damn how
you or anybody else feels he should have been suspended
based on the way he acted in Game three against
the Dallas Mavericks. That is not why I called the league.
I called the league because we had a show. We
have a show called NBA Countdown. That show was due

(01:15:09):
to come on to in an hour. We had learned
that Russell Westbrook would not be suspended for the game.
We know that had that been Draymond Green or somebody,
they would have been suspended. So I called to find
out and decipher what was the reason for him not

(01:15:30):
being suspended. If you need to know, I spoke to
Joe Dumars. To be exact, ask Joe Dumars, did I
ever once say y'all should suspend them? Y'allhoull suspended, y'all
shou suspend them? I never said that. I didn't call
for them to suspend Russell Westbrook. I called for clarification
to decipher the difference between what would have definitely occurred

(01:15:52):
with a suspension and why didn't occur in that case,
so I could provide an explanation over the airwaves of
NBA cacut Down, which is my job about. You know
anything about that? You know what the job entails, stack
do you have any clue? Have you been a reporter
for thirty years? Do you understand the obligation to ESPN

(01:16:15):
for a flagship show that is the pregame show for
the NBA. You said, I don't work for the NBA.
I worked for ESPN, which gives over a billion dollars
to the NBA. You don't think they wanted the information?
What was the rationale? What did I say when I
went on TV? I said, quote they said, the officials

(01:16:40):
wrote their written report and stated we had everything under control.
Russell Westbrook caused no problems. There was no further incident,
and that's why we let it go. Plus it was
the playoffs. Had it been the regular season, Steven, we
would have suspended him. But because it wasn't the regular season,
it was the postseason, and there's a lot more ex state,

(01:17:02):
we're gonna be highly reluctant to do that. That is
the report I gave over the ear. Would you have
preferred that it came from Adrian woljs and Eroowski? Would
that make you feel more comfortable? Would that have sufficed?
I did my job? That what comes with the NBA.

(01:17:23):
You remember when you ran into the stands and you
were fighting Stack, when we're on our tests, gotten over there?
Remember all of that. Remember when I went on the
air and spoke and my ass got raked through the
colds for trying to come to your defense. Remember that

(01:17:45):
I called the League Office. How come I didn't bother
you when I called the League office back then? That
was two thousand and four, two thousand and five, with
one in after another that you or any other player
have found themselves in when the heavy hand of the

(01:18:06):
League Office, in all likelihood is coming down upon you,
we call the League Office for an explanation to provide
it because the League Office wants their explanation over the
airwaves from the network they have a rights deal with.
It's called business. Now. I know you don't get involved

(01:18:30):
in that too much because you leave that up to
Matt Bonnes a lot more. But it's business, and I
have an obligation to conduct the business on behalf of ESPN.
Everybody can't be used to everybody can't have podcasts, ain't

(01:18:52):
worth for nobody else. Everybody can't be committed to always
always always representing the streets and representing the players and
think you doing something positive for them by giving them
wrong or ill advised advice. Everybody can't get away with
that stack. Sometimes you gotta tell people what they don't
want to hear. Sometimes you got to give it to

(01:19:15):
them straight and real from the other perspective that they
inevitably gonna have to deal with. Last time I checked,
you ain't writing your own checks. You get it from
somebody who paying you. You ain't got to listen to them.
You ain't gotta hear what they have to say. You
ain't got to oblige to some degree. You ain't gotta
work a little extra. You ain't gotta take on different
responsibilities from time to time that may not necessary, you

(01:19:38):
may not necessarily like, but it comes along with the
territory because you signed a contract. You don't know anything
about that stack. I'm making that up. Come on, bro,
you ain't even got to be like that. We were
at All Star Weekend. We were hugging each other so

(01:20:00):
much at the damn restaurant on the lobby level. Everybody
like y'all must have been boys for years, which we've been.
Every time anytime somebody try to come at you the
wrong way, I always remind them you a real one,
you as authentic because they come you good people. If
I disagree with your I disagree with you. I never
disrespect you, and I never ever, ever in a million years,

(01:20:24):
with utter words out of my mouth that would try
to turn the Brothers against you. You know what using
that word means. You know that's out of pocket. Now,
I'm gonna hold back for now, but make no mistake

(01:20:46):
about it, Brother, They ain't fear. Ain't nobody scared. I
love you, I've known you for years. You wrong, bro,
I didn't deserve that. We know a lot of the
same people.

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:21:06):
I know where you're from, I know what Port Office
is all about, I know what you about. You continue
to find reasons to get upset. You don't know what
went down with me and Kyrie, and you took a
position before knowing all the facts. You were upset at

(01:21:28):
me when I was talking to you during the whole
uh you know, uh doing the riots in the streets,
and you were appearing on esp or CNN and all
of these other networks, and I was talking to you
about cats sitting there and wanting you on television to
ask you where the hell were they gonna be When
all of this faded into the twilight, when you wanted
to not play in the bubble, when you wanted to

(01:21:49):
not participate, when you didn't want to have an NBA season,
and I talked about that forces your clause that would
render collective bargaining agreement null and void, which means Brothers
wouldn't be getting paid. We've had differences of opinions, and
there's a lot that I know that you didn't know.
I never disrespected you, I never betrayed you, and I

(01:22:15):
certainly never, ever, ever, in my wildest dreams, thought about
opening my mouth and speaking in a way that would
make Brothers raise an eyebrow towards you, as it appears
to your authenticity. Don't do it to me. You feel

(01:22:38):
the way you feel, I feel the way that I feel.
I respect where you're coming from, but you ain't right,
you wrong, and you don't have all the facts. And
then to not return my call, to not return my text,
to not take the offer that your man Matt Barnes
took to come on the show and say it to
my face and have a man the man conversation. Yo, bro,

(01:23:00):
you better than that. Unless speaking to me directly and
having to have your facts right in front of my
face was a challenge you wasn't willing to accept. As
I've said to you and anybody who wants to talk

(01:23:24):
about me, we know that I don't say seventy five
percent of the things I know and we know I
don't betray and we know I damn she ain't no
snitch that never gets associated with me. Broh, and it
never will. We'll see each other eventually. Man, Love and

(01:23:49):
respect to you, no matter how you feel about me,
still got love and respect for you. You just don't know
what the hell you're talking about on this issue. Do
not have your facts. You are wrong, and if you
don't believe me, call the league office, call ESPN. You

(01:24:12):
got enough contacts, find out how wrong you are. I
don't expect an apology from you, but I'll be damned
if you didn't owe me one. And I'm gonna leave
it at that until we speak. With all that said,

(01:24:33):
I would not pass up the opportunity to invite all
the Smoke boys right here onto this show to address
me directly. At least one of them took me up
on that offer. My guest is an NBA champion with
the Golden State Warriors and now host the popular All
the Smoke podcasts along with co host and fellow NBA
champion Steven Jackson aka Stacks. He also has a new

(01:24:56):
reality show called The Barnes Bunch. Please welcome man, the
one and only Matt Bondes. Matt, what's going on, man?
How are you? How's everything?

Speaker 2 (01:25:03):
I'm well, man, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:25:06):
First of all, let me get this out the way first.
You know, I got mad love and respect for you.
I took no offense to anything that you said. I
don't you, my man, You know that I don't. We
could have differences or whatever. There's plenty of times that
we've had differences in the past, and you have let
me know what your opinion has been. I've brought you
on television to express your difference of opinion with me,
and you educated me up. I got a whole different

(01:25:28):
attitude about weed these days, Matt Bondes. I got a
whole different attitude about weed because of you. But listen,
I listened to y'all. I listen to y'all get get
at me, and I must tell you straight up and down.
While I took no offense to what you said, I
took big time offense to what Stack said. And when
I see Stack's face to face, I'm gonna tell them

(01:25:48):
we talk over the phone, I'm gonna tell him it
don't matter to me. You know that. But while I
got you on this show, explain to my audience your
issue with what I had to say, and then I'll
and then i'll I'll respond.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
Uh and and again, steven A.

Speaker 9 (01:26:05):
I love that we're able to do this because I
think you brought up early on that you know, we
can disagree without disrespecting, and we've done that a few times,
and I think that only educates both of us and
educates our audience and makes this alliance stronger. With that
said that, the Trump situation, I saw the Trump situation.
I obviously apologized and and have since kind of clarified

(01:26:29):
what you meant behind it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:31):
But at the same time, you know, I'm.

Speaker 9 (01:26:32):
Some First of all, we're sports focused and that's where
I started. And then you know, I crossed over into
politics man four or five years ago, and that's a
that's a slippery, dangerous slope. And I see that you're
transitioning because I do think you're more than just obviously
a sports analysis.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
So I love the crossover.

Speaker 9 (01:26:49):
But at the same time, I think you understand how
much power comes with our voices and how we live
in a day and age where everyone will stick to
a single word or a single sentence and either twist,
flip or whatever for this particular Trump situation, you know,
saying that you know when he said that, you know
that he can relate to the black community, will woo
with the harassments and this, this and that, and you

(01:27:12):
stamping that almost gives him a victim card.

Speaker 2 (01:27:15):
Trump has been someone who.

Speaker 9 (01:27:16):
Has abused his power pre office, during office, and post office.

Speaker 2 (01:27:22):
His decisions that he has made have.

Speaker 9 (01:27:24):
Put him in certain situations, and I just think it's
such a slap in the face to the black and
brown community when we give him a pass on everything, really,
you know what I mean, Like, no one's perfect you
and we're not here to debate who you should vote
for because none of that, because all these guys are
a little crazy. But I just think that first and
foremost really kind of made a lot of people say, like,

(01:27:47):
hold on, just because this dude is being harassed and
and and arrested and and has some legal issues that
we should relate, or because he's making some cool sneakers,
we should relate. And I just think that's such an
underheaded to the minority community. So if you want to
address that, and then I guess we can go to
the Russell Westbrook stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
Well, let me address that first of all. First of all,
based on the way you took it, I absolutely understand
why you or any black person would be offended. I
know I damn sure would have been offended if that
was the way I took it. What happened was I
was on the air with Chris Cuomo a half hour
earlier on News Nation. Actually forty five minutes later, I

(01:28:30):
was on the air with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
And we know that Fox News is right leaning and
News Nation is more so left leaning, not as much
as MSNBC, but nevertheless that is the case. What Sean
asked me was about black Trump supporters, not about the
black community. He said, these black there are black Trump

(01:28:50):
supporters out there. Trump Biden is losing support amongst some blacks,
He's losing support amongst some Latinos, He's losing support even
amongst women in the suburbs, et cetera, et cetera. Why
do you think that is? And it was piggybacking off
of Trump saying recently, the blacks who do support me,
because we know ninety percent of us do not support him.

(01:29:13):
And I'm one of those people who's been on the
air religiously reminded everybody of for indictments ninety one counts
to impeachments, lord knows what else, and ain't no way
in hell should I think we should vote for him
because I think that he's going to cause civil war
in this country. I've said that repeatedly, over and over
and over again. So when Sean Hannedy asked me that question,

(01:29:35):
what I was speaking to was the few blacks who
do support him. This is what they're saying to him.
He is right about what they're saying to him, but
this is how everybody took it. So because they took
it that way, I came out and said, whoa, my apologies.
I ain't meaning like that, y'all. This is what I
was trying to say. But I was like, with the understanding,

(01:29:59):
I've been on the record countless times on every damn
platform you can imagine, saying I don't think this man
is somebody that can be supported because this brother's gonna
cause civil war in our country.

Speaker 9 (01:30:13):
But said, even with that said, as much as you
have stood on what you've said in the past, that
one single sentence or one single edit clip moment with
with with with the guy from Fox News. Everyone will say,
forget everything he said now, look where he's at now.
You know what I mean, Excuse me, forget what he
said in the past. Look where he's at now. So
again I applaud you from a standpoint of obviously meaning

(01:30:36):
something a certain way, it was taken another way, because
it's hard to apologize in this space, you know, whether
we're talking politics, whether we're talking sports.

Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
It's kind of a pride thing.

Speaker 9 (01:30:45):
And and and there's not very many who do you
know what I mean. Obviously you have takes that move
weight and move the needle and push the bar, you
know what I mean. So when you say again, when
we speak, when you speak in particularly because I look
at you as kind of you're the head of this
game right now that we're all sports media is in
and you know that the power of your words to sway,

(01:31:06):
to take money away from certain situation, Like your words
are heavy, you know what I mean. I remember back
in the day when Oprah said something when I was
younger about you know, not eating meat and how the
meat companies, you know what I mean. So there's certain
people in this culture and in this world when they
say something and moves, so for you to again mean
it one way, stand on stuff in the past and

(01:31:27):
then this be taken a certain way and to be
able to, you know, correct your wrong and apologize. I
definitely commend you for that, but again not knowing the
whole contact, not knowing the earlier thirty minutes for Como
and then forty five minutes later with who you were
talking to when we see edits, because we watch stuff
in edits now, unfortunately we don't take the time to
watch whole things. So people always there are things that

(01:31:47):
are taken out of context, and for it to be
taken out of context and you stand and apologize, I
definitely commend that.

Speaker 2 (01:31:54):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:31:54):
Listen, man, like I told you before, you this ain't
the first time you caught me on the carpet for
something that I've said. When I've disagreed with something that
you said, I've called you on it. But I also
picked up the phone and caught you. I'll let you
know I was gonna say something. We holler at one another.
And by the way, one of the boys with stacks
that used to do that, yet he on the air

(01:32:14):
with you the other day. I can't even tell you
how pissed I am with his ass. I ain't gonna
lie to you. I mean, I can't wait to see
him because it's like, wait a minute, we've been cool
for years years. Oh yo, Steve stephen A bumped that
hell with steven A saying some bullshit like that, you know,
I ain't the smartest dude in the world, but I'm
the king of common sense. Well wait a minute. If

(01:32:35):
you got something to say, you know my number, you
got something to say, you want to make sure because
remember you didn't go where he went. You disagreed with me.
He sat up there said, I ain't I'm not messing
with steven A. No more like like I've betrayed my race,
I betrayed people. And I'm like, none of us are perfect.
You ain't perfect, Matt, I ain't perfect. I think it's

(01:32:55):
safe to say Stacks ain't. No, he ain't perfect either.
What I mean, what nerve? What nerve? And I'm like,
I thought that he went entirely too far. And I thought,
and I admire you and respect you for coming on
this show because you are my witness. Did I not
reach out to both of y'all and invite both of
y'all on this show, and Stax was the one that

(01:33:16):
Dan answer. Is that not correct?

Speaker 2 (01:33:18):
Yeah? I mean I know.

Speaker 9 (01:33:19):
And this is not to make excuses that I'm looking
forward to you guys actually having that conversation because you
guys have had differences in the past and not agreed
and have been able to talk through them. I know
he's out in Virginia right now coaching the Allen Iverson
game and kind of doing the whole camp, but again,
I definitely think that's something you guys need to have
a conversation about, you know what I mean. We are
a team from all the Smoke group, we're also individuals

(01:33:41):
and grown men. And as I said in that part,
you know, I got a lot of love for steven A.

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
I don't agree with them. Jack had a different.

Speaker 9 (01:33:47):
Approach and and and that's that Jack's approach, And I
think that's what makes us such a good duo is
because we can have different takes and go against each
other or have similar takes, but just take different routes
to get there, you know what I mean. So I'm
not gonna speak on how he feels or what he
thinks or what you guys should conversate about but I
definitely definitely think that, you know, a conversation needs to
be had.

Speaker 1 (01:34:08):
I have people looking at me and going like this, Man,
what the hell you gonna talk to them for? What
you reach out to them for? Man? You know what
you got, your your platform, they got this. That's just
giving them some shine. Here's what they don't realize. I
want you to have, Sean. I think Matt Barnes is
great and I want you to be successful. Stax is
my man, been my man for years. I wanted to
be acts. I want y'all a way. I don't give
a damn how I'm doing. Guess what better or worse.

(01:34:30):
I'm a root for y'all and I've been that guy.
So to me, it ain't about his opinion. It ain't
about his opinion about what he thought I said or whatever. Matt,
it was the writen me off. And I'm like this,
if you're trying to write me off, then you will
never down with me to begin with, good riddans, bump it.
I don't give a shit. And that brings me to
the whole Russell Westbrook situation. Because I'm gonna tell you

(01:34:52):
this right now, ain't no way, ain't no way, I'm
wrong about this. But I'm gonna give you an opportunity first,
Matt Bonnes, because you gotta at me, Stack out at me.
Stack's caught me a snitch. A snitch. I'm gonna show
him the definition of Webster's dictionary. What the hell of
snitch is? The brother from Port Arthur, Texas, you know
what the hell of snitch is? That's the most that's

(01:35:13):
the weakest bs I've ever heard come out of his mouth.
But that's neither here nor dear. What did I do
wrong with Russell Westbrook and y'all estimation? You give me
your thoughts, I'm gonna give you the facts.

Speaker 2 (01:35:25):
So from my yeah, that's what I need.

Speaker 9 (01:35:27):
I need a fast from my understanding, from what I saw,
from what I saw, the clip I saw in the conversation,
I saw again giving him props, giving them respect, recognizing
who you know, his greatness. I just think on the
flip side, and maybe it was the energy in which
the way you presented it, like God, damn it, Okay,
he needs to be, he wants to be. I want

(01:35:47):
him to be, and that was kind of the energy
you were getting up. But when I look at it
from a former player and and people don't know like
I remember early on Steven I'm out in I'm out
in Philly in n O three when you're kind of
getting your feet wet and AI, guys, So I've seen
the progression, the growth all this and to where you
are now.

Speaker 2 (01:36:06):
But like I said, I just think.

Speaker 9 (01:36:08):
You're one of the people who has come up and
been so close to us as players, us as athlete
and us as men off the court in the moment
it went and you said it, But I'm thinking, like damn,
like Steven A is to me and even if other
because when I'm starting I read through the comments, I
know everyone does it. It's journalistic. You just wanted to

(01:36:29):
know the outcome. Maybe it was the energy, maybe it
was the wording. But to me, I'm just like, damn,
I felt like that was out of pot because if
anyone that hasn't played should know how we feel, it's
you and the fact that you went out with there
almost trying to stamp like goddamnit. And I'm not even
validating when Russ did Russ to me, Russ says, I
applaud Russ from a standpoint of Stephen, and he's going
to go down as a first out Hall of Famer.

(01:36:51):
He's done some things and only he's done in the league,
and he's had to reinvent hisself and not everyone from
his stature and his level have been able to success
kind of reinvent themselves and buy into a situation. I
think if one athlete kind of in the last ten
years has taken a lot of hell, Obviously it's brawn,
but I think Russell Westbrook and the negativity and the

(01:37:12):
negative energy has come right behind him. So again not
defending what he was doing, I think he's bought into
his role. Maybe he's a little too physical, maybe it's
just but that's what he is for this Clipper team.

Speaker 2 (01:37:21):
Now, he's a dog, he's a thug. He has to
kind of play that. Not let me take that word
thugway because people take that mind. He's kind of the
dirty work guy. You know.

Speaker 9 (01:37:29):
He's similar to what I had to do in my
career and what I did in my career. So I
felt like, with all that being said, obviously what he
did in the game, again, I'm not condoning what he
did in the game, but I think maybe it was
the energy in which you went to the league office, Like,
why is this dude not suspended?

Speaker 2 (01:37:43):
What was your Like?

Speaker 9 (01:37:45):
I think that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way,
and particularly athletes that mess with you, because, like I said,
if there's anyone who hasn't played that should kind of
have an understanding of how we feel in our vibe
from where you came from. And I see it from
the beginning in Philly, like I said.

Speaker 2 (01:38:00):
You should know. So that's where I was that that
was my point of view on that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:05):
Before I give you the facts about what happened me
and you go back more than twenty years. Has any athlete,
has any athlete you or anybody else ever, ever one
time been in a position to call me a snitch
about anything? Ever?

Speaker 2 (01:38:26):
I personally have not. I can't, I can't vouch. I
can't stand it.

Speaker 1 (01:38:29):
Never happened. Come on, now, we know the call, we
know where it's from. You know, if you're doing something
on public assumption on the basketball court, ain't no damn
snitch stuff that go on off the court. How many
times in our lifetime you've seen me run across a player,
including yourself and others. I know what you're talking about.
I ain't seen nothing, not my damn business. I got

(01:38:49):
nothing to say. You understand, it's understood. It's understood. So
so stack shoes in that word. Oh, we're gonna have
a good discussion about I don't giving shifts in Atlanta.
I don't care La. Wherever we meet up, we gonna
have that discussion he had of pocket with that, he
crossed the line having said that. Let me give you
the facts. Let me be very very clear. I'm unapologetic.
I thought Russell westbrook should have been suspended. Anybody apologizing,

(01:39:12):
I'm not backing up from that once. I thought he
should have been suspended. It was for Kawhy to be hurt.
Death crystallized this for you, and I'm giving you all
the facts. So Russell Westbrooks goes out there, he damned
near closed line one, dude, even though he was going
for the ball. But you know how the league is
today and they could have closed line. And then he's
sitting up there engaging the history onics, acting like he

(01:39:34):
even touched the dude you said when you clearly knocked
him aside his head, albeit unintentionally, right, Denny, After he
does that, he's knocking Luka Doncic to the floor like
you said, we noticed the Stars league, you know, how
protect them? The NBA is for the Stars today compared
to yesteryear. Right. Then at one point you swing his
arm around. You could have dislocated his shoulder. Remember I'm

(01:39:55):
a Knicks fan. Why you why Julius Randam out? Julius
Randa out with the separated shoulder out for this damn season? Okay,
So I took that in consideration. Then after that, Luca
Donca comes over to you, like please, you shove him. PJ.
Washington shoves you in the back. You turn around, you
shove off a referee. You push PJ. Right, you get
ejected from the game. I said, what the hell is

(01:40:16):
he doing in today's NBA game? If that's Draymond Green, who,
by the way, texts me because he felt it was
wrong for me to call the league office because he
didn't understand the context that I was coming from. So
he agreed with you, right, he was like, I say, yo,
had that been you, you out, you out? So what
happened is when he gets ejected from the game, it's

(01:40:37):
a Friday, we don't have NBA count Down that Saturday
NBA Countdown on ABC previewing the MAVs Clippers game we
got coming on in an hour. They said, Russell Westbrook
is not gonna be suspended. The ESPN is like, okay, well,

(01:40:57):
what's the reason for that? I said, let me make
I called Joe Dumas in the league office. Why was
he not suspended? They gave me the reason why. I
went on the air and said, this was their explanation.
He lucky it wasn't me because I would have suspended him.
But this is the explanation they gave makes perfect sense.

(01:41:19):
It's the playoffs. It ateh the regular season. You don't
want the officials decermined in the outcome. But damn Russell
will Kawhi len it out? How could you even put
yourself in that position? And that was the end of it.
What I'm saying, Matt is you are a player. Stax
is a player. I get that. I'm a reporter, not
just the person out. They've been covering the NBA for

(01:41:39):
thirty years. We got NBA Countdown coming on. They wanted
to know why he wasn't suspended because had it been
Draymond to somebody, they might have been suspended. Question asked,
question answered, you move on. I got Gilly from Wallow
and Gilly going the hell off, losing his damn mind,
and I'm like, what yo, y'all, y'all do a podcast

(01:42:01):
I literally covered. They said, you don't work for the NBA. No,
damn it. I work for the network. They got a
both top billion dollar contract with Who's covering the damn game?
That's my job. Why wasn't he suspended. I didn't call
up and say suspended. I didn't call up, as I
said what I said on TV. I didn't call up

(01:42:22):
and say suspend them. I didn't call up and say
you should change your mind.

Speaker 9 (01:42:25):
And I get that, and I'm glad we're getting to
hear the full contest, because to me, it sounds like
you were stuck in the middle of ESPN wanting some
information and you having a direct line to that information.
So the way I took it, and I can't speak
for nobody else, the way I took it was you
went out of your way to call because that's the
kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
Energy you was given.

Speaker 9 (01:42:44):
I'm not even gonna lie to you went at anyway,
like why is he not suspended?

Speaker 2 (01:42:50):
That's how I took it.

Speaker 9 (01:42:52):
So now hearing how the full context of the situation happened.
ESPN one had a question, you guys are coming on air,
you have a reck line to the source, you're calling
in and getting information to kind of report back to
the people.

Speaker 2 (01:43:04):
But again we.

Speaker 9 (01:43:05):
Didn't get that initial explanation, and not to even say
that you have to give it because you don't. But
I understand if it's something that's gonna be controversial, I'm
always get line. Yeah, we're gonna press that line, just
like I would expect you to press the line on
something else. It was the bullshit, So that was kind
of we saw a snidbit of the entire situation.

Speaker 2 (01:43:25):
The world saw that. So I'm thinking, like damn, stephen
Ay is going out.

Speaker 9 (01:43:28):
Of his way to call the NBA office to see
why Russell Westbrook's not suspended.

Speaker 2 (01:43:33):
That shit is crazy. To me. That is crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:43:36):
I think that's that is That is crazy if I
did it that way. But it's not crazy for me
to go on the air and go like this, your
ass should be suspended. I mean, listen, you'll watch TV.
I'd watch him exactly.

Speaker 9 (01:43:51):
I don't think anyone has a problem with you thinking
he should get suspended or not played with war. I
think the issue was taken when you took that next
step insinuating on the why. But again, now I think
the world's gonna hear the situation. You were in the
network asked why, you had a direct line to the
person that can give you the why, and you went
and got that. So to me, that's a whole nother context. Again,

(01:44:12):
I initially explained, I'm thinking you're just on an off
day or chilling and do whatever, Like, Yo, why the
well he's not suspended. I'm just like, damn, that was
out of pocket. But again, getting in full context, now
it makes sense you're thinking he should be suspended and
saying that that's fine because you're not alone thinking that,
you know what I mean. But on the flip side,
we're all thinking you're just on your spare time going

(01:44:33):
asking why this dude is not suspended. And to me, god,
I think that rubbed a lot of former players and
some of the public the wrong way.

Speaker 1 (01:44:39):
Well listen, that's fair, and I'm and what again, What
I appreciate about you is that you're taking that kind
of context and you saying that's fucked up. That requires
an explanation, right, I give you the explanation. That's entirely
different than Stack Joe snitch.

Speaker 2 (01:44:58):
Yo.

Speaker 1 (01:44:59):
If if we were on if we were, if we were
on the corner, he wouldn't have even said something like that. Hell,
you talking about brothers on a corner talk like that
all the time to one another. What if ten of
us were together, how many of us would agree, Matt,
how many of us would agree on anything? It could
be Trump, it could be Westbrook, it could be anything.
How many of us would agree on a particular topic.

(01:45:20):
We certainly would agree about na snitching. I ain't no
question about that. But in terms of a difference of opinion,
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. We all express ourselves.
He trying to act like somebody would be scared to
express himself. I can assure you that that is a lie.
But here's where I go with this. We living in
times right now, because All the Smoke is a big
time podcast. You a Stack with his crazy ass, have

(01:45:42):
done a great, great job. You deserve a lot of credit.
As pissed off as I am with him right now,
I'm still very proud of him and the job that
he's done with you. I know what he means to you.
I know what he means to the show, and damn it,
if we never spoke again, I'm still gonna have love
for him. Let me be very clear about that. But
the flip side is is that you get to a

(01:46:02):
point where when does your reputation and your history matters?
Like I know Matt Bondes, Matt Bonnes, I tell everybody this,
it's a brilliant brother, brother, smart as hell. Don't think
you're gonna be some ignorant ass person and come in
front of Matt Barr's face and think you're just gonna
slice on over his head. You're gonna get your feelings
hurt because the brother know what he's talking about. He's
a smart brother, and everybody know you ain't. No damn punk.

(01:46:25):
When does your reputation? When is your history come into effect?
Because when I think about the podcast world that we're
living in right now, you can read a headline and
cats are engaging in condemnation not about the subject matter,
but about the person. What has happened, and how do

(01:46:46):
you feel about what has happened in terms of it?
As it pertains to the ease with which folks engage
in character assassination.

Speaker 9 (01:46:55):
Stephen A, I think I'm not gonna'm gonna keep it
real with you. I think you have a part to
play in that. I think other people have a part
to play in that. From a standpoint of to me,
we used to have a really difficult job, and particularly
players critiquing people. We used to be brothers or brothers
with former teammates, former colleagues. It used to be more

(01:47:17):
about critiquing. Now, I think there's been a line draw
on the sand and the flip side of it is
now if you say something that is gonna Garners clicks,
whether it be whether you wholehearty believe it, whether it's disrespectful,
or you know it's gonna make good TV, that shit
is rewarded now. That shit is rewarded the loudest, the

(01:47:40):
most disrespectful, sometimes the most ignorant, shit is rewarded now
instead of using our understanding of the game or understanding
of the situation to critique without disrespecting. So I think
media as a whole, and there's athletes in that too,
I feel that have gone on from critiquing, breaking down

(01:48:02):
the game or doing some stuff like that to character
attack again. Russell Westbrook is a perfect example of the shit.
He's been going through the last handful of years. It's
far past his game. It's not about his game. They've
critiqued his family, they critique the man he is. They
critiqued a lot of other shit outside of what he's
paid to do. So I think that media has a

(01:48:25):
big part to play in it. And now it's almost
open seasons because social media and a lot of idiots
have voices that shouldn't have voices, and a lot of
opinions are thrown and said, and a lot of it
is for shock value sometimes, you know, sometimes these people
feel it. But I just missed the days and I
wish it would steer back in the direction of damn,
we got a tough job, but we do have to critique,

(01:48:46):
but we don't have to disrespect this man, or we
don't have to disrespect this woman, or we don't have
to disrespect this anchor like this, But I think the
line has been drawn and it's been crossed, and I
don't know if we'll ever get back to getting just
critiquing analysts. I think it's always going to be taken
and I'm not saying I'm definitely not saying like you
always do this, but I think I said you have

(01:49:08):
done it before, or we've taken shots at individuals as
a man or individuals as a woman instead of critiquing
the you know their craft or their art.

Speaker 1 (01:49:18):
I respectfully disagree, And let me tell you why I
respectfully disagree, because I've had a cardinal rule my entire
career which has enabled me to cultivate the relationships that
I've cultivated. And that is Your personal life is your business,
and your personal stories off for you to talk to
tell your professional life, which is what you perform in

(01:49:39):
front of the masses, that's subject to scrutiny. Me telling
you you played like garbage is not saying you're not
a good man. It's saying that night you play like garbage.
You play like garbage. You know what I'm saying. It's like,
let's when when you had cats calling Russell Westbrook westbritak Yo, Matt.

(01:50:01):
That wasn't me. I never did that. I know what
Russell Westbrook's name mean to him. I heard him talk
about his daughter and you know, his children in the
stands with his wife. I never said that. What I
said was shooting. Ain't your strength, bro, go to the hole.
You don't d ain't no damn three pointers that ain't
your game. Don't be in an NBA finals where you

(01:50:23):
dropping over forty, but you are literally attacking with such
vigor as a shooter that the other guys are sitting
around spectating, and then when it's time for them to shoot,
they ice cold because they ain't touch the damn ball,
and now you can't beat Miami. It's nothing like that,
but God, that's what I'm saying. They take it, though,
but they take it personal, Matt. They take it.

Speaker 2 (01:50:45):
Person and that's my point.

Speaker 9 (01:50:47):
That's on the players because we are in an age
with access and money and everything where if you're critiquing
the game and they played like shit or they played great,
that's the game. But like you said, when you said,
we're talking about us Westbook and you just addressed people
started calling him west Brook and messing with his daughter's
and mess not saying.

Speaker 2 (01:51:05):
That was you, but the media.

Speaker 9 (01:51:07):
Skip Skip Bagas had a big hand to play in that.
And that's why Skip I guess he did. He did
because people are gonna put eventually. Skip was at a
point where people was about to backhand them if they
saw him in public. And I don't think he knows
or or realizes, but I think he's kind of backpedal.
So again, it is people here and there that have
very powerful voices and voices that move the needle that

(01:51:28):
I feel have crossed that line into disrespecting the man
or the woman that instead of critiquing the athlete.

Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
That's right, and that's what I'm saying. I agree with
you on that part. I'm just simply saying that ain't
never been me. Even when you got somebody like Kwame
Brown losing his damn mind, I'm like, yo, I'll talk
about your game, your game, I ain't say nothing about
you personally, Okay, and I stand on that, But in
the end, it's a lot of stuff that goes on
in regards. That's a different subject for another day. But
you have a situation where you got a partner and

(01:51:59):
you hosting the show as brilliant as you are, that
damn Stack is provocative as hell too. And what I
would challenge is Stack is the opposite and not just
of you, but of me and a lot of other people.
In this regard. It's always the player. It's always the
player on the positive side because his attitude is yo.

(01:52:22):
I want to make sure that I'm protective of the players.
I respect that as a former player, but not at
the expense of the truth. Yo, bro, if you watching
the games like we watching the games, you got to
call it when you like you see it. There's winners
and there's losers. This cats that get it done and
cats that don't get it done. There's cats that struggle,

(01:52:43):
and then there are cats who choke yore mad. That's sports.
That's sports. And I think that sometimes he's so interested
in being seen as having that level of street cred
and being a brother that's willing to come to their
defense no matter what, the objectivity goes out the window.
And then you want to villainize somebody else who is

(01:53:04):
objective when it's our damn job to be objective. What
do you say to that?

Speaker 9 (01:53:10):
First and foremost, Jack is my brother. I'm a ride
with him to the wheels fall off. But I don't
always agree with them, and I think that what's that
what makes us in and will literally go to war
with each other for each other, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:53:21):
So let me say that.

Speaker 9 (01:53:23):
And I love him, but we have a different opinion
and a different approach, and sometimes we can have the
same message but different vehicles to get there. Again, I
don't want to speak on what he thinks or the
why or or or the reasoning. That's something you guys
need to have a conversation with. I feel like it will.
I'm I'm always gonna think players first, but I'm also

(01:53:45):
an understanding and real person. As players, we fuck up too.
I mean, I was someone who fucked up a lot
on and off the court, you know what I mean.
So I'm gonna be and I'm and I don't mind
people calling because I've been called on it. I've been
called on it by analysts, I've been called to by
former players, and it kind of is what it is.
So I have to kind of internalize, Okay, did I
really mess up over there? Cool, I'm gonna have to accept.

(01:54:06):
I'm gonna take that a man. Did they put a
story out there that's not true? Now I'm not gonna
ride with that then, So kind of and again, so
I translate that into players.

Speaker 2 (01:54:15):
If we're critiquing the game, Yeah, we got.

Speaker 9 (01:54:18):
To critique the game, and sometimes it's tough and people
have a problem with me. So you're a role player,
da da da da, and you're critique and so and
so and he could do this better. Please, but come on, exactly,
you never even laced the shoes up, so relax. So again,
you know when I said earlier on this conversation, being
a former player having to critique is hard, and I
feel there are some athletes out here who are have

(01:54:39):
been former players that have kind of crossed that line too.
And I don't feel like these guys can call the
homies they used to play with anymore and be like, hey,
what's up or what's kind of get the scoop and
you know, because we all have our insight sources, and
to me, I've always valued that more than giving a
network kind of what they want. And I feel like
sometimes the networks want you to go that extra mile

(01:54:59):
for view using clicks, and I've never looked at it
that way. When I was fortunate enough to work for ESPN,
you know the four plus or you know, three and
a half four years I worked for them, I was
always very content in my space because I knew that
I can give you an in depth analysis from aployer's
point of view and throw some analytics in there. But
I was never willing to really go out there and
disrespect these guys because I know how hard it is

(01:55:21):
to be in the position. Like I was a role
player for fifteen years. I couldn't imagine what it's like,
but I could. I know much more than a regular
pedestrian what it's like to be one of these stars.
So I've never I've always understand it, not just in basketball,
across the board, you know, I think again, we're in
an area now where loud disrespect is accepted instead of
critiquing athletes, which what it used to be. So I

(01:55:43):
don't know if it'll ever go back. I don't know
if I really answered your question, but I know I
touched around it.

Speaker 1 (01:55:47):
You did, You did, You did. But here's the part
that I think you're missing, respectfully, when you're talking about players,
a lot of times you're talking about players against players,
So you're taking aside like you have people out there
that think you're just talking about a player and he's
in an isolated bubble. You ain't talking about nobody else,

(01:56:08):
Like like, for example, when I sit up there and
I say, Kevin Durant sent Kad and Bill and Book
the home was talking shit to them prior to then?
Did it? You see what I'm saying. It's like yeah,
some people are damn he throwing shade on Kevin Durant.
I'm big up in Anthony Edwards. Did you see this brother?

Speaker 2 (01:56:27):
You know?

Speaker 9 (01:56:29):
And not to cut you off, steven A, because it's
like when you talk about the Jordan or the Kobe
or the Lebron comparisons.

Speaker 2 (01:56:35):
You love one, you have to hate the other.

Speaker 9 (01:56:37):
And that's again that's where social media has given everyone
a voice and five and to feel like it's either
one or the other. What the Anthony Edwards said, Anthy
Edwards talking to shit and he backed it up and
he sent KD. Booker and Bill home. That's not disrespecting them,
and if they take it that way, that's more on them.
That's like you said, that's given love that this young
bull who's ready to be the face of the NBA

(01:56:58):
once these og Hall of Famers retired. So again, I
think everything has to be in context and individually how
you want to perceive it, you know what I mean.
Some guys are a little sensitive than others. Some guys
don't give a shit, some guys carol, you know. So
it's to each his own and every individual reacts a
different way. So again, we I think we're all in
a tough spot because we are paid good money to
give our.

Speaker 2 (01:57:18):
Opinion on shit, and people are always going to agree.

Speaker 9 (01:57:20):
And that's okay. You don't have to always agree with me.
But I feel like we can agree without having a disrespect.
Excuse me, we disagree, and you can disagree without having
a disrespect, right.

Speaker 1 (01:57:30):
And remember, you and I have had conversations in the
past where I'm pulling you and I are wrapping to
the side, off air, off mike, off camera, And there's
a role that you get to play that I can
because as as as a member of this fourth the State,
as a media member, I can be as true and
authentic as I can possibly be. But in the same breath,

(01:57:51):
there's just certain places that I can't go to because
I wasn't a formal player, and I know that would
be crossing the line. And so we were like, oh, right,
I can say this, but you got to go there
because I can't. But you can't go here because this
is a place that I could go because I'm detached
from that culture, from that locker room, from that fraternity

(01:58:13):
per se in a way that you're not. So I
can go to a place that you can't go either
because if I said it, well, that's just the media.
If you said it, it's betrayal of another brother. So
all of those things we got to take into consideration
as well. I ask you this question, which is harder
for you right now when you think about the career
that you have now and the subject matters that you

(01:58:34):
touch on. You are also somebody that I happen to
know you've been on this show, your aspirations to be
a politician, being a mayor Sacramento one day, being a governor,
hell with you being a senator, possibly a presidential candiate.
I don't rule anything out with you. As you look
as you discuss this subject with me and what I
said about Trump and the stuff with Westbrook, you juxtapose

(01:58:57):
the sports to the political atmosphere. Which do you prefer?

Speaker 9 (01:59:05):
I prefer life, and I pride myself on educating myself
as much as I can before I speak, because I
feel like all aspects we touch.

Speaker 2 (01:59:14):
I mean, I was a former athlete, great, that was
a small.

Speaker 9 (01:59:17):
Part of my life. So obviously I love sports. I'm
a father, so I'm indulged in that. I've been through
a public divorce, so I've been indulged in that politics
interest me.

Speaker 2 (01:59:27):
At first, it wasn't so much the policy.

Speaker 9 (01:59:29):
It was the former mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, being
a former NBA player and seeing him clean up Oak Park,
you know, the same streets my auntie had her throat
slit and died in the gutter. So I saw that
kind of encouraged me to like, man, I don't really
know what all this policy stuff is, but I see
what he's doing in his hometown and that's beautiful. So
that was kind of where it kind of lit the
fire in my late twenties early thirties. So I like

(01:59:51):
to be versed and understand.

Speaker 2 (01:59:53):
I mean, this.

Speaker 9 (01:59:54):
Politic world and you know, and a lot of people,
it's messy on both sides. And at the end of
the day, you know, this whole entire world, you know,
big United States, we have we only have these two
guys to pick from. And it's crazy now because before
you just used to disagree on policy. Now there's almost
a line in the saying like if you if you
like Trump, you know, a dog whistle blower to hate

(02:00:14):
groups and wants to partner all the June and six
people and calls, you know, minorities thugs and tear it.
So it's just like and then on the flip side,
you got Biden out there falling asleep.

Speaker 2 (02:00:23):
On the world, you know what I mean.

Speaker 9 (02:00:24):
So it's just like, what do we really have to
And if you're on one side or the other, it's
almost like there's real animosity and hate towards the other side.
So politics has always been a very slippery slow But
I think to answer your question, I just try to
be as verse as I can in life because I
feel like I can speak intelligently on a lot of
different levels, but that doesn't come with backlash, criticism, or scrutiny.

(02:00:46):
But at the end of the day, no matter what
you do, some people are gonna like it, like a referee.
Half the people are gonna like it, half the people
are gonna hate it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:52):
So it is just what it is.

Speaker 9 (02:00:53):
So I just try to prepare myself as well as
I could every time I speak on different issues outside
of the bubble that people know me in and try
to get my point across.

Speaker 1 (02:01:04):
I want to get your opinion about what I'm gonna
say about myself, so you understand where I'm coming from
and you'll know for future references which it shows whenever
my name comes up, because chances are it'll come up again.
I struggle politically. I'm gonna be real, straight up and
down with you. I voted for one Republican in my life.

(02:01:26):
That's Governor Chris Christy New Jersey years ago because I
thought that the predecessor was a crook. Okay, that's it.
I've been a consistent voter for the Democratic Party because
the number one thing that they've done for Black people,

(02:01:47):
and my estimation was give us access to capital. That's
something we don't talk about enough when we think about
from things from an historical perspective spanning the last fifty
plus years and what have you, from you know, rights
legislation being put in the law to other things that
have transpired. They've given us access to capital, and there's
an appreciation for that big time because when you talk about,

(02:02:09):
you know, generational wealth, when you talk about economic empowerment.
I think we should look at the Democratic Party as
a Black community and be thankful for the access to capital.
But it's a deeper subject when we think about the
times that have changed, some of the things that have
been said, use utilize, et cetera, et cetera. And the
biggest thing that I have a problem with Matt is

(02:02:30):
I can't stand being transparent in certain in a political sense.
I can't stand everybody knowing exactly what I think, how
I feel, and how I'm going to vote, because I
think that gives one party a license to take you
for granted because they know they got your vote, and
the other party of license to ignore you and say
the hell with you because we don't have your support.
And I believe that's what has led to the disenfranchisement

(02:02:53):
of the black community in this country. That's why a
lot of times I come across as keeping an open mind.
I want to hear what other people have to say.
I want them to know folks are listening and maybe
this maybe they'll try to flatter our community to do
more for us than they've been doing, whatever side that is.
In this day and age, because of Trump and his

(02:03:15):
divisive self, it's almost like we can't take that position
because I'm afraid he's gonna cause civil war in this country.
Other people feel what they're gonna feel about him, and
as a result, you gotta vote against them or else,
you gotta vote for them or else, and that divide
to me is what has us as a community in

(02:03:37):
a quandary because we're no longer the dominant minority. Those
are the Hispanics, the Latinos. We only make up about
thirteen point six percent of the population. That's where I'm
coming from when I'm thinking in terms of just listening
to what other people have to say. If I go
buy a house, I go buy a car, I want
to expect it, I want to look at it. I
want to decide as opposed to being trans parent with

(02:04:01):
what I'm going to do, and I don't think the
Times allows us for that level of transparency.

Speaker 2 (02:04:06):
Thinking I would agree, I would agree.

Speaker 9 (02:04:09):
It's it's it's again. There's been a line drawn in
the sand, and it's you're damned if you do, You're
damned if you don't. If you're if you're a Biden person,
you're you're you're attack for you know, his his mishaps.
If you're a Trump person, you are and in your minority, Like,
how can you you know, support someone who is, you
know again a dog whistleblower to hate you know, the

(02:04:31):
Proud Boys.

Speaker 2 (02:04:32):
He's telling them what stand stand down and stand by,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 9 (02:04:35):
Like, there's just little things he's done, excuse me, big
things he's done to to blatantly, to disrespect and and
and divide this country. I feel like before Trump was
on the pallet, although they're what there was racism.

Speaker 2 (02:04:48):
I think it went to a new level of racism
when he.

Speaker 9 (02:04:54):
Allowed the people who love him the most to kind
of really start having the voice. So I think to
answer your question, Steve, and it's very tough. You know,
when I got into us, I feel like in the
black and brown community, we were never meant to have
a voice or a foot or saying in this space.
We didn't grow up talking about it at the dinner table.
We didn't early, very few of us, very early on,
right when we turned eighteen revote because that's not something

(02:05:16):
we're trying to survive. We're not even thinking outside of
our houses and then outside of our communities. But the
way I kind of started approaching politics early on was,
you know, seeing immediate turnaround, and that's in your your
your local your local cities and and your local states.
I think bite sized pieces are are where it's at
because you'll see some turnaround, immediate turnaround, and that'll probably

(02:05:37):
you know, light the ball, you know, like the you know,
like the fuse to want to explore on a higher level.
So I mean, you're damned if you do. You damned
if you don't in this you know that, this presidential race.
But I just think when you know, when I speak
on parks, I feel like there's so much you can
do on your local, uh city level and state level
to see immediate turnaround and kind of just understand what

(02:05:57):
your community is about what your community need, and that's
where I encourage people to go out and spend most
of their focus. You know, the presidential situation, what Trump
has caused over these last eight plus years as a
complete divide, and it's unfortunate and I don't I don't
see it. Again, I feel like hate is as big
as it's ever been, although it's not like it used

(02:06:19):
to be back in the day. It's hiding out there.
It's in the police officers, it's in government, it's in
the courts, it's it's in the doctors, it's everywhere. It's
in the day to day people. We probably work with
some people who hate us because of the color of
our skin. So I just think we're in a bad
time and I don't see it turning around as long
as Trump's name has continued to be echoed and muttered

(02:06:42):
in whatever fashion I feel you on that?

Speaker 1 (02:06:46):
Is there anything else that you'd like to say about
my positions before I let you go, my brother, Because
I know eventually I'm gonna get a call from you.
I don't know if I'm gonna I don't know if
I'm gonna answer to that call. I don't know since
he didn't answer mine, but I'm gonna answer yours. I'm
only playing. You know.

Speaker 2 (02:07:02):
I got a lot of love for you, steven A.

Speaker 9 (02:07:03):
And that's all some real shit, because again, our journey
is twenty plus years and agree we always don't have
to agree with what each other said, but you've always
been somebody who's willing to have that conversation, whether you've
been right, whether you've been wrong, whether you feel you've
been right and then you found out you were wrong,
You're willing to have that conversation. And I just think
that's something that people can grow from, because again, I

(02:07:24):
think it's where we're always at each other's next, whether
it's media versus athletes, athletes versus athletes, media versus media,
presidential versus we're always at each other's next and instead
of understanding that a conversation can solve change the world,
the conversation can solve anything. So I definitely want to
salute you because you've always been willing to have that conversation.

Speaker 1 (02:07:45):
I'm always respect that. I'm always here for you, man.
Got a lot of love for you. Men. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (02:07:50):
Bro.

Speaker 1 (02:07:51):
When how often does All the Smoke on these days? Man?
I mean.

Speaker 9 (02:07:55):
Where every Thursday on All the Smoke Productions YouTube and
Draft King's Network. Every Monday we will release Unplugged, which
is a weekly show spin around the culture. And then
Friday night we TV seven pm Pacific The Barnes Bunch.

Speaker 2 (02:08:09):
If you miss it there, you can stream it on
All Black.

Speaker 1 (02:08:13):
Maybe we did listen.

Speaker 2 (02:08:14):
I watched it.

Speaker 1 (02:08:14):
I watched the episode of Barnes. But you're not bad, bro.
I like what I'm saying, Bro, I mean, you got
some potential, my brother, you got some potential, no doubt. Oh,
by the way, before I let you go, you heard
the news Darvin Ham got fired as head coach of
the Lakers.

Speaker 9 (02:08:29):
Within that great dudes, great dude, Uh, the coach has
got to be the fall guy. I mean, obviously, I
think as a head coach, and I told him that
Darvin is my guy. He was an assistant with the
Lakers back in the day when I was there with
Cob But I told him this is gonna be the
hottest seat he's ever sat on. Good Dad, You're going
to be talked about every single day. So I think
he's probably learned a lot about hisself and where he
needs to get better as a coach. But the coach

(02:08:49):
is always going to be the fall guy. It's not
going to be, you know, poorly constructive roster. He's not
going to be the only fall guy. I think Bolgul
might fall in Phoenix and that's going to be another
fall guy. You got to start putting more press on
management to make these these decisions, because again, coaches, when
I came in the lead steven day, coaches had a
lot of power because players weren't making the money they
are now. Players are making astronomical money, and the coach

(02:09:11):
will always be the fall guy. So I wish Darbingham
the best, Lucky.

Speaker 1 (02:09:15):
How did you feel about Anthony Davis. I thought Anthony
Davis's comments in the post game conference so they field
his fate where you're like after Game two where he
said we were a bit disorganized. We didn't seem to
know what we're doing. When you make that statement, that
to me is when I said Darvin Hams. I knew
it at that moment that Darvin han was going.

Speaker 2 (02:09:36):
You know, especially a player of his caliber.

Speaker 1 (02:09:40):
No question, I don't think Toddler should staying with the
Clippers personally. I mean, he's got one year to go.
I probably knowing him, he probably wants out. I don't
know if they'll let him out. If Todd lu had
was on the market, what's the best situation for him?
Phoenix or La Lakers?

Speaker 9 (02:09:59):
I mean, and I think he would probably want to
go to the Lakers. I mean, that's that's down the hallway.
Who doesn't want to come?

Speaker 2 (02:10:04):
I'm asking you, in your basketball.

Speaker 1 (02:10:07):
Expertise, what your basketball expertise, looking at the roster on
both squads, what do you think would be the best
situation for a ty Lou between those two selections.

Speaker 2 (02:10:16):
I think both rosters have good teams, but they're bad
rosters overall. I would I would go down the hallway.

Speaker 9 (02:10:24):
I will go down the hallway because it's going to
be a uh you get more credit and more opportunity
and more accolades. If you're able to turn the Lakers around,
then turn uh the Phoenix Suns around. And he's worked
with Bron, you know. Obviously Bron's features up in the air.
We don't really know what he's going to do, but
he's worked with Bron successfully before, so very inch. I'm
also here, my brother J. J. Reddick is getting some
nods and and and one of the most brilliant minds

(02:10:46):
I've ever been around, So definitely looking forward to him
for him to land somewhere soon. So uh, it's always
gonna be a hot seat with the Lakers. I think
t Lou knows that because he's played there and he's
been coaching down the hallway for a little while.

Speaker 2 (02:10:58):
But he could definitely handle it.

Speaker 1 (02:11:01):
All right, Matt Barnes love you. Appreciate you, Bro. Thank
you for coming on the show and talking to me
over these sensitive issues. I appreciate you listening to me.
Thanks a lot, Bro, no doubt. Bro, have a good day,
all right, you too, the one of only Matt Bonnes
right here on the Stephen A. Smith Show over the
digital airwaves of YouTube. You heard what he had to say,
You heard what I have to say it is what
it is. I know where I stand, I know what

(02:11:23):
I said, and I understand how it could be misinterpreted.
But at the end of the day, it's my responsibility.
I get paid to speak for a living, and I
have to make sure that I am somebody who is
speaking with the level of clarity that my position demands,
so I don't have to have these hiccups. My issue, however,

(02:11:43):
was that you disagreed disagree with me, which was what
Matt Barnes did based on the information that he received.
But for Stack Stephen Jackson, who's been my boy for years,
to sit up there and talk about he don't f
with me, to call me a snitch for doing my job.
Russell Westbrook was on a basketball court. This ain't something
that happened in the prophecy of his home. I covered

(02:12:04):
the league for a living. It's my job to speak
to the NB. I didn't call to get him suspended.
I already told y'all I thought he should have been suspended,
but I didn't call them to suspend him. I mean
for him to talk about me like that. For Bacari
Sellers and the dl Hughgle's of the world, Karen Hunter,
my sister. I mean, it's I've taken a lot of

(02:12:26):
stuff I really really have, and I could really really
go in on a lot of people, but that's kind
of productive because the reality of the situation is, I
don't know Bacari sellers at all. Okay, in the case
of d l Hugely, I've met him a few times,
but that's my frat brother, rute dog omegasi file all
day every day. I can't believe that he just talked
about me like that.

Speaker 2 (02:12:47):
But that's all right.

Speaker 1 (02:12:48):
He gotta live with that.

Speaker 2 (02:12:49):
You do what you gotta do.

Speaker 1 (02:12:50):
That was unfortunate, But Stephen Jackson and I go back
years years. Matt Bonds and I go back over twenty years.
Draymond Green, Hell, Draymond Green then, like what I said,
Draymond text me. That's why I love him so much.
He had an issue I ain't hear from nobody else.
I heard from him. He called me, he texted me,

(02:13:11):
rather told me exactly where he stood how he felt
based on the information he received. And Karen Hunter, I'm
not gonna lie to y'all, almost cried. I couldn't believe
that a person was like a sister to me that
I've known for thirty two years, that wrapped her arms

(02:13:36):
around me today. My professional career started as a journalist
and taught me how to write. Who was behind me?
When my mother's casket was being lowered into the ground,
I could not believe that there were people on her show,

(02:13:57):
her namesake, talking smack about for three hours. You couldn't
talk junk about Karen Hunter on my show for thirty seconds.
It wouldn't happen. But you know, we get over it.
Everybody do what they gotta do. That's the way it goes.

(02:14:18):
I've said what I had to say. I appreciate Matt
Bondes coming on the show. I appreciate y'all for listening
and watching. I hope y'all enjoyed this episode. I thought
it was very enlightening. I hope y'all found it to
be the same. I wish y'all all a wonderful, happy, prosperous,
healthy weekend. And I will be back, although from a
different location, next week, so you'll see me then go

(02:14:42):
New York, Go New York, Go my New York Knicks.
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah year. But we'll talk more about
that when the weekend's over. I tell letting everybody this
is stephen A signed off peace and love,

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