Stephen A's Take: TNT Competition: Kenny Smith shot left-handed. Worked for Stephen A.

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

Support the show: http://www.youtube.com/@stephenasmith

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
The first round of five O five, how's anna leave?
He ain't make a shot yet? Four one on steaming?
Ah my, I got three lacks. Hey, he gotta he
gotta shoot with all the places. Come on, what's up

(00:31):
on steamer? Oh? Get the money? Talk about Look at
him concentrating three one? Hey, that's it. That's away Smith.

(00:56):
That was yours truly Saturday in Vegas. Responded to that
free throw shoot each viallenge from my brother Kenny Smith
at TNT. Kenny decided to shoot with his left hand,
and that essentially sealed his faith against ware as I
won three to one. Listen, y'all, it's all in fun.
I mean, you know, come on, man, you know it's
free throw shooting contests and stuff like that. Sort of
bricks we were laying when we shoot from threes, right,

(01:17):
But I tell you this much. That's because first of all,
we practice indoors, and we only practiced on the free throws.
Didn't know we were gonna be outside. And then when
we go outside, it looked like the damn rim was
eleven feet instead of ten feet high, and the three
point line looked back. I mean, it reminded me when
I went on the first on the mound for the
Yankee Stadium for the first pitch, I mean, looked like
a damn mile away for crying out loud. And I
shot three air balls, just like everybody else did. Shock

(01:40):
shot airballs, Kenny shot airballs, Ernie Johnson shot airballs. Charles
Barkley definitely shot airballs. Okay, but I hit one. But
I would have hit more if I warmed up a
little bit more. But it's cool. It's cool, but you know,
this basketball is not baseball, so I wasn't worried about it.
I just knew that I had to make shots because,
I mean, after the first pitch fiasco, I couldn't go
out there and shoot the free throws and not show up.

(02:02):
But in all seriousness, I want to give props to
the whole TNT Cusie. They come to ESPN next year,
and I can't speak for everybody else, but I'm ecstatic
that they're doing that. I'm ecstatic that they're doing that.
You know what, As I've said, you know, listen, ESPN
and Disney. I mean, listen, I've been there for the

(02:22):
last twenty years or so, okay, and I've had a
phenomenal relationship with all of those guys as I've set
on many occasions, all right, and so for me, it's
just about looking at them. I just wanted to say
Kenny did me a favor, all right, because if he
shot right handed, he probably would have smoked me. He's
a career eighty three percent shooter, all right. He's an
NBA two time NBA champion. I know my lane. His

(02:45):
brother Vincent taught me how to play for crime. Now, lie,
I know better. Kenny Smith is Kenny Smith. So people
looking at him and acting like I legitimately beat him.
I made my free throws. Okay, that's really all that's
good out of this. The man shot left hand next time,
he ain't gonna give me that kind of book break.
I know this, all right, So I appreciated it. I
had a lot of fun, but I just got a
lot of love for them. We all go back decades,

(03:06):
and so to have that, to be on tn T
with those guys having that kind of fun, I just
can't say enough about what an experience it was, and
I just wanted to thank them for it. Right, It's
all in fun, and nobody walking around here with some
big head just because I hit three free throws were
crying out lot. Even though it was pressure, it was
on national television. Everybody was watching, and had I miss,
I wouldn't hurt the end of it. So I did
respond to the pressure of the moment. I would give

(03:28):
myself credit for that, but not for beating Kenny Smith,
who rolled left handed. I know better, y'all. I know better.