October 4, 2025 • 39 mins
Recorded: February 9, 2024 | On this episode of Best of the Bus, the boys sat down with the leader at ESPN — the man who put the entire network on his back — Stephen A. Smith. Stephen chopped it up with the boys about his start in broadcasting and how he grew comfortable critiquing professional players. He shared insight into his relationships with athletes and the challenges those have brought over the years. Stephen A also explained why he knows he’ll remain number one at ESPN, even with the addition of The Pat McAfee Show. It was an episode full of great conversation, unique perspective, and a real look into the life of Stephen A. Smith. Enjoy, fellas.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tell you want to kick it off.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Busting
with the Boys. Very special guest today. The legend if
you've been turned on ESPN every probably in your entire life,
you've seen this man sitting in front of you giving takes,
going at people, having absolute receipts for everything. Mister Stephen Asmith.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
What's going on, fellas? How y'all toing? How y'all doing?
Man good to be here, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Living the dream and we're happy you came on. We
actually just saw you an hour ago doing a little
hit on ESPN. I will tell you this, it is
a very unique thing doing real TV because it's so
fast paced.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It is it is. It's fast paced, and in our
case is live. So you mess up, you mess up,
you know what I mean? And ain't like somebody's going
to say, we don't even have a seven second delay,
so you know, an any kind of hiccup that takes place,
you could say the wrong word, the wrong thing or whatever,
you can gind yourself in trouble. So that's the pressure
that comes along with doing live television.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
But I like it, so it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
How do you manage to keep your level of enthusiasm
work ethic with every thing you're doing. You're also now
in the podcast space, which is a massive one, by
the way, and shout out, shout out your boy Bailey's here.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I followed him a while. I know he kind of.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Does a lot of your stuff, but he does. How
do you manage all of that stuff?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, y'all do what you love. That's number one. I
don't have a job. I have a career. I've often
said when I give speeches and lectures, I say a
job is doing what you have to do to sustain
or elevate your quality of life. A career is doing
what you want to do, and it just so happens
to do those things. But I also think the pressure
of covering sports contributes to that kind of mentality. You know,
you guys played in the NFL. You got guys I'm
(01:33):
covering to play in the NBA, Major League Baseball, professional boxes, UFC, fighters,
et cetera, et cetera. These are the best in the world.
And when you consider the fact that you not only
didn't do what they did on.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
That level, but it was because you couldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yet you get to sit in judgment of how they performed.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
How receptive folks should be to how.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
They perform, how receptive people should be to your commentary
about it.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Then you owe it to everybody.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
To make sure that you put forth a full fledged
effort with passion and enthusiasm to let everybody know not
only are you not playing around, but you care that much.
And so that's the very least that you can do.
And that's what I try to bring to the table.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
When you're fighting through that process of knowing that these
guys are playing at the highest level, doing their thing
at the highest level, and you are saying there in judgment,
how was the process for you as far as like
feeling comfortable with putting out a judgment knowing you essentially
haven't done what they did.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
You know, it was easy for me in this regard.
I remember when I started out in the business and
I had a clerical position at the Winston Salem Journal
newspaper in Winsters Salem, North Carolina, because I went to
Winston Salem State University, which is in historically black college
and university. And I went there and the sports editor
(02:49):
of my first week on a job sent me to
Wake Forest University, right down the road. Wake Forest was
the number three ranked team in the nation in soccer.
The only soccer match I had ever watched was Pele
in the nineteen eighty Olympics for the you you know
of I guess right, And so what happened is that
(03:09):
I knew nothing about soccer, and I went to the
coach who's now.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Deceased, God rest his soul.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
His name was walk Chisowich, and I walked up to
him and I say, I know absolutely nothing about soccer.
I've never covered it on anything, sir, but the boss
sent me over here to do a feature on you guys,
and I don't know what I'm doing, but I really
want to be a sports writer.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Could you help me?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
And he summoned the entire team over and he said,
for the next three days, because my piece was doing
a week.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
He said, for the.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Next three days, you guys are to give complete unadulterated
access to Stephen. To Stephen, any question he asked you
answer and he said you Steven. Meanwhile, every single practice
of every day this week, you will be standing right
next to me. And he talked me the game of soccer.
And then when I finished the piece, which ultimately had
(04:05):
the sports that it to call me into this office
the next day and say, congratulations, you're the new beat
right of a wait for a soccer. When I went
to the coach after that and let him know, he
said to me, what do you think you've learned? What
do you think you should have learned? I said, listen
and learn. He said, you didn't play soccer, but you
(04:26):
learn from those who do. And as long as you
do that, then you're in a position to critique any
of us because the knowledge that you're getting is not
of your own, it's one that was provided to you.
And as long as you make sure you articulate that,
you will be respected because they know the lens that
(04:46):
you're looking through is not that of your own, it's
of ours. And I carried that with me for the
rest of my career.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
How was it when you started to get those close
personal relationships with athletes you're obviously covering and now you are. Yeah,
I mean you're obviously ser for starting out and everybody
knows you. But as you're growing and then getting those
closer relationships with guys and then having to go on
TV and talk about, you know, stuff that as an
athlete you know, is like personal to you? How did
you start to balance that?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
As The parts about your performance never phaze me because
you perform in a public platform, so the games themselves
speak for themselves.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
You shoot two for twenty, it's on you.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
You throw three.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Interceptions, that's on you. You fumbled three times or whatever. You
get burned and you're a cornerback and somebody catches to
over two hundred yards on you. Okay, that's on you.
I mean, there's nothing I can do for you. And
that is what it is. And I don't give a
damn about how you feel because that was in a
public setting and you put yourself on front Street, and
that's what you have.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
To deal with.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
It's the behind the scene stuff subject to interpretation and perspective,
or the personal stuff that I'm very, very guarded about
because what happens is is that if I have a
relationship with you, the assumption is that there's a trust.
How do you become friends with people you do? You
become friends with people you have no trust for, you
don't believe in at all. You think every word out
(06:03):
of their mouth is a damn line. No, that's not
what you do. Usually you cultivate these relationships, and there's
an affinity for one another and a level of trust
that's built. So when somebody comes with a different perspective
than the person you have a relationship with and it's
an opposition to what they're saying to you, it can
get tricky, and at that particular moment in time, you
have to remind that friend, that person who's become a
(06:25):
friend that you've cultivated a.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Close relationship with.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Look, I've got an obligation to be fair even if
I know or I believe you and I think they
may not be telling the truth. They're saying this for
the record now off the record. I ain't gonna do
that to you. But if they say to you on
the record, you know what, he ain't shit, he's a liar.
This is what he did, and blah blah blah. It's
not like I can make up a quote.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I gotta quote him. That's what he said. I gotta
give it to them, okay, and give you an opportunity
to respond.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
So it can get challenging in that regard, but that
really calls for you to remind somebody of your professionalism,
your ethics, the responsibility that comes along with the job
title that you have, and it also serves as a
reminder to that person that trusts you, why did you
trust me to begin with? Because I exercised those same
principles and cultivating the relationship I did with you, I
(07:16):
can't go against it just because you're a man.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I can't do that.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
And I've had those situations of my career before, confronted
by those kind of things, whether it be Alan Ivsen,
Kobe Bryant, Shaquille or Neil Michael Jordan himself.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
The list goes on and on.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
You certainly have had those things where people have given
their different perspectives aside for that would be different from
something that they said to me or whatever.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
And that's the challenge that you have to deal with.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
But when you're known as being straight up and up
and up, what you learn to find from professional athletes
that they appreciate most is.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Not being blindsided.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
They see you coming, you know, they ain't open the
paper or turn on the TV the next day and
utterly shocked by what you're doing. And I think the
greatest example of that was Isaiah Thomas when he was
the head coach of the New York Nicks. They looked horrible,
and there was a game in which they lost by
forty five to Boston and Boston, and it was the
(08:09):
most emotional that I had ever been in my career
because I actually called him up and I almost started
crying because he's the person that granted me my first
ever interview as a reporter, and I had to call
him to let him know tomorrow, I'm calling for you
to be fired.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Oh damn, because it was that bad.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
It was that bad, and I knew that he had
a lot going on on a personal level. His mom
was dying, and you know, he wasn't all there with
the New York Knicks at that particular, so much stuff
that was going on in his personal life that he
had to deal with that it really didn't give the
ideal example of what he was capable of doing as
a coach. But the situation had regressed to such a
(08:49):
point nobody worth their salt could support him staying on board.
And I had to call him to let him know,
this is what I'm doing tomorrow. And he said to me,
do what you gotta do. Bro, I understand.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
And is that a common thing for you when do
you have a relationship with somebody and that it goes
downhill in a certain way where you give them a
call and you let them know. This is how I'm
about to go about business.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I'm the kind of person even if I don't have
a relationship with you, if I know you and I
know I can get in touch. If I know you
well enough that I can get in touch with you
and I have something to say about you, I'm.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Gonna call you.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I'm that guy. I'm not that guy that's on TV.
But never like when you don't see me in the
locker room and stuff anymore. Blame ESPN. You got me
doing every damn show. So you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
I'm on a half hours.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
You know, I gotta travel to this city that city.
I can only do but so much. But everybody that
knows me knows I've always had that reputation. I will
show up to the games. I will show up to
the locker rooms. There are times when people would see
me lurking on a basketball court and they'd be like,
who does he think he is? Like he's walking around
the court before the games when guy's on the layup line.
(09:53):
They didn't realize the reason I did that is because
I knew I had a national television platform, and I
knew that I didn't have to be that beat right
with a bunch of reporters surrounding your locker after a
game or something like that, but you might want to
holler at me. So I wanted to be in their vicinity,
so if they wanted to speak to me, they can
either come over and speak to me, or come over
and say, look, call me later, or plan on meet
(10:14):
me at this spot later or whatever so we can talk.
It was my way of giving them that kind of
access to me in case they wanted to reach me.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
In those in those like UH, in those situations like
when you're closer guys have there has there been a
relationship of yours that has been burned because of uh?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Alan Joverson and I didn't talk for eight months. And
this is when I was the beat writer. Like for
those that don't understand, when you're the beat writer, wherever
the team goes, you go every single day, every single practice.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
You gotta cover the team.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I was covering the Philadelphia seventy six ers and Alan
Iverson and I went eight months without talking and the
only time we talked, well, a couple of times where
he was like fuck you and I like fuck you too,
Like literally, it was like that you said it back
to him, right, get right?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
I did, you know? Because that's how I felt at
the time, because I felt he was wrong, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
But ultimately a friend of his that ultimately was killed
the years later, believe it or not, literally got us together.
And how do we get together? He had me meet
him at the club at two o'clock in the morning.
And I met him at the night club and a
looking at me like I was crazy because I showed
up by myself. I said, I'm here. I said, I'm
here by myself. I said, cause I can be. But
(11:26):
more importantly, I'm right. I did not do anything wrong,
you did, you know? And we had a discussion and
we were fine.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
What was he claiming that you did wrong?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
He was writing some articles, some article that I had written.
He felt that I should not have written it because
I didn't have all the facts that I didn't get
his side, And I was like, you mean after trying
to reach you for three days, you mean, after trying
to talk to you, You mean coming to Fridays, coming
to the club, you know, hollering at your friends and
(11:56):
all that I'm like you knew I was looking for you, said,
your inaccessibility doesn't get to determine my productivity. I'm going
to do my job. I reached out, I tried to
find you. You weren't available. If you were available, I
would have told you everything. You would have given me
your perspective, and it might have altered my content. You
(12:17):
weren't available, and you thought being inaccessible was going to
prevent me from doing my job.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
Well it didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Lesson learned. Make sure when I'm trying to reach you,
I reach you because I'm not.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
How can I put this fellas? I mean, I got
a good life. Now.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You know, you make a little paper, and you know
life is cool. You know it's a right.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
But I was never one of those nerdives dudes that
needed my career to have a life. I always had
a life, excuse my language. I always have shit to do, okay,
for my own individual pleasures, okay. And I got better
things to do with my time to chase your ass
around for a story. So if I'm looking for you,
(13:04):
and I'm looking for you, and I'm looking for you
at some point in time, you better hope I'll find
you if you want to have some influence over the
kind of things that I'm going to say, and if you.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Avoid me for too long, that's at your own peril.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Now it's changed now because now I'm on national television
and so and we live in the age of streaming
in the digital stratosphere.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
So you know, if you're in the morning, then.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
You're getting two hundred and fifty three hundred thousand viewers.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
That's considered good. Well, I'm doubling up on that.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
We've been number one for twelve years with a flagship
show for the network, the worldwide leader. We're number one
every day and so I don't have to worry about
people watching us now. And then, on top of it all,
in the digital stratosphere, me myself and I by myself
generate over two billion views annually. You're going to see me,
(13:58):
You're going to hear me. Do you want to have
some influence over what I say or not? If you
talk to me, I have no problem. I have an
obligation ethically to listen to what you have to say
and to make sure, even if I disagree with you,
that the context that you are providing is accurately display.
(14:18):
If you don't talk to me, that's your damn problem.
Owe you nothing. I owe you, absolutely positively nothing. All
I have to say is whatever I want to say.
I tried to reach him for comment, he was unavailable.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
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Speaker 2 (15:34):
Back to the episode, when you're established yourself doing all this,
how did you establish relationships with these athletes and also
stay as unbiased as possible and become a straight shooter.
When did you start to realize, Okay, I'm finally getting
the reputation of who I actually am, and I feel
I can be more free to be myself.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Well from day one, I always let them know, don't
look for any pity from me when it comes to
your game, because everyone's watching. If I'm sitting there and
I'm talking to y'all right now and we're having a
private conversation, that's between us, and I can interpret it
and I can we can discuss it, and I can
(16:14):
shut up about it, go on my merry way, and
it's between us. But with these cameras rolling with the
world watch and I can't help you. What you say
is what you say, What you own is what you own,
And it's the same principle when you're watching these guys perform.
And so the first order of business is for me
to let them know that I'm going to be incredibly
objective in calling out.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
What I see on the basketball court.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
But there are other things that I do, and this
is where the relationship really elevated. I'm from the streets
of New York City. No, I didn't smoke weed, but
I know about getting high because I was surrounded by
it all my life. I was surrounded by drugs all
my life. I was surrounded by violence all my life.
I was surrounded by folks party and all my life
all of this other stuff. So all of the things devices,
(16:59):
the temptation and everything like that. I'm a street wise brother.
I kind of know. So if you show up to
a game, I don't need a test to know if
you hide. I'm looking right at you. I know if
you hie, I know if you drunk. And then when
you dig the way that I dig, because remember, I'm
a beat right at the time. So you get to
(17:21):
know everybody, And this is what people don't realize about
few people that are beat writers.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
With a beat writer's.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Nature, you don't only just know the athletes, the coaches,
the player personnel, directors of scouts.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
They value.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
You know their families, You know their friends, you know
their hanger ons, you know their associates, you know all
of that stuff. So just imagine that you're covering sports
and you're dealing with twenty year olds and late twenties
and early thirties, and imagine the stuff that you're making,
all of this money and the stuff that you might
find yourself getting into because you know, you live in
a life that most people don't get to live.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Think about the trouble that brings. You think I didn't know.
You think I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
You got traded because you were fucking the same girl
as the coach, and the coach wanted you gone. You
think I didn't know that the coach couldn't stand you
because you tried to came on. You tried to come
on to his wife, and his wife was interested. Do
you think that I don't know that you really really
can't stand this dude, because guess what, you wouldn't trade
with this team because that former executive used to screw
(18:21):
around with your wife and you didn't want anybody to know.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That's why.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
When you remember, if you recall when we were doing the.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Whole Boston Celtics thing where emil U Doka got pushed
out because of a consensual relationship with somebody.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
You saw me going.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Ballistic because I was like, oh, that's the first time
that happened. I've been in this business for thirty years.
Ain't a year that went by that I don't know
about people screwing around in the office. It's always happening,
like always, But this guy is the one y'all.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Gonna bust Now.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
That pissed me off because I'm like, there's a code
and what I didn't want to say, but I will
say any damn way because I'm still getting pissed off
about it just thinking about it. It was almost like
it's like, wait a minute here, you know, did I
bring up the black element? Sure, because there's a whole
bunch of white dudes the last time I checked, y'all
like sex too. You don't saying nobody's telling you on
(19:15):
y'all have it, nobody's tying that to damn right, Ain't
nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
So the point is, So the point is I get it.
I get it. But what really ticked me off as
well as that.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
There's certain codes like if you without getting into details
because I don't want to get sued you kind of
know that the person that he was with had connections
to somebody else within new organization?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Can I say that?
Speaker 3 (19:44):
So I'm going like this now, is that not the
epitome of weakness?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
As men? Your woman?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
There's nothing around with somebody allegedly right, and you victimized
in him? Well, he wanted to relationship with you, she was,
but he victimized.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
But you're still probably with that person.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Really now, I'm saying that as men, we would call
a dude out for that. We'd be like, yo, b
it's pretty damn weak. I mean, if you couldn't handle
your business, you couldn't handle your business. But as wrong
as he might have been, unless he was your friend
or brother, whatever, he ain't owe.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
It to you. You understand saying she did. But they
called him out.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
And I didn't want to go nuclear at that moment
and say that, but that's what I was thinking, like,
you know, you got to be pretty damn weak to
be instigating this kind of shrapnel against that guy because
you didn't handle your business.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
You know, I'm not fault.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I'm not saying she wasn't wrong and he wasn't wrong
or whatever, but there was another element to it that
came with it that you saw there was a level
of victim of then dictimness and hostility aimed solely at
him who was not married and he wasn't involved with you,
So why is he the one suffering more than anybody else?
(21:13):
That's where I was coming from, And those kind of
perspectives you get from seeing a lot and being around
a lot and covering sports and seeing a whole bunch
of things that go on. That was the stuff that
that noise away at me because I look for consistency.
I want fairness. It doesn't matter whether it's right wrong, whatever,
I understand it. We could debate that, we can debate
(21:34):
it or whatever, but consistency needs to be the order
of the day when we're doing this. And that's what
I try to bring.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
When you talk about you brought the code.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And obviously it's easy sitting as Steven A Smith right
now to go, but when you're a beat writer just
trying to scratch and claw for that interview and you
know things are going on and you could it'd be
very easy for you to get way more clicks or
way more whatever by saying, hey, so and so is
cheating with so and so or whatever philandering was going
on in this facility?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
How did you figure out the code?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Like? How quickly do you learn that this code exists?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well, for me, it's a personal decision. My personal morals
and ethics are different than other people. Fellas, there certain
lines I'm just not crossing. I don't know y'all from
a cannapign I'm just meet y'all, happy to get to
know y'all.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Show all the time. I've watched a couple of times.
Y'all do a great job.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Man, I could see you doing something that I might
deem to be unethical as it pertains to your personal
relationship with somebody.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Man, ain't none of my damn business.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I might not like it, I might hold it in,
but I'm not diming you out. I'm just not doing it.
It's none of my business. Now you're on a football field,
you play like garbage. That's different. You know what I'm saying.
I'm gonna say that, and by the way, and by
the way, and by the way and by the way.
If you do that, because we've seen people. I've seen
(22:55):
people show up the games and you look sluggish. The
audience didn't know you was screwing somebody two hours ago.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
But I did because I knew her. You see what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
So I'm not gonna tell on you, but I'm gonna
go like this. I don't know what was wrong with him.
He seemed a bit slow, you know, the legs did
seem to be there. You know, my way of letting
him know, Man, I know what you did. It's a
matter with you. You couldn't wait till after the game, you know.
That's how I've done or a guy that you know what,
you're on a source a little bit. You' drinking a
(23:32):
little bit too much alcohol. You know he's supposed to
be doing that. You're supposed to do that the night before,
not an hour, but not the hour before.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
The game, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
And I'm like, I'm looking at you like, you know,
you didn't seem like yourself.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
You seemed a little bit off kilter.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
And you know they raised the eyebrow because they know
what I'm alluding to the audience, does it? You see
what I'm saying. But I'll do stuff that's to let
him know. Yeah, I could, but I'm not. But don't
think I don't know. Come on, man, do your job.
Do your job and then afterward live your life. And
so you know, I've been doing stuff like that, you know,
throughout my career. The difference between me now and then
(24:08):
you got some of these athletes can't stand my ass,
hate my ass, whatever case may, because they see me
on TV.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
They don't have a relationship with me.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
For the reason why is because I'm stuck in studio
and I can't get to the games the way that
I used to as many gigs. I used to go
to like two hundred, like one hundred and twenty hundred
and twenty five games a year. Now I have to
cut that in half because of my schedule. But the
reason why they could feel that way now compared to
the way they were before is because before this was me,
I'd roll right up into the locker room.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
You seem like you got a problem. What's up?
Speaker 3 (24:36):
You can't possibly have a problem, How could you possibly
have a problem?
Speaker 4 (24:40):
You know, what the hell you did? You know?
Speaker 3 (24:43):
And I would roll up on them like that. I
remember years ago, mad love and respect for John Wall.
But John Wall I was doing first take. John Wall
walked up and he was like, you know, I just
wish cats like you know, Stephen nay, you know, you know,
say something on TV. Be man enough to you know,
come to the locker room knowing good and damn well.
(25:04):
I couldn't get to Washington that day. Man brother said
that stuff. Man, I took off my microphone a good
commercial break.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
I flew to DC. I was in front of his
locker that.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Night, like what like, I'm scared to do my job.
It's not not talking about no fighting or anything. You're
acting like I'm scared to do my job. This is
my job. I am not scared to do my job ever. Ever,
this is my job. Personal stuff is beyond the scope
of the job. That's all that's that's wrong. You know,
(25:33):
somebody disrespecting your family member, your girls are no. No,
you want you want to bust ass, can't have that
because you violating codes.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
But me just doing my job.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
If you can't play, you can't play.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
You play like garbage. You play like garbage. You messing up.
You're messing up me scared to do that.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Anybody that implies that they're gonna see me in front
of that locker room, they're gonna see me in front
of that I'd walk in the middle of the Dallas
cowboyd locker room after a game. If they said something
like that about me, you got to be crazy, because
that's the job and I'm never going.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
To be scared to do my job.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Your first big break getting in the national television can
you talk about that? And then also seeing it transcend
into what it's become, and obviously the.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Spotlight of Stephen A. Smith.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
But when was your first big break on when you
do hit that national television scene.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I think when people would say when it was CNNSI,
which was a big deal because I was on the
NBA show on Sunday mornings. But I would say the
real big break was when I went to Fox Sports
Television because it was before the formation of the best
damn sports show period, and I was on their national sports.
(26:41):
They had their national sports desk. Kevin Frazier, who's now
at Entertainment Tonight, was one of the hosts along with
various others. He's a dear friend of mine and I
went there. Jim Rome had Rome The last word I
believe was the name of the show when it kime
the ESPN, it was Rome is Burning, which is always
a great name. I always loved that name. But I
was there, and Jim Rohn would bring me into his
(27:03):
office after shows and talk to me and give me
guidance about some of the mind fields to maneuver through
and what kind of things to watch out for, which
I was always greatly appreciative for. And so I would
call that my first big break because being in television
and making that kind of noise when ESPN was so prolific,
that was one thing, but then the creation of the
(27:25):
best damn sports show period. They offered me the job
full time. I turned it down, which is how John
Sally got offered the job. The reason I turned it
down is because I knew that my aspirations would end
up at ESPN one day, and I knew in order
to achieve that, I had to be taken seriously, and
I would never be able to be taken seriously if
(27:46):
I was sitting next to a comedian that was Tom
Onnold every day. I'm not talking about him specifically, I'm
talking about any comedian.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
It was a comedic show, or at least they aspired
for it to be.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
That way, and for me to go there and sit
next to him every day, I knew.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Esthetically, optics wise, that.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Would not be a good look if I wanted to
be taken seriously. So I declined to play that role
on that show and instead elected simply to be an
NBA insider for that network, and lo and behold. A
year later, ESPN came calling, and two thousand and three
I landed at ESPN and everything is taken off since then?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
How do you get to that conclusion with best dam
of sports show period where they're offering you a job,
They're offering you probably more money than you've been making before,
and to have the wherewithal to sit there and be like,
tactically strategically in this video game of life I'm playing,
this is not the move to make. Although it's better
right now than it is.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Same thing you're doing now. You're playing a long game.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
You know, Clicks would be nice, Views per episode would
be nice. A subscriber base that builds is something that
you want. We all know what the business entails. But
if you want to do something and just be a
one off, that's entirely different than building a career that's sustainable.
And for me, I always played the long game. I
(29:08):
still do. I think ahead. You know, somebody asked me
the other day, They said yo, man, what did you
do when you got your contract in twenty eighteen?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
I said, I went home.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I was a little sad for a little while because
I had lost my mom a year earlier. God rest
her soul after long battle with cancer. And I said,
so I licked my wounds there because I was sad
because I knew the kind of money that I was earning,
what I was going to be able to do for
her if she had been alive, and I had never
had a chance to do that, you know, for what
(29:43):
I would have been able to do for alfter I
signed that contract. But then ultimately I spent some time
with my sisters and you know, and my family, my
daughters and everything like that for the weekend. That Monday morning,
I woke up and they said, what were you thinking about?
Speaker 4 (29:59):
I said, my next contract? And I wasn't playing.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
I knew that I had five and a half years
to go, and I was thinking about five and a
half years down the road. What am I going to
do and where am I going to be in five
and a half years. And that is my mentality always
to try to maintain three, five, ten steps ahead, to
see the forest from the trees to anticipate the kind
(30:25):
of things that are going to happen, so I'm not
lost in the shuffle, and we're not rewinding the clock
back to two thousand and nine where I'm asked out, unemployed,
wondering what my prospects are, wondering whether or not I
have any living off my savings, and knowing that I
had about six to eight months to survive on that.
My goal is to never be in that position again.
(30:45):
And so I think, like that.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
What is your vision? What are your vision for yourself
down the road?
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Like you know, obviously you sign the massive deal with ESPN,
You're You're Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Smith, You've come out with the podcast.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
Everybody knows this media landscape on the leveraging building your
own platform. Okay, I'm on this massive network. You might
think you're.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Building me up.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
Let me go show you how I can do it
on my own as well. What is the north star
look like for you five ten years done there? Well?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
The north star for me is to have that level
of independence, to establish it in such a way where
I'm there because I want to be there, not because
I need to be there. I love working for Disney
and ESPN. I love being associated with the world of sports.
I think that's one of the five pillars in this
nation that you want to attach yourself to if you
can pull it off. And I'm certainly not interested in
(31:30):
giving that up. But I'm neither going to lie nor
be apologetic about what i want for myself. I've done
a lot at ESPN. My contract's up in seventeen months.
I'm interested in staying if I have the opportunity to
do an abundance of other things that I want to do.
(31:52):
If that opportunity doesn't present itself, then I'll have decisions
to make, and so will they. I own my own
production company. I'm producing a docu series. Actually, it comes
out later this month as a three part series on
the history of sports commentators. I've got another series that
has been green lit, a drama series that I've created
(32:12):
that I'm not at liberty to talk about, but it
has nothing to do with Disney or ESPN. I've created
a drama series that's coming out. I've got my podcast,
which is not really a podcast, it's a show. Why
because I spent my own money and seven figures to
build my own television studio, I want people to look
at it and think hybrid. It not linear, it's not digital.
(32:33):
It could be both. You want a linear sports show,
got you? You want a sports digital show? Got you?
You want a podcast? Got you? You want a late
night show? Done?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
You want an afternoon talk show? Fine?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
You want me to be another version of PTI or
something like that.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Good. You want another creation of First Take? Fine?
Speaker 3 (32:53):
You want me to create a weekly format show that
would rival Real Time with Bill Maher or the John
Oliver Show or the Daily Show. Fine, whatever it is,
I can do it, because I've shown I can do it.
And so that's where my mentality is having the doors open,
the opportunities available to me, and being in the position
(33:13):
to explore things that I may have never imagined because
I never knew it was available to me. Because all
anybody thought about when they saw me with sports, now
they don't think like that anymore. They see my range.
So who's to say whether it's me or somebody else
that wants to work with me comes forth with a
level of creativity and ingenuity necessary to say, Stephen Aate
(33:37):
is what we think we could do with you and
for you is the kind of money that you can make.
Because the one thing I will never apologize for I
am about my money. I want to get paid. I
ain't apologizing for that shit to anybody. I'm not talking
about Disney, I'm not talking about ESPN. I'm talking about colleagues, contemporaries,
(34:00):
people who have been in this business, who knows what
it takes to succeed. Look at my resume, look at
what I've accomplished. Oh, make no mistake. I intend to
get paid.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
I can tell you that.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Right now on this on YouTube and we post this
black and white music behind it self titles the Whole
Thing that is Gonna Go Nuts. I know you, I
know you got to leave. But obviously the competitive drive
the why you have literally everything. And in sports, when
you're on a team, your goal is to win the
Super Bowl or the NBA Championship, all these different things.
You're competing against other teams, but also internally in the
(34:37):
on the team you're at, you're competing with the guys
around you. And so ESPN comes in. You talked about
two billion views, you talked about being the man number
one for twelve years, and you see ESPN making a
pivot to McAfee. Obviously great for the network. How do
you in your mindset view. A guy like McAfee, who
is extremely good at his job in a lot of ways,
is changing the course of mainstream media and all those
(34:59):
things competitive standpoint. Also as a as a partner.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
I am an aberration in this regard. I love Pat McAfee,
love the death, love the death. I love his swag.
I love the fact that he's an honest brother. He
don't give shit, lets you know exactly where he's staying.
That's my kind of dude. That works for me now
as he as polished politically as me, Nope, because he
(35:25):
has no desire to be number one and number two
if we're being honest.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
He's white and I'm black. He didn't have to be.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I had to be.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
So I get all of that, and I'm not knocking
him for it. I get it. Pat McAfee is a
sensational talent, and it would be stupid for me not
to root for him because he's one of the pioneers
in this business, just like Bill Simmons is, just like
Joe Rogan is in others. What they have done for
(35:52):
themselves in the digital stratospy, it speaks for itself.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
I'm new to this.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
I'm a baby, I got I'm approaching five hundred and
fifty thous and subscribers in ten ten and a half months.
People see me, Oh my god, you're averaging over two
thousand subscribers a day.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
And look at the views forever. So it's just climbing
and climbing.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
And look at the consistency to growth, especially by God Bailey,
the social media gurule. I mean these strategies. He's painting
this beautiful picture every day. I'm looking at the fact
that my numbers pale in comparison to those folks who
have been there and have like a four.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Or five, seven, eight year head start on me. Why
because I'm looking at who's number one?
Speaker 1 (36:27):
And why?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
But in the same breath, don't get it twisted. I
love Pat pet knows that I'm rooting for him. I
help him anyway. I can't help him. But we know
who number one in linear television is. You know, way backseat,
you've been number one for twelve years. People come, people go,
people come, people stay.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
But there's a top perch.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Now you could take it away, knock on wood. It
could be next year, be next week, it could be
two years, five years from now, whatever. But Since twenty twelve,
it's been me with Skip, Payler's with Adam, with Max Kellerman,
with Adam with a Polpoerrie of contributes. It don't matter.
I come to win, and when it comes to linear television,
(37:14):
that's exactly what the fuck I have done. And so
my attitude is, as long as I'm doing it, I'm
gonna continue to win.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
McAfee or no McAfee, get up or no get up.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
It don't matter who it is, FS One, Comcast, whatever
you come for me, I'm coming for you.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
I'm here to win.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Digital is different because I'm a baby, I'm crawling, I'm
an infant. You understand I'm saying I ain't even learn
how to walk yet. You understand them saying let alone
run and sprint. But once I get to that point,
I'm a comfort folks then too. But in the process
of doing so, it will never be to root for
them to fail. And that's why I'm very guarded when
(37:51):
people sit up there and they try to remember Dan
Levata said one time, you know, he wants to ruin
Skip's career, and he had to retract that statement because
that's totally fault. I never want Skip to fail. I
just don't want them to be number one over me.
Same thing with Keith Shawn, Michael IRV and Richard Shermanham.
These are my boys. I don't want them to fail,
but they know who's trying to be number one. And look,
(38:14):
these are Hall of famers, these are Super Bowl champions.
When they roll up over there, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Man, we know you.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
I said, you know I'm coming for you, right, you
know you know you don't expect to beat me.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
You understand now.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Of course, one day somebody can hell, it could be
them with somebody else, but all in fun, I'm letting
them know I don't ever root against you.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
I don't ever want you to fail.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
But in the same breath, it is perfectly within my
right to want to be number one. And I want
to be that guy that's at the top of the
perch that reaches back white and black, finding young talent
folks on a come up, inspiring and motivating and assisting
others in being their best selves.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
But do I want you to be better than me? No?
Speaker 3 (38:59):
No, And I'm gonna do everything that I can to
make sure you're not better than me. I've done it
in linear television. I'm going to continue to do it
in linear television at least as long as I have
a contract to do so, and hopefully I'll be able
to do it in the digital stratospy as well, and
then after that.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
It's kind of production we're doing around here that we're
trying to throw in this talking about being the one
Steve A.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
This has been an honor man, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
I wish we had a longer time. I don't know
if you saw on the internet all black versus all
white team.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Okay, I did not see. You didn't see that. I
did not see.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Have been something you be covering, you know that one?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
And if you look at the old white team except
for that backing on defense, not a bad squad.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
I'll check it out, Yeah, I'll check it out.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I think I think the bunch squads minus twenty four
and a half when we go.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Well over it.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
But it'll be all right, Okay, Hey, we'll get your man, siate,
y'all man, all the best of both of y'all.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Man. Keep doing the great job been doing.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
We'll be seeing you soon, all right, yes, sir, take
ca
Tell you want to kick it off.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Busting
with the Boys. Very special guest today. The legend if
you've been turned on ESPN every probably in your entire life,
you've seen this man sitting in front of you giving takes,
going at people, having absolute receipts for everything. Mister Stephen Asmith.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
What's going on, fellas? How y'all toing? How y'all doing?
Man good to be here, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Living the dream and we're happy you came on. We
actually just saw you an hour ago doing a little
hit on ESPN. I will tell you this, it is
a very unique thing doing real TV because it's so
fast paced.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
It is it is. It's fast paced, and in our
case is live. So you mess up, you mess up,
you know what I mean? And ain't like somebody's going
to say, we don't even have a seven second delay,
so you know, an any kind of hiccup that takes place,
you could say the wrong word, the wrong thing or whatever,
you can gind yourself in trouble. So that's the pressure
that comes along with doing live television.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
But I like it, so it is what it is.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
How do you manage to keep your level of enthusiasm
work ethic with every thing you're doing. You're also now
in the podcast space, which is a massive one, by
the way, and shout out, shout out your boy Bailey's here.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I followed him a while. I know he kind of.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
Does a lot of your stuff, but he does. How
do you manage all of that stuff?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, y'all do what you love. That's number one. I
don't have a job. I have a career. I've often
said when I give speeches and lectures, I say a
job is doing what you have to do to sustain
or elevate your quality of life. A career is doing
what you want to do, and it just so happens
to do those things. But I also think the pressure
of covering sports contributes to that kind of mentality. You know,
you guys played in the NFL. You got guys I'm
(01:33):
covering to play in the NBA, Major League Baseball, professional boxes, UFC, fighters,
et cetera, et cetera. These are the best in the world.
And when you consider the fact that you not only
didn't do what they did on.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
That level, but it was because you couldn't.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yet you get to sit in judgment of how they performed.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
How receptive folks should be to how.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
They perform, how receptive people should be to your commentary
about it.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Then you owe it to everybody.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
To make sure that you put forth a full fledged
effort with passion and enthusiasm to let everybody know not
only are you not playing around, but you care that much.
And so that's the very least that you can do.
And that's what I try to bring to the table.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
When you're fighting through that process of knowing that these
guys are playing at the highest level, doing their thing
at the highest level, and you are saying there in judgment,
how was the process for you as far as like
feeling comfortable with putting out a judgment knowing you essentially
haven't done what they did.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
You know, it was easy for me in this regard.
I remember when I started out in the business and
I had a clerical position at the Winston Salem Journal
newspaper in Winsters Salem, North Carolina, because I went to
Winston Salem State University, which is in historically black college
and university. And I went there and the sports editor
(02:49):
of my first week on a job sent me to
Wake Forest University, right down the road. Wake Forest was
the number three ranked team in the nation in soccer.
The only soccer match I had ever watched was Pele
in the nineteen eighty Olympics for the you you know
of I guess right, And so what happened is that
(03:09):
I knew nothing about soccer, and I went to the
coach who's now.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Deceased, God rest his soul.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
His name was walk Chisowich, and I walked up to
him and I say, I know absolutely nothing about soccer.
I've never covered it on anything, sir, but the boss
sent me over here to do a feature on you guys,
and I don't know what I'm doing, but I really
want to be a sports writer.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Could you help me?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
And he summoned the entire team over and he said,
for the next three days, because my piece was doing
a week.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
He said, for the.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Next three days, you guys are to give complete unadulterated
access to Stephen. To Stephen, any question he asked you
answer and he said you Steven. Meanwhile, every single practice
of every day this week, you will be standing right
next to me. And he talked me the game of soccer.
And then when I finished the piece, which ultimately had
(04:05):
the sports that it to call me into this office
the next day and say, congratulations, you're the new beat
right of a wait for a soccer. When I went
to the coach after that and let him know, he
said to me, what do you think you've learned? What
do you think you should have learned? I said, listen
and learn. He said, you didn't play soccer, but you
(04:26):
learn from those who do. And as long as you
do that, then you're in a position to critique any
of us because the knowledge that you're getting is not
of your own, it's one that was provided to you.
And as long as you make sure you articulate that,
you will be respected because they know the lens that
(04:46):
you're looking through is not that of your own, it's
of ours. And I carried that with me for the
rest of my career.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
How was it when you started to get those close
personal relationships with athletes you're obviously covering and now you are. Yeah,
I mean you're obviously ser for starting out and everybody
knows you. But as you're growing and then getting those
closer relationships with guys and then having to go on
TV and talk about, you know, stuff that as an
athlete you know, is like personal to you? How did
you start to balance that?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
As The parts about your performance never phaze me because
you perform in a public platform, so the games themselves
speak for themselves.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
You shoot two for twenty, it's on you.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
You throw three.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Interceptions, that's on you. You fumbled three times or whatever. You
get burned and you're a cornerback and somebody catches to
over two hundred yards on you. Okay, that's on you.
I mean, there's nothing I can do for you. And
that is what it is. And I don't give a
damn about how you feel because that was in a
public setting and you put yourself on front Street, and
that's what you have.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
To deal with.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
It's the behind the scene stuff subject to interpretation and perspective,
or the personal stuff that I'm very, very guarded about
because what happens is is that if I have a
relationship with you, the assumption is that there's a trust.
How do you become friends with people you do? You
become friends with people you have no trust for, you
don't believe in at all. You think every word out
(06:03):
of their mouth is a damn line. No, that's not
what you do. Usually you cultivate these relationships, and there's
an affinity for one another and a level of trust
that's built. So when somebody comes with a different perspective
than the person you have a relationship with and it's
an opposition to what they're saying to you, it can
get tricky, and at that particular moment in time, you
have to remind that friend, that person who's become a
(06:25):
friend that you've cultivated a.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Close relationship with.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Look, I've got an obligation to be fair even if
I know or I believe you and I think they
may not be telling the truth. They're saying this for
the record now off the record. I ain't gonna do
that to you. But if they say to you on
the record, you know what, he ain't shit, he's a liar.
This is what he did, and blah blah blah. It's
not like I can make up a quote.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I gotta quote him. That's what he said. I gotta
give it to them, okay, and give you an opportunity
to respond.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
So it can get challenging in that regard, but that
really calls for you to remind somebody of your professionalism,
your ethics, the responsibility that comes along with the job
title that you have, and it also serves as a
reminder to that person that trusts you, why did you
trust me to begin with? Because I exercised those same
principles and cultivating the relationship I did with you, I
(07:16):
can't go against it just because you're a man.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I can't do that.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
And I've had those situations of my career before, confronted
by those kind of things, whether it be Alan Ivsen,
Kobe Bryant, Shaquille or Neil Michael Jordan himself.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
The list goes on and on.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
You certainly have had those things where people have given
their different perspectives aside for that would be different from
something that they said to me or whatever.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
And that's the challenge that you have to deal with.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
But when you're known as being straight up and up
and up, what you learn to find from professional athletes
that they appreciate most is.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Not being blindsided.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
They see you coming, you know, they ain't open the
paper or turn on the TV the next day and
utterly shocked by what you're doing. And I think the
greatest example of that was Isaiah Thomas when he was
the head coach of the New York Nicks. They looked horrible,
and there was a game in which they lost by
forty five to Boston and Boston, and it was the
(08:09):
most emotional that I had ever been in my career
because I actually called him up and I almost started
crying because he's the person that granted me my first
ever interview as a reporter, and I had to call
him to let him know tomorrow, I'm calling for you
to be fired.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Oh damn, because it was that bad.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
It was that bad, and I knew that he had
a lot going on on a personal level. His mom
was dying, and you know, he wasn't all there with
the New York Knicks at that particular, so much stuff
that was going on in his personal life that he
had to deal with that it really didn't give the
ideal example of what he was capable of doing as
a coach. But the situation had regressed to such a
(08:49):
point nobody worth their salt could support him staying on board.
And I had to call him to let him know,
this is what I'm doing tomorrow. And he said to me,
do what you gotta do. Bro, I understand.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
And is that a common thing for you when do
you have a relationship with somebody and that it goes
downhill in a certain way where you give them a
call and you let them know. This is how I'm
about to go about business.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
I'm the kind of person even if I don't have
a relationship with you, if I know you and I
know I can get in touch. If I know you
well enough that I can get in touch with you
and I have something to say about you, I'm.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Gonna call you.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I'm that guy. I'm not that guy that's on TV.
But never like when you don't see me in the
locker room and stuff anymore. Blame ESPN. You got me
doing every damn show. So you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
I'm on a half hours.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
You know, I gotta travel to this city that city.
I can only do but so much. But everybody that
knows me knows I've always had that reputation. I will
show up to the games. I will show up to
the locker rooms. There are times when people would see
me lurking on a basketball court and they'd be like,
who does he think he is? Like he's walking around
the court before the games when guy's on the layup line.
(09:53):
They didn't realize the reason I did that is because
I knew I had a national television platform, and I
knew that I didn't have to be that beat right
with a bunch of reporters surrounding your locker after a
game or something like that, but you might want to
holler at me. So I wanted to be in their vicinity,
so if they wanted to speak to me, they can
either come over and speak to me, or come over
and say, look, call me later, or plan on meet
(10:14):
me at this spot later or whatever so we can talk.
It was my way of giving them that kind of
access to me in case they wanted to reach me.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
In those in those like UH, in those situations like
when you're closer guys have there has there been a
relationship of yours that has been burned because of uh?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Alan Joverson and I didn't talk for eight months. And
this is when I was the beat writer. Like for
those that don't understand, when you're the beat writer, wherever
the team goes, you go every single day, every single practice.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
You gotta cover the team.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I was covering the Philadelphia seventy six ers and Alan
Iverson and I went eight months without talking and the
only time we talked, well, a couple of times where
he was like fuck you and I like fuck you too,
Like literally, it was like that you said it back
to him, right, get right?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
I did, you know? Because that's how I felt at
the time, because I felt he was wrong, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
But ultimately a friend of his that ultimately was killed
the years later, believe it or not, literally got us together.
And how do we get together? He had me meet
him at the club at two o'clock in the morning.
And I met him at the night club and a
looking at me like I was crazy because I showed
up by myself. I said, I'm here. I said, I'm
here by myself. I said, cause I can be. But
(11:26):
more importantly, I'm right. I did not do anything wrong,
you did, you know? And we had a discussion and
we were fine.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
What was he claiming that you did wrong?
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
He was writing some articles, some article that I had written.
He felt that I should not have written it because
I didn't have all the facts that I didn't get
his side, And I was like, you mean after trying
to reach you for three days, you mean, after trying
to talk to you, You mean coming to Fridays, coming
to the club, you know, hollering at your friends and
(11:56):
all that I'm like you knew I was looking for you, said,
your inaccessibility doesn't get to determine my productivity. I'm going
to do my job. I reached out, I tried to
find you. You weren't available. If you were available, I
would have told you everything. You would have given me
your perspective, and it might have altered my content. You
(12:17):
weren't available, and you thought being inaccessible was going to
prevent me from doing my job.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
Well it didn't.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Lesson learned. Make sure when I'm trying to reach you,
I reach you because I'm not.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
How can I put this fellas? I mean, I got
a good life. Now.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
You know, you make a little paper, and you know
life is cool. You know it's a right.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
You know.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
But I was never one of those nerdives dudes that
needed my career to have a life. I always had
a life, excuse my language. I always have shit to do, okay,
for my own individual pleasures, okay. And I got better
things to do with my time to chase your ass
around for a story. So if I'm looking for you,
(13:04):
and I'm looking for you, and I'm looking for you
at some point in time, you better hope I'll find
you if you want to have some influence over the
kind of things that I'm going to say, and if you.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Avoid me for too long, that's at your own peril.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Now it's changed now because now I'm on national television
and so and we live in the age of streaming
in the digital stratosphere.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
So you know, if you're in the morning, then.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
You're getting two hundred and fifty three hundred thousand viewers.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
That's considered good. Well, I'm doubling up on that.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
We've been number one for twelve years with a flagship
show for the network, the worldwide leader. We're number one
every day and so I don't have to worry about
people watching us now. And then, on top of it all,
in the digital stratosphere, me myself and I by myself
generate over two billion views annually. You're going to see me,
(13:58):
You're going to hear me. Do you want to have
some influence over what I say or not? If you
talk to me, I have no problem. I have an
obligation ethically to listen to what you have to say
and to make sure, even if I disagree with you,
that the context that you are providing is accurately display.
(14:18):
If you don't talk to me, that's your damn problem.
Owe you nothing. I owe you, absolutely positively nothing. All
I have to say is whatever I want to say.
I tried to reach him for comment, he was unavailable.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
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Speaker 2 (15:34):
Back to the episode, when you're established yourself doing all this,
how did you establish relationships with these athletes and also
stay as unbiased as possible and become a straight shooter.
When did you start to realize, Okay, I'm finally getting
the reputation of who I actually am, and I feel
I can be more free to be myself.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Well from day one, I always let them know, don't
look for any pity from me when it comes to
your game, because everyone's watching. If I'm sitting there and
I'm talking to y'all right now and we're having a
private conversation, that's between us, and I can interpret it
and I can we can discuss it, and I can
(16:14):
shut up about it, go on my merry way, and
it's between us. But with these cameras rolling with the
world watch and I can't help you. What you say
is what you say, What you own is what you own,
And it's the same principle when you're watching these guys perform.
And so the first order of business is for me
to let them know that I'm going to be incredibly
objective in calling out.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
What I see on the basketball court.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
But there are other things that I do, and this
is where the relationship really elevated. I'm from the streets
of New York City. No, I didn't smoke weed, but
I know about getting high because I was surrounded by
it all my life. I was surrounded by drugs all
my life. I was surrounded by violence all my life.
I was surrounded by folks party and all my life
all of this other stuff. So all of the things devices,
(16:59):
the temptation and everything like that. I'm a street wise brother.
I kind of know. So if you show up to
a game, I don't need a test to know if
you hide. I'm looking right at you. I know if
you hie, I know if you drunk. And then when
you dig the way that I dig, because remember, I'm
a beat right at the time. So you get to
(17:21):
know everybody, And this is what people don't realize about
few people that are beat writers.
Speaker 4 (17:25):
With a beat writer's.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Nature, you don't only just know the athletes, the coaches,
the player personnel, directors of scouts.
Speaker 4 (17:31):
They value.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
You know their families, You know their friends, you know
their hanger ons, you know their associates, you know all
of that stuff. So just imagine that you're covering sports
and you're dealing with twenty year olds and late twenties
and early thirties, and imagine the stuff that you're making,
all of this money and the stuff that you might
find yourself getting into because you know, you live in
a life that most people don't get to live.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Think about the trouble that brings. You think I didn't know.
You think I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
You got traded because you were fucking the same girl
as the coach, and the coach wanted you gone. You
think I didn't know that the coach couldn't stand you
because you tried to came on. You tried to come
on to his wife, and his wife was interested. Do
you think that I don't know that you really really
can't stand this dude, because guess what, you wouldn't trade
with this team because that former executive used to screw
(18:21):
around with your wife and you didn't want anybody to know.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That's why.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
When you remember, if you recall when we were doing the.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Whole Boston Celtics thing where emil U Doka got pushed
out because of a consensual relationship with somebody.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
You saw me going.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Ballistic because I was like, oh, that's the first time
that happened. I've been in this business for thirty years.
Ain't a year that went by that I don't know
about people screwing around in the office. It's always happening,
like always, But this guy is the one y'all.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Gonna bust Now.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
That pissed me off because I'm like, there's a code
and what I didn't want to say, but I will
say any damn way because I'm still getting pissed off
about it just thinking about it. It was almost like
it's like, wait a minute here, you know, did I
bring up the black element? Sure, because there's a whole
bunch of white dudes the last time I checked, y'all
like sex too. You don't saying nobody's telling you on
(19:15):
y'all have it, nobody's tying that to damn right, Ain't
nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
So the point is, So the point is I get it.
I get it. But what really ticked me off as
well as that.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
There's certain codes like if you without getting into details
because I don't want to get sued you kind of
know that the person that he was with had connections
to somebody else within new organization?
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Can I say that?
Speaker 3 (19:44):
So I'm going like this now, is that not the
epitome of weakness?
Speaker 4 (19:49):
As men? Your woman?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
There's nothing around with somebody allegedly right, and you victimized
in him? Well, he wanted to relationship with you, she was,
but he victimized.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
But you're still probably with that person.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Really now, I'm saying that as men, we would call
a dude out for that. We'd be like, yo, b
it's pretty damn weak. I mean, if you couldn't handle
your business, you couldn't handle your business. But as wrong
as he might have been, unless he was your friend
or brother, whatever, he ain't owe.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
It to you. You understand saying she did. But they
called him out.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
And I didn't want to go nuclear at that moment
and say that, but that's what I was thinking, like,
you know, you got to be pretty damn weak to
be instigating this kind of shrapnel against that guy because
you didn't handle your business.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
You know, I'm not fault.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I'm not saying she wasn't wrong and he wasn't wrong
or whatever, but there was another element to it that
came with it that you saw there was a level
of victim of then dictimness and hostility aimed solely at
him who was not married and he wasn't involved with you,
So why is he the one suffering more than anybody else?
(21:13):
That's where I was coming from, And those kind of
perspectives you get from seeing a lot and being around
a lot and covering sports and seeing a whole bunch
of things that go on. That was the stuff that
that noise away at me because I look for consistency.
I want fairness. It doesn't matter whether it's right wrong, whatever,
I understand it. We could debate that, we can debate
(21:34):
it or whatever, but consistency needs to be the order
of the day when we're doing this. And that's what
I try to bring.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
When you talk about you brought the code.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And obviously it's easy sitting as Steven A Smith right
now to go, but when you're a beat writer just
trying to scratch and claw for that interview and you
know things are going on and you could it'd be
very easy for you to get way more clicks or
way more whatever by saying, hey, so and so is
cheating with so and so or whatever philandering was going
on in this facility?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
How did you figure out the code?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Like? How quickly do you learn that this code exists?
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well, for me, it's a personal decision. My personal morals
and ethics are different than other people. Fellas, there certain
lines I'm just not crossing. I don't know y'all from
a cannapign I'm just meet y'all, happy to get to
know y'all.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
Show all the time. I've watched a couple of times.
Y'all do a great job.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Man, I could see you doing something that I might
deem to be unethical as it pertains to your personal
relationship with somebody.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Man, ain't none of my damn business.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I might not like it, I might hold it in,
but I'm not diming you out. I'm just not doing it.
It's none of my business. Now you're on a football field,
you play like garbage. That's different. You know what I'm saying.
I'm gonna say that, and by the way, and by
the way, and by the way and by the way.
If you do that, because we've seen people. I've seen
(22:55):
people show up the games and you look sluggish. The
audience didn't know you was screwing somebody two hours ago.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
But I did because I knew her. You see what
I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
So I'm not gonna tell on you, but I'm gonna
go like this. I don't know what was wrong with him.
He seemed a bit slow, you know, the legs did
seem to be there. You know, my way of letting
him know, Man, I know what you did. It's a
matter with you. You couldn't wait till after the game, you know.
That's how I've done or a guy that you know what,
you're on a source a little bit. You' drinking a
(23:32):
little bit too much alcohol. You know he's supposed to
be doing that. You're supposed to do that the night before,
not an hour, but not the hour before.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
The game, you know.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
And I'm like, I'm looking at you like, you know,
you didn't seem like yourself.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
You seemed a little bit off kilter.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
And you know they raised the eyebrow because they know
what I'm alluding to the audience, does it? You see
what I'm saying. But I'll do stuff that's to let
him know. Yeah, I could, but I'm not. But don't
think I don't know. Come on, man, do your job.
Do your job and then afterward live your life. And
so you know, I've been doing stuff like that, you know,
throughout my career. The difference between me now and then
(24:08):
you got some of these athletes can't stand my ass,
hate my ass, whatever case may, because they see me
on TV.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
They don't have a relationship with me.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
For the reason why is because I'm stuck in studio
and I can't get to the games the way that
I used to as many gigs. I used to go
to like two hundred, like one hundred and twenty hundred
and twenty five games a year. Now I have to
cut that in half because of my schedule. But the
reason why they could feel that way now compared to
the way they were before is because before this was me,
I'd roll right up into the locker room.
Speaker 4 (24:33):
You seem like you got a problem. What's up?
Speaker 3 (24:36):
You can't possibly have a problem, How could you possibly
have a problem?
Speaker 4 (24:40):
You know, what the hell you did? You know?
Speaker 3 (24:43):
And I would roll up on them like that. I
remember years ago, mad love and respect for John Wall.
But John Wall I was doing first take. John Wall
walked up and he was like, you know, I just
wish cats like you know, Stephen nay, you know, you know,
say something on TV. Be man enough to you know,
come to the locker room knowing good and damn well.
(25:04):
I couldn't get to Washington that day. Man brother said
that stuff. Man, I took off my microphone a good
commercial break.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
I flew to DC. I was in front of his
locker that.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Night, like what like, I'm scared to do my job.
It's not not talking about no fighting or anything. You're
acting like I'm scared to do my job. This is
my job. I am not scared to do my job ever. Ever,
this is my job. Personal stuff is beyond the scope
of the job. That's all that's that's wrong. You know,
(25:33):
somebody disrespecting your family member, your girls are no. No,
you want you want to bust ass, can't have that
because you violating codes.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
But me just doing my job.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
If you can't play, you can't play.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
You play like garbage. You play like garbage. You messing up.
You're messing up me scared to do that.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Anybody that implies that they're gonna see me in front
of that locker room, they're gonna see me in front
of that I'd walk in the middle of the Dallas
cowboyd locker room after a game. If they said something
like that about me, you got to be crazy, because
that's the job and I'm never going.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
To be scared to do my job.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
Your first big break getting in the national television can
you talk about that? And then also seeing it transcend
into what it's become, and obviously the.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Spotlight of Stephen A. Smith.
Speaker 5 (26:17):
But when was your first big break on when you
do hit that national television scene.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I think when people would say when it was CNNSI,
which was a big deal because I was on the
NBA show on Sunday mornings. But I would say the
real big break was when I went to Fox Sports
Television because it was before the formation of the best
damn sports show period, and I was on their national sports.
(26:41):
They had their national sports desk. Kevin Frazier, who's now
at Entertainment Tonight, was one of the hosts along with
various others. He's a dear friend of mine and I
went there. Jim Rome had Rome The last word I
believe was the name of the show when it kime
the ESPN, it was Rome is Burning, which is always
a great name. I always loved that name. But I
was there, and Jim Rohn would bring me into his
(27:03):
office after shows and talk to me and give me
guidance about some of the mind fields to maneuver through
and what kind of things to watch out for, which
I was always greatly appreciative for. And so I would
call that my first big break because being in television
and making that kind of noise when ESPN was so prolific,
that was one thing, but then the creation of the
(27:25):
best damn sports show period. They offered me the job
full time. I turned it down, which is how John
Sally got offered the job. The reason I turned it
down is because I knew that my aspirations would end
up at ESPN one day, and I knew in order
to achieve that, I had to be taken seriously, and
I would never be able to be taken seriously if
(27:46):
I was sitting next to a comedian that was Tom
Onnold every day. I'm not talking about him specifically, I'm
talking about any comedian.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
It was a comedic show, or at least they aspired
for it to be.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
That way, and for me to go there and sit
next to him every day, I knew.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Esthetically, optics wise, that.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
Would not be a good look if I wanted to
be taken seriously. So I declined to play that role
on that show and instead elected simply to be an
NBA insider for that network, and lo and behold. A
year later, ESPN came calling, and two thousand and three
I landed at ESPN and everything is taken off since then?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
How do you get to that conclusion with best dam
of sports show period where they're offering you a job,
They're offering you probably more money than you've been making before,
and to have the wherewithal to sit there and be like,
tactically strategically in this video game of life I'm playing,
this is not the move to make. Although it's better
right now than it is.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
Same thing you're doing now. You're playing a long game.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
You know, Clicks would be nice, Views per episode would
be nice. A subscriber base that builds is something that
you want. We all know what the business entails. But
if you want to do something and just be a
one off, that's entirely different than building a career that's sustainable.
And for me, I always played the long game. I
(29:08):
still do. I think ahead. You know, somebody asked me
the other day, They said yo, man, what did you
do when you got your contract in twenty eighteen?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
I said, I went home.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I was a little sad for a little while because
I had lost my mom a year earlier. God rest
her soul after long battle with cancer. And I said,
so I licked my wounds there because I was sad
because I knew the kind of money that I was earning,
what I was going to be able to do for
her if she had been alive, and I had never
had a chance to do that, you know, for what
(29:43):
I would have been able to do for alfter I
signed that contract. But then ultimately I spent some time
with my sisters and you know, and my family, my
daughters and everything like that for the weekend. That Monday morning,
I woke up and they said, what were you thinking about?
Speaker 4 (29:59):
I said, my next contract? And I wasn't playing.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
I knew that I had five and a half years
to go, and I was thinking about five and a
half years down the road. What am I going to
do and where am I going to be in five
and a half years. And that is my mentality always
to try to maintain three, five, ten steps ahead, to
see the forest from the trees to anticipate the kind
(30:25):
of things that are going to happen, so I'm not
lost in the shuffle, and we're not rewinding the clock
back to two thousand and nine where I'm asked out, unemployed,
wondering what my prospects are, wondering whether or not I
have any living off my savings, and knowing that I
had about six to eight months to survive on that.
My goal is to never be in that position again.
(30:45):
And so I think, like that.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
What is your vision? What are your vision for yourself
down the road?
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Like you know, obviously you sign the massive deal with ESPN,
You're You're Stephen A.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
Smith, You've come out with the podcast.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
Everybody knows this media landscape on the leveraging building your
own platform. Okay, I'm on this massive network. You might
think you're.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Building me up.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
Let me go show you how I can do it
on my own as well. What is the north star
look like for you five ten years done there? Well?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
The north star for me is to have that level
of independence, to establish it in such a way where
I'm there because I want to be there, not because
I need to be there. I love working for Disney
and ESPN. I love being associated with the world of sports.
I think that's one of the five pillars in this
nation that you want to attach yourself to if you
can pull it off. And I'm certainly not interested in
(31:30):
giving that up. But I'm neither going to lie nor
be apologetic about what i want for myself. I've done
a lot at ESPN. My contract's up in seventeen months.
I'm interested in staying if I have the opportunity to
do an abundance of other things that I want to do.
(31:52):
If that opportunity doesn't present itself, then I'll have decisions
to make, and so will they. I own my own
production company. I'm producing a docu series. Actually, it comes
out later this month as a three part series on
the history of sports commentators. I've got another series that
has been green lit, a drama series that I've created
(32:12):
that I'm not at liberty to talk about, but it
has nothing to do with Disney or ESPN. I've created
a drama series that's coming out. I've got my podcast,
which is not really a podcast, it's a show. Why
because I spent my own money and seven figures to
build my own television studio, I want people to look
at it and think hybrid. It not linear, it's not digital.
(32:33):
It could be both. You want a linear sports show,
got you? You want a sports digital show? Got you?
You want a podcast? Got you? You want a late
night show? Done?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
You want an afternoon talk show? Fine?
Speaker 3 (32:45):
You want me to be another version of PTI or
something like that.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Good. You want another creation of First Take? Fine?
Speaker 3 (32:53):
You want me to create a weekly format show that
would rival Real Time with Bill Maher or the John
Oliver Show or the Daily Show. Fine, whatever it is,
I can do it, because I've shown I can do it.
And so that's where my mentality is having the doors open,
the opportunities available to me, and being in the position
(33:13):
to explore things that I may have never imagined because
I never knew it was available to me. Because all
anybody thought about when they saw me with sports, now
they don't think like that anymore. They see my range.
So who's to say whether it's me or somebody else
that wants to work with me comes forth with a
level of creativity and ingenuity necessary to say, Stephen Aate
(33:37):
is what we think we could do with you and
for you is the kind of money that you can make.
Because the one thing I will never apologize for I
am about my money. I want to get paid. I
ain't apologizing for that shit to anybody. I'm not talking
about Disney, I'm not talking about ESPN. I'm talking about colleagues, contemporaries,
(34:00):
people who have been in this business, who knows what
it takes to succeed. Look at my resume, look at
what I've accomplished. Oh, make no mistake. I intend to
get paid.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
I can tell you that.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Right now on this on YouTube and we post this
black and white music behind it self titles the Whole
Thing that is Gonna Go Nuts. I know you, I
know you got to leave. But obviously the competitive drive
the why you have literally everything. And in sports, when
you're on a team, your goal is to win the
Super Bowl or the NBA Championship, all these different things.
You're competing against other teams, but also internally in the
(34:37):
on the team you're at, you're competing with the guys
around you. And so ESPN comes in. You talked about
two billion views, you talked about being the man number
one for twelve years, and you see ESPN making a
pivot to McAfee. Obviously great for the network. How do
you in your mindset view. A guy like McAfee, who
is extremely good at his job in a lot of ways,
is changing the course of mainstream media and all those
(34:59):
things competitive standpoint. Also as a as a partner.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
I am an aberration in this regard. I love Pat McAfee,
love the death, love the death. I love his swag.
I love the fact that he's an honest brother. He
don't give shit, lets you know exactly where he's staying.
That's my kind of dude. That works for me now
as he as polished politically as me, Nope, because he
(35:25):
has no desire to be number one and number two
if we're being honest.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
He's white and I'm black. He didn't have to be.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I had to be.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
So I get all of that, and I'm not knocking
him for it. I get it. Pat McAfee is a
sensational talent, and it would be stupid for me not
to root for him because he's one of the pioneers
in this business, just like Bill Simmons is, just like
Joe Rogan is in others. What they have done for
(35:52):
themselves in the digital stratospy, it speaks for itself.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
I'm new to this.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
I'm a baby, I got I'm approaching five hundred and
fifty thous and subscribers in ten ten and a half months.
People see me, Oh my god, you're averaging over two
thousand subscribers a day.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
And look at the views forever. So it's just climbing
and climbing.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
And look at the consistency to growth, especially by God Bailey,
the social media gurule. I mean these strategies. He's painting
this beautiful picture every day. I'm looking at the fact
that my numbers pale in comparison to those folks who
have been there and have like a four.
Speaker 4 (36:22):
Or five, seven, eight year head start on me. Why
because I'm looking at who's number one?
Speaker 1 (36:27):
And why?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
But in the same breath, don't get it twisted. I
love Pat pet knows that I'm rooting for him. I
help him anyway. I can't help him. But we know
who number one in linear television is. You know, way backseat,
you've been number one for twelve years. People come, people go,
people come, people stay.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
But there's a top perch.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
Now you could take it away, knock on wood. It
could be next year, be next week, it could be
two years, five years from now, whatever. But Since twenty twelve,
it's been me with Skip, Payler's with Adam, with Max Kellerman,
with Adam with a Polpoerrie of contributes. It don't matter.
I come to win, and when it comes to linear television,
(37:14):
that's exactly what the fuck I have done. And so
my attitude is, as long as I'm doing it, I'm
gonna continue to win.
Speaker 4 (37:21):
McAfee or no McAfee, get up or no get up.
Speaker 3 (37:24):
It don't matter who it is, FS One, Comcast, whatever
you come for me, I'm coming for you.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
I'm here to win.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
Digital is different because I'm a baby, I'm crawling, I'm
an infant. You understand I'm saying I ain't even learn
how to walk yet. You understand them saying let alone
run and sprint. But once I get to that point,
I'm a comfort folks then too. But in the process
of doing so, it will never be to root for
them to fail. And that's why I'm very guarded when
(37:51):
people sit up there and they try to remember Dan
Levata said one time, you know, he wants to ruin
Skip's career, and he had to retract that statement because
that's totally fault. I never want Skip to fail. I
just don't want them to be number one over me.
Same thing with Keith Shawn, Michael IRV and Richard Shermanham.
These are my boys. I don't want them to fail,
but they know who's trying to be number one. And look,
(38:14):
these are Hall of famers, these are Super Bowl champions.
When they roll up over there, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Man, we know you.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
I said, you know I'm coming for you, right, you
know you know you don't expect to beat me.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
You understand now.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Of course, one day somebody can hell, it could be
them with somebody else, but all in fun, I'm letting
them know I don't ever root against you.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
I don't ever want you to fail.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
But in the same breath, it is perfectly within my
right to want to be number one. And I want
to be that guy that's at the top of the
perch that reaches back white and black, finding young talent
folks on a come up, inspiring and motivating and assisting
others in being their best selves.
Speaker 4 (38:56):
But do I want you to be better than me? No?
Speaker 3 (38:59):
No, And I'm gonna do everything that I can to
make sure you're not better than me. I've done it
in linear television. I'm going to continue to do it
in linear television at least as long as I have
a contract to do so, and hopefully I'll be able
to do it in the digital stratospy as well, and
then after that.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
It's kind of production we're doing around here that we're
trying to throw in this talking about being the one
Steve A.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
This has been an honor man, Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
I wish we had a longer time. I don't know
if you saw on the internet all black versus all
white team.
Speaker 4 (39:31):
Okay, I did not see. You didn't see that. I
did not see.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Have been something you be covering, you know that one?
Speaker 2 (39:36):
And if you look at the old white team except
for that backing on defense, not a bad squad.
Speaker 4 (39:41):
I'll check it out, Yeah, I'll check it out.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I think I think the bunch squads minus twenty four
and a half when we go.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
Well over it.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
But it'll be all right, Okay, Hey, we'll get your man, siate,
y'all man, all the best of both of y'all.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
Man. Keep doing the great job been doing.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
We'll be seeing you soon, all right, yes, sir, take
ca
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