Stephen A. Smith built sports empire off confidence and criticism, responds to public spats with Jasmine Crockett, Alexis Ohanian, Lebron James, accepts being under heat, but not afraid of the fire

“I’m willing to say what most people aren’t. I’m willing to do what most people aren’t. I’m willing to be in the storm, if that’s what it takes.” Stephen A. Smith On this episode of The Pivot Podcast, Stephen A. Smith invites the guys to his home for a deeply personal and an unfiltered conversation discussing everything from sports to culture to parenting to politics while under fire for recent public clashes with LeBron James, Alexis Ohanian, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett. Ryan acknowledges all the heat surrounding Stephen A. and one by one, we go through it all, leaving no stone unturned to the whys, the hows and what happens from here while delving into the man Stephen A truly is behind the mic. Known for his bold takes and unapologetic style, Stephen A. opens up about the backlash, his growing interest in politics, and how he handles being a lightning rod for controversy. He shares the background into Lebron dislike, revealing how he and one of the greatest to ever play the game. ended up in such disdain. He shares insight into the recent Alexis Ohanian situation, doubling down on his comments but offering explanation of what he truly means at the core of his words. Stephen A. also talks about the criticism and being called out for comments on Jasmine Crockett, saying it wasn't an attack on black women but taking action to be apart of the solution not the problem. He also gets personal—discussing fatherhood as his two daughters have come into public eye lately and how it influences his choices on and off the air. He goes deep into his roots with the love and respect of his mother, who's voice still guides him today and the lessons he learned the hard way from his father's choices that have all led to shaping the man he is today. And of course we had to ask him about running for President, not only is he serious but Stephen A. shares why he believes he would win the office of Presidency and his why that drives him to take on politics in this dangerous era of hate and controversy. Buckle up, because this conversation covers it all and nothing is off limits! A special thanks to our partners at Jack Daniels for sponsoring this conversation and inviting us to be apart of their F1 partnership with McLaren, check us out in Austin, TX this wknd! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Ryan Clark?

  Stephen A. Smith is a man of many layers and many opinions. Also probably why he has so many jobs. First takes $100 million man doesn't shy away from confrontation. And this sit down was no different. But he's more than just this perceived media beast. We started by tackling health and family with Stephen A. He dove into why he isn't married, his love for his daughters, and his complicated relationship with his father, who in his opinion, didn't do what he needed him to do as a man. He also tells us about the health scare that changed his life. Oh yeah, but wait, back to confrontation. He addressed why he and LeBron don't really like each other. He also told us the question he was just about to ask Alexis Ohanian.

• 1:14Ryan Clark?

  And he shares his true feelings about what Jasmine Crockett isn't doing for her constituents. Oh, and by the way, he actually does think he could win a presidential election. By the time this was over, he had earned his name because Stephen A. is truly a straight shooter. Me and Chan tapping with the man himself right now. Hey, man. To kick things off, we gotta say thank you to our partner and for our sponsorships with Jack Daniels. And we love working with them for the F1 races here in the States.

• 1:46Channing Crowder?

  Bruh, they had us in Miami. Now we in Austin with Jack Daniels McLaren. And they sending us out to Vegas with them. Man, I love Jack Daniels McLaren. They're in their third year. I'll be here for the 30th year.

• 1:57Ryan Clark?

  And from the pivot in our Jack Daniels family, congratulations to McLaren on your second consecutive Constructors Championship.

• 2:03Channing Crowder?

  RC, you know taste of that, Jack? Bruh, it is smooth, it's all get up. The number one selling whiskey in the world. Bruh, it's been around 159 years. They know what they doing.

• 2:14Ryan Clark?

  Hey, bruh. And with 159 years, we got our own special bottle. Do you know Jack Daniels was a real man? And listen, he started doing this back in 1866. I mean, speaking of real men, real dudes, we got our dog Stephen A. here today too. Ooh! There he is! My dog! What up, baby? What up, dog? Coming with the solo cup. Good to see y'all, man. Yes, sir. How y'all doing? Ain't nothing in this solo cup but water. Ginger ale. That's alright, that's alright.

• 2:45Channing Crowder?

  Man, don't get many days off, man.

• 2:47Ryan Clark?

  Exactly, exactly. I got something for you though, man. A little housewarming gift. A little special pivot bottle. A Jack, you know what I mean? A little Jack Daniels. Thank you very much. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. I'm gonna use it. I'ma use it. Hey, put it in that nice bar over there.

• 3:21Ryan Clark?

  How y'all doing, man? Man, good, man. Welcome to the Pivot. This is round two, right? First round, we were just starting, and you was a whole different Stephen A. then. Was I? You a new Stephen A. now. We got 16 jobs. Channing Crowder, Ryan Clark, Freddie Tees across the pond with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Stephen, and this is just being real, bro, how are you dealing with the amount of work you're doing?

• 3:47Stephen A. Smith?

  I don't mind it at all. I think that the hard part is what you don't see off the air. On the air means I can do it in my sleep. I don't care if I'm talking sports. I don't care if I'm talking pop culture, entertainment, social commentary, politics, or whatever. It's what I do. And, you know, you read, you study, you try to be edified and have an idea of what you're talking about, but more importantly, what people want to know about. And doing your homework in that regard. And it's a lot, but it's the job. Hell, I couldn't play. I better know how to do something. You know what I'm saying? So I be damned. I be damned if I don't know how to do something. I think the hard part, however, is that once I signed the contract with ESPN,

• 4:31Stephen A. Smith?

  it also opened the floodgates for me to do a deal with Sirius XM. And a lot of people look at me with the Sirius XM deal, and they think I'm doing a radio show. It's not really that. I own the show. I split the profits. And so, it's a business. And I'm trying to build a production company. I'm trying to build eventually a podcast network, a YouTube channel, a media company. I'm trying to do these kind of things. And so when you have, when you reach that realization, it's one thing for somebody to own a business and that's what they're doing. It's another thing entirely when you on camera. And you're in front of the camera and you have to do that job every day. And then you got to transition from that to doing business.

• 5:15Stephen A. Smith?

  It's like, oh my lord, I'm talking advertisers and sponsors. Oh my goodness, I got 22 in terms of independent contractors, freelancers, employees. I got 22 people working under me. And everybody want to raise. Everybody, everybody, everybody want this. Hey nephew want to raise every show. And nephew want to raise every show and you know, my daughter trying to take over. You know, so it's so many different things that go on. And it's like, it's a real, real challenge in that regard. But I'm playing the long game. It's a marathon, it's not a sprint. And so because of that, I'm 57 years old, about to turn 58 in a few days. And my attitude is, yo, this is the grind, this is what comes with it. How do you offset the enormous amount of work that comes with it?

• 5:59Stephen A. Smith?

  It's by being in great shape, it's by taking care of yourself, it's by making sure you prioritize your health. And you're not letting it bring you down. And that's what I've been doing.

• 6:07Channing Crowder?

  Is there any such thing as overexposure though? Cause you own everything. You do basketball, football, baseball, hockey, soccer, everything, different show.

• 6:14Stephen A. Smith?

  Right.

• 6:14Channing Crowder?

  Your podcast, like you said, XM like.

• 6:17Stephen A. Smith?

  Right. There is such a thing as overexposure if you're doing the same thing all the time with the same audience. If you have a different audience, then that changes. The Pivot is very, very successful because we don't know who y'all are talking to from week to week. It ain't, everybody ain't a sports figure. Y'all talk to an abundance of people. And so as a result, even though you've established yourself tremendously well, and major, major props to y'all, because I'm real proud of what y'all doing. The point is, is that. You can't define the pivot by genre. You can't say, oh, you know, they're talking, who's the latest person in sports that they're talking to? No, one minute it's sports, another minute it's gonna be somebody in pop culture, another minute it might be somebody in politics, like when y'all sat down with Obama and stuff like that. You know, people are looking for that and they don't know what to expect.

• 7:02Stephen A. Smith?

  Well, with me, yeah, I do First Take, that's sports. Yeah, I do a sports show for Sirius XM, but I also do a political show. I also have my YouTube channel where I'm talking about pop culture and entertainment. You know, on the same day that I talked about the Baltimore Ravens, or the same day that I talked about the NBA, it was the same day that I talked about something that Trump did, or something that the Democrats didn't do, or P. Diddy, and, and the conviction that came down and, and the jail sentence that he got. So it's all of those different kinds of things that come in. And because of that, I don't worry about oversaturation because I'm not feeding the same audience. I know that when I'm doing this, that's a totally separate audience than when I was doing that.

• 7:43Ryan Clark?

  You talked about your health, though. How much was getting your health together, not just about the longevity and being able to hold up with your schedule, but about being sick like you were and that scare?

• 7:55Stephen A. Smith?

  Oh, it was scary. I mean, I never forget, you know, my family and everybody was looking at me and, you know, my girl was there at the time and it was like, she was like, what the hell's, you know, you've given up. Because when the doctor, you know, 2021 going into 22, I'm in the hospital over COVID and my sister smokes every day. She ain't the fitness guru she needs to be, you know, even though she looks great, uh, cause she loves her cigarettes or whatever. She got COVID on a Friday and she was fine on a Tuesday. I don't smoke. I'm a casual drinker at best. I don't do drugs, none of that. I exercised at least three days a week at the time. And I was in the emergency room three or four times.

• 8:39Stephen A. Smith?

  And going at New Year's Eve, it's 90 minutes before the ball dropped and the doctor's like, yo, we don't. If this steroid and this antibiotic doesn't work within three hours, we need to call your family. Because they thought I was in that much trouble. And they say if you got like a little white spot in your lungs or whatever, you know, that's a sign of pneumonia or whatever. It was clouds. I was covered. It was, my experience was covered in white. Couldn't breathe, was hallucinating. And I mean, it was, I was, I was in my clothes and you would have thought I jumped into the pool with my clothes on. That's how much I was sweating. I was in really, really, really bad shape. And it got to a point that I was ashamed of myself.

• 9:21Stephen A. Smith?

  Because, you know, y'all both, you know, y'all former football players and y'all still look in pretty good shape. And, you know, I'm sitting there and I'm on the air every day and I'm, you know, I'm saying this. I'm a reporter, I'm a scribe, I'm a commentator, I'm a pundit. And I'm talking about cats. And I'm like, damn, but I wish I looked like that. I wish I was in that kind of shape. I wish that I was in that kind of physical condition. And I wish that I was taking care of myself. And the reality is, is that I had plenty of opportunities to do that throughout my life and I didn't prioritize it because I was busy on my grind, trying to get ahead, thinking that every assignment somebody else didn't want, I was gonna take. Every event that somebody else passed on, I was gonna go to. Every story that was out there to get, I was gonna be one of the first ones to get it. I was doing all of this.

• 10:05Stephen A. Smith?

  And I was taking care of everything but myself. And it caught me. And it almost took me out of here. And so when that reality hit me and I had an opportunity to change it, I snatched it. But it wasn't just me. I mean, Dana White from the UFC, friend of mine. He heard about it, he called me, like, what the hell is going on? You know, what the hell? He said, I got somebody for you to see. I'd have sent the plane to come get you. What the hell? And I said, I'm all right, I'm all right. He said, no, you're not, no, you're not. And he said, hold on for a second because I had called him because I saw him on a video doing with a six pack. And I knew what kind of health he was in prior to. And apparently, he had connected with a guy by the name of Gary Brecker for 10x Health at the time, that now is The Ultimate Human. And he got Gary on the phone.

• 10:49Stephen A. Smith?

  He said, take care of him, whatever he needs. And Gary had me fly down to Florida to meet him, took my bloods, everything, and said, every mitochondrial issue a human body could have, you have.

• 11:02Stephen A. Smith?

  You know what I'm saying? Because he was talking about how my body was, my blood was swimming in sugar. So, I'm skinny, no definition, pot belly, the whole bit. My body's near 30% body fat and stuff like that. I'm waking up with migraines every day and stuff like that. He said, "Give me three months and I promise you, your life will never be the same." And I saw the progress that was being made. And when I saw it, I've been addicted ever since. And so because of that, I've been in the gym, minimum five, six days a week, doing something every single day. Still hard to cut out the sugars, but I've cut at least 80% of the sugar off my diet, you know?

• 11:41Channing Crowder?

  No late night cereals?

• 11:42Stephen A. Smith?

  Well, I still, a couple of times, a couple of times. But usually it was every day. Now it might be once a month, you know, something like that. But I completely changed the way that I live my life. And I've been, I will tell you that over the last 18 months, I've been in the best health I've been in since my twenties. I've, I've felt that good. And so, you know, that's one of the reasons that people see me working all the time as well. Cause I'm not tired. I'm, you know, the problem for me is falling asleep now. Cause when I get to bed, I ain't sleepy. It's like, I'm ready to go. And they like, "No, you gotta get the body some rest, give the body some rest or whatever." So I forced myself to get some rest, but I feel better than I felt in decades.

• 12:23Channing Crowder?

  I ain't no grown man eat cereal, but...

• 12:24Stephen A. Smith?

  You do.

• 12:25Channing Crowder?

  I do too.

• 12:26Stephen A. Smith?

  Honeycomb, sugar pop, rice, crispy.

• 12:30Channing Crowder?

  Those are so good. Get y'all a meal. A man, I need some protein.

• 12:36Stephen A. Smith?

  That too.

• 12:38Channing Crowder?

  That's like, you, you, you just brushed past something. A doctor told you, if this doesn't work, call your family. You could die.

• 12:45Stephen A. Smith?

  Yeah, COVID.

• 12:46Channing Crowder?

  What goes through your mind when, when somebody tell you about, you have a chance, you could die?

• 12:51Stephen A. Smith?

  Well, for me, it was supposed to be fear. I'm not gonna say that I wasn't scared, but I was also mad. Because I really, I was just looking, like I said, I don't, I don't wanna put my sister out on Front Street like that. But I'm like, how the hell is she alright? And I'm the one.

• 13:08Speaker 05

  He was in there, "Why you ain't died?" You alive? He just took a smoke break.

• 13:14Stephen A. Smith?

  It wasn't like that, cuz I give her my life a Carmen any day of the week. But it was like, I'm like, how? Like, what is this? How could this possibly be? I couldn't believe it. I really, really couldn't believe it. I'm like, if I'm in this kinda situation, then it's just my time. It's just my time. And it was, it was scary, but it was also something that it made me, I don't wanna, cuz in the immediate moment, I wasn't fighting. I had given up. You know, you know, my lady was right. She was around me at the time. She was like, you know, you gave up, you know? And I did, cuz I thought I was done. But those three hours later, I was up. And I'm like, it's working. I'm feeling good. Okay. And it was a second chance.

• 13:56Stephen A. Smith?

  And at that moment, it was like, this ain't happening to me again. Not like this.

• 14:01Ryan Clark?

  Stephen A, man, you know, you mentioned your family being around.

• 14:04Stephen A. Smith?

  Yeah.

• 14:05Ryan Clark?

  We and the world have gotten to know Samantha.

• 14:07Stephen A. Smith?

  Oh, God.

• 14:08Ryan Clark?

  Right? And I've seen you happy before. Not like the joy, man, where she's around, even though she talking about your forehead.

• 14:17Stephen A. Smith?

  Yes, she is.

• 14:18Ryan Clark?

  She clowning on you all the time.

• 14:20Stephen A. Smith?

  Mad she ain't here now.

• 14:22Ryan Clark?

  What has it been like, man? Just to spend that time with her doing that, and the world getting to see you as a father? Because that's not something we got to see publicly before.

• 14:33Stephen A. Smith?

  You know, all that matters to me is that it makes her happy. You know, me personally, it's hard to associate the word joy when I see her exposed to the public. Cuz that is something that I have guarded against all my life. I don't have to do that with her little sister, Nyla. Because Nyla is the complete polar opposite of Samantha. Nyla don't want the camera. Nyla don't want publicity. Nyla don't want anybody in the face. Nyla don't want nobody knowing her. Nyla likes that privacy. I had to do Stephen Colbert one night.

• 15:07Stephen A. Smith?

  Nyla was in attendance with me. Samantha had an event to go to, so she couldn't make it. Nyla was in the audience and hid from the camera. Hid from the camera. I was like, is this my daughter? You know what I'm saying? How is this possible? You know what I'm saying? I didn't expect that. Whereas Samantha would have been like, why can't I go out there with you? They'll probably want to see me more than they want to see you, daddy. I mean, I'm just breaking it to you. You know, she would have said something like that. But Samantha is made for the camera. She's a brilliant, brilliant young lady. She's 17 years of age. She has aspirations to do incredibly big things. She's a natural in front of the camera. She's done commercials. She's had acting gigs before. And this is the kind of thing that she wants to do. She wants to do cinematography.

• 15:51Stephen A. Smith?

  She wants to be a director, a producer, plus an actress. She wants to do all of these things. And she has the talent, the intellect, and most importantly, the work ethic to do it. But what really, really touches me is that everything, every joke they crack, the way they get on me and the whole bit, it's all out of love. And it's like, I always pride myself. I always tell people, I'm not a father, I'm a daddy. You know, they don't call me father. They call me daddy, you know, because they are my world, they're my everything. And they also provide a certain level of inspiration as well, because you want to make sure you position yourself to have all that you can have, so they can have all that they need to be all that they want to be. And that's all you could do as a dad, man.

• 16:34Stephen A. Smith?

  You know, you try to discipline them, you try to teach them, and you try to embed in their brain, calm and time again. They're like, dad, we know, we know already, we know. Because I repeat the same thing over and over and over. And the reason why I do that is because my mom, God rest her soul, who passed away in 2017, my mother, I hear her voice every day.

• 16:57Stephen A. Smith?

  And I can't tell you how many times it's policed me from doing things that I otherwise would have wanted to do and would have decided to do that would not have been to my benefit. But I'd hear my mother's voice, "No, I did not raise you that way. No, don't act like that. No, don't do this." And you hear it all the time. And you're hoping that's the kind of effect you have on your daughters. And you're gonna go, you get, one's going to college next year, another's going to college in two years. I want you to hear daddy's voice. I want you, you know, if you were some rodent, no good mother, you know what I'm saying? I want you to hear, "Daddy would not like this." You're saying when you're going out to parties with your girls, "Daddy would not like this." You know, somebody getting drunk or whatever, then they want to get behind the wheel of a car. "No, my dad wouldn't have that." I want you to hear that.

• 17:40Stephen A. Smith?

  I'm praying that you have that kind of recall. So, because we can't be with them all the time. And in the world that we're living in, there's too many outlets that have the power to influence them. You're hoping that they hear your voice so they'll know the difference between right and wrong and they'll be able to save themselves when you're not around to do it for them.

• 18:00Channing Crowder?

  When the last time your mom corrected you?

• 18:02Stephen A. Smith?

  Last time my mom corrected me was last night, bro. Last night, last night, you know, because I was supposed to do something for my sister and Josh, my nephew, and I wasn't home. And my mother would be like, "Steven, I'm very upset with you." "Didn't I tell you that?" This is not going on. Because Josh, see, this is the problem. And this is the thing about my nephew Josh that gets on my last damn nerves, okay? I love him, but he gets on my nerves, and here's why. This dude, when my mother, his grandmother, was alive and he would do something wrong and I'd get on him, he'd go like this. And my mother said, "Steven, don't do that. You know, you know you need to be there for him.

• 18:46Stephen A. Smith?

  Don't get on him, don't discipline him like that." Because he's a West Indian woman. And, you know, she gets fiery protecting him. He got to a point at a very early age where he knew it and he figured it out. So if she wasn't around, he'd look at you. He'd try to explain or he'd do something. But when she came around, he'd go like this. And instantly, she came to his defense. And he does it to this very day. Because now that she's gone, he sits up there and does that because he knows that's gonna remind me of my mother. And then ultimately, I'm gonna step back because Grandma is coming to his defense. He know, and he knows it, and he plays. He plays me with it like a fiddle. He does it every single time. Watch him.

• 19:30Stephen A. Smith?

  He never sticks out his chest and gets bold with me when I'm getting on him about serious. He gets the mirror and he backs up because he knows it's gonna make me back off of him because he knows the second he does that, I'm gonna think about my mother and I'm gonna go light on him because that's what she would have made me do. This is what he does. You see what I'm saying? This is what he does, and that's the damn problem. That's why he gets on my nerves.

• 19:51Ryan Clark?

  You speaking of family, the way you are, makes me think about the altercation or when LeBron and you had the conversation courtside. You've been very honest about that interaction. And you said, "Okay, we don't like each other."

• 20:06Stephen A. Smith?

  Right.

• 20:06Ryan Clark?

  How do you feel you handled that situation overall? Are you proud of how that went?

• 20:13Stephen A. Smith?

  I wouldn't use the word proud. I would tell you that I don't regret anything that I did in terms of handling the situation. I don't regret it now. And I would tell you, my feelings haven't changed. I don't like him at all. He doesn't like me at all. I don't like talking about him because I think people think that I'm looking to talk about him like LeBron's inside of Stephen A.'s head. If you don't ask me about him, I won't talk about him. You see what I'm saying? I got a job to do, and he will never interfere with my job. I'm gonna be professional. This man is one, in my mind, the second greatest player to have ever played the game of basketball. He's a great ambassador for the game of basketball. He's an incredible role model. What he has done with himself, what he has done with his crew is beyond admirable.

• 20:58Stephen A. Smith?

  And he will always warrant the utmost respect. But everybody hasn't had the relationship that I've had. I'm in the media. I'm a commentator and pundit.

• 21:13Stephen A. Smith?

  I know the things that you've done behind the scenes. I know the things that you've said behind my back. I know what you've tried to do to derail me from being in the position that I'm in today. I know that if it were up to you, I'd have been stopped years ago. So it goes far deeper than I'll ever get into publicly. Knowing that, I still went on the air and was fair. And to me, you know, the way he handled the situation, coming up to me courtside, alright, fine, you're emotional, whatever, I don't know who's getting on you at home and you might have felt compelled to do it, alright, fine. You reached, you said on Saturday night in Boston, after that happens, you talking to

• 21:57Stephen A. Smith?

  RJ, Richard Jefferson, my colleague at ESPN, good brother, your former teammate, whispering in his ear, he said something about me as a father, I couldn't take that. But when that man went on Pat McAfee's show, just to insult me, that was the final straw. Bob Iger knows it, Jimmy Pataro knows it, Burke Magnus knows it, bosses at ESPN, Dave Roberts knows it, Rich Paul knows it, I'm sure, even though I haven't spoken to him directly, Maverick Carter knows it, the closest that I've ever come to backing up in my life has evaporated.

• 22:42Stephen A. Smith?

  I won't take one back step when it comes to him in life ever again. Because I've done my job. He took it personal and took it to another level. To come on ESPN just to insult me with a show that comes on after me, we know what you were doing. So my attitude is, fine. Fuck it. This is how you want to do it? We good. Now we're in my lane. Because, make no mistake, it's my lane.

• 23:25Stephen A. Smith?

  LeBron trying to go up against me, you could try to go on the shop. Just so y'all know, before anything happened, I volunteered to come on the shop. When I've been asked, I said, "One condition, no edits. Air what you see. I'll happily come on." This is what I said at the time, before any of that had happened. But he's not gonna take me up on that offer, because you see, you know, I keep receipts. And you wanna play that game with me, we fine. But the world needs to just understand, I'm gonna be professional. And I'm never gonna violate my professional ethics. I'm not gonna impugn my name, that of ESPN and Walt Disney, Sirius XM or anybody else.

• 24:08Stephen A. Smith?

  But in the same breath, there's nothing wrong with telling the truth. I don't like his ass. And he don't like me, and I'm good with it.

• 24:17Ryan Clark?

  How hard do you think it'll be for people to be able to see it in that light? When you are the normal Stephen A., as you are analyzing the game, talking about the game, talking about what surrounds NBA basketball? How do you expect people to receive when you do say something negatively about him?

• 24:37Stephen A. Smith?

  Honestly speaking, I apologize for saying this. I don't give a shit. I don't care. Because my record speaks for itself. I got 30 years. I got 30-plus years in this business. A lot of talking about LeBron happened in the aftermath of all of that. I talked about you when you went to the playoffs. I talked about you when y'all asses got smoked in five games by the Minnesota Timberwolves. You understand, when Ant-Man walked outside the Crypto.com Arena, walked down the streets talking about you. You understand what I'm saying? I said, "I talked about the Lakers and the moves that they made when they, you know, they extended Luca. I talked about when you opted in and I gave you your respect and your compliments when it's due. I've done more for him than he'd ever do for me."

• 25:20Stephen A. Smith?

  You know, I've accomplished a lot in this business, okay? I'm a black man that's done it. I come from the streets of Hollis, Queens, New York City. I grew up poor. You know, government cheese and bread and all of that stuff. The kind of stuff these athletes talk about what they went through. I went through. And I ain't have y'all game. But I'm living well. I made it. I did my thing. You understand? Do you hear them giving us our respect? No. Because the mentality is, who the hell are y'all? You see what I'm saying? Why? Because even if we're complimentary about you, excessively so, we're pawn, we're stooge. You know what? We, we, you got, you got us in our pocket. You got us in your pocket.

• 26:04Stephen A. Smith?

  If we're critical of you, we haters. All right? We can't win. Well, guess what? I found a way to win anyway. So this is what I've done. And so you know, what you see is a different culture. That's a conversation we never get into it really about in professional sports, but primarily the NBA where you got cats and, and they go at NBA players and stuff like that. Like, you know, you bring up LeBron. You ever see LeBron go at a white boy? It's called what it is. You ever see him do that? You'll see, you saw him come at me. Closest you ever came to seeing him do something like that was when he called out Brian Windhorst. What you calling out Brian Windhorst for? The man covered you since junior high school. And has praised you repeatedly. And you use the Pat McAfee situation to go at him. You understand?

• 26:48Stephen A. Smith?

  And that's the only time you ever seen LeBron James, you know, really go at somebody white. I'm gonna call it what it is. You know, so we understand each other. You know, I understand a lot more. And I'll tell you, I'll divulge to my boy and his boy right here. You know, when I did my monologue for seventeen and a half, eighteen minutes, the day after he decided to go on Pat McAfee's show. All right? And I said what I said and meant every syllable of what I said. Immediately after, I was informed that we won't be hearing more from him about me. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. Cause I got receipts. I got receipts. Anytime, anyplace, anywhere. It's not just him.

• 27:32Stephen A. Smith?

  I pride myself on being a fair-minded individual.

• 27:38Stephen A. Smith?

  Being professional. But I'm also a proud black man. And I know not only what I've done, what I've tried to do for black men in our industry, black men in the world of sports covering stuff the way that I do. I might have to call you out sometimes, but you know why I'm calling you out? Because there's a whole bunch of other black people I got to look out for and they can't make the same effort you just made. Because if they did, it would ruin their life. You're ultra talented, so you could get away with it. So I could talk about how wrong you are, but I need to use you as that example because I got a bigger vision. And a bigger vision is to make sure to shield cats from making those same kind of mistakes that will end their careers. You don't have to worry about that because you're too talented and gifted and you've already achieved so much that you don't have to worry about that. But do they look at it that way? Do they look at the big picture?

• 28:24Stephen A. Smith?

  No. Why? Because they want to hate on you. I've been in this business for over thirty years. There is not a single athlete, a single executive, a single owner. There is no one associated with sports that could tell you. They came up to me and said they want to talk to me. They picked up the phone and said they want to talk to me. And I refused to talk to them. And that after talking to me, if I got their perspective, I got you. Because I don't have to agree with you. Yeah. But if you're man enough to talk to me and give me your perspective, I have an inherent obligation professionally to make sure that I contextualize your words properly. And I present them in a fashion that you asked me to do that.

• 29:08Stephen A. Smith?

  When that doesn't happen, it's because these cats refuse to talk to me. And if you refuse to talk to me, why? What's the reason? Could it be because you don't have an argument? Could it be because you can't sit before me and put your facts up against mine? And have a discussion man to man? Because if I'm wrong, I'm gonna say I'm wrong. And I've proven throughout my career that if I'm wrong publicly, I'm not gonna apologize privately. I will come and apologize publicly. See, with somebody like LeBron, you ain't get no apology. I'm too little. I'm too meaningless, I'm too insignificant for somebody like him to be man enough to say, "Yo, you really didn't do that to my son. You were really calling me out. I was the one that, you know, whether it's getting him into the draft,

• 29:53Stephen A. Smith?

  getting him drafted by the Lakers, having him brought up from the G League, putting him up against Tyrese Maxey in the first quarter on a night after he was in the G League the night before. I didn't call those things out until that last part happened. I didn't say anything when he's a McDonald All-American and he was only averaging 14 points a game. I didn't say anything when he went to USC and he had the heart ailment and people were speculating about why that was. I didn't say anything when he said he was entering the NBA draft. I didn't say anything when he ended up getting picked by the Lakers. I didn't say anything when he was there opening night with the Griffys, Ken Griffey Jr. and senior celebrating. I stood up and applauded because I thought it was a, I thought it was a great, great, great moment.

• 30:35Stephen A. Smith?

  And most importantly, I thought LeBron James deserved it because he did so much for the league. I said, "The league owes him this." Whatever he wants, if that's what he wants, that's what he wants. And the money, he's underpaid, so I don't care what his son getting paid, go for it. I think his son's gonna end up being a good pro, he keeps working on his game. I said all of these things. It's just that after one night in Philly, I said, "Wait a minute now. Now you asking us to ignore doing our job? We saw what we saw. He's not ready yet, that doesn't mean he won't be ready. And because of that, you caused this whole brouhaha? Nah, we not backing up from that, no, nobody is getting me to back up from that at all. LeBron was wrong.

• 31:20Stephen A. Smith?

  And he will forever be wrong. And as far as I'm concerned, anybody in this business, or anybody that wants to be in this business, especially these athletes with their podcasts, that don't see it, well, just consider yourself blind. Or unethical. Because anybody with professional ethics, who knows sports and knows what comes with it, knows I did not do anything wrong to that young man. But to paint me as somebody that would attack a child just because I dislike you, it's low. It's low, and that's what it is, and that's where it's gonna stay. And the only reason I said it is because you asked me, and it's because of how I feel. And I'm not going to change. And if he don't say nothing, I'm not gonna say anything, I'm just gonna do my job.

• 32:06Stephen A. Smith?

  If there's another confrontation, I assure you I'll be better ready and better prepared this time. I promise you that.

• 32:12Channing Crowder?

  I know what's coming. No, no, no, no, no.

• 32:14Stephen A. Smith?

  I promise you that.

• 32:15Channing Crowder?

  Elaborate on this with that situation for me. You said it was a dialogue. It's that's called, you snapped. In my mind, when I'm watching it, you're very articulately snapping because you had some emotion behind it.

• 32:27Stephen A. Smith?

  You're talking about which one you're talking about?

• 32:29Ryan Clark?

  After the Pat McAfee thing.

• 32:30Channing Crowder?

  What's that? After the Pat McAfee?

• 32:31Stephen A. Smith?

  Got it.

• 32:31Channing Crowder?

  When you went on your show and snapped.

• 32:32Stephen A. Smith?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 32:33Channing Crowder?

  You was emotional about it.

• 32:34Stephen A. Smith?

  Yeah.

• 32:35Channing Crowder?

  And you said it in that, and you said it another time I heard you say it. You, you almost begged people to hold LeBron accountable, ask him about the truth. What do you mean when you say media members, other people, hold him accountable for the truth? What are you saying there?

• 32:53Stephen A. Smith?

  You do one thing in front of people,

• 32:57Stephen A. Smith?

  and you do other stuff behind the scenes. And they ain't consistent.

• 33:03Stephen A. Smith?

  You don't like me because you see me calling what, calling it like I see it. You're not Michael Jordan. You're not the GOAT. You did choke in an NBA Finals. Four consecutive fourth quarters in an NBA Finals. This man was scoring four points. One game he scored zero points in an NBA Finals fourth quarter. With Jason Terry or J.J. Barea guarding you, there is no explanation for that to anybody who knows basketball. That's a choke job. You overcame it. Major props to you. You've elevated yourself from the time that LeBron James won the championship against Oklahoma City. Throughout the rest of his career, you can make a legitimate case

• 33:48Stephen A. Smith?

  of the GOAT argument with him against Jordan. But we get to piggyback off of the previous stuff that happened prior to that.

• 33:56Stephen A. Smith?

  Michael Jordan was averaging 30 10 times in his career. Played all 82 games nine times. Nine times a All-NBA First Team Defensive Player, a Defensive Player of the Year. Okay, a six-time champion, a six-time NBA Finals MVP, a five-time MVP of the league. And in your 22nd or 23rd year, you still chasing.

• 34:19Speaker 05

  Now, I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I think it's obvious who the GOAT is. In my estimation. Having said that, let's appreciate the fact that a GOAT conversation is nothing denigrating anybody. Because I'm still acknowledging you as being in the conversation as the greatest of all time. So we understand that, right? So we get that out the way, but I also never looked at Michael Jordan and said he choked in the NBA Finals.

• 34:49Speaker 05

  I also didn't see Michael Jordan joining D Wade and Bosch. And then AD. Okay? So I didn't see that. I'm sorry Kyrie and Kevin Love before that. I didn't see that. Okay? So I get to look at that and deduce, that's my definition of a GOAT. And most people who watch the NBA would agree with me. Okay? If you want to disagree, fine. If you want to pretend you disagree, fine, because this is an incredibly influential figure who is somebody that a lot of people believe if you associate with him, you could capitalize off of that exponentially. Because he's successful, he's connected, he knows things, he can help people, etc., etc. I got that part.

• 35:34Speaker 05

  But that don't mean you should avoid acknowledging and recognizing the truth. And the truth is, is that that's what it is. And so I look at it from that standpoint, and that's where I'm at with it.

• 35:46Ryan Clark?

  I am not you by any means, but very much like you, a black man who's proud of that, who stands on what he says. And you're right, you get it from all angles, right? If you say something about a black player, it could be, oh, you're a sellout, this and this. You say something about a white player, though, now you're racist. You don't, you know, you get those things. And so you have the LeBron situation, you go at him. And then last week Alexis Ohanian comes on the show, and it's the whole big thing about him saying something about you not being married.

• 36:18Speaker 05

  Right.

• 36:19Ryan Clark?

  How do you weigh what you say about people because you may have a situation like that, or that person is on your show, and now you have to deal with them having residual feelings from something you already said?

• 36:31Speaker 05

  Well, first of all, let's go to that Alexis Ohanian, Serena Williams' husband.

• 36:37Speaker 05

  It would have been an entirely different situation if I were in studio. I'm on remote, you know, you're not looking at the camera. You there to promote something on behalf of ESPN Plus and stuff like that. And don't think for one second that I'm gonna let some petty spat get in the way of my money. That ain't gonna happen. I'm just not gonna do that, okay? I was born at night, not last night. That's number one. Number two, it really wasn't much because if you think about what I was saying about Serena at the time, it wasn't really about, you know, you know, I was on the air with a couple of other guys and we were joking about Kendrick Lamar performing "Not Like Us" at the Super Bowl

• 37:20Speaker 05

  when Serena Williams came back and danced on stage. And obviously, I don't cover pop culture and everybody knew that supposedly Drake was her ex and stuff like that. All I said was, you know, and I should not have said it this way, I'll concede that, but in going to commercial joking around, I said, "Take your ass back to him." You understand? And all I was saying was, is like, most men, I was using it to get into a gener- you know how you're talking about something in football, you are, and then you'll bring up relationships? It's comparatives. All I was saying was, as men, if I'm married and my wife got the energy and the fervor to show up on Super Bowl Sunday

• 38:02Speaker 05

  and go out on stage specifically to dance off of a song that's disrespecting her ex, my question would be, what's that energy about? Why do you have that energy? Ain't you supposed to be happy with me? But it was, it was more the LA energy. I got that. But you said that. But I was saying to you how I saw it. Right. At the time. And you saw it, the other analysts on the show might have saw it differently. I wasn't, I wasn't even saying, I know LA, Compton, whole nine, I got it. But what I'm saying, I was saying, as men. Right. We would be like, "Well, why you got that kind of energy with, with, with, with the ex? Let's talk. What's that about?" You understand what I'm saying? You know, it's like-

• 38:48Speaker 05

  I'm looking at it from that perspective. Because everybody was talking about that was your ex. And with you being on stage, it's reminding them that's your ex instead of, I got a man, I'm a very happily married woman with two children. That's all I was saying, I was speaking generically. He clearly took it differently. He has a right to. I don't think that he's wrong for taking it differently. I did not mean it that way. And to his face, I would have said to him what I just said to y'all. And I would say, but that you took it differently, I own that and I apologize. Because I meant no disrespect.

• 39:22Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 39:22Speaker 05

  I was just talking about men. Because I know how we as men can be. If we think our woman got energy for another dude that was an ex. Well, just take your ass back to him. What you doing here? Why are you thinking about him and you with me? You see what I'm saying? That's all. That's all I was trying to say. But it was like tongue in cheek, more about men rather than about their marriage. And then when he took it there, you know, I build companies. So I talk about building companies, you've never been back. Whatever, my man, go on. You live your life, I live mine, it won't happen again. I didn't mean it like that. But I wasn't gonna make a big deal of it. But if I was face to face and he had come at me that way, I would have simply said, sir, I didn't mean it that way. But do you really want me to take it there?

• 40:07Speaker 05

  Because if you really want me to take it there, then I'll ask the question again. No issue whatsoever with your wife having extra energy for the ex. Because I'm not really thinking about you. I'm thinking about what I know men to be. Black, white, Hispanic and everything. When it comes to your woman, you want your woman to have more energy for you. And I'm not casting any aspersions on Serena Williams in any way. And I apologize to her as well. I didn't mean it the way it was taken. I was just talking about from a man's perspective, that's all.

• 40:42Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, and I think that's the hard part too about our jobs is. People see and take everything we say literal.

• 40:51Speaker 05

  Right.

• 40:52Ryan Clark?

  Right, whether we're making a joke, whether it's like you say, it's tongue in cheek and we're having, we're having fun and especially when you get to your level. Because something like that goes viral, people start talking about it. And you know, it's the man in you is like, if I ever get a chance.

• 41:06Speaker 05

  Right.

• 41:06Ryan Clark?

  I'm gonna do this thing or I'm gonna say this thing. But it's also difficult when that's on air. And you are expected to be professional, no matter what anybody else does. And we've had Alexis on the show. I like Alexis.

• 41:19Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, he seems like a nice guy. I never met him before.

• 41:21Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, he's a good dude, but I know in those situations. Not only is he a man, you're a man too. And so it's having to handle those things in a professional manner. Because like you say, I'm not finna mess up my money for something petty.

• 41:33Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, but do y'all have to apologize if somebody else takes something wrong?

• 41:37Speaker 05

  Well, it's not so much that what you, it's not the matter of having to apologize. It's me showing the courtesy and respect of letting you know, yo, I didn't mean it the way you took it. And I didn't want you to take it that way. It's not that serious. My bad. You know what I'm saying? That's all it is. You're not sitting there going like this, I was really, really wrong, you know? No, because I, I know that what I was saying was generically made for men. You can't tell me, I, I know y'all too. You can't tell me if your woman was coming across as having more energy for her ex. That y'all ain't gonna sit up there and say, yo, man, what's up with that energy? I know my boys, my boys that I grew up with in Hollis, my boys that I went to college with.

• 42:18Speaker 05

  My boys that I've developed since I've, since I've graduated and become a professional. I got a lot of friends, contrary to what people believe.

• 42:26Ryan Clark?

  People don't think you got no friends.

• 42:27Speaker 05

  They're fools. I got friends all over the place, okay? That's how I know the things that I know. But I'm just saying, as men, I don't care, don't give me, uh, you know what I'm saying? You know where he's from or please, white, black, Asian, Hispanic. I don't give a damn if you're, if you're from Ukraine, Russia, you're from Israel. I don't, I, most men that I know, when your woman is giving energy to an ex.

• 42:55Speaker 05

  In any way, we like this. Why? Why are you doing that? I really need to talk about that with you. Cause I need, I need to know. See what I'm saying? And that's all, and that's all I was saying. But again, not about him. It was just generically because it was Super Bowl Sunday. It wasn't like she was doing it on the tennis court and I brought it up. You rolled out there on Super Bowl Sunday. I mean, damn. And then everybody, what did Kendrick Lamar do when he was performing in the Super Bowl? And what were they saying? I mean, it was fly because he was performing his other songs. And then all of a sudden, they were like, is he gonna do it?

• 43:31Speaker 05

  And what, what were they talking about? Everybody knows it was not like us. They had me on Good Morning America that Friday. And I said, he gotta perform that song. Yeah. I said, yeah, you, you can't be, that's why you got the Super Bowl halftime show. You can't avoid performing that song. And then Good Morning America, you can go back and watch the tape. They said, Steven, Steven, do you think Drake is gonna be there? I said, he ain't gonna be in the country. And I was just speculating. I didn't know. And sure enough, kind of find out he was in Australia or something. I'm just saying, it's like, listen, I got mad respect for Drake and what he's accomplished. You know, I'm just saying that Kendrick got him with that song. You could come back with something else because you great, you Drake.

• 44:14Speaker 05

  But Kendrick got you with that song. And then to know that he was gonna perform it at halftime? And then for Serena to be the one coming out there? Jam into it? I was just like, uh, hello? You know, I mean, I'm like, what man doesn't understand what I'm saying? And that's where we get into a bigger, broader subject about what pisses me off about how pathetic this industry can be at times. How you, don't act like you don't agree with me. Don't act like you don't see meaning, you don't see what I'm saying. Don't act like I'm out of left field as a man. You a woman, I got it, I got it, I understand. What do does not understand what I was saying?

• 44:59Speaker 05

  But everybody gonna act like they did it because of clicks. And, and, and, and we wanna side with it, we wanna agree with or whatever. I know people who are white in their 60s and are high powered that was like, "That was a good point, Stephen A. That was a good point." Because, because we know. And that, that's all I'm saying. So, again, I mean no disrespect. And I ain't trying to make it bigger than what it is and stuff like that. But I would've just said to him, to his face, if I was in the studio, "Are we really gonna have this discussion? Seriously, bro?" Because I'm not gonna go there about, about anything.

• 45:36Ryan Clark?

  And that's what I think, you, you're in a position in that, in that sense, is that you're not, and you shouldn't ask that question to a man about his wife. And that's just one of those situations where you are gonna have to eat it. And I think what he's saying too, though, Chan, like, that wasn't his intent. But you can apologize for the impact.

• 45:55Speaker 05

  Right.

• 45:56Ryan Clark?

  Right? Like, if this is, if this is some way bothered you, "That wasn't what I was trying to do." Nah, if I don't F with you, then I ain't gonna say that, 'cause I really don't care how it impacted you. And so I think that sometimes that's part of what we go, go through. And then, obviously, too, that Serena.

• 46:10Speaker 05

  Right.

• 46:11Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, we not disrespecting her in no way.

• 46:14Speaker 05

  Never, I would never do that.

• 46:15Ryan Clark?

  And so like, that's the other piece.

• 46:16Speaker 05

  And, and, but I'm looking at him like, "You gonna do this on national television?" You gonna, 'cause, 'cause I was basically saying to him, "Please don't force me to respond to what you're doing." Because of the segment going on two minutes longer, and he kept pushing that subject. It was gonna be a problem. Because now you're inviting me to ask you. You're inviting, "So, I'm wrong? I'm wrong for, I'm wrong as a man for asking the question." Oh, why you got that kinda energy? And I remember, like, Whoopi Goldberg is a friend of mine, she's on The View. She got on me, she got on me big time. I said, "Whoopi, come here." When I came on The View. See, that's what you have to deal with when you deal with me. You're right, I'm everywhere. So what happens? I'm on First Take, or, you know, but then all of a sudden, I'm on The View.

• 47:00Speaker 05

  Or I'm on Good More Than America. Or I'm on Fox News, or I'm on CNN. You don't know where the hell I'm gonna be. You just know you're gonna hear from me. So my point was, Whoopi. I wasn't talking about her like that. I'm a man, Whoopi, and I know how most men would feel. Maybe not him, but most men would be asking, "Where that energy coming from? Where that energy coming from?" You know one thing I said? Because I can bring this up to you, because you always big with your damn relationship narratives. So let me bring this up, RC. Let me bring this up. So you know, I haven't been married. Y'all are married. I venture to believe that

• 47:47Speaker 05

  the woman you married was because you that dude. She made you feel like you that dude. You know, "Rest of your life, this is my baby, because I'm her dude." You see what I'm saying? I'm that dude. Now, again, and we're not talking about Serena and Alex and Alexis or whatever. That's Alexis. We're not talking about them. I'm talking generically about men. What man do you know gets married believing he's the consolation prize?

• 48:19Stephen A. Smith?

  Nobody.

• 48:20Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 48:21Stephen A. Smith?

  Not one.

• 48:22Speaker 05

  I have nothing else to say.

• 48:23Stephen A. Smith?

  You rest your case?

• 48:24Speaker 05

  I rest my case. That's all I would say. What I'm saying is, that's not guys. See, they, you know, you see me talk about sports. You see me talk about politics, social commentary. Y'all ain't see me getting to talk about relationships. Because you understand, I would be like Bernie Mac. I'm not talking about myself. I'm not talking about myself. You understand what I'm saying? But, I mean, I grew up raised by five women. You understand? I've been single for a while. You understand, I kind of know a few things. And I'm, and the things that I would say, "Oh, trust you me, bro." You understand, Oprah, lucky she ain't never had me on her show. You understand, because I think the whole damn world has been Oprah-fied. I think that's where all of this stuff started. You understand, all that world has been Oprah-fied. Oh, yeah, hell, yeah. Well, Oprah did the people. Let me tell you something. Listen, listen, I love Oprah. She's the queen.

• 49:09Speaker 05

  She's the queen. She's absolutely phenomenal. But Gayle King is a friend of mine. Gayle King will tell you, I have blamed Oprah for decades. I said, she did this to us. She did this, all this sensitivity. You understand what I'm saying? We got to watch what we say, how we say it, everything. All that stuff was up. Why? Because Oprah was the first one that always required the explanation. There has to be reason. There has to be rationale. You understand what I'm saying? Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and everybody in between. Everybody, I mean, made stars of a bunch of people. Major props and credit to her. But then these explanations. Some things are very, very simple. You understand? You understand? If, if, I'm a guy. You can sit up there and say, this is chauvinistic. If I'm paying bills, my job as a man is to provide and protect.

• 49:53Speaker 05

  If I pay the bills and I handle my business, what, you think you just get to ignore my needs? You think that's how this works? That's not how this works. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You understand what I'm saying? And we got to a point years ago where you had folks out here acting like it was a crime for a man to say, you know, I, I want my woman to cook. I didn't say I want you with an apron behind the stove and not working. I didn't say that I didn't want you to have a career. I didn't say that I didn't want you to make your money. I said I want to cook. I want you to cook. There's a difference. Now, you can do all those things. Make sure you slide in. Cook. You serve some wings and some mac and cheese and some broccoli and leave that bad boy in the microwave for me when I get home.

• 50:37Speaker 05

  Don't, it's not a crime. But, but you got people trying to make you feel like it'll, it's a crime. Hell, no. I'm not apologizing for that. I have been blessed and fortunate enough to be very successful. And I am a giver. But I like to get sometimes. And when it comes to food, that's a very, very big deal to me. To other people, that might not be the matter. But it's not a crime for me to want it. You see what I'm saying? I'm just saying. No, it's not, though. But we got to a point where, again, Oprah. You understand what I'm saying? Why do people have to do that? Why not? Why not? I'm pretty sure Oprah didn't say people can't cook. No, she didn't say that. But what I'm talking about is that.

• 51:22Channing Crowder?

  Gender roles.

• 51:23Speaker 05

  Like, the gender roles. It's, it's not even so much that. It's that, like, you have a right to want what you want. What one woman wants, another woman will not want. What one man wants, another man may not want. Y'all mind y'all damn business? I agree with that.

• 51:40Channing Crowder?

  I got something to say, though.

• 51:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, man.

• 51:42Channing Crowder?

  Because you, you, you, we all know your new contract is lucrative. You can get a chef that's gonna cook better than one of the women that you've ever dated.

• 51:50Stephen A. Smith?

  Bro, don't lie to American people like that. Don't lie to the world like that. Ain't nothing better than home cooking. Ain't nothing better than home cooking.

• 51:57Channing Crowder?

  You could have Guy Fieri in that damn kitchen.

• 51:59Stephen A. Smith?

  Let me tell you, I don't give a damn. You know what? I've tasted his food before and it's really damn good. And major props to him. But you know what? Let me tell you something right now, man. It could be your woman. It could be my sister. My sister Carmen could throw down. Man, you know, let me tell you something. Ain't too many people on the planet could better than my sister. You know, my Aunt Flo, God rest her soul, she passed away years ago. St. Thomas, Virgin Islands is where my family's from. Do you know I used to fly to St. Thomas once a year just for her cooking? I used to get her, everybody go on the beach. Whether it's Red Hook, whether it's Megan's Bay, Cookie Point, Trunk Bay, and St. John's, taking the 15-minute boat ride. Everybody was looking forward to it.

• 52:43Stephen A. Smith?

  I wanted the sunshine. I wanted the ocean air. And I wanted Aunt Flo's cooking. It was automatic. I would call before I go, "I'll be there in two weeks." You understand what I'm saying? And she had, I mean, it could be the beef patties. It could be my chicken. It could be the icies that she would make. Man, please, you know, you go, you staying at the resort or whatever the case may be. Man, I had, I used to rent me one of them, one of them, you know, the open Jeeps and stuff like that. I'm riding around, drove right up into the hills to my Aunt Flo's house. Cause she was the greatest cooker I've ever known. I used to, I used to look at, I used to look at mom. I used to look at mom and then mom, that's her sister. That's her big sister. I said, "Mommy, I love you. I love you to death." You know that, right?

• 53:28Stephen A. Smith?

  But I really don't need you to cook at all. Cause Aunt Flo will cook. I'm going to St. Thomas, Aunt Flo.

• 53:36Ryan Clark?

  Hey, guys, we're out here in Austin celebrating Jack Daniels and McLaren. And speaking of celebrations, the McLaren team just won their second consecutive Constructors Championship. And to celebrate, you have to go out and get this limited edition new bottle of Jack.

• 53:50Speaker 06

  Yeah, now, now the difference in this one is this is 86 proof.

• 53:54Stephen A. Smith?

  So yeah, this is pretty special. Oh yeah, some good juice in there, so. Eighty-six proof, let's open it, you wanna open?

• 53:59Channing Crowder?

  I got you open up here.

• 54:00Stephen A. Smith?

  So yeah, you'll see the difference on that.

• 54:02Channing Crowder?

  I got the old goodness here, one hundred fifty-nine years. I ain't been drinking that long, but this is the good stuff. What you got there?

• 54:08Ryan Clark?

  Hey, listen, this is that McLaren limited edition bottle. Okay, you see the colors on it, and when you see this, you know it's special. And another big shout out to Jack Daniels and McLaren on their second consecutive Constructors Championship. You see the billboard.

• 54:23Channing Crowder?

  Big bro, you know what? I'm gonna hit you with the hat Oprah does it. Cause you know, she say your first name, real quiet to stay at you.

• 54:30Stephen A. Smith?

  Yeah, Steven.

• 54:32Channing Crowder?

  Steven.

• 54:33Stephen A. Smith?

  Yes.

• 54:34Channing Crowder?

  If you know so much about marriage.

• 54:36Stephen A. Smith?

  Yeah.

• 54:37Channing Crowder?

  Why have you never been married?

• 54:39Stephen A. Smith?

  Cause I did not act.

• 54:41Channing Crowder?

  It's in the book. Your fault.

• 54:43Stephen A. Smith?

  It's totally my fault, totally my fault. It's not anybody's fault but mine. I was on the road over two hundred days out of the year. I'm not gonna be faithful on being on the road two hundred days out of the year.

• 54:53Channing Crowder?

  You can.

• 54:54Stephen A. Smith?

  I know.

• 54:55Channing Crowder?

  You can make that choice.

• 54:56Stephen A. Smith?

  No, no.

• 54:58Channing Crowder?

  Just because you.

• 54:59Stephen A. Smith?

  I didn't say, I didn't say, I didn't say you can't. I didn't say you can't. I said me. I could not be on the road as much as I'm on the road all of those years in honor of relationship. I know how to treat a woman very well. My mother and my four sisters raised me very much, and I'm one of those guys that call it a blessing or a curse. Ninety percent of my living relatives are women. Like St. Thomas, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, upstate, the whole bit, Florida, Carolinas. I got relatives all over the place, most of them are female. So I've been surrounded by females all my life.

• 55:43Stephen A. Smith?

  And you get to know what the do's and don'ts, what the wants and don't wants are, and all of this other stuff, that's a given. And there's a level of treatment that I'm never going to go lower than. So in that regard, I'm good. But when I was on the road for two hundred days out of the year, man, and it's like, and this is the part that, that men don't reveal that much, but I will. When you get older, you grow up, and it's like, you don't need it no more. You don't need it no more, so you don't chase.

• 56:19Stephen A. Smith?

  That's entirely different than when it's handed to you on a silver platter.

• 56:25Stephen A. Smith?

  And you don't have to work for it. That doesn't mean you can't say no. It certainly doesn't mean that you don't say no. What it does mean is that it's harder.

• 56:34Ryan Clark?

  I had a homeboy, his saying was, he said, "I don't chase it, but I ain't fast enough to run from it."

• 56:40Stephen A. Smith?

  That was me for a long time. That was me for a long time. And so, I saw cats in our industry

• 56:49Stephen A. Smith?

  using their per diem to pay for their women.

• 56:54Stephen A. Smith?

  Meals, hotels, that kind of thing. It come out of their pocket.

• 57:00Stephen A. Smith?

  Because if it did, their wife would have noticed. And I'm like, "I ain't living like that. I ain't gonna be that kind, nah." You know what I'm saying? I mean, I'm not Gandhi, and I'm not the Pope or anything like that, but I'm a God-fearing decent man. I'm not living like that. And I've never been that guy. But it's not easy when you're younger, and you're climbing, and you're scratching, and you're clawing, and you're not settled, and ain't nothing but temptation comes your way. I ward it off with ease now. Because I've been there, done that. I'm about to turn 58 years old, you know this, but I don't need it like I used to. But back in the day, I just, listen.

• 57:44Stephen A. Smith?

  I'm not gonna be like those dudes years ago. Remember those dudes that went on that apology tour?

• 57:48Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 57:49Stephen A. Smith?

  They pissed me off. They pissed me off. They really did. That was another Oprah thing. That was another Oprah thing, and Susan Taylor from Estes. Oh, they, ooh. I mean, I mean, boy, I gotta tell you. I mean, around 2005, they apologized, and I'm like, "Really? That's what we doing?

• 58:06Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 58:06Stephen A. Smith?

  That's what we doing?" And you got these women thinking that you reached, you know, you reached this epiphany, you were so raw, you're full of shit. That was, that's not what it was. What it was is that you found somebody that made you happy. And so because you found somebody that made you happy, you stopped. Now that you stopped, you wanna dime out all the other dudes. Now you snitching.

• 58:28Speaker 05

  I mean, ain't they full of, hey, fool, did that to you? This is the kind of stuff, see? People don't see this kind of stuff. It's like, and I saw it, and I'm like, nah, y'all wrong.

• 58:39Ryan Clark?

  Hey, Stevie, that's when they come to you, man. You need to change, brother.

• 58:42Speaker 05

  Please.

• 58:42Ryan Clark?

  Look at me.

• 58:44Channing Crowder?

  Y'all come on out, they got us. They got us, y'all come on out.

• 58:48Speaker 05

  Exactly, they got it. Then you got yours. You see what I'm saying? And by the way, you was doing all this, right? But now that it's time to stop, now you want to reach this epiphany. I was wrong, and I'm sorry. And then you saw the tears. You saw the tears, you saw the voice quivering and all this stuff. And I'm like this, you got to be kidding me, man. Y'all really, really doing, and trying to act like, you know what? Oh, my Lord, they found wholesomeness. They just found, really? No, you found somebody that made you happy and did it for you. And because of that, you stopped. Or you get older, and it's like, yo, I've been there, done that. I don't need this kind of trouble in my life. I don't need this kind of stress in my life. Because emotions come with it with a lot of people, and you just start messing with people's emotions,

• 59:33Speaker 05

  and you want to be more thoughtful than that. But when you younger, you ain't thinking like that. You think about having a good time. You thinking about having a good time, you thinking about yourself, and you thinking that treating somebody's nice is all that you need to do. And so, you have to, if there's a realization that you hit where there is an apology necessary, it's for that. But you also got to tell why. It's either because you got older, or you found somebody that made you happy, that made you say, I don't need that no more.

• 1:00:01Ryan Clark?

  Having sort of that recognition, right? That awareness of yourself comes from how you grew up with the way your dad was living.

• 1:00:10Speaker 05

  Well, this is the thing about my father. You know, yeah, he cheated on my mother, that's true. But respectfully, it wasn't like he was all over the place with it. He had one other family.

• 1:00:26Stephen A. Smith?

  As opposed to him being all over the place.

• 1:00:28Ryan Clark?

  When you say he had another family.

• 1:00:29Stephen A. Smith?

  He had another family, another house, other kids, other family he was taking care of. While he was not taking care of us. We were not poor because we didn't have money. We were poor because my father took the money and gave it to somebody else instead of my mother and her six kids that he had with her. That's why. So when my sisters, when they went at my father, they went at my father because they're women. So the first thing that came to their mind was fidelity or infidelity. When he had a conversation with me, one of the most profound discussions that I've ever

• 1:01:10Stephen A. Smith?

  had in my life was courtesy of my Uncle Freddie, his older brother. He was sitting in there and my father was getting on me about something. I want to hear from you. And I never spoken to him like that. But I turned up on him because my mother was approaching retirement. And I had watched my mother for 20 years, working 16 hours a day, seven days a week with one week's vacation. All because she had to keep the lights on and a roof over our head and food on our table and clothes on our back because he didn't help her do it. And my issue with him was how could you do that? I would not have liked you cheating on my mother, betraying my mother or anything like

• 1:01:55Stephen A. Smith?

  that. But the man in me is more preoccupied with you having her do what I deem to be a man's job. Now, I know that's not popular to say in today's day and age. I don't give a damn. I'm a man. To me, your responsibility is to provide first, to do all that you can. Your woman, the woman in your life, whether it's your girl, it's your wife, or anybody in between, should know that you are the kind of man that prioritizes taking care of business. And that whatever you can't do, it's because you legitimately can't do it as opposed to you choosing not to. He chose not to.

• 1:02:36Stephen A. Smith?

  And so because he chose not to, and it put my mother through what it put my mother through, that, you know, when my mother was 16, when I was 16 and my mother looked at me and she was crying, I said, mommy, what can I do? She said, promise you, promise me you won't be like him.

• 1:02:53Stephen A. Smith?

  Just promise me that, that you'll always be responsible. So any woman who has ever been in my life, no matter what kind of a man I am, there's two things that's never gonna happen. I'm never gonna put my hands on you violently, no domestic violence, ain't never that. And I'm gonna handle business. If you hungry, it's cuz I'm starving. And if I was that way with a woman, imagine how I am with my daughters. Because I make sure, come hella high water, they're taken care of first. That's my mentality. So when I look at, to answer your question, when you look at what my father was doing and what have you, my sisters were focused on his fidelity, I was focused on his lack of manhood. And when I challenged him, and he's like, what are you talking about? What are you talking about?

• 1:03:38Stephen A. Smith?

  You don't know what the hell you talking about. And my Uncle Freddie, literally said, excuse my language, my father's name was Ashley Bassel Smith. And he said, he called him Bassel, he said, Bassel, shut the fuck up. It's him. Do you know what he does for a living? Because when I talk about keeping receipts, that's where I get it from. So while others, like my sisters, would complain about this, I had a laundry list of stuff. Like embedded in my brain that I can just shoot off at the top of my head. I'm talking about 20, 25 things at a time that you didn't do, that caused my mother misery and pain and stress and compromised her health.

• 1:04:24Stephen A. Smith?

  I know these things, these are facts, they can't be disputed. So my Uncle Freddie said to him, it's him. Who do you think you're talking to? If anybody could dissect you with a fine-tooth comb, it's Stephen. Shut up. And my father shut up. Because at that moment, my father, by this time, I'm a professional journalist. This is not me as a 16-year-old. I'm a professional journalist. So my father knows that I knew everything. And I could give him chapter and verse about every violation that he did against our family. And he stood down, and he never argued with me again.

• 1:05:02Channing Crowder?

  How was our relationship? How was it after that, after you checked him?

• 1:05:06Stephen A. Smith?

  It was never good. We were just quiet with each other. My mother, I went 15 years without saying anything to my father, other than hello and goodbye. Because of what he did to my mother. And how my brother, who had passed away in a car accident, had received some insurance money, his family and our family. And my father convinced my mother to give him the insurance money. So my father could use it for his own devices. And I said to him, you can't take that money. Considering how my brother passed away, wondering whether or not you ever loved him.

• 1:05:47Stephen A. Smith?

  You can't, this is for the family, not for me, because by this time I'm at the Philadelphia Inquirer and I'm good. I said, but for the rest of us, you can't do that. And my father said, I'm gonna do it. And I said, if you do that, you ain't lose one son, you lost two. And he shrugged his shoulders and he said, so be it. Got out the car and walked into the American Airlines Terminal at JFK Airport in Queens, New York. And he thought I was joking. And I went 15 years without saying anything to him other than hello and goodbye. And my mother begged me for years to talk to him and I refused. And it was only when her health had really deteriorated and then he had gotten unhealthy that I let it go.

• 1:06:29Ryan Clark?

  You talked about your brother. I know he was one of the first to ever tell you you were gonna be big and that you were gonna be something. How often do you think of him as you continue to climb, continue to?

• 1:06:40Stephen A. Smith?

  All the time because of what he said. It wasn't that he told me, Ryan, I was gonna be big. He told me there was Howard Cosell and then there's you. You're gonna be a superstar on ESPN. You're gonna go down as one of the greatest sports journalists of your time. Watch. He told me that two months before he died in the car accident. He told me that the last time I saw him alive. So I hold on to that all the time. And it serves as an inspiration. Like I told you before, everybody's got their source of inspiration that they go with.

• 1:07:19Stephen A. Smith?

  For me, I had promised myself that I would never go to his gravesite until I landed at ESPN. And he had passed away in 92. And I got hired by ESPN in October of 2003. It took me 11 years, but I got there. And one of the first things I did that day was drive to the gravesite, just to tell him I did it.

• 1:07:46Speaker 05

  What was that moment like?

• 1:07:47Stephen A. Smith?

  I don't cry much, you know? I don't cry much, you know? But I cried that day because, you know, I hadn't gone to see him because I was working and working and working. You know, my sisters would go to the gravesite, put flowers on the grave and stuff like that. But I didn't want to do that. I made a promise and I was aiming to keep it. And I felt like if I had gone earlier, it would have distracted me from the mission that I swore to achieve. And so I'd use that to keep myself focused and locked in for 11 years. And when I finally did it, it just all came out. You know, it just all came out.

• 1:08:28Channing Crowder?

  And I don't want to kiss your ass, but...

• 1:08:32Channing Crowder?

  And Big Bro, don't give me no damn cliches. I don't want to hear, "I work hard." No. What makes you special? You put your name next to Cosell, like the elite of the elite, bruh. I won't say you run a network, but you're the face of one of the biggest networks in the world.

• 1:08:50Stephen A. Smith?

  Well, I certainly don't run a network because a lot of decisions that have been made wouldn't be made if I was running a network. So that's number one.

• 1:08:56Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, but what, like, honestly? Why are you, why did you, why were you a journalist? And now you're doing what you do?

• 1:09:03Stephen A. Smith?

  I would say this, to answer your question, me being who I am, when all is said and done...

• 1:09:11Stephen A. Smith?

  I'm trustworthy. I got courage. I'm willing to say what most people ain't gonna say. I'm willing to do what most people ain't gonna do. I'm willing to be in the storm if that's what it takes. And I've proven it. I've done it. You know, so it's like, look, look at what I'm doing now. Yeah, I'm on ESPN, it's cool. Love it. Don't, you know, hopefully, you know, things will continue to go well and I'll retire there. But I don't want to be limited to that. And so you're gonna have people in the sports world, everybody's trying to be a sports analyst, stuff like that, get their own podcast and all that other stuff, even though they ain't worked their way to anything. They just want, they just want it. You know what I'm saying?

• 1:09:56Stephen A. Smith?

  The microwave society that we live in, and I can't knock them for that, because if you can make a few hundred thousand dollars a year working on YouTube, why the hell would you want to go work a nine to five? I can't hate the game. You know, I mean, it is what it is. But I know what I did to get where I, where I got. There was no social media. You had to break stories yourself. You had to report. You had to go in the locker room and look cats in the face. You couldn't hide. You couldn't be on a TV show and never show up to games and never show up in the locker room. Couldn't do anything that day. You had to be there, you know? So all of those things came with it. That was number one. And I did those things. But if you look at it now, between ESPN and Sirius XM, I could take my money and run. That ain't who I am. That's not how I'm built. You know, I like to have an impact. I like to be in the position to assist and make a difference.

• 1:10:41Stephen A. Smith?

  And especially when you talk about politics now, that's a very, very dangerous realm to be in. And I'm not even talking about guy Charlie Kirk getting murdered, you know, God rest his soul, because we don't wish that on anybody. But I'm just talking about, you know, if it's the black community, you're a sellout or a coon. If it's the white community, you're a racist. And at the, and that's day to day, and it's vacillating back and forth. It could be the same day. And it could be the same, and it has been the same day with me on a couple of occasions. And a lot of people say, why would you even put yourself in that position? And I'd say, because I can. How many people can do that? You know, at some point in time, it's gonna be about, what were you willing to do to make a difference, to have an impact?

• 1:11:25Stephen A. Smith?

  You know, I see stuff going on in this world today. I don't like what I'm seeing. I tell you right now, I'm not very happy with our president at all. You know, policy-wise, however, I don't think everything he's doing is wrong. But I think his decorum and his behavior is deplorable because it's childish and it's divisive and it serves to keep our country divided and apart instead of bringing us together. Having said that, that doesn't mean he was wrong about the borders being closed because the previous administration said they never opened it. It doesn't mean that he's wrong about the economy when the NASDAQ is showing or S and P 500 is showing that the numbers are up or the economy is, you know, unemployment is at 4% and stuff like this. You see stuff, or the tariff wars are showing that 15 trillion in pledges have been made to American businesses or whatever.

• 1:12:10Stephen A. Smith?

  We don't know if that's gonna end up being true. But based on what we're seeing thus far, we're not in an awful place. And so you have to be able to be fair-minded and give credit where credit is due. Some people look at me and they say, why do I come at Democrats like that? Because I feel like black folks have been played like suckers. You come in 1964, you put the Voting Rights Act in the place, and what does Lyndon B. Johnson gets quoted as saying? He said, "We sit up there and pass this legislation, the Negroes will be voting for us for the next 200 years." Well, it's about 60-plus. Evidently, he was right because what has happened? We ain't even talking policies. You look at Trump behavior, and if you think about voting that way, you a sellout. Well, here's the problem with that. So I gotta go this way, right?

• 1:12:55Stephen A. Smith?

  Remember that identity politics? You're supposed to be for us, right? You wanna focus on immigration, you wanna focus on the borders, right? You wanna focus on the LGBTQ plus community, right? Including transgenders, right? Well, hello, what about the black folks that put y'all in this position all of these years? What about us? Care about us? Care about our issues? Does it matter to you what we going through? Because it doesn't seem to matter. You talk about identity politics. Some dude, Liam Thomas, I believe that was his name, that was at the University of Pennsylvania. When you a man, you 400th in the world in swimming. And then you decide that you gonna change your gender, whatever, you number one. Well, by doing so, is that fair to women? But we couldn't talk about that at that particular time because of the people who were

• 1:13:38Stephen A. Smith?

  in office and how if you challenged these issues, you could end up getting yourself fired. I have a problem with that. It's bigger than that. We got the whole social justice movement. Everybody talking about the aftermath of George Floyd's killing because it was murder. Make no mistake about it. That cock Derrick Chauvin, I hope your ass rot in jail. Okay, he belongs in jail because he is cold-blooded. He's a cold-blooded murderer as far as I'm concerned. Here's the flip side to all of that, though. We were talking about, we were marching in the streets, we were protesting, we were doing all of this, and then you had the athletes locking arms, locking arms, locking arms. Well, I'm seeing lobbyists on Capitol Hill manipulating politicians every single day, influencing legislation.

• 1:14:22Stephen A. Smith?

  Instead of locking arms, why don't you get your money together because you got it and make sure you develop your own lobbyists and get them to put forth legislation to address police brutality, which is what you said was the primary objective for the protest. How come you didn't do that? NFL would have signed on to that. NBA would have signed on to that. You could have handled that right within the structure of the system. It was right there for you. But you got a lot of people that want to talk, but they don't necessarily want to do. I'm down to do.

• 1:14:59Ryan Clark?

  So to your point, right? You talked about all of the identity politics and those things, and if you spoke about those things at those times, you would lose your job because of the administration. There are things you can't speak on now and you'll lose your job because of administration. Like, like that hasn't changed because one president has moved on and another one's been elected. I would even say that that part is worse. And when you're talking about the divisiveness and you're talking about the separation, yes, that is part of it. And also, policy is a part of it as well, but there is a part of being black that it's not just, "I'm voting Democrat, so I'm voting Democrat." You're also voting against what this country is turning to against black people as well.

• 1:15:42Stephen A. Smith?

  Well, I agree with you, which is why I voted for Kamala Harris. But I voted for Kamala Harris. I know a lot of people didn't believe that. You understand what I'm saying? But they don't realize, you know, Trump, Trump knows me. Trump knows me because I'm the guy that Trump called in 2014 when he wanted to purchase the Buffalo Bills. He called me and he said at the time...

• 1:16:01Speaker 05

  Quote, these owners talking about getting in my way. Price tag was 1.4 billion, you remember that? He had 1.1 billion according to NFL sources. Trump got on the phone, told me, he said, quote, "If them motherfuckers get in my way, I'm gonna get them all back. I'm gonna run for president." Those are his exact words. And a year later, he ran. And they were all laughing at him. But you underestimated him. You have to remember that at that time, it's not even now as we talk about now. It's not about voting for him. Forget all of the vote, who you vote for and all of that stuff. There's a bigger deal going on. And the bigger deal is where the left is just as guilty about it as the right, is that you being a free thinker

• 1:16:44Speaker 05

  and having the temerity to question what it was they're offering and what they're bringing to the table, led them to encourage your own to turn against you. And what I'm saying to you, those are the kind of things that I'm thinking about. If you want to have a discussion about policy, go for it. If you want to have a discussion about him and his juvenile tendencies, fine. But when we as black people are at a position where we make up about 13.6% of the population, okay? We're no longer the dominant minority. When you look at the Hispanic community, the US Census Bureau reports speculating or indicating that by the year 2030, they're gonna make up more than 30 to 40% of the population, okay?

• 1:17:28Speaker 05

  When you look at it from that standpoint and then you see some of these policies going, when you, some of these battles going on, on both sides of the aisle, who's getting lost in the shuffle? We are, because we don't have the representation. So the point that I'm making is, is that if you are an athlete who's wealthy, right? And you, and it's an abundance of y'all, and y'all have the capital to influence government.

• 1:17:53Speaker 05

  By feeding lobbyists, getting your own lobbyist to politic on your behalf on Capitol Hill. How much would it have cost them? It wouldn't have cost them that much, okay? But you're not thinking like that because it involves real work. And it involves a real conscientious thought. RC might have that, I might have that, you might have that. I'm not saying none of the athletes don't have it. Please don't get me wrong because some of them do. But what I'm saying is people look at us and they count on us to not have a collective vision. They count on us to be fragmented. And when we do it to ourselves by being judgmental of people who are not marching lockstep with us on every single thing, and you a sellout, and you a cool, and you this, or you that,

• 1:18:35Speaker 05

  just because you might disagree with my approach, even though I'm trying to get to the same finish line as you, I just think it's a different strategy to employ. What are we doing to one another? But then you want to come and you want to talk to me. This is why I say, name the time and place and I show up. When these cats talk, because you could talk all you want to, you could chirp all you want to. But when you got to sit in front of me and have those kind of conversations, let's have a real conversation and let's see who's real and authentic. Let's see who's the real sellout. Let's see who's the real cool. Let's talk about that. Because let me tell you something. You know me, you know me. Yeah, I'm making a little money. It ain't 60 million a year. I ain't worth a billion.

• 1:19:20Speaker 05

  If I had that kind of money, how would I be? What would you be able to tell me? Think about that. Do I look like the kind of man that would be like, you know, I got a billion dollars. I'm just going to sit back here and enjoy my life. I don't give a damn about what's happening in the rest of the world. I ain't built like that. But I know a whole bunch of cats that I cover who are. But they don't give that impression. They act like they there. They, oh, here we are. Full of it. Full of it. Not most, not all. I'm just talking about a few. Full of it, talking. And I'm very, very uncomfortable to deal with because I know it. Because I see what they're doing and what they're not doing. And they know I know who they are.

• 1:20:03Ryan Clark?

  So I have a question. Should we see it as bull crap? The Stephen A. for president talk?

• 1:20:11Ryan Clark?

  Let me put it this way. Are there truly people who would support you?

• 1:20:15Stephen A. Smith?

  Without question.

• 1:20:16Ryan Clark?

  Running for president?

• 1:20:17Stephen A. Smith?

  I think I could win it. I'm not, I'm not playing. I think I can win it. The issue for me is two things. Number one, I gotta give my money. They ain't have. They ain't have. I'm not trying to give up my money. I'm not trying to do. And I'm not trying to get that money replaced by money where I'm beholden to somebody. I'm at the mercy, because then I can't lead. So I can't see how that would happen. So you could consider it bull crap because of that reason and because I'd have to go out and beg for campaign. I don't want to disrespect the politicians. That's lazy thinking. I get it. I'm not, I don't mean it literally, but when you on the campaign trail and you need campaign dollars in order to have commercials and stuff like that, that's not how I'm built. But if that wasn't an issue, and it's just about me having the freedom to go out there

• 1:21:02Stephen A. Smith?

  and convince America that I'm the best man for the job, I think I can take them all. I think I can take them all. And you would be the best man for the job. You could, you could fix this country. I think I can take them all. I really, really do. Because you got to deal with me. What's your record? You JD Vance, you the Vice President of the United States. What you really do? What you really doing? You know Marco Rubio is the real deal because he's a former senator who's now the Secretary of State and now he's that, the National Security Advisor. So he's a very, very powerful and influential man, but on the left, all right, which is where I would be. I would be center left. I'm not a Republican. I have conservative views from the standpoint, I am fiscally conservative.

• 1:21:45Stephen A. Smith?

  I can't stand the taxes in New York, New Jersey, and California. That's where my conservative views are. You know what I'm saying? And I don't like it. I don't, I don't think we should have open borders, but I don't think they should be completely closed either. I would be more like Obama in that regard. I would be deporting people, but I would be separating children from families and stuff like that. I'd be a decent man and making sure that we're just trying to protect our borders and make sure that this country isn't inundated with folks in the emergency room and beyond and stuff like that. But I would recognize-

• 1:22:15Ryan Clark?

  It can't just be an all out onslaught of hate.

• 1:22:17Stephen A. Smith?

  It can't, it cannot. It would never be me. It would never be me. That would never be me. But the flip side is that I'm a live and let live guy. LGBTQ plus community, you got my support? You want to be transgender, you go ahead and be transgender. You can't compete against women though, if you were a dude. You can't do that. You can do what you want to do, except that, because that's putting them at an unfair advantage. Yeah, they should definitely have a place to compete. But you're not taking care of women in that. Exactly. I'm trying not to compromise the women. So, let's get a category for you. Yeah, absolutely. And let you compete. They should have a place to compete. It's no problem. I mean, I would be thoughtful in that regard. But most importantly, when you're talking about economically, when you're talking about affordability, when you're talking about safety in the streets and stuff like that,

• 1:22:59Stephen A. Smith?

  yeah, I'd love to go up against these cats. I'd love to have that debate. And not only that, could you imagine, I mean, I have to say this to you, RC, could you imagine how my wardrobe would look? I mean, if I had... You have to wear a navy suit every day. No, no. President Obama wore a tan suit one time. Respectfully, I wouldn't wear the tan suit, but I would be a better dresser than President Obama. No, you wouldn't. Yes, I would. Yes, I would. Yes, I would. I'm telling you, man. My suit game would be next level. And by the way, it wouldn't just be blue, but it wouldn't be the light colors. It would be black or blue, but how I rock it, different material, different styles, the whole bit. Oh, my Lord. It would be next level, bro.

• 1:23:43Stephen A. Smith?

  You would wear the same navy suit every day. No, no, no. See, that's what they did. That's what they did. Game's changed. Game's changed. And you know, I mean, to me on the road, the White House, the whole bit, you know what I'm saying? I'm driving in the beast, I'm flying on Air Force One, I'm staying in the bed. Oh, my Lord. I mean, come on, man. I mean, my suit game would be tight. It ain't no doubt. I gotta be on TV every day? Oh, Lord. You on TV every day, no? I know that, but it would be next level.

• 1:24:09Channing Crowder?

  I tell you what, you think you got a smooth walk? When Obama walked in that room?

• 1:24:13Stephen A. Smith?

  Yeah, well, he's earned it.

• 1:24:14Channing Crowder?

  Oh, no, no.

• 1:24:15Stephen A. Smith?

  He's earned it.

• 1:24:16Channing Crowder?

  His walk is, boy, it's the little band behind him.

• 1:24:21Channing Crowder?

  That Obama got something.

• 1:24:22Stephen A. Smith?

  All I'm trying to say to you is this, he got competition, and he was the president. Ain't supposed to be no competition.

• 1:24:30Channing Crowder?

  Who's competition?

• 1:24:31Stephen A. Smith?

  Me. I'm telling you, the suit game, absolutely. Bro, you don't even win on your own show when I'm on TV. Absolutely. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. You had those sweatpants that day, Jones. Yeah, so what? I was home. You know what I'm saying? I could flip it up, but my suit game would be tight. Go ahead, man. You know? My suit game would be tight, and my speeches wouldn't be a joke either. Now, your speeches would be next level. My speeches would be next level. My speeches would be next level.

• 1:24:53Channing Crowder?

  You gonna plan a debate every other day?

• 1:24:56Stephen A. Smith?

  Don't run from it.

• 1:24:58Speaker 05

  Don't run from it. You gotta be honest, man. It's like, listen, it's important. You gotta care. And here's the biggest thing that I would say. This is the number one reason that I believe that I could be successful.

• 1:25:14Speaker 05

  If I'm talking to you and you got a great idea, yo, man, you got a great idea. I'm not shoving it aside just because you on the opposite side. I gotta work with you anyway. I gotta work with you anyway. You know, the other day I got heat because they said I was insulting Jasmine Crockett. Why you gotta call out the sister? Because the sister's the one sounding like that. I know she's intelligent. I know she's accomplished. I know she's smart. That's not what I said. What I said was, that's not how you sounded. You sounded belligerent talking about the president. You're a representative representing the state of Texas in your district in Texas. They didn't send you there for that. They sent you there to find a way to get what you can for us.

• 1:25:55Speaker 05

  While he's in office, while a sister him getting out of office so you could get somebody in there who's more favorable to my district. Same thing with AOC. Same thing with Edward Swalwell in California. Same thing with any elected official. Your job is not to go there and say derail the president. I could do that. You're a representative. You're an elected official. You're on Capitol Hill. What are you doing? You're supposed to be working. You cannot be working if all you're saying is, I don't care what he comes up with. I'm not, I'm not agreeing to it. You can't, listen, you can't figure out what, let me, listen, he's the president. I don't like it.

• 1:26:38Speaker 05

  But damn, he gonna be here till 2028. I got 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 constituents to deal with. Man, let me see what I can get.

• 1:26:50Ryan Clark?

  I think the, the, the large part of it too is. We are now in a place where we are asking for more decorum, more professionalism, more respect from those people in the lower districts and representatives than we are from the highest office in the country.

• 1:27:07Speaker 05

  Right.

• 1:27:07Ryan Clark?

  And I think that's the difficult thing to say. Obviously, like Jasmine Crockett, in her position and who she represents, she's supposed to be disruptive, she's supposed to be opposition. But you do have to try to bring something back home for those people.

• 1:27:18Speaker 05

  That's all I'm saying.

• 1:27:19Ryan Clark?

  Right, and so I get that. But Steve Harvey actually said on our show that your suits were poop.

• 1:27:23Speaker 05

  I know, but Steve Harvey gets on me about everything. That's my brother. I mean, he could do that. That's like you, you know what I'm saying? Everybody ain't coming to my house, you understand what I'm saying? But you here, you understand what I'm saying? Because you RC, you understand what I'm saying? If it's somebody else, we ain't gonna mention no names, but no fat bastards would be in my house, you understand? No sorry ass, no sorry ass people are gonna come to my house. That ain't gonna happen, you see what I'm saying? But you could come here anytime you want to.

• 1:27:48Ryan Clark?

  My brother, you know, you come anytime you want to.

• 1:27:51Speaker 05

  Every Fred too, you welcome to the show, you welcome to the house. But certain people ain't coming to me. So Steve Harvey getting on me ain't nothing new. Steve Harvey been getting on me for years, you understand? When he had on his MC Hammer suits, you understand? And I got on them, he just ignored me. But you gotta remember something. You gotta be, you gotta, you gotta move very lightly with people like that because they comedians. You don't want comedians targeting you. Now, you gotta be able to take it if they do, you understand what I'm saying? But you don't want that. Like, you don't want Cat Williams on your ass. You don't want Steve Harvey, you don't want Cedric the Entertainer, you don't want, you don't want a lot of these, Dave, oh my God, Dave Shapiro. You don't want a lot of these people on you, you see what I'm saying? So I'm very nice to comedians, you understand?

• 1:28:35Speaker 05

  I'm very nice to them because I can't do what they do, you understand? When they're hilarious, they slicing and dicing you and they funny as hell. You got to give it to them, they funny as hell, just take it.

• 1:28:45Ryan Clark?

  We're going to F1. Right, so we have F1 this weekend. Have you ever been?

• 1:28:49Stephen A. Smith?

  I mean, I did, I go to, I went to Abu Dhabi for a race there, but that was about it.

• 1:28:53Ryan Clark?

  What did you think of F1? And now, what do you think about it here, being in the States?

• 1:28:57Stephen A. Smith?

  I don't know much about it, to be quite honest with you. I've got to do my homework on it. I was there because Mr. Mubarak asked me to come there along with Steve Harvey as a guest of theirs. So I flew across the world to get there, to see them and have that kind of experience. And I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to going back. But I don't know much about it. I know it's growing. I know that's a good thing. And I think that anytime, you know, sports in any genre is growing, I think it's incredibly beneficial to us as a society. Because I think sports, to this day, nothing brings us together better than that. You know, we started off our conversation, you know, talking about LeBron and other stuff like that.

• 1:29:40Stephen A. Smith?

  I say all the things that I said, but I don't hate him. I don't hate him. I don't wish him harm. I don't wish him unhappiness or negativity or anything like that. You know, you got other cats that might dislike me for whatever reason. That's their cross to bear. That's something for them to hang. I'm not rooting for anybody to have a bad life, to have unhappiness, to have, you know, unpleasurable experiences or anything like that. I want us all to get ours. And the reason I have that attitude is because sports taught me to have that attitude. Outside of my mama, sports taught me to have that. Because no matter what race, color, creed you are, when you in the same fraternity, it matters.

• 1:30:22Stephen A. Smith?

  It means something. And you know what togetherness is. You know what it looks like more than anybody else out here in the world knows. And I think that's a privileged position we all are in. Y'all coming from it from a player's perspective. I'm coming from it from a pundit, a scribe, a commentator. To be around it, to see y'all and to see what y'all have done, what people mean to y'all and why. It assists in making us better.

• 1:30:48Ryan Clark?

  I'm so grateful for you. You know what some of these last months have been like. And I've told every single person that I ever have a conversation with you about how real you are, how loyal you are, and how what you see is what you get. That level of authenticity always win, man. I love you. I appreciate you. Thank you, family.

• 1:31:08Stephen A. Smith?

  Love you, bro. Love both of y'all, man. Proud of y'all. Y'all keep doing great things. And, you know, just keep striving. Listen.

• 1:31:16Stephen A. Smith?

  RC, you gonna have to understand that you doing big things. This podcast is doing big things that makes y'all the target. Because unfortunately, in this world, on far too many occasions, people's definition of happiness is bringing others down to their level of misery instead of elevating themselves to your level of satisfaction, contentment, happiness, etc. And when you're that kind of target, you have to see before you act. One of the things that, as athletes, I think is incredibly unfair to y'all

• 1:31:57Stephen A. Smith?

  is that y'all made y'all livelihoods in your lives, not totally, but to some degree, based off instinctuality. Your ability to act instinctually, to instinctually say, "Okay, this is what I need to do," etc., etc. And then you get away from the game, and you're discouraged from doing exactly the thing that made you successful. And you're surrounded by, and people have an authority over you that have no concept of that because they didn't do what y'all do. And I'm really sensitive to that. I'm really sensitive to the fact that y'all are asked,

• 1:32:42Stephen A. Smith?

  I'm talking about former athletes that are now, whether it's a podcast, whether it's commentary or whatever, what you're asked to do now is an incredible, incredible challenge because you're asked to go against those very instincts that made you successful all your life. But what you gotta remember is, it's okay because it's an indication that it's time to start anew. And when you're told that it's time to start anew, whether subliminally or directly, it's an advantage because there's a purpose that comes with that that elevates your life. It refreshes you, it energizes you, it makes you feel alive again. It's something new to do that I'm really, really passionate about doing.

• 1:33:26Stephen A. Smith?

  I've seen people die of a broken heart because they lost their mom, or they lost their wife, or husband, or whatever. They were saying, "We have no purpose anymore."

• 1:33:40Stephen A. Smith?

  And the reason why we're sitting here smiling and laughing and talking one another and having a good time is because we got purpose. We got purpose, and I know that. And so, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, remember that because they gonna come. That's it. The more you climb, the more successful you are, they gonna come to get you. You understand? And it's gonna take everything. Sometimes you gonna be shaking because you wanna go at some people so bad, and you gotta refrain. But you gotta remember, yeah, definitely, RC, no doubt.

• 1:34:12Ryan Clark?

  Sure, sure.

• 1:34:12Stephen A. Smith?

  No doubt, but RC is that way because RC's a real one, whose heart's in the right place. This brother, one of the best brothers I've ever known. I got so much love for RC. RC's a great man, not a good man, a great man.

• 1:34:25Ryan Clark?

  Thank you, brother.

• 1:34:26Stephen A. Smith?

  And let me tell you something, I'm quiet and I usually let ESPN and everybody, you know, you gotta do your thing. Everybody gotta roll, everybody gotta, man, if something happen to this brother, he not with us no more, he ain't gonna be quiet. You understand? I'm not gonna be quiet then, cuz I don't wanna lose this brother. He's that special. There's a lot of people that's special, but he's one of them. And he's one of them because what you see is what you get, and he's real and authentic. But most importantly, you can talk to you. And that's the beauty of it with the interviews that y'all do and everything that y'all doing. People could talk to y'all. And there's a lot of people you could talk to, and things would be better. But these cats don't wanna talk. They wanna feel what they wanna feel, they wanna be salty, and they don't wanna man up and sit down and simply have a conversation.

• 1:35:10Stephen A. Smith?

  And you'd be surprised how much peace would exist in this world if people could just talk to one another.

• 1:35:17Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:17Stephen A. Smith?

  And I know one of the things that I do that I never run from is a conversation. As long as you can converse with people, chances are, everything's gonna be fine. Just remember that. Keep doing what y'all doing.

• 1:35:30Ryan Clark?

  And pivot fam, that's a pivot. Hey, bro, doing the show with this dude, you really could just send the questions. My dog. Hey, Stephen A., read these questions to yourself. Oh, so we throwing, ooh.

• 1:35:46Speaker 07

  Every game day you show up for your team. Now it's your time.

• 1:36:22Speaker 08

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