INTERVIEW: Stephen A. Smith Talks Colin Kaepernick Ben Simmons Making Time For His Daughters + More

better quarterback than Dak Prescott. Jared Golf, he's been bawling for the Detroit Lions. He's considered a better quarterback than Dak Prescott. And so when you I was at the Aero Spence Terrence Crawford fight, you know, by the way, an annihilation. I did not expect I picked Crawford to win that fight, but I ain't know it was gonna be like that, but I gotta tell you, I'm at the fight and a whole bunch of Dallas cowboy fans. I'm sorry to Dallas Cowboys. They're there and supremely confident

in their defense. And then when you asked him about the quarterback and we believe in him, Steve, y'all know the difference. Y'all know the difference.

I'm gonna help you out here. See what happens is is that they in the past was just trying to put up points, averaging more than twenty five game twenty nine game, rather killing more than office coordinated at the time. He's now the Chargers. Okay, we're gonna put up points. What they decided to do now is run the ball, take the ball out of his hands, be a bit more conservative, you know, spell for the defense, et cetera, et cetera. Against the better teams, it's gonna still come

down to him. And now he'll be throwing the ball less. So as a result, it's gonna be a bit foreign into him because the defense is gonna put you in a position where you got a comfortable lead most times, and you ain't under that pressure. And then when the pressure mounts, what you're gonna do.

behind center. They didn't have a quarterback. So it was a four gone conclusion that the Eagles gonna win that game. They were going to the super Bowl once that happened. Well, this year they motivated, and you got a yuk and you got de Bow, and you got Kittles, and this boy, Christian McCaffrey could be the league MVP. Right now. The brother is bawling and party is leading everybody in QBR and the defense is top three. And so when you look at it right now, I would have to say,

in all honesty, San Francisco is the favorite. And then when you look at the AFC, it's up for grabs. Two weeks ago, I was like, yo, man, I ain't seeing an offense like this in Miami since the days of Dan Dan Fouts. With Charlie joining Kellen Winslow Senior, Chuck Munsey and these brothers, I'm like, this is something special. And then they go to Buffalo and get bum rushed, beat the hell down, and I'm like, well, damn, there goes dadd And then you got Kansas City. Patrick Mahone

is still that dude. Kelsey is still that dude. But their receivers can't get open. But they got Taylor Swift. Now I know that that helps. That helps, that damn sure helps, but not on the football field's popularity. But now in the football now is that affecting the game now? Because you know, we watched the game this past weekend and it must have shown Tailor Swift nineteen times. I know, but but listen, listen, it's it's overkilled. There's no doubt you even hear Kelsey speaking out against it.

gave her a nine minute standing ovation non stop. They was screaming. They wouldn't let us sing the next song. These little teenage girls, and I mean every one of them knew every line of every song. They were singing it with her. They were crying and screaming. I saw people in the audience fainting. I saw mamas and poppers.

ball up to Janni's. He's the Greek freak. He coming at you, pushing you downhill. How you gonna stop this locomotive? Well, how you stopped the come playoff time? As you suffocate the pink, you dare him to shoot a perimeter shot. If he gets to the hole, he gonna get his thirty You know that he's gonna get his thirteen rebounds. But when it really really counts, is he gonna make those rethrows? You don't know that. So it's limitations and you got confidence. Now you've done brought in a closer.

You've done brought in a brother that has sent people home and waved goodbye to them while doing it. The Paul Georgie's, the James Hardens, the Dwight Howard's, the Russell Westbrooks of the world. Ask them Damien Littler had sent them home and waved goodbye to them while doing it. This is what he does and so it's elite. But what I said to everybody at the time is let's not rule out Boston. And this was before they got Jollity. I said, Yo, that's a big ure. I don't like

the fact that they lost Marcus Smart. I really don't. I mean, that brother something special, and I think you're gonna help Memphis immensely. But make no mistake, you get a seven foot three dude and Chris STAPs forward zingers who can block shots, who can hit the three, who just finished averaging twenty three twenty four game. He ain't no number one option. He's not the ideal second option. But in Boston, well that's Taston Tatum and Jalen Brown

and so you talking about a third option there. And so that made them formidable to begin with. But then when you turn around and you take that piece, and then you add Drew Holliday to that, I don't like the fact that they lost Malcolm Brock. Then I don't

like the fact that Marcus Martin's going. But if you got Drew Holliday and Derek White as your back court, and you have Brown and Tatum and Arford as your front court, and on top of it, or all porzingis okay, and you got Derek White coming off the bench because you got Jalen at the two, and you're gonna use

Jason Tatum at the three. I'm looking at them and I'm saying, it's Sam crue Fellers that took Milwaukee a couple of years ago when they were down three two, when Jason Tatum rolled up then there for a game six and dropped forty six. You understand, this is just as Jason Tatum were talking about here. This is Jalen Brown. We told you he had a bad game seven last year once Tatum got hurt the first offensive play and he was supposed to be able to carry the team.

He couldn't do it. But this is the same Jalen Brown that outplayed Jason Tatum in the NBA Finals lost to Golden State. Brother been averaging. You average twenty six a game last year, You average twenty four to twenty three and twenty six over the last three years. Brother can ball, And so I'm looking at it from that perspective, and I'm looking at the size that they have at every position, even though they don't have a seven foot

of like Greek and Brook Lopez. You can't use Brook Lopez but so much against them because he got to come out to the perimeter and got some of these brothers, because how Horford can shoot, and now Porzinkis can shoot, and Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown can shoot as well, and Drew Holliday is one of the best catching three shooters in the game. So you look at it from that perspective and the fact that they can play defense on an elite level. I can't sit up there and

say Milwaukee got them. So that's I think for me, it is Boston. It's Boston ahead of Milwaukee. I kind of hope I'm wrong, not because I have any desire to go to Milwaukee, but it's because I'm rooting for Damian Lillard Warriors. Hurt Well. Listen, I told Chris Paul and them, I wasn't happy about it. I wasn't excited about it because I'm like, unless you're telling me that Klay Thompson is going to, you know, be morek from

Mork and Mindy back in the day. He gonna get younger as he gets older, you know, like, can he go at the three for you? Because to me, when I think about Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. That's the backcourt with a CP three fit into that. I looked at him as a reserve coming off the bench, being that point guard that's gonna run the show with Kaminga and Moody and that second unit and upgrading them. All Right,

it's CP three gonna accept that? Is he gonna embrace that because listen, Graymond didn't like them, but now they're trying to work things out because their teammates and all of that other stuff. And that's cool. But they undersized and they got a system and they're customer. Play it that way. Chris Paul slows the pace down, control space. That's fine, that's not how they roll. And so if you're gonna do that, how effective is that gonna work out for you? I believe in Steph Curry, the greatest

shoot of God ever created. I believe in that Splash Brothers is that backcourt. I believe in their pedigree, they experience, their championships, pedigree and stuff like that. So they'll be in the mix. But I can't give them the edge over the Lakers who took them out in the postseason. I can't give them the Lake the edge over to

the reigning defended champion Denver Nuggets. I can't give them the edge over Phoenix with KD, Devin Booker, who's now gonna be at your point, and Bradley Beal all right, and that's the three of them. What about Memphis? Remember Memphis last year it wasn't just John Moran in his troubles, it was also Steven Adams and Brandon Clark that were hurt. Well they back, Well, what you're gonna do with that?

I mean, you can't ignore Memphis, and you can't ignore the Clippers because if Kawhi London and Paul Georgia healthy, one could easily argue they could have won the championship three years ago when Phoenix was in the finals against Milwaukee. Because if Kawhi is healthy and Paul George is healthy, I don't know if Phoenix beats the Clippers. And so you got to look at all of those teams before you make that kind of decision. And that's where I'm at with it.

I get the I get the mental aspects obviously. You know you and I have talked about that a lot of times, with all the great work you've done in that regard, But you take the money, you know what I'm saying. Somehow, in some way, no matter what troubles you're going through, the check is in the account and you cashing it. Somehow you're on the bench looking like a male model, you know what I'm saying, while the

rest of your team out there playing it. You know, you're just looking at it, and it's like, yo, bro, your boys need you. You understand that if you and Philly and you balling with embiid the way Tyrese Maxie is elevated. You realize what y'all could have been, right. You understand that if you're in Brooklyn and with Katie and Kyrie at the time and you could ball, you understand what what what you could have accomplished. Right, I'm looking at scenarios over the last two years is where

he could have helped two teams to a championship. Because that's how legit Ben Simmons is. And I know that he's had the injuries. I'm not trying to question that, but the point is other people are gonna question it because you couldn't bring yourself to play basketball. It literally was tantamount to you like standing on the front lines in Ukraine against Russia. It don't make no damn sense to me. And so I look at it from that perspective.

And then now you talk about you ready, you ready, you ready.

At least twenty four teams gonna show up. It ended up being twenty six the quote I received, and I said it on the head at the time. This brother would have to throw it into the stands to not have a job in two weeks. All he got to do is show up. So I'm looking at a team of people that came to me along with others, asking for assistance to get him a tryout. The league didn't want to give. The league had to give him to

try it. I'm sorry, because individual teams didn't want to, y'all because they were fearful that if they gave him a tryout and he didn't work out, he would be ready to sue them because he had already sued. The league reached the settlement, et cetera, et cetera, and all the whole you know, the racial strife that existed and he had articulated and highlighted wasn't just about police battalion and all that stuff. He was also talking about the

NFL to some degree. The teams were scared. So the NFL stepped in and they said, for the first time in history, were gonna conduct this workout. Then it was an issue with the wavering. The waiver was different than what other teams had to I call a league officer called general Console. They was like, this, you damn right, is different. We never conducted a workout as league. We don't do individual workouts. That's a team's job.

and trust the rest of us. You had the breakfast club, you had first take, you had get up, you had everybody everywhere Black America was like, Yo, you're gonna treat this brother right, show up and work. If he show up, show give him a fair shot. And in my eyes, he didn't trust us enough to look out to see I'm talking about the tsunami of folks that talk sports

and beyond. You didn't trust us to use your greatness as an athlete and say we see what you got up in there and bring the tsunami down upon the NFL and make sure now that you gave him this tryout, that ultimately you give him a job you passed, You did some work out of the high school football field an hour and twenty minutes away, giving them two hours notice. Nah nah, I said it. From that day, I said it's over. They just found the perfect excuse. They ain't

never gonna look at him again. Just this past year, you know, fourteen quarter black quarterbacks started in the NFL opening week, and seven of the top eleven paid players in the NFL at the quarterback position are black. I only bring up that numbers because that's what the owner's gonna say. They're gonna be like, look, man, we good, we got were getting our money. We got black folks in here excelling and getting paid. He had an opportunity to do that. He passed, And it's that simple. I

said it that day. It's over. I ain't been wrong yet.

with this, though I understand that. But he has done a good job, and he has been in the business for years, and so looking at the job that he did, knowing the roster of cats that I had, Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark and all these other folks, I certainly wasn't interested in getting rid of them. But I knew that he was a talent that would add He would be an additive to me. He wouldn't be a liability. But more importantly than that, man, I was where he was

two thousand and nine. We talked about this when it was me my book or various other interviews, both for y'all have done with me. Man, I know what it's like to be out in that streets and be unemployed and for them to be writing your epitaph and all of that other stuff. And I was like, there wasn't somebody, There wasn't a brother in Stephen Ay's position to help me.

But I'm in that position, and so I called them up and I said, Yo, what you want to do And he's like, Yo, man, you know if you know, if you have me, I said, he said, I said, yeah, I want you Hell yeah, absolutely.

know what my approach is. I know what I'm talking about as a reporter and pundit that covered the sport. I didn't do what you do, so yeah, look at me. Is described as walking into the locker room telling you what I saw, what I think I saw, nudging you, even antagonizing you from tom to time, trying to make sure you understand.

with mad Dog Russo that's different. We're both describes, we're both pundits. We've been doing that for our careers. But when you are sitting across from players, you got to have that respect where they know that you know who they are compared to you in terms of their athletic knowledge about what's actually happened on that field or core to play in the locker room. When you see me butting heads with an athlete, it's because I'm saying, you ain't giving it to me. There's more than this. Tell

me what it is. You see what I'm saying, because you know.

don't know what you're saying. But my point is you got to have some level of compassion where you know, all right, I can peel this out of them, but this person don't have that ability to articulate it. I'm not gonna sit up there and just bring it down on them asking how much flag did you did you get?

at you. We're not orchestrating anything. I'm not letting you know what all my opinions are. But from a generic perspective, I'm letting you know if I see something, I'm gonna attack you. I'm gonna get right at you because but the reason I'm doing it is for you to pull

out your level of expertise. So if you watch Kad's debating with me, all of a sudden, they'll up the ante as a segment progresses because I zero in on them and they get up because they know he's coming for me now, because that's my way of saying to them, you're holding out. You ain't give me what you got, and I'm gonna get this now, either that.

I had nothing to say about it anymore. The ratings speak for itself, The decisions that were made speak for itself. It is what it is. Business is business, period. In terms of what Marcellus Wiley said now that I will direct I will address directly, and I only have one thing to say. He and I work together. Got a lot of respect for him, I know the man he was talking about as his best friend. I get all of that, no problem. Here's my only issue. For a black man to sit up there and say another black

man it's scared of somebody's intellect. Come on, bro, that's just the line you crossing. And I have nothing more to say other than that that's sad that he would go that route. I guess that he's gonna get attention because obviously everybody who watches the Breakfast Club every chance we get it, he don't see talk about it. I'm certainly not gonna argue with him. I've always had a lot of respect for him. Me and Marcella's while they have never had one issue. And I don't care what

support he has for his boy or anybody else. I get that. I support my boys too, but I would never in a million years say that one black man is scared of the intellect of a white man. I would never ever ever do that. And for him to do something like that, that's on him. Y'all. Have known me for years. The business has known me for years. I've been on national television with the number one debate show on television for the last twelve straight years in County.

I've been winning. But more importantly, I've been in a bubble in a public eye on national television every day. We've had disagreements, you know, saying the whole bit. Y'all have never questioned my intelligence. No, And so for me it's like, you know, I get it, I understand it. There's a lot of brilliant brothers out there. Max is one of them. Genius, absolutely true, and a good brother, too good, due rather and I get that. But to me, forget all that, I wish him nothing but the best.

I ain't rooting against anybody for I'm even rooting for mysellers. I don't want him to fail. But if I ever sam again one on one, it would be like a black man going in a public platform and saying another black man is scared another white guys. No. No, get not as smart because most people are not as smart as some other people, I guess, but that don't mean we're devoid of how intellect and intelligence. But to say that, I fear the intelligence of any man, any man. I've

debated doctor Michael Erick Dice. I've debated Cornell West. Yes, I'm saying, I've been on the phone with President Obama. I've debated political pundance. And I'm not even a political officionado. We're talking sports, y'all. This This ain't science class. This ain't you know this? This, I mean, this ain't geometry or trigonometry or something. This ain't you know we We ain't in law school trying to pass the ball. This is sports. Scared of the intelligence, the intellect and intelligence

of a white man. Okay, we'll piss you off more.

own gets at you because they want us. You know, one minute, we want to be independent in a Maverick style. In another minute we want to walk around and like we're supposed to be one monolithic group, all aligned in terms of our thinking. I don't subscribe to that. Nobody thinks for me. I think for me, and I make

my own decisions. But when Marcella said what he said, it was a disappointm you know, because you hurting us when you say that, not me, You hurting us because dare I say, I think I've accomplished enough where you know, my level of intelligence is respected, So what about those that may not have accomplished what I've had, or haven't had an opportunity to really really expose the level of intellect they possess. Well, what are you gonna say about them?

Not him specifically, but a country that's looking at a black man saying that about another black man. So that's fine, But the t O thing was just that was what pissed me off because the lawyers, his lawyers contacted ESPN to sue me. Now he wants to say that wasn't

you know, that wasn't him, That was his lawyers. I'm like, they worked for you for what That's what he said, because he tried to say I said something off the record that I didn't say, So I don't you know, but I've never I've never listened doing what I do. I would never violate the trust because you don't have any credibility. You do that. You know, one of the things you have to do is know how to keep secrets.

You can't open your mouth publicly when you gave your word that you know, something's told to you in confidence.

you know, I don't. I don't know what to say, you know so, But I was only pissed off about that, and you know, but that's over and done. What we spoke on it. We had our words and that's that, and you know, we move on. But that pissed me off more. The Marcello's thing to answer your question made me sad. Steve got to go. I got one last question, man. This is as a father. Yeah, Charlemagne has four kids. I have six. I have two, you have two? Yeah? Where do you find a time? Right?

grew up poor. I grew up starving and I watched my mother's slave as I stayed in in my book, because you know, my father didn't handle his business. And that's why the title of my book, straight Shooter, is dedicated to my mother, because my mother was always a straight shooter, and I was always of the mindset provide and protect. Do everything that you can to elevate the quality of life of your children. Make sure they know

what you're doing. And why so my daughters know when I'm on television, they know where I'm on television from I called. You know, I'm with them every day. I call them several times a day. They know what I'm doing, where I'm doing it from, they know where to find me, et cetera. Because I read with children especially, it's important that they know. They may not like it, but when they able to turn on the TV or click on the radio and they hear you or they see you,

daddy's working, Daddy's working. And so when that's the case, and then they reap the benefits of your labor. They may not like it sometimes, but they also know that everything they have is because of you, and so that goes a long way.

it flew right out to Dallas. Something like that. It's little stuff like that that's big things to them when it really really counts, because they know that you're sacrificing for them, and when they know that they appreciated it. More importantly, it's something that they'll hold others accountable to down the line. They'll be like this, how my dad treated me? How you gonna treat me? Ladies and gentlemen. That Stephen A.

sneakers like the red bottom. So I stepped. You try to be fly, Try to be fly.

ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club