Stephen A. Smith’s Hot Take on Being Sports Media’s Biggest Name

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I apologize for people that's going to be offended by it. When I'm in front of the camera, I just don't know how to put it. I believe I'm the best on the planet. I am not worried about anything or anybody. You put the camera in front of me, you put the lights on, I believe I will be a dominant presence in front of anyone's camera.

That's just how I feel.

Steven A.

Smith, holy smokes man, like, that's one where I feel like the bar is very high. We watch one TV literally every day, listen to his podcast, and my only trepidation about it is like, well, what does he have left to say? Turns out a lot. What did you take away from it?

I just resonated with him talking about his mother, his father, when he talked about opening the fridge and not having any food there. There's so much there. But he's so authentic, and he's so confident, and he's fifty six, Jason, and I really do think that he's entering his prime.

This is a guy who basically says I didn't understand business. I got fired and I realized I did not understand what was going on behind the scenes, and then he resets and sets about learning that. And now, to your point, he's unstoppable in part because now he yets it.

Well, that part resonates big time with me because him getting fired in my suspension and then the resetting and the lessons learned. But the way I see it, if you fast forward now fifteen years, for him is probably the number one most influential voice in sports and almost pop culture, is a trifecta of lessons learned, great relationships, amazing work ethic, yeah, and supreme confidence.

Your point about like what he's building is so fascinating because we talked about this notion of where the media is going and how he reacts to it. And I loved his answer when I asked that, which is basically like I've already I've already figured it out.

And everywhere he goes he's a pop culture hero. I know that he came to one of the Timberwolves games. He sat next to me, and I thought I was sitting with like Muhammad Ali. Right, people in Minnesota loves Stephen A. Smith, and I didn't think that was going to happen. Right, He is very powerful and again he's just getting started.

And he's leveraging that. He's, you know, making a million bucks a year a little bit more, gets fired from ESPN, basically has to go away, come back only on the radio, not on TV. Making four hundred thousand dollars a year. Fast forward to now twenty plus million dollars annually is most likely what he's going to get.

He's earning every part of whatever that twenty million dollars plus ends up. He's earned every dollar and he now knows it.

On this episode of the Deal, Stephen A.

Smith, all right, so we like to start the show having people introduce themselves.

Tell us who you are stephen A. Smith, ESPN, Stephen A. Smith's Show.

I guess that says it all now, New York Times bestselling author.

I like that one. Yeah, that's a good one. That works for me too.

Yes, yes, yes, I love the way they've started off this far, Soto.

I'm very very pleased. I'm very pleased.

All right, So well, let's actually start there, because you two obviously know each other. Now I believe your friends, Yes we are, But I dare say that before you knew each other, you knew of each other. What did you know of him, what'd you think of him? Well, obviously, his baseball career spoke for it elf. Obviously he's had his trials and tribulations.

But I always considered him a good dude, somebody that would get in front of the camera talk to people, was personable, very relatable, tried to be fair minded and whatever, and was just an outstanding great player. And so that was the guy that I knew on the baseball field, and I didn't know him in any other capacity at that particular moment in time. And if I don't know you at all, I'm going to be incredibly, incredibly objective.

What have you.

But if you're my guy, you're my guy, and I'm going to go out publicly and I'm going to be unapologetic about the fact that this is my guy. And it's not just about being friendly. It's about looking at a person and looking at them for who they are and saying, that's a person I want to be friends with because they're a really good person.

And that's how I feel about Alex Rodriguez. What did you know about him?

Well, obviously I knew he was someone that was very respected in my circles and especially in New York being a Yankee. One of the things that was endaring was that he was a Yankee fan, So immediately that was a great connection. And one thing about steven A and this is kind of when we got to know each other. I went to my tough time in twenty fourteen when I served my suspension, and he was critical about me. So once I talked to him, I asked for his advice.

For his advice.

And he gave me some tough love, you know, And that kind of started what I call a very very good relationship, is very respectful. And then watching him over the last ten years, I mean, he had his downtime when ESPN let you go and you came back. I had my downturn on my suspension. In the last decade for both of us has been a lot better. But I think the common theme is we come from the bottom, we don't forget what we came from. But more importantly, I think we've learned from some of them, At.

Least I have.

I know you have as well, Stephen, and it's been great to watch him develop to this mega media superstar.

If you think back to your early days, how did those early experiences family decisions, you made, decisions that were made for you. How did it affect you as a businessman?

Well, first of all, I was incredibly ignorant to business. But I think for me, if I had to crystallize where business came to the forefront of my mind was when I got fired in two thousand and nine. You see, there's a difference between making money and learning business. When you're trying to make money, what you're doing is you're

An incredibly humbling experience.

I went from having four jobs to zero in one meeting, just like that. I didn't think it was fair. I didn't think it was right. I thought I got hold. I thought I got screwed over big time. And I was very, very upset. But I was overwhelmed, not just with sorrow but with fear. Because as I was driving home from Connecticut back to Hollis Queens, New York, to my mom's house, I pulled over on the side of the road and I just put my head in my hands because I was like, I've lost everything, and I

Out, and another one coming, by.

The way, another one coming. My contract ends in June of twenty twenty five. I'm sure we'll be talking before then, and hopefully things will work out. If it doesn't, it doesn't, and that's business, and that's something that I believe I'm going to be prepared to handle. Let's just say this, this ain't two thousand and.

Nine, Steven.

I do want to go back because we do share a lot in common, more than the pinstripes. Yes, the fact that we both fell and my suspension. You're firing, But what lessons did you learn?

And I don't think i'd be where I am today.

I was arrogant, and I was the worst kind of arrogant because I was stupid while I was arrogant. When I say I was arrogant, I never mistreated people. I'm never humane and humane when I'm talking about is just an overwhelming level of confidence and who I am in what I do in this business, and I just I'm one of those guys and I am to this, you know, for.

Better or worse.

I apologize for people that's going to be offended by it. When I'm in front of the camera, I just don't know how to put it. I believe I'm the best on the planet. I am not worried about anything or anybody. You put the camera in front of me, you put the lights on, I believe I will be a dominant presence in front of anyone's camera. That's just how I

But the advent and the introduction.

Of sports talk radio and then ultimately television, of course it was always there, but especially in this day and age, the bait format ultimately need a podcast stratgy.

There's so many different avenues.

Not to mention social media and how that could potentially be monetized, because I don't care how good your product is. If people ain't buying it, money ain't being generated. If money ain't being generated, bodies are gonna fall because they don't have the revenue to pay the folks that are producing. And when you deduce things from that simplistic perspective, it goes a long way towards humbling you. And then this is the black element. As a black man. It's very

She said, this ain't about all of that is about you.

You would have one complaining. You would have won talking about your bosses. That way, you would have won lamenting the state of affairs at work and all the stuff. She said, I'm not saying you should have been fired, but would you have wanted you working for you at that time the way that you were? She said, I'm

About the business, the biggest lesson I learned.

Is that all of a sudden, you depersonalized stuff because you can see why certain decisions are mean, and all of a sudden it makes sense. So if you ESPN and you expected to generate about fifty million in revenue, but you only generated.

Thirty, well that would explain why I got less. But if you got more, it would also explain why I'm asking for more.

And so you know what's it going to be. And that's the mentality, and that's what I've learned. The biggest lesson I learned was the importance of mastering my business. It's not just from a negotiating standpoint, not just to empower myself as a as a talent, but as a man, learning to separate emotion from business.

And so the key thing that happens in your sort of resurrection journey, as it were, is Dave Roberts comes to you. What gave him such confidence in you?

Dave Roberts, everybody knows he and I are very very close. Of course, I love him deally. He is an absolute nightmare to work for. If you are not one thousand percent committed to winning. This man lives, eats, and breathes winning. He is not a pleasant person to be around. If you are losing. He is dogged about it. And there's one talent he believes that it's like him, and you're looking at him. You know, I'm not you know, if I lose, I lose what, I'm not gonna sleep. Well,

I'm at Fox. I'm at Fox Sports.

At the time, Kevin Frasier, who's the host of Entertainment Tonight, who was once at ESPN. That's one of my buddies. He and I've been friends for thirty years. And he was working on NBA shoot Around is what it was called at the time, and he went to Mark.

He said, this is what we need. Mark's like, who's this guy? Kevin said, the best.

You have to get him, and according to Shapiro, he had twenty.

Five direct reports.

And he went into a meeting and asked what everybody thought about me, and every single individual in that room said, hell, no, don't bring him here.

He's not a cup of tea.

We don't want them. He's not for us, he's for them. Do not bring him here. Everyone except Norby Williamson, he was indecisive. What do you want to do. I guess he's worth a chance. I don't know what you want. But everybody else was an emphatic no. And Shapiro said, I've never seen anybody have such universal dissension against them in a meeting like this. Get him here for an audition. I want to see him. I go up there for an addition, and eighteen different people interviewed me.

Wow.

And the last was a guy by the name of Mike McQuaid, who was an exceptional senior coordinator producer at ESPN for years. And he looked at me and all he said to me, he was, you know, you're at Fox and it's cool, but you know, essentially compared to us in the world the sports, right, you know, they're the little fish.

We big fish.

He said, you the big fish in the little pond. How you gonna feel about being the little fish? You know, the little fish in a big pond. And I looked around and I said, I mean no disrespect to anybody, but I ain't gonna be in a little fish in anybody's pond. Turn the lights on, put on the camera, and watch me do what I do. And he said, all right, let's go, and he put me in the studio. It was at two fifteen pm. At two forty five pm, we finished at three o'clock. I was on the road

Watch.

A peer on them was watching and he called it the greatest audition he had ever seen. And that's how it started.

And so I do want to go back to that moment where you come back because you start this rebuild. It's clear then, and you've described it in talking about Dave, it's clear that you had a much I don't know if you had a better grasp, you had more focus on the numbers and what you had to deliver.

Is that fair? Yes? So where does it go from there?

How do you build that sort of business and sort of almost analytic foundation to take the next step.

Well, first of all, you have to assign yourself.

And I talked to a a Rod about this, you know, I was like, listen, man, you're going to do baseball. This is a beautiful thing because obviously this man is a savant when it comes to the diamond and I'm looking at him and I'm like, the games, live events, that's always a winner. You're a part of that. You're winning, right. If you're not a part of that, what do you do? You can make all the sports and appearances in the world, to use ESPN as an example, but if you ain't

So it's not appointment viewing.

That means what happens is ultimately they could deduce what the number is and they don't necessarily have to attribute it to you because you're not a consistent presence on the show. As a result, they get to dilute your impact, therefore dilute your worth and as a result, say do you hold your horses in terms of what you think you're worth? This may not necessarily be soow So when Skip Bayless came to me, and Skip Bayless was like, hey, man, I need you on the show. I'm getting my ratings

Trust, et cetera, et cetera.

One of the things that I had to pay attention to and ultimately had to heed was that that's five days a week, every day ten am. That means the audience knows exactly where to find me, which means that if these ratings jump up, there's no way they can deny the impact that I had because I'm right there. And so because of that, I went to the show. We skyrocketed to number one on ESPN two. Okay, we

Offered a boatload of money from Fox.

I had dreams of making sure that we transitioned from ESPN to to ESPN one because ESPN one always has more viewers. So if we're right there, that's definitely going to facilitate us grasping a larger audience as those larger numbers come in. All of a sudden, here we are, and who's the constant. You've got Skip Bayles's he's in, he's out. You got Max Kellum and he's in, he's out. You've got Kerry Champion, You've got Molly Carum, You've got

I don't want to get too far away though, from that initial decision though, to pair with Skip, because I think the three of us can agree that fundamentally changes sports media. You and Skip had a relationship you had seemingly dissimilar backgrounds, but actually, when you peel it back, you're both incredibly hard working journalists at the core. Because if we think about deals, that's probably one of the best deals you do is getting into a partnership with Skip Bayless.

Scared Bayless is insane and I'm not. Yeah, let's get that out of the way.

And I say that affectionately, and he knows what story I'm going to tell.

It's two thousand and five.

Bob Lee is hosting sports centers on Sunday morning, the Great Bobbley. And in hosting those sports centers, there was a segment okay, old school news school.

They had talked about it.

Bobly ultimately took a hold of it and had Skip and Eye On in separate rooms in a studio right here in midtown Manhattan, and Skip would say our landish things sometimes of what people thought were outlandish, and some athlete got in trouble, and Skip Baylor's goes a national television on a Sunday morning at eleven AM, to be exact, and this man says, no athlete should be allowed outside after eleven pm. He said, nothing good happens at nighttime.

You know?

And so we finished the segment and we come out of our separate rooms and I was like, man, that was hilarious.

Man, that was funny. Way to go. Man.

He looked around, He's leaning to me. He said, I'm serious. He said, no athletes should be allowed out after the clock. Is nothing good that comes from being out after eleven o'clock at night. And that's when I knew if we ever paid, it's gonna be big time. Because I naturally thought nothing like him.

Naturally he thought nothing like me. We were polar opposites. It wasn't something that had to be manufactured.

So Stephen, that was then, Yes, it is now. Yes, you've had multiple co hosts. Yeah, I love what you guys doing Mondays and Tuesdays, earn Foot on all of that. The question is the rating wars, right, who's winning?

Now?

It was me close, not even close. And I don't say that with joy, believe it or not, because I want to win. I want to be number one but I think a couple of weeks ago we won by a ten to one margin.

It's been very, very lopsided.

And I take no joy in saying that, because I want SKIP to be successful. I'm going to always be grateful for what he did to me. Keishawn Johnson's a friend of mine. Michael Irvin is a friend of mine. You know, Richard Sherman is a friend of mine. I'm not rooting against these guys. I just want to be number one. But you know, first take is definitely it. This is at a time when linear television, you know, is doing the ling shows a get canceled.

We're going up in the ratings.

I literally had a conversation with the bosses, like, look, if I'm going to continue to do this show, it can't be about that, because now I'm competing against myself. I'm proud to say that I wake up every day with two thoughts in my mind, how do I make my bosses more money and how do I get some of it. I can say stuff like that about being at ESPN because I know I don't show up to work thinking about just myself. I show up to work thinking about facilitating success for the company. And so I

And so that leads to I think a fascinating conversation about this moment that we're in that you're addressing directly, Stephen, which is the media landscape is radically changing. Even the business model sure they're at ESPN is changing. You think about you know, Logan Paul, You think about Pat McAfee, you think about Dude Perfect licensing content to ESPN. This world is going to change. How do you ensure that you change your business with it?

I've already done it. The Stephen A. Smith's show is owned and operated by me, has nothing to do with ESPN.

You have people and respect to everybody who does it because it's a money making business. The podcast Stratospy that we live in props to you guys for doing what you're doing. I'm proud of everything that I see and I want everybody to succeed. But when you look at those guys, they have podcasts. I have a show. What do I mean by that? I came out of my own pocket and I built my own television set in my own television studio. I'm trying to produce content for

Another minute, it's an hour show on politics.

That can go up against real time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show or something like that. You look at the set, you might peak at it and say, man, this looks like a late night show Stephen Cober, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel. Yes, it's true. Hell, I could do something for Bloomberg News if I knew as much as y'all did about business.

Okay, I'm just saying that. For me, that's what I'm after. I wasn't out to do a podcast.

Everybody else was doing a podcast number one and number two. I didn't need to necessarily do that because even though the landscape is changing, I'm still winning in linear television, and by the way, it's winning and streaming because you have to remember there is such a thing called ESPN YouTube. People can talk all the stuff that they want about the you know, ESPN's and Less households, and it was one hundred million, and then it dipped to eighty nine, and then eighty two.

And then down to seventy one.

What they're leaving out is that the audience hasn't left ESPN. They're just watching it differently iPads, smartphones, laptops, et cetera. And oh, by the way, in my first year doing the Stephen A.

Smith Show on YouTube, which is separate and apart from all of that, I already have six hundred and fourteen thousand subscribers averaging over eight million views pro.

So I'm just getting started. My attitude is I've already adjusted. It's just a matter of what I'm going to be incentivized to do. I'm not going to be apologetic about this. I want to and I intend to get paid. But in the same breath, I also want to be somebody that whether it's ESPN and Disney or someone else, looks at and has faith in to help build find different talents, scout and the value and create different shows and different platforms for content I want to be one of those guys as well.

Steven A.

That's one other things that we also have in common is a great friend and mutual mentor in Mark Shapiro.

What did you learn from Mark Shapiro?

Mark and I have a special relationship. You know, it's rare, and I'm just gonna say it. Plain to be a black man from the streets in New York City, it is rare that you find yourself in a position to have the kind of relationships that I've been blessed and fortunate.

Enough to have. And Mark Shapiro is certainly up there with some of the great.

Relationships that I've had. He's a businessman, make no mistake about it. He does not always deliver me good news. We do not always agree, and we will butt heads. And if you don't know us, you'd be like, what the hell is wrong with them? Why do they talk to each other like that?

What you don't.

Understand is that we could talk to each other like that and be like, all right, man, I meet you for dinner in an hour.

All right, man, I see you next Tuesday. Were going to the next game together?

A right, when you have somebody like Mark Shapiro, in your life.

I just can't say enough of you.

He's alive, he's energized, He's constantly swinging for the defenses, and he goes for it. And it's pretty impossible to be in his presence and be somebody who's complacent, who doesn't want to work hard, and who doesn't care about results. If you're trying to win, you don't mind being around him.

And he is the only I love Irian Manuel as well.

We've had a great relationship for years, but I don't apologetically tell anybody I'm at William Morrison Deavor because Mark Shapiro is there. It's a personal relationship that I've had with him for over twenty years. He is the man that hired me when he was going to six Flags, when he was going running Dick Clark Productions, when he was all of these years that he was away from me, he would still call and provide input and do what

We talked a bit about Mark Shapiro, and if you haven't listened to our episode with him yet, go back and check it out. Coming up we discuss how Stephen a went from a local journalist to the face of ESPN, plus how mentorship and accountability played critical roles in his success.

You could say activism and you wouldn't be far off, but it's really not about that. Instead of activism, I'll use another word with the letter A, accountability. These are pioneers from the black community that toiled through the terrain in a very very significant way, created and provoked change, made differences, and ultimately had to confront hardships that weren't given to the typical person out in this world. You John Thompson, you have to go through a lot to

You have the potential to do and accomplish the things similar to what they did.

And they're letting you know. There's a responsibility that comes with it. There's an expectation. You know, Reverend Jackson came up to me with that one time. Al Shopton came up to me with that one time. I got a call from Barack Obama one time that came. You know, throughout the years, you see people coming up to you, and it's something in my mind that I appreciate greatly because it reminds me that it's not just about me.

Excuse me, You're here, be mission minded. You ain't here for just to check. You ain't here just to do a good job and go home. You don't get to do that because you have the power to influence lives.

Therefore, you have a responsibility to strive to do so in a very positive way.

And if it's with a hard, hard truth, so be it. But you're doing it for the right reasons. And so to me, that's the difference.

And I've often said this because there are white individuals that I've looked up to, that I've admired for many, many years, and that I've talked to on a constant basis that's given me advice, counsel tools. One of those people that I talk to religiously that I love very dearly is Bob Iger. You know, I don't, I have never, nor will I ever ask Bob Iger for anything but advice.

You do not leverage relationships like that.

This man and what he did to take me under his wing, to care about me enough just to give me guidance. Okay, it was a big thing. He didn't have to do that. I'm not gonna I could leave ESPN this year. I got nothing negative to say about that man.

That's my guy.

Kind of advice that Bob give you, he gave me.

A boatload of advice. He also told you.

You reminded me about the importance of business, not to take things personal, to educate yourself about what you need to educate yourself about, so you don't take things personally, so you don't personalize it in a fashion that compromises your ability to perform. And then also understanding you don't always have to give into this need to fight every battle and to come out swinging. You don't take relationships

From wise individuals.

StepN and I know you've interviewed everyone from like Michael to Magic as a young black man coming up, watching these guys from Afar, writing about them in Philly and the Ally News. What are some of the people that you've admired, that have given you advice, and that you sound like Michael Jordan and Kobe when you're talking about I want to be number one?

But how did they influence you?

Both from Afar and now it's friends or mentors.

Well, when you're great, when you speak, folks have no choice but to listen if they want to win. And you know you're sitting here doing this podcast. Here's the reality of the situation. No matter what you've been through, there's no doubt that greatness was in your career. So when you suit it down, I'm sitting in Minnesota with you.

You got your black suit on you. I'm like this brother's an owner for the NBA team, you know, saying is going to own an NBA team.

I'm loving this right now. Earned not given, you know, because you made smart decisions along the way. Every decision was wrong. You made a lot of wise decisions, a lot of smart decisions. The Kobe's of the world, the Mjs of the world, I mean.

People like that. You just watch guys and you watch them work, and most of the I'm watching rather than asking, because I'm a pretty keen observer.

And so when I think about a guy like Kobe two thousand and two thousand and five, two thousand and six, Kobe Bryant trial and stuff is over. He settles the case, he's back, he's playing ball, never stopped, and he's doing interviews. You know, he's still talking to people after games and stuff like that. But he never sat down and gave it one on one to anybody. And then he gave

Oprah harpo, she owns the Oprah Winfrey Show, she.

Owns her own brand. That's what I want for you one day. And that's what he said to me, which is why, even though I loved him so much and we were pretty tight for a media member to a player, it broke my heart when he passed away in that helicopter accident because I was with him three weeks earlier on New Year's Eve, hugged one another, talked with one another.

And so I'm watching him and he was like, you might have and the.

Part where he got really, really emotional and he called for a break and he was like, you might have a problem with me. That's because you never want anything, you know, he was talking to whoever he was talking to. The sacrifices that come with it. You didn't do this, you know, you didn't know what it takes. You didn't know what it took to get to this point. The sacrifices that were made and I take all of that and I look at my life.

I've got two daughters, I got full older sisters.

Both my parents passed away in twenty seventeen and eighteen, respectively, and I've got fifteen nieces and nephews. And there's a lot of moments that I've missed. I don't have regrets about that. It had to be done. We want welfare, government cheese and bread, then spend long in it, but we starved. I know what rats and roaches in the house look like. I know what it's like to open the refrigerator and they'd be absolutely positively nothing in there.

I know what it's like to walk around starving.

I know I've been there, and I'm like, I'm never going back. And my daughters will never experience that, and my sisters will are done experience that, and my nieces and nephews ain't experience that. Whatever I gotta do to be great enough to ensure that we don't have those concerns, I will do. And if that means that they get to spend Christmas and Thanksgiving together. But I gotta be on the road at work. I gotta be traveling, I gotta be at a game. I gotta sacrifice time, that

And to that end, you know, as Alex has alluded to, you're in the verge of being almost certainly the highest paid sports commentator in the business. In your book, you talk about your late brother. He visualized that for you. He manifested it.

He visualized it two months before he died.

You manifested it. So as you think about that, I know you think about him a lot. And what's happened in those intervening years. Were you always confident this is where it would end up?

Oh?

No, I wasn't confident that it would end up where I am today. I thought that I would be successful. I thought that I would be pretty good, if not great. I thought that you would respect me, you would see me, you would know me. But I never thought I would be in the position that I'm in right now. I'm in a position right now where I literally, I mean, I tell him.

I just I did.

My pastor has a podcast, and he had Beyond the other day. It's always nervous being around him because I'm trying to get there.

You know, I'm trying to get there. I'm not quite there yet, but I'm like past I'm trying. I'm really trying, you know.

And he's known me for thirty years and knows everything about my life inside and out because he's my spiritual father, and I confide in him about a lot of things.

Thinking about your question, he asked me the same thing, and I.

Said, I knew I'd be successful, but I didn't know this would happen. Yeah, we talk about I could be the highest paid. Well, let's talk about that for a second. ESPN has done nothing wrong to me in that regard. When I signed my contract years ago, I was the highest paid.

Then, Yep, they treated me right. Things just happened, you know. Other folks came down the pike. Pat McAfee, Kick and Tail.

In the YouTube stratospy over two million hours, built the show over seven years.

He deserved, That's what he got. Troy Aikman and Joe Buck are institutions. They deserve.

What I mean, I can't even express to you what it is to have them. Troy Aikman, I respect the hell out of Joe Buck, but I don't really know him. I love me some Troy Achman. That's my that's my brother. I love Troy Aikman, you know. And he's phenomenal.

You know.

You think Kirk Kurbs, she's been there for years. You think all of these other guys, they've been there for years. It was their turn. The only reason I ever asked, I answered any questions about me being the highest paid. It was me saying, hello, it's my turn. You know, my contract's coming up. I've been number one. I was number one then, I'm still number one now.

It ain't too many dudes.

It's fifty six years of age, twenty years in the television business.

That's number one for the last twelve years.

And when I say number one, I'm talking about every week and every month and every year for twelve years.

Yeah, that's how I feel.

But that doesn't mean that ESPN is wrong or Disney is wrong for feeling otherwise.

If you feel otherwise, you feel otherwise, then I'll have to find somebody who does feel like I feel.

And you know, we'll go from there. But the biggest thing for me is that people try to act and they're trying to pit it like it's going to be.

Some negotiating war. No, it's not. This is what I bring to the table.

Do you value and appreciate me enough to give me what I think I deserve or not? If you don't, I respect that. I hope you respect the fact that somebody else might. And we go from there. But so many times people think that I'm talking about ESPN. I'm not talking about ESPN. I'm talking about the business. I'm talking about everybody. Hello, we live in America. I thought this was capitalism. I thought we tried to inch as close to my meritocracy as we possibly could.

I thought we were about winners.

If you're going to pay folks, isn't it it's supposed to be people who would win for you. They didn't pay him to lose. They didn't pay Derek g to the lose. They didn't pay Michael Jordan to lose. I don't recall that you get paid to win. I've won, now, that doesn't mean I can't. I don't have to keep winning. I understand the responsibility that comes along with it. But what I'm saying to the industry, when I got let go in two thousand and nine, y'all left me for dead.

And it's okay because you were doing your.

Job and you have a right to your opinion, and based on the facts at that particular moment in time, I gotta give you credit for deducing that that was the situation and that was your opinion. Well, what you're gonna say now, because I'm here, and by the way, I'm fifty six and I'm coming I'm not done. Lost forty pounds, Calester royal level drop by one hundred points, insolent resistant levels from twenty seven to or two, body fat from twenty nine point four to ten point four.

I'm not messing around. I'm on a mission.

You look like you're forty six and not fifty six.

I appreciate that. I think I look a little younger than that. But say, I'm saying, stevehn At.

What thing that you know, like Nick, my nephew is an enormous fan of you, like other millions young people. Right, But they forget Steven A, the writer in Philly that wasn't making millions and millions of dollars. My question to you is how much to being a writer help you? Being so good on television everything? Because it provided substance. It got me addicted to having something to say.

When you're a columnist, you have to wake up every morning and you have to be about the business of what is the most attractive story to write about today?

What will compel and ingratiate you with the reader? Okay?

And do you have interesting content to provide? In some cases three, four or five times a week? Can you do that? When they called me screaming a I listened carefully. I don't mind you saying I'm loud. I don't mind you pointed to me being bombastic and demonstrative on occasion. What I mind is if I sense you utilizing that stigma to evade or omit my career, Dad, I will not tolerate. I was in those press boxes, I was

I was the one that started out.

As an intern for the Winston Salem Journal, and then I went over to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Then I went to the Greensboro News and Records, where I'm literally working from eight thirty to six pm every day doing calendar items, school lunch menus and all of this other stuff. And then from seven pm to midnight I worked for free covering prep sports in the Piedmont Triad area in

Portfolio and ultimately get a job in this business.

I'm the one that started out at the New York Daily News as a reporter. From April of nineteen ninety three to August of nineteen ninety three, I had to cover homicide. This is the stuff I've done, so when I'm sitting there and I'm looking at people and they're talking like, you know, he's loud and he's one basketing, he's demonstrative.

I'm looking at them like, you can kiss my ass.

Excuse my language, you can do that, because what you're trying to do is you're trying to ignore any.

Race that I did what you did to get here? All right, stephen A.

Smith from New York, there's so many young people out there admire you look at for you, watch your journey. If they want to be the next stephen A Smith, what advice would you give them?

Be committed to the work and the journey, not the results. Forget the sizzle because all that glitters ain't gold. You got to be about to work because ultimately that's going to be your saving grace, the work that you're willing to put in, the sacrifices that you're willing to make, the fact that you're not addicted to the glitz and glamour.

It ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Keep in mind, when I got let go in two thousand and nine, everybody knew, so being known and being a celebrity and you know, being this everybody knew when I fell flat on my face when I failed. When my epitaph was being written and I was considered done in this industry. Everybody knew my name is paraded all over the place. That wasn't fun. So don't be too high, don't get too low. Be as even keel as you

Themselves to yours.

And when you understand that, and then you be about the business of doing your job, mastering your craft, and committing yourself to being the best at what you do on an everyday basis. Every day is a new day. You got to get up and do it again. When you commit yourself to that, you're on your way. If you're looking for shortcuts, just get out the way now because you ain't going So you ain't gonna win. If you look at for shortcuts, you ain't gonna win.

You will fall love that. Thank you very much, Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals. The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly. Our producers are Victory Veyaz and Lizzie Phillip. Our story editor is Sir Dartha Mahonta. Our system producers are Stacy Wong and Cale Brooks. Blake Maples is our sound engineer. Rubob Shakir is our creative director. Our direction is from Jacqueline Kessler. Original music by Blake Maples, casting by Dave Warren.