What's up, everybody. Welcome to the latest edition of Stephen A. Smiths Show, coming at you over the digital areas of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio as I love to do it at the very least three times a week. I want to thank y'all as always for supporting the show, particularly on YouTube, where I've now eclipsed over nine hundred and seventy two thousand subscribers, rapidly approaching one million subscribers. Of course, I've had multi over a few million downloads
on iHeartRadio over the last several months as well. Thank you so much for continuing to love and support the show. I really really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. To continue to like and follow the show, just click the bell to get notified for all of our new content, and you two shall be considered the latest member of
the Stephen A. Smith Show family. While you're doing that, it is the Christmas Holidays, after all, And I've got a New York Times best selling book out, Straight Shooter, Memoir of Second Chair Instant First Takes now in paperback. Just go to straight shoot a book dot com to get yourself a copy of that. Once again, that Straight Shooter book dot com to get yourself a copy. It
is not a sports book. It is a book about me, my life, my trials and tribulations, and how motivational and inspirational I hope it can be to a lot of people out there who see no light at the end of the tunnel. But once you persevere, you continue to march on and climb, you'd be surprised what you end up discovering about yourself. If I sound somber, it's because
I've got good reason to. And it's not because I'm sitting here before you sick, you know, battling allergies and all of that stuff, scratchy throat and everything like that. Went to season, traveling a lot. Obviously my health is not pristine. But I'm okay, okay enough to be here.
The somber tone is because of the news, some tragic news that broke just a few hours ago in the state of Wisconsin, a school shooting that left at least three people dead, including who police suspect is a juvenile shooter. Six others were wounded in the incident that happened at Abundant Life Christian School this morning in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison police Chief Sean Bonds said officers who responded to a call of an active shooter at the school also found
the alleged shooter dead at the scene. The suspected shooter was also a student at the school. Initial police reports said the fatalities included four victims plus the shooter, but later they lowered the number of fatalities. It's sad. It's Christmas time and there are folks who have lost loved ones and what appears to be another senseless shooting. Now, see, this is the kind of stuff that I was talking about, you know, one of the most riveting moments in my life,
something that affected me. And I don't cry often, to be quite honest with you. It's just not something that I've done much of in my lifetime. I can count on one hand the amount of times tears have come streaming down my face. And I remember one of those times being when those little kids, it's Sandy Hook in Connecticut when Obama was in office, were killed. I think it was like twenty one deaths if I remember correctly,
nineteen of them with children. And when you heard the descriptions of how the shooter would go one by one and would shoot a six or seven year old right in front of others their age, with those little kids knowing that they were next. It can't get more heinous than that. And so naturally, stuff like that ultimately ends up getting politicized, and people start talking about gun control or gun laws, and that forces the other side to fight for their Second Amendment rights. And what gets lost
in the shuffle are lives lost. Lives lost, And how, somehow, some way, human beings who are supposed to have a heart and are supposed to have a soul can't seem to come together for the betterment of the most helpless amongst us. With your children, And when I heard the story about what transpired in Madison, Wisconsin this morning. It's a Catholic school. K to twelve. We don't know yet the name. I'm sorry. It's a Christian school. I apologize.
K to twelve. We don't know yet the age of the victims at the moment that we're taping this show. K to twelve, Ladies and gentlemen. It could be a six or seven year old, It could be a nine or ten year old. Lives lost are heinous enough at the hands of somebody who felt like being a murderer. But let's face reality, when it involves kids, it stings us a bit more significantly. And that's the kind of thing that we have to think about. And so, yes, this is a show that tackles all issues. We run
from nothing and we talk about everything. We try to be as informed as we possibly can. If we make mistakes, we own up to it. If we don't have all the facts, all the information necessary, we own up to that as well. But there are some things that you don't need, but so much information. When you find out that kids were killed, that's the bottom line, and something has to be done about it. Now. I'm one of those people that I will openly confess as a registered independent.
I'm stuck. On one hand, I want guns off the streets. On another hand, I'm tired of people being killed and then we turn around and find out that folks were utterly defenseless because they weren't armed. Now, obviously that's not going to be applicable in a Christian school K twelve. What would teenagers or people that are younger be walking around with firearms? For? I get that part, But how to hell let that person have a firearm and get into school and why was there no one there to
derail that individual? It's anyboy, is anybody in the school on We don't know. We don't know the facts of that information as of yet, or that situation as of yet. But those are the common things to me that should be debated. Whether or not having a firearm on your person is more helpful or harmful, those are the kind of things that should be debated. I'm not getting into somebody's rights because to me, even though rights are important,
it pales in comparison to someone's life. Rights are important, but not at the expense of the lives of human beings, particularly the youngest amongst us, who haven't even had an opportunity to really really live their lives as of yet. And so at least two to three people have been stripped of their life because of a juvenile shooter, who I think is okay to call a murderer because that person killed innocent people. We don't know the gender of the shooter. We don't know the age of the shooter.
We don't know the description of the shooter. We don't know the age of the descriptions or the genders of the victims. We don't know whether there was teachers killed. We don't know whether there was a police officer killed, somebody in security. We don't know all of those details at the time of this taping. That much is true. We don't know those things. And I get that, and I understand it, and we have to find out more. And Sandy Hook, it was twenty children, six adults. I'm
gonna say that again. Twenty children were killed. And I remember that being politicized. I remember when President Obama at the time stood at the podium and said the name of each child and wiped a tear from his eye, and you had folks on the right accusing him of
being inauthentic and phony. Like our core decency sometimes escaped us because I don't give a damn what your political affiliation is, what your ideology is, what your religion is, etc. You hear that twenty children were killed in cold blood, it's got to hit you. And any time I hear about a school shooting, particularly involving K to anything, let alone K to twelve, I'm thinking about Sandy Hook. That's
what it reminds me of. And I piggyback off of that conversation to get to this point, a point that I was discussing last week, and that was with folks online and other places celebrating the shooting of the United Healthcare CEO, mister Thompson. That was disgusting, It was appalling.
And I've got people that want to come on this show to talk with me and debate me, well, bring it on, but be prepared to sit there on a set sitting across from me with the cameras rolling, justifying murder, because that, in essence, it's what it comes down to.
I'm not throwing flowers or acting like the healthcare system isn't an atrocity, that it's right in any way to take advantage of American citizens and beyond denying their cases when they have legitimate health issues, when they paid money into a healthcare plan and they denied the treatment that they deserve because of monetary reasons, because of people trying to make a profit. I understand how egregious that is. I get that, I truly truly do. But at the end of the day, I don't give a shit what
the circumstances are. You can never sit down and justify cold blooded murder. That United Healthcare CEO was shot in the back getting out of his car walking into a hotel. He was gunned down from behind. He was a husband, life is now a widower. He was a father. His children don't no longer have their father. We gotta be careful about the things that we say and a man in which we're willing to come across as if we're
condoning something. We want to say. All right, we're not condoning murder, but well, wait a minute, cold blooded murder, gunning somebody down, taking their life. Really, when we open our mouths and we say stuff like that, it can incite and spark anybody to do the same. Anybody can have a reason. You know what in the movies I never watched before Ladies and Dinner, I never watched The Purge. The Purge. All right, twelve hours of lawlessness. You get
to kill anybody you want to for twelve hours. Nah, I'm not down for that. That's the void of civilization. That's the void of a civilized society, and that the core room and the behavior and the lawfulness is supposed to come with it. That's not what America is supposed to be about. That's not what any place in this world should be about. Yes, there are people that's taking advantage of us. Yes, there are people that's getting over But to me, the only excuse to take somebody's life
is self defense. That's it. Under no other circumstances. Should killing somebody be something that we can do at some point in time, our coredecency has to come into plane. It has the matter her and if it doesn't, that really says a lot about who we are and what we're lacking. Then it says about anybody else. I got some other stuff to get into, But now before I pay some bills, I'll be right back with some additional stuff to touch on in a moment. Don't go away.
I need all of y'all to stop what you're doing and listen up here at the Steven A. Smith Show. And then everything I do, I'm in it to win it. Everyone likes to win. That's why I show as decided the team up with the Prize Picks, America's number one fantasy sports app with over three million members, telp you turn all your sports knowledge into some big time cash. You see. Prize Picks is a daily fantasy app where you choose just between two and six players from any
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Prize picks, pick ball, pick less. It's really really that easy. Now, let's move on to some politics and social media with some of you no surprises. You're just continuing to piss me off. Why because every time I make a comment that's critical of the Democratic Party or the left, I get accused of being a pundit for the right. Prior to the election cycle, I voiced my concerns about Joe Biden and his ability to serve as second term a
second term rather as president. Then Biden stepped on the debate stage in late June and revealed what many suspected. He embarrassed himself. The White House and the Democrats eventually switched the Vice President Kamala Harris when he stepped away, who ultimately ran you know what, some would say, a valiant presidential campaign, at least in the eyes of some,
that ultimately fell short with voters across the country. I pointed out my concerns with the campaign and the Democratic Party along the way, and many of you wanted to accuse me of being a voice for the right. So, you know what, I feel like it's time to set the records straight, because ain't nobody hiding, ain't nobody running. Okay, let me be very very clear. I'm a registered and dependent because I don't trust either side. I think both sides are full of it on so many levels and
so many circumstances, it's nauseating. But I also want to take a moment because a lot of people out there on social media be saying to me, here's Stephen and you take these positions, you frustrated with the Democratic Party, but then you voted for Kamala Harris against Trump. Why.
It's very very simple. I believe that Donald Trump has been a divisive figure, and I was thinking coming into this election that the last thing we needed was four more years of what we saw the last time, where there was so much strife and so much division that even though the economy clearly was doing well under his watch before COVID struck, it was just too much for the country to take. I was fearful of civil war
in this country. It wasn't so much that he was supportive of white supremacists and he was this racist and all of this stuff, like people were saying. I didn't even engage in that incendiary rhetoric because I've always believed that Donald Trump was just somebody who did things that were politically expedient. If supporting one side was going to generate votes for him, he would flow with it. And if it was not going to support his cause, he wasn't.
It's just simple. It's just that simple. Why did I say that and why did I refrain from that in Sydney every rhetoric that was thrown in his direction, it was because I knew Donald Trump before he ran for president, and black, white male females and everybody in between got a law with him. Great. So for all of a sudden everybody to stand up and act like he was
this pariah was bs. But I was also acknowledging he didn't help his own cause from the moment in twenty fifteen when he strolled down those escalators escalators with Milania. The man offended fifty percent of the population back then in twenty fifteen, came across the xenophobic in the eyes of many, and it just seemed to go downhill from there. So after he served us four years in the White House, I didn't want to repeat all of that. But I
didn't call him a racist. I didn't compare him the Nazis. I didn't sit up there and accuse him of befriending white supremacists and all of that stuff, because I knew, no matter how what people believed they were trying to politicize it. So when I thought about him agains Kamala Harris, I said, excuse me, let me make sure Republicans are in the House and the Senate. You have somebody that's gonna work with both sides in the White House, and
we'll have peace domestically. That's what I was thinking. But under no circumstances was I this raving supporter of Kamala Harris. I saw her during the primaries in twenty twenty. I saw that she couldn't get to Iowa. I saw her comments about transgenders, particularly those in prison that wanted sex changes. I saw how incoherent she appeared in communicating what her objective would be when it came to the economy. I know for a fact that she was supposed to oversee
the issues involving the border. Yes, like Roland Martin said, she wasn't the quote unquote borders are, but she was perceived as such. I also saw a going to view and categorically denied that there was any need to change anything that Biden had done, even though over twelve million people crossed the border illegally, and you were acting like there was no border crisis. I saw the duplicit ascendencies.
I saw the inconsistencies. I also saw the hypocrisy. And as the election came about and ultimately unfolded, and I saw Donald Trump win convincingly. No, he did not get fifty percent of the popular vote, as the Democrats is so quick to point out. My attitude to them is, shut the hell up. Nobody wants to hear that. Now, who cares whether he got fifty percent of the vote or now? He beat you in the popular vote and
the electoral College vote. He swept the swing states, he improved his numbers in every demographic imaginable, Blacks, Hispanics, women, he beat you, and the American people spoke, and they spoke flagrantly. And from that moment forward, I'm like, damn all of that. We're gonna support the fact that he won the presidency. And I'm gonna tell you where I'm at with it. And that doesn't mean I'm gonna become some registered Republican because I'm still I still find them
a bit shaky. But when I see Attorney Bragg in New York trying to treat, trying to convince the judge and the courts to treat Donald Trump as if he's deceased, as if he has died, just to make sure that your convictions on those thirty four fellon in the accounts remains a part of the record. It just shows another level of patheticness. If that is such a word that creeps in once again, you can't let it go. He is the president elect of the United States of America
in January twentieth. He is gonna be the president of the United States, and you want to sit up here and waste tax payer dollars and literally go before the courts to do everything it can to make his conviction a matter of record, knowing he ain't gonna get any jail time, You're not gonna be able to incarcerate him, You're not gonna be able to find him. Sir, it's over. It's over. Democrats, it's over. It's over. I'm gonna say
this before and I'll say it again. You know what I would do if I were Joe Biden President Joe Biden, especially since I basically gave the Democratic Party the finger because you kept saying, we follow the rule of law, we follow the rule of law, We follow the rule of law. And then you're win, and you circumvented all of that to get to party your son, since you were willing to do that. If I was President Joe Biden, I would parton Donald Trump. I'm gonna see it again.
I would pardon Donald Trump for one reason and one reason only, to move the hell on. Enough's enough, Enough's enough. You tried to get him. If you're Nancy Pelosi, you tried to get him. If you Chuck Schumer, you tried to get him. If you would have damned in the Senate and the House, you tried to get him. If you were the FBI, you tried to get him. If you were the Department of Justice, you tried to get him.
I mean, damn Russian collusion. What happened. See, we keep talking and talking and talking, and all we see at the end of the day is that you inconvenienced Donald Trump and you caused them headaches, probably forced them to take a few of you doses of moultri or toalano. So you did. You ain't doing anything else to him. He is back in the White House next month. All that shit y'all did, all the stuff you pulled, You had your surrogates out there, your pundits out there, you had,
you're engaged in law fare. You did everything, and you convinced the American people. Yo, his ass belongs in jail. And where you're going in dead back to the White House. So, of course, when you see that preponderance of evidence, that ultimately hits us with the reality is that no matter how hard you try, whatever mechanisms you put in place, whatever you know, tactics you utilized, it all amounted to nothing. Joe Boden, they called him sleeping at an African conference
in Angola. Donald Trump wide away going back to the White House. Peggy Noonan, an outstanding columnist for the Wall Street Journal, wrote about the unprecedents that exist with a president elect who's usually chilling. They're normally only making news when there are headlines announcing that cabinet members. Yet Donald
Trump is walking around like he's president now. In France recently for the reopening was it the Notre Dame Cathedral talking to Zelenski for Ukraine, no doubt, boot for Russia, talking about jen that Yahoo with the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Looked at what is happening every time there is substantive stuff to talk about. In the world of politics, Donald Trump's name is the headline instead of President Joe Biden. You're lost the Democrats, You've lost. You got Joe ass
kicked in everywhere imaginable. And why am I saying it like that. It's not because of the election. It's because of what's still happening every single other day. This man is making headlines about political issues that are supposed to be dominated by President Biden and the White House. It's
not happening. It's him. If that ain't definitive evidence that you have lost, and it is time to lick your wounds, look in the mirror, and revisit all of those tactics you tried to exercise, clearly in an effort to keep them out of the White House. It's now maybe you shouldn't have adopted woke culture, embraced woke culture and woke ideology the way that you should to the LGBTQ community. Anybody with decency should support you and your right to
live your life. But I didn't hear the right talking about the LGBT community in general and painting everybody with a broad brush. I heard them addressing transgender issues in terms of somebody electing to change their gender, participating men transitioning into women, but competing with women. Now we can get into the nuances and to particulars about it, and the Democrats can sit up there and say that the Republicans are misrepresenting their positions and vice versa, what have you.
Here's the bottom line. They were successful in disseminating whatever they wanted their message to be to the masters. Better than you were. You lost, and you're still walking around here. Evidence by the latest from Attorney Bragg in New York State. Evidence by him trying to keep the conviction alive. What is that going to resolve Donald trump felony convictions? It's a matter of record. Wow. I mean, you're really accomplishing
great things there. Huh. He ain't going to prison. He's not even forced to keep on an ankle bracelet and be confined to his home, which is a result, by the way, Marolago going Florida. Oh no, he's going back to the White House, and he travels back tomorrow. Lago at his discretion whenever he damn well pleases. You lost, Let it go. When we want to talk about whether or not I want to be a Republican or whatever. Listen,
there are conservative issues that I adamantly support. I support lower taxes, I support free market capitalism, I support control in our borders absolutely, and I'm a big, big dude on national security. I ain't apologizing for that to anybody. On those issues, I'm conservative. What am I liberal?
On?
Live and let live? Social issues? Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, gay, you know, lesbian, whatever, it's your life, and I'm certainly down for looking out for the disolate and disenfranchised your minority community in this country. You need help, I'm down for it. You're pouring and wished. We're only as strong as our weakest link, the elderly. We should always revere an honor and look out for them because they contributed to our society long before we got older, and it
was our turn to do so. On that note, it is what it is. That's why I'm an independent. I flow with either side. But what I don't like about the Democratic Party at this particular moment in time, you keep walking around on your moral high horse, acting like you're above reproach your President. Biden. He's my son, that's all you had to say. I can't let my son
go to jail. I'm sorry, America simple, but instead you try to get on your high horse and act like they were after him because of you, and try to make it in to something political. Stop. This is what the Democrats repeatedly do, and you've gotten away with it for far too long. I've never been a fan of Elizabeth Warren for one reason, and one reason only. I know her heart's in the right place. I know she's
smart as a whip, I know she's very capable. My only problem with her is that if you don't agree with her, you're going to hell. Something must be wrong with your soul to disagree with her. That bothers me. I looked at Obama, pr former President Barack Obama, my president, at who I admire and revere, and watched him talk to black men like that and accuse of us of misogynistic tendencies because we may not be supporting Kamala Harris.
How come it couldn't be hypolicies we supported Hillary, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sick of it, Sick of the Democrats walking around like they have such a higher moral compass, a higher moral foundation than everybody else. Know enough of that demagoguery, Enough of that fear mongrant. No, you're behind. Need to go out there and learn the politic better to win. Make sure your issues are better, make sure you're capable of doing a better job. Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland,
you'd have my vote tomorrow, my brother. But guess what, ladies and gentlemen, I also like Byron Donald representative out of Florida. That's where I'm at with it. I'd love for Wes Moore to be the President of the United States of twenty twenty eight. I'd love for Byron Donald to be the next governor of Florida. There I said it. If that ain't independence, I don't know what it is. But I'm sick of all of this. I really am Democrats.
You lost, You got your butts whipped. Own it, live with it, accept it, embrace it, and look in the damn mirror and stopped acting like the problem lies with others. It lies with you. Your messengers were weak, Your message was weaker, and I know that because the American people said so in droves. Own it and get off your moral high horse. I wanna follow up. I'm moving on.
I wanna follow up on a story we've been talking about on the podcast since last week and involves Jay Z. The one and only jco so known as Sean Carter was attached to a civil lawsuit filed last week accusing him and Sean Diddy Combs of raping a thirteen year old more than twenty years ago. The alleged incident happened back in two thousand at an MTV Video Music Awards after party. Cardi immediately came out swinging to his defense, of course, saying criminal charges should be filed against anyone
who would commit such a heinous crime. His defense attorneys also fillled motions to name the victim, who is now thirty eight years old, or to drop the suit altogether. Meanwhile, Carter's lead attorney, Alex Spiro pointed out inconsistencies in the alleged victim story, who sat down with NBC News last week in an exclusive interview. Among the inconsistencies he noted were the following. Jane Doe's description of the home doesn't
match any of Sean Combe's properties at the time. Spiro also says Jane Doe claimed she snuck out the house to attend the VMA's and watched on a jumbo tron outside well, MTV did not construct the jumbo tron for the two thousand VMAs. Again, this is all according to jay Z's attorney, who spoke out today. Here's the point. What really really happened is that NBC News reported leading into the weekend that the alleged victim admitted inconsistencies with
what she had initially said. Now, she didn't come out and say that, meaning that what happened to her didn't happen in fairness to her, but there are insistencies. And as I said before, I'm not here to cast the spurges or hall or anything like that would be irresponsible. Nor am I here to cast the spurs is on the lawyer. I'll leave Jay Z and his team to do all of that. What I said to people is
what I'll say one more time. I've known the man for twenty five years and I've never ever, ever seen anything that would indicate that he would be guilty of such a thing. And some people are sitting up there saying, man, Stephen a full of it, which you mean you don't
know me? All right? Fine, there are people that got family members that commit hainous acts and they would have never imagined it fair enough, But folks are sitting there and they're talking about well, you know, stephen A. You mean, who the hell is he? And you talk about a friend, What kind of friend are you really? I'm known for twenty five years. I know O g wan is right hand, just as long I've known Michael Kaiser, I've known my boy spank, Gary Stevens. I've known plenty of people who
have been around and are befriended them. We've all been around each other together. Not that I have to justify to anybody, but i'm'a set the reconstraint on one damn thing once and for all. This is stephen A baby. I'm not somebody working, and not to discredit anybody that does. Don't do this because as long as you earn this honest living, I got nothing but mad respect for you. But I love how people talk to me like, oh my lord, I must be jock sniffing, And you know,
because of the stars. Excuse me, I am a star in this business. This is what I do and I'm not working some nine to five in the post office or somewhere elsewhere. I never get an opportunity to be around these people. These people had sports events all the time. I've gotten to know these people because they made it a priority to get to know me, because they they love sports. I wouldn't accuse them of sniffin just because
they wanted to get to know me. Just because you don't like my opinion or you might disagree with where I'm coming from, doesn't mean that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, or that I have no connections with people. I have a connection with lots of people because I'm stephen A. Because my day job involves me working for the world Wide Leader, which everyone happens to watch. You see these cats when they in concert, whether it's a rap artist, it's a comedian. You see
sports figures when they're performing. You just happen to see me every weekday over the number one sports network in the world, which by the way, is the number one show for the last thirteen years. Coming this April, that would be to the next time. Y'all want to run your mouth and act like, oh my god, what does he know? Does he know Jay Z or whatever? Yes, I know him, Yes I do. Forty forty I used to go there religiously, just to walk upstairs and go in the back and hang out with him and the
crew to watch games. I've known him for twenty five years, and I don't believe that he's capable of something like this. That's all. I have no evidence. I'm not casting in this versers on the accuser or their lawyer or anything like that. I'm just telling you I got a right to speak up for somebody that i've known that long to say that's not what I see when I see him. And I'm a repeat and end here by saying what
I said to y'all last week. If someone would ever accuse me of such a thing, I would hope that people who have known me for decades would sit up there and say, hell no, not stephen A. Because if they were quiet, it would hurt me. I'd be like, you have nothing to say in my defense, nothing, You just gonna leave me hanging like that. I'm not casting you the castle. I'm not asking you to cast Spersons or anybody else. I'm simply saying, you just gonna leave
me hanging like that. See, that's the punk ass world we live in now, where folks are literally scared to say, remember, you're not casting, You're not sitting up there and saying somebody's innocent. You're not saying somebody else is lying. You're not doing anything like that. You're saying that's a friend that I've known for X amount of years. I don't
believe that's in them. You can't say that. That's the punk ass world we live in in where people scared because they worried about their jobs and everything else to speak up for somebody. But then it was okay with Roger Goodell in the National Football League put out a statement saying they're aware of the allegations, but they're still moving forward. We're working with Rock Nation to Jay Z with the Super Bowl Halftop Show. Then it was okay.
So the conglomerate, the big fish, the mammoth that is the National Football League, they could speak up that it's okay. They just started doing business with JAZ a few years ago. For somebody that's been around it for twenty five years. Can y'all full of it? Y'all are just full of it? Coming up. Unidentified flying objects are hovering over parts of New York and New Jersey. If you could believe it, should we be concerned. I'll get into that, but first,
Josh Allen put on the show in Detroit. So as he locked up the MVP race, I'll get into that. Plus, Stephen Jackson from the All the Smoke Podcast had something to say about me. I'll show you what he said, and I'll show you my response to all of that up next right here on the Stephen Nick Smith Show over the Digital Airways YouTube and of course iHeart radio back and more in a minute.
The first round of five. How he ain't make a shot yet, go on, I got three locks. Hey, he gotta he gotta shoot with all the plus on.
The money down, I'm concentrating Smith. Welcome back to Stephen A. Smith Show that was yours truly Saturday in Vegas. Responded to that free throw shooting challenge from my brother Kenny Smith at T n T. Kenny decided to shoot with his left hand and that essentially sealed his fate against Wall as I won three to one. Lit'sten, y'all, let's all it fun. I mean, you know, come on, man, you know it's free throw shooting contests and stuff like that.
Sort of bricks we were laying when we shoot from threes, right, But I tell you this much, that's because first of all, we practice indoors, and we only practiced on the free throws, didn't know we were gonna be outside. And then when we go outside, it looked like the damn rim was eleven feet instead of ten feet high, and the three point line looked back. I mean, it reminded me when I went on the first on the mound for the Yankee Stadium the first pitch, I mean, look like a
damn mile away for crying out loud. And I shot three air balls just like everybody else did and shot shot airballs. Kenny shot airballs, Ernie Johnson shot airballs. Charles Barkley definitely shot airballs. Okay, but I hit one, but I would have hit more if I warmed up a little bit more. But it's cool. It's cool, but you know this basketball is not baseball, so I wasn't worried
about it. I just knew that I had to make shots because, I mean, after the first pitch fiasco, I couldn't go out there and just shoot the free throws and not shut up. But in all seriousness, I want to give props to the whole TNT couci. They come to ESPN next year, and I can't speak for everybody else. But I'm ecstatic that they're doing that. I'm ecstatic that
they're doing that. You know what, As I've said, you know, listen, ESPN and Disney, I mean listen, I've been there for the last twenty years or so, okay, and I've had a phenomenal relationship with all of those guys as I've set on many occasions, right, and so for me, it's just about looking at them. I just want to say, Kenny did me a favor, all right, because if he shot right handed, he probably would have smoked me. He's a career eighty three percent shooter, all right. He's an
NBA two time NBA champion. I know my lane. His brother Vincent taught me how to play. For crying out line, I know better. Kenny Smith is Kenny Smith. So people looking at him and acting like I legitimately beat him. I made my free throws. Okay, that's really all that's good out of this. The man shot left hand next time, he ain't gonna give me that kind of break. I know this, all right, So I appreciated it. I had a lot of fun, but I just got a lot
of love for them. We all go back decades, and so to have that, to be on tn T with those guys having that kind of fun, I just can't say enough about what an experience it was, and I just wanted to thank them for it. Right, It's all in fun and nobody walking around here with some big head just because I hit three free throws of crying out lot. Even though it was pressure. It was on national television. Everybody was watching, and had I missed, I wouldn't hurt the end of it. So I did respond
to the pressure of the moment. I would give myself credit for that, but not for beating Kenny Smith, who rolled left handed. I know better, y'all, I know better. Listen up right now. You might be getting ready to sit in front of your TV or holding your cell phone watching a football game. That's cool, but there's nothing
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time today. What time is it? Game time now? Let me get to another sports media headline that involves yours truly, many of you know, I've been at ESPN and Disney for nearly twenty years. We've had a good relationship, and I've set on many occasions that I will never speak on my contract negotiations because only a fool talks about as negotiations while they're on going. I'm not going to
start here. However, I do want to acknowledge former NBA player and podcast to Stephen Jackson from All the Smoke, who recently made comments about my ongoing discussions with ESPN. Want to read to y'all what he said. Check this out. Steven A and I we disagree on a lot of things, but the respect still remains, and I congratulate him on being able to get that money. Go get that money, bro, I'm never being the hater. Get that money if anybody deserves it from the way he's self made. You know,
Stephen A deserves it. You ain't got to agree with everything he says, to respect him and congratulate him on the success he's had all these years. End quote. Now, let me say this, I appreciate Stephen Jackson saying that
I'm not on front. I've been pretty pissed at him for a few months, and I've been waiting to see him one on one talk to him, man the man, because he and I haven't spoken since he on his podcast telling his partner Matt Bonds, he don't fuck with me because he called me a snitch for calling the league office to ask why Russell Westbrook was not suspended. To reiterate that point and revisit it for a second, Russell Westbrook was excessively physical with Luka Doncik in the playoffs.
Ultimately a little scuffle ensued, Russell Westbrook was ejected from the game. I was on National TV and I made it very very clear I thought Russell Westbrook should be suspended. I said, had that been Dramond Green, they would have
suspended him. Why not suspend Russell Westbrook At that time before the next game, NBA Countdown was the pregame show, so I was asked by my superiors at ESPN to call the league office to find out why Russell Westbrook, who had been ejected from that game, wasn't suspipt bend it for the next game, and the league gave me the explanation. They didn't suspend him because there wasn't history there. Number one, Number two, he left the court in a
peaceful fashion and there was nothing that ensued thereafter. And number three, it was the playoffs. It wasn't a regular season game. While admitting to me, had it been Draymond Green, it might have been a different story. So they gave the explanation, and I went on the air and I revealed to the audience I called the League office and
that was the explanation. And then Gilly from Wallow and Gilly's podcast went off of social media about me covering you know, call it the league office, and Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson ultimately said, you know, I don't agree with Stephen a on that, et cetera, et cetera. The difference was is that Matt Barnes called me up, ultimately came on the show to discuss it with me, and Stephen Jackson didn't respond to my invite for him to
do the same Willow and Gilly with Gillies. So I said, is this you talk about the NBA, I cover it. It was my job to call the league office. I didn't call the league office to get Russell Westbrook suspended. I'd already say if it was me, I would have suspended them. What I called was to find out their rationale behind not suspending him when you know they would have suspended Draymond Green. That is all. It's called doing
my job for that. Stephen Jackson labeled me a snitch without knowing all the facts, never apologized for it or anything like that. And this is a brother that I go back with for years, decades actually, and I didn't appreciate that. First of all, in our community, we know what being a snitch connotats. That's not some shit you say. And I didn't appreciate that at all. Secondly, especially from
somebody that I'm pretty damn cool with. But in the end, I know how to differentiate my issue with with him over an incident and my issue with him over character. See, I had a problem with Steven Jackson not recognizing and remembering where my character stands. There's a lot of shit that I don't say, and anybody that knows me knows I ain't no damn snitch. I don't roll like that, and so to associate that word with me was highly offensive.
And we haven't spoken since. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. But having said all of that, I really appreciate him coming out and saying what he said. It meant a lot to me, and I thank him for it, really sincerely, because I want people to understand, no matter what the deal is, no matter what money it entails, it was earned, not given whatever. Whenever we reach an agreement, which we have not yet, it will be earned. Anybody giving me anything,
I've earned it. And if I earn it, and I'll show you how to snot nosed kid from Hollis Queens, from the streets of Hollis Queens, New York ultimately ascends in the business. Not as a rap artist, not as an actor or an actress, not as a baller, whether it's football or basketball or something else, but through journalism. And I do that with the advent of podcasts and YouTube shows and channels and all of this other stuff. If I could do it, imagine what doors it'll open
for the rest of us. That's where I'm coming from with it, and I can't speak on it, and I'm not gonna speak on it, but let me assure you with something. While there is an agreement, you have no idea what the deal is. You have no idea idea rather what it doesn't tell, and you have no idea about how what I'm aiming to do is gonna rock the foundation of this industry. I'm after big, big, big things, and I can't speak on it until it's done. Only
a fool would speak on it prematurely. But I'm coming and I appreciate all the support from the Stephen Jackson's my man, Matt Bondes can't say enough about that. I love that brother, can't say enough about him and his support of me, Cam Newton, how he supported Shannon Sharp, Ryan Clark, Swaggoo and all them. Kendrick Perkins. List goes on and on and on. I'll speak it when it's time, but I see everything, and to those who have supported me, all I'm gonna say is, I will never forget. I
will never forget. That's all I'm gonna say about that. For now. Let's get to the NFL. In the MVP race, which might have ended yesterday and Detroit. By the way, did y'all see what Josh Allen did to the lines? Yesterday? The Bills quarterback rush for two touchdowns and threw for two touchdowns as Buffalo beat Detroit forty eight to forty two. And last week, Allen became the first quarterback to rush for three touchdowns and throw for three touchdowns in the
same game. Ladies and gentlemen, Josh Allen has a kund of for ten touchdowns in the last two games alone. He's kind of for thirty six touchdowns throwing. A runner for the season while leading Buffalo to the second best record in the AFC is actually thirty seven touchdowns. That's why he's my pick for MVP. I don't wanna hear about Lamar Jackson. I don't wanna hear about Lamar Jackson. Let me tell you this about this about Lamar Jackson.
Lamar Jackson's having an outstanding season. He's playing on another level. He's also lost to two last place teams, and he's also in second place in the AFC North. This is with coming into the season projecting to be better because you got Derek Henry in your backfield, who was a stud for the first half of the season. What did Josh Allen come into the season with. It wasn't with Stephan Diggs. He went to Houston. It wasn't with Gabe Davis.
He went to Jacksonville. You got a rookie at the wide receiver spot and Keon Coleman before you acquired Amari Coople who you didn't even target yesterday and still put up forty eight points. We knew James Coople was good. We didn't see him doing what he's been doing. Josh Allen's been on another level, Ladies and gentlemen, the brothers, the MVP. Now he's five and five in the postseason, zero and three against Patrick Mahomes, owing one against Joe Burrow.
You gotta handle your business compostseason time, just like jam Lamar Jackson has to. But in terms of this regular season, with Buffalo looking the way that they are looking on the verge of potentially getting home field dependence throughout the AFC postseason because Kids A City is only one game up on them if they end up time with Kansas City, particularly since Patrick Mahomes injured had a high ankle screen
and probably ain't gonna play the next game. If they end up with a tie record, Buffalo beat them in a regular season so they get the tie breaker. I don't know if anybody's coming in the Orchard Park this year and beat the Buffalo Bills. I don't know if that's gonna happen. I just want to say that there's nothing to talk about here. Josh Allen is the MVP. Josh Allen or the Buffalo Bills is the imminent NFL MVP. Barring a catastrophe coming up. There are unidentified flying I've
just hovering over the Eastern Seaboard. Should we be concerned about them? I'll get into that and respond to your tweets as well. Don't go anywhere. It's the stephen Ate Smith Show. The boy ain't leaving, gonna be right back. Welcome back to the stephen A. Smith Show. I want to get into a story that has many folks concerned on the East Coast, including yours truly. There've been a number of reported drone sightings in New York, New Jersey
and other states that have many concerned. The sightings have put intense pressure on federal agencies to provide answers to what people are seeing. Some officials have urged calm and emphasized there's no evidence suggesting the sightings pose a security threat. However, other leaders, like New York Governor Kathy Hochel, have said enough is enough. Listen to what she had to say.
She said, this is going too far, adding that she quote directed the New York State Intelligence Center to actively investigate drone sightings and coordinate with federal law enforcement to address the issue end quote. Meanwhile, take a look at what President the leg Donald Trump posted to X this weekend, poking fund at former New Jersey Governor Chris Christy. Look
at this. Look at this, Yes, y'all, it could be seen as being funny to some degree, drones carry McDonald's bag descended, you know, holding over former governor Chris Christy. But nevertheless, it's classless. It's classless. See that. It's stuff like that that makes me think Trump is gonna go back to be to being the tweeter in chief. You know what I'm saying, This is what this is what I worry about. You understand, you know, you got you, you got leaders all over the world, China, you know,
Russia and everywhere else. And this dude going after Kathy Griffith you understand that this is this is who Trump is now, no doubt. It's hilarious at times, no doubt you understand. I never get a June twenty seven de bait against Joe body. I don't know what he said. I don't think he knows what he said. I mean, some of it is hilarious, no doubt, no, no, no, no doubt, without question. Okay, I get it. But in the same breath, Come on, man, you got to be
better than that. This is a serious issue. Now listen, y'all gonna laugh at me. But I'm one of those people. I don't know about y'all, but I don't happen to think we do only creatures on Earth, human beings and the animals that you see and stuff like that. Do I think that beings from Dare I say other planets exist on a planet Earth? Yes? Yes, Look at that right there. You see that that's the fly for that. That's right. But see here's the difference. You see the
picture that that's giving off. You see the picture that that's displaying right there. See that's some shit that existed on Independence Day, you know, and listen, if you notice, y'all, if you go back to Independence Day. I don't recall seeing any black people on that roof looking up at the spaceship, you know, because black people a little bit different. We see a spaceship, we try and get the hell out of town. White folks like that's peculiar. I mean,
that's interesting. Wow. I have to go up there and see that. Hell no, no. And that's why I like that when the spaceship beamed down on a building and blew everybody the smith of rings, because you ain't supposed to be underestimating stuff like they ain't supposed to be thinking. Yo, you know, that's peculiar. I mean, I have to see what's going on there. I mean, wow, no, I don't want to see that. You want to see that, y'all?
That Independence Day stuff, I believe that. Remember that movie with Rowdy Roddy Piper from the World Wrestling Federation the WWF at the time, and it was called They Live and as basically, you put on these glasses and you see regular human beings in their true you know, the people that look like regular human beings in their true form. You could tell the difference between those who were actually
humans and those who were alien figures. And then they noticed that when he put the glasses on, he saw exactly who they were, and they pointed him out and stuff like that. See, I think like that happens. I'm not foolish enough to believe that the only beings on this Earth are human beings. I'm not down with that. Look, we trying to go to Mars, ain't we what Dave Chappelle said, Mars bitches red rock ya yay? Remember that? Okay, we trying to go to Mars. How come people can't
be trying to get to Earth. I don't underestimate that kind of stuff, y'all. I don't sleep on it. So when I see these drones hovering over homes in New Jersey and New York, and they big ones too, by the way, I don't know what they armed with. To me, if it's our government, shoot them down, shoot them down, knock them right out of the sky, every one of them, every one of them. That's what I feel should be happening. Damn that stuff, And don't tell me y'all don't know
what's going on. Y'all always got an idea. We in the United States of America. You always got something on and then you keep it from the American people, cause you want to scare folks, you want to tell them the truth. And I can understand that if you're doing something about it. But when they continue hold rent over homes in New Jersey and New York and other places, day after day after day, what the hell y'all gonna
do about it? See, that's when people with their Second Amendment rights got a whole bunch of shotguns and everything else, talking about shooting stuff out of sky. I don't blame them what you hold rent over their house for. That's me. That's me Independence Day. And you know aliens And I not that that got anything to do spaceships or anything like that. But I'm just saying, y'all that kind of stuff I believe. I ain't gonna front I Actually, I
absolutely believe that other beings exist on this planet. When I see drones in the sky, you might say they drunes. I might think they something else. I might think they It could be spa material you spawn on the homes of a American citizens. For all we know, that could be. That would be very very egregious, But it could be that, or could actually be aliens. And y'all could tease me all you want to I ain't listen. I don't know that to be the case, but it ain't far fetched.
It ain't far fetched. I'm just saying, let's get to the tweetsfore I get on out of here for the day. Please, let's get to them right now, right let me see what tweets that you got here. Show it to me. Please, First up at E girls XO stephen A. Which city in the US has the best looking women? And why is it Miami? Well, first of all, you answered the question. It's Miami. Miami is special. It's special. And I'm not just talking about the city of Miami. I'm talking about
the outskirts. I'm talking about going towards Coral Gables. I'm talking about South Beach, I'm talking about uh uh uh uh you know, uh near Fort Lauderdale. I'm talking about Coral Gables, like I said before, and I Little Cuba Miracle, Mild, all of those spots. You know it's bad in Miami. When one of the finest women you ever saw in your life is at a gas station pumping gas in Miami, That's when you know this place is different, like different.
I'm talking about the kind of beauty that stops traffic, cats getting in car crashes cause they scre screeching on their brakes. Of course, the three car accidents and stuff like that cause you, and then the accidents happened, and then people say, what the hell is wrong with you? And they all look up at the gas station. You go like this, Oh, I understand, Miami's like that. It really is like that. Swam won't hang out in Miami.
Swam won't hang out in Miami. Next tweet, please at Greg one six, six, seven, six, nine, three, five, four to two zero, rights, which zone do you typically aim for when you're peing you're an eighty, I would tell you zone five. And then when I really want to show you know the di versatility, the control that I have, I'll venture out between three and seven just to circle around because I can. But the answer to that question would be five. I never thought I'd be asked that
question in my life. You understand I'm saying I would tell you. I would tell you from B to F and three to seven, focusing on five whenever I choose to. That would be the answer to the question. Very unique question. Let's get to the next tweet. Please give it to me what you got here at Dylan Rights. Would you rather fight and orangutang once a year? Get a sword, but you don't know when the fight is going to happen, or fight a chicken every day you got in any car,
fight the orangutang. First of all, you give me a sword, and secondly is once a year. You understand my chances of survival far exceeds a wild chicken being in a car with me every damn day. Eventually I'm gonna get tired of fighting, so I will tell you the rangutang once a year with a sword in my hand. That's where I would go with next tweet, Please give it to me. Add updating on Rome rights A stephen A. In your opinion, it was the great Julius Caesar, a
tyrant or the people's hero of Rome. I say a tyrant. Know when they say you got a Caesar complex, whatever that means. People short they got you know, they like to be an authority. And all this time I never bought into that or anything like that, but they got it from somewhere. It was Julius Caesar. So he was very very big on authority, very very big on having
dominion over everyone or whatever, and his tendencies was were tyrannical. Okay, So again, when that would that being the case, I hardly would say that that's the greatness of Rome, even though I'd be partial to listen to Maximus Decimus Meridius, lord servant to the true Emperor Marcus Aurelius, father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and I shall have my vengeance in this life for the next. That's it. For this addition that Stephen A Smith shall
hope y'all enjoyed it. I'll see y'all in a couple of days. Until then, peace of love, everybody. I gotta balance later