Stephen A. Smith

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
That crabs in a barrel mentality, blah blah blah. Nah man,
we showing something different, you know. First take, I've been
blessed and fortunate enough throwing shade on nobody. We've been
number one for twelve years. Were gonna be number one
for thirteen. It's just that simple in fourteen, and damn it,
if I do it for fifteen, gonna be fifteen. That's
the way it's gonna be. That's how my mentality is.
And I don't root for anybody to fail. I just

(00:23):
root to be the best, right And there's a difference.
And as far as I'm concerned, anybody that's with me,
we the best.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle bag
the price, one slice, got the brother of Geist swap
all my life. I've been grinding all my life all
my life, been grinding all my life, and sacrifice hustle
bag to price is one slight, not the brother dieyst.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
The swap all my life.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I've been grinding all my life.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Hello, welcome to another edition of Club Shane Shae. I
am your hole Shannon Sharp, but also the pro private
club Shap Shape And for my first partmership with the volume.
I knew I had to land someone big. He's not big,
he's huge. He's genormous. He's a legendary sports journalist, a
feature commentator, premier analyst, famed host, veterman, reporter, podcast actor, writer,

(01:15):
executive producer, businessman, New York Times best selling author, one
of the most recognizable on their personalities not just sports
personality personalities on television, a cultural icon, and he's also
HBC you a lum Steven a smill.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Bro, we're here, we're here, but you.

Speaker 5 (01:36):
Keep not bracelet. I would get over the time.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Ain't know I could break anything on you.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Right there?

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, Bro, I mean I don't if I'm gonna be
able to keep this one, because every time I hug
somebody comes up.

Speaker 5 (01:49):
Bro, how you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:50):
It's good to see bro, How you doing? Be here?

Speaker 5 (01:52):
I'm here.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
I need you to tell the people what you went
through because you promised me this, because we've been trying
to get this thing together for a little six week
night and I said, Stephen, and can you do Tuesday
at noon?

Speaker 5 (02:05):
And you said, I do it.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
But I want you to tell the people the lengths
in what you went through to get here.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
At Nowton.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Well, what happened is is that my pastor for the
Christian Cultural Center in New York City, past the air Arbernard,
had a fundraising event at a golf tournament in Long Island, right,
and so they were honoring me the night before I
came here and I had to play some golf, which
I don't play, so obviously I have to embarrass myself
for a few hours. For every one s nothing I know,

(02:35):
nothing I know, but for every one good shot I hit,
I hit about about five to ten bad shots or whatever.
But then after I did that, I promised you I
was gonna get here in time. So I had to
take the private jet get up here in time, and
I flew here last night, got here about two in
the morning, woke up at four point thirty the prep
for first take, and then did first take, and here

(02:57):
I am bro that's love. I really appreciate that.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I know you talk about your pastor, but everybody that
comes on you don't have my own line of cognact.
That's right, And I need to get you a bottle
and you will leave here with a bottle.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Around with that, I mean, he know, I could get
out of you you're just giving nothing in excess, nothing else.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
What I want to told you, Bro, because you paid
the way for a lot of guys. You made it
not just athlete, and I want to give you your flowers.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Bro. Appreciate appreciate you man, Thank you so much. Man.
Coming from an HBCU obviously is a very very big deal.
That's something that's near and dear to my heart. I've
been an ambassador for HBCU week since around two thy
and nineteen or so, and in that span we've generated
over what was about sixty five million in scholarships for
over you know, three thousand students, and so I'm really

(03:42):
really proud of that. And HBCU is always near and
dear to my heart. And the basketball coach Clarence big
House Games, who helped the late great John McClinton and
integrating the sport of basketball. They were both HBCU icons,
and both of them were big time mentors of mind
and they knew I didn't have the game that was
would take me to the next level, but they knew
I had the mindset of the tenacity to do what

(04:04):
I could to help HBCUs. And all he ever said
to me was when I said, what can I do
for all that you've done for me? He said, don't
forget HBCUs. You make sure that you help any chance
you get. And that's what I've been doing.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
What I tell people Stephne is that when I went
to an HBO, when I went to Savannah State, I
had no idea of the importance or the magnitude of
what was going on at the time. It wasn't until
much much later that I realized that I had done
something special. So when you're going when you're matriculating at
Winston Saber, did you understand what was going on at

(04:40):
the time and how big of a deal it was
going to be later?

Speaker 6 (04:43):
No, I did it.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Man. All I was trying to do is get my
degree and to make sure that I positioned myself to
have a career instead of a job. When I'm giving speeches,
I constantly say to kids, there's a difference between a
job and a career. A job is doing what you
have to do to maintain or elevate your quality life.
A career is doing what you want to do. It
just so happens to do those things. Yes, and so

(05:05):
for me, if you don't have an education, the chances
of you being able to pull that off, even with
the advent of social media and the opportunities that present themselves.
I think it's a misnomer to think that you don't
have to have any kind of education whatsoever and you're
going to succeed from a normal perspective. There are abnormal examples,
of course, there's always somebody that breaks the code, but

(05:26):
for the most part, you got to go through that terrain,
you gotta go through that grind, and for me, it
was always understanding that. So when I was at Winster Salem,
it was really about getting that degree and getting practical experiences.
I did an internship at the Winster Salem Journal, I
did an internship at the Atlanta Journal Constitutions, then I
came back into another internship at the Greensborough News Record,
then back to the Winston Salem Journal before I even graduated.

(05:50):
And so for me that was incredibly important establishing that
resume and really really showing that I was a worthy individual,
because if I didn't have those internships something to prove
that I was really really committed by acquiring that level
of practical experience, then it was going to be my
resume against somebody from a p w I and if
you're somebody from a predominantly white institution, chances are you're

(06:12):
gonna get the nod over somebody in an HBCU.

Speaker 6 (06:15):
So I understood the climb.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
I understood the obstacles that I had to that I
had to fight off. And that's what I went about
the business to do.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Did you always want to go to an HBCU or
it just it just happened.

Speaker 6 (06:27):
Bro it just happened.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
I didn't even know what an HBCU was until they
came to offer me a scholarship. I had no clue.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
I heard about the United Negro College Funds, That's what
they ain't never mentioned Savannah State.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
That's what I'm like. All I knew it was the
big with the grander than the Southern.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Universe, Robinson, but that was about it. Because the fact
is that when you took at HBCUs, I mean, there's
some up north, like Bowie Stage in the Maryland area,
what have you. But for the most but for the
most part, they down south, south, correct the West. They
ain't in the Midwest. They damn sure ain't on the
East coast. So if you're living in those places, you

(07:06):
simply don't know right.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
And you know what, I caught a lot of criticism
because I was one of the top prospects in the
state of Georgia when I was coming out, and I
said an HBCU wasn't my first choice. Had I made,
had I not been prop forty eight, I mean I
had Georgia, I had Texas, I had Nebraska, I had
all the big schools recruiting me, and more times than not,
I'm like, but the best thing that I did steven

(07:30):
eight is when my former coach dress is Sold, Bill
Davis came down.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
He said, son, if you good, they'll find you. He said.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
If I was drafting, he said, I'll take you no
more on overall.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
He convinced me. And when I had an opportunity to
transfer and go to a p W.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
I well, I will tell you this, it's like and
a lot of and I've said this to a lot
of my white brothers and sisters, I'm like, love ain't
nothing like being surrounded by your own and then.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
The pageantry then home comes.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
God just don't understand. They just don't understand. I mean,
you know, the bands, the pep I mean, Lord.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
That band played the whole game. It ain't know where
they got the ball. You gotta be quiet. The band
plays the entire game, whether we got the ball or
they got the ball. And then you got the step
show that you got the saw Rob, you got the frats,
and you got the park.

Speaker 5 (08:20):
And everybody's coming back from twenty.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Years, thirty years, ten years, fifteen years to stop.

Speaker 6 (08:26):
Just bring back memories.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
He's bring They tell you something, Man, I listen, you've
heard me. Listen. People see me on TV. You hear
me can play about a lot of things like you
ain't never heard me complaining about going to HBC. No, no, no, no.
It's the greatest experience I've ever had in my life.
Let me tell you something right now. I had a
mentor of mine. God wrested soul, mister Robert Devaughan. He
was a telecommunications director at Winston Salem State. Loved him daily.

(08:51):
He had to convince me to graduate on time. I
wanted to do internships to delay and postpone situation. Well
that's how that's how much I was living the life
at w's the Salem you're just saying. I mean, it
was like and then everybody's like, well you know what
you being disingenuous because you went and you did an

(09:11):
internship in Atlanta. I was like, uh, have you ever
heard of spell?

Speaker 5 (09:15):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (09:16):
I have, yes, I mean right down the blood, that's
right down the block.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
Okay, literally just started. And look, Atlanta has always been Atlanta.

Speaker 6 (09:24):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
It just exploded in.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
The last twenty but Atlanta was back Atlanta back in
the seventies.

Speaker 5 (09:29):
In the eighties, Atlanta was.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Like that, how about that? And then on top of
it all, check this out. So you gotta take a route.
If you're going down, you're going I eighty five, you're
coming up, You're going eighty five, I eighty five north right,
you're passing HBCUs. Yes. So it's like, yeah, I mean
Wister Salem, but I'm stopping Johnson's c. Smith.

Speaker 5 (09:48):
You got john.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
You got Bennett Collegeborough or girls? How there is its beautiful? Yeah,
your tea is like love. I mean I used to
take a long rock because you know you could cut
through and get the whistles centl State. I used to
take the long rock because you have to pass through
all of them things to get to whistle to sell them.
I was like, why would I want to rush? Why
would I want to do that.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
I tell a lot of people, I tell my white counterparts.
I think I think everybody should have to experience one
semester that hubc to get the field, to get the
ambiance of what it's actually like, and to have some
of those teachers because the professors Stephen that I believe
this sincerely, cared about your shark.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
I remember going to a class and his name was
Haines Walton and.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Stephen, and he come to class with a piece of chalk,
this fig in his pocket, and he started writing on
the board.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
I was like, okay, take the notes and everything. And
he said, on this page such and such, and in this.

Speaker 5 (10:41):
Chapter such and such.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
What damn how he know all of that?

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Every day for like three weeks. So I got the text.
I said, I'm gonna find out how he knows so
much what? I started reading text by Haines Walton.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yep, he wrote them, not him.

Speaker 5 (10:58):
You know everything here.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
From that point on, every every I felt that every
class that I went to, every professor doctor they could
teach me something. And I was attentive. Now it didn't
hurt that, you know, they were in class tool. So
I said in front of.

Speaker 5 (11:15):
The class had.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
I had on you know, on Friday, I had hard
bottom shoes on, slack, had me a nice blazer, pretending
like I'm gonna be something one day.

Speaker 5 (11:25):
Y'all need to go on and get on on shape.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
That's right, ain't no question. And listen, they cared, They
held you accountable. They did. They felt like they were
an extension of the family that you departed from. And
they made you feel like if you disappointed, if you
ended up being a disappointment, you disappointed them. Yes, you
disappointed yourself, you disappointed your family, you disappointed your community.
It was the level of accountability. And not only that,

(11:49):
they highlighted the obstacles, yes, that were waiting for you.
So it was like, listen, we've been here, we did it.
This was waiting for you. What you're gonna do about it?
And there's a sense of pride that kicks it. But
more importantly, when you go to an HBCU, I think
this is the most important people, most important thing for
folks to understand, particularly is it pertains to black folks.
Usually in every walk of society, we are alone in

(12:13):
certain respects. Yes, when you go to an HBCU, you
got company. Yes, people who look like you, who share
your cultural identity, who share your trials and tribulations, the obstacles,
the pitfalls, everything. You literally are looking at people, hanging
with people, and talking to people every day, where your
experiences are not foreign to them. They all know it,

(12:33):
and so they gonna lift you up unless you don't
want to be. Right, when you don't want to be,
they know to leave you to the science. You ain't
about it, right, we gonna stick with you with people
who's about something, and that self accountability elevates everybody.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
I think back stephen A, one of our I started off.
I was prop forty eight, so I had to start
off in developmental studies.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Right.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
Developmental studies is remedial, right, So in other word, all
you're taking is classes that doesn't go towards graduation, right,
Doctor George mac with more. I'll never forget. I had
a reading class and after two days she called me up.
She always called me mister sharp. To this day, when
I go back and see her to matter of state,
she called me mister sharp.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
She said, mister sharp, I don't want to see you
in next quarter. Yes, they all say that.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
She said, you're too smart. She said, you have no
business being in this class. Now, mister sharp, I don't
want to see you next quarter. She told the story everybody,
because back that time, I ended up graduating, got my
degree in playing in the NFL. She said, y'all see
that young young man on television. He was in this
very class, but he worked his tail off to get out,
and I did. A lot of my teammates were embarrassed

(13:35):
because you know, it wasn't a regular class, steven A.
It was a trailer and you know it's right next
to Peacock Hall while we're I would go eat breakfast
and walk right up in a just a proud because
I wasn't ashamed because I put myself in that situation. See,
you shouldn't be ashamed of something that you put yourself in.
I put myself in that seat.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
A lot of times people don't see themselves are putting
themselves in that situation because they're not willing to absorb
and accept the accountability. See, the beauty of being involved
with athletics is that you're surrounded by people who make
you accountable for yourself. It's like a human mirror. You
know when you didn't work hard, you know when you
didn't put in the work. You know, when you didn't
listen to your coach, you know when you didn't do

(14:13):
all of these things, so that transitions to other forms.
It could be the classroom, it could be anything else.
I remember, even before I got to college, seventh grade
has sent my book Straight Shooter. My seventh grade teacher,
mister Caravan, looked my mother dead in the face and
she said, your son is not a dummy. She said.
He doesn't listen with things he's not interested in.

Speaker 5 (14:35):
He drifts.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
So what happens is you think he doesn't know what
he didn't understand, he never heard him. He will literally
drift and he doesn't hear anybody anywhere. He said, but
when you find out what he's passionate about, you'll have
a star on your hands.

Speaker 6 (14:51):
Right, And that's what you said.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
And that came in handy because years later, when I
was a beat writer, especially when I was covering the
seventy six and stuff like that, I have this uncanny ability.
I'm not say saying it's a gift, but I have
this uncannyability. I have been in an arena with twenty
thousand people and I didn't hear a word. I didn't
hear anything like I'm on deadline. I got an article
to write, I got twenty minutes to drive to write

(15:13):
eight hundred words, and.

Speaker 3 (15:15):
I literally have the ability to block out all the noise.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
And it reminded me of what Professor Caravan said to
my mother about drifting. I drifted to a different place,
except this time I saw the positive in it, because
a lot of times, if you're hearing that noise, you
can't focus, you can't sure, you can't get the job done.
I could because I could lock in and I could
tune out the noise.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
You sound like an athlete.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
If you've heard athletes say it, say it's like everything
slows down, everything is moving in slow motion. I don't
hear not one of those eighty five thousand or those
thirty thousand things you're screaming.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
I hear nothing. Everything is just hush yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
And I can actually hear my heart beat, that's how
quiet it is, even though I'm in a state with
eighty thousand.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
And those are the great ones as an athlete, those
are the great ones, because the ones who hear all
the noise are the ones who succumb to it, and
they panic, They sweating a little bit at palm, sweaty,
backsides tight. They can't really handle the pressure. They fold
under the pressure. But when you can, when you can
be composed and poised under pressure, particularly on the field
of the letter says, whether it's the quarter play, the field,

(16:22):
the play, or whatever the case may be, you gotta
start your hands. That wasn't me. That was me when
it came to my job. I could tune out all
of that noise. What people have is pressure. It's like
you said, we do television every day. I'm in front
of the camera, bro, I worry about nothing. I'm not phased.
I don't care who's in front of me. I don't
care what noise people are saying on the outside. I
don't care about the camera folks. I don't care about

(16:43):
the producers in the control room, I don't care about
the bosses of this whatever. When the camera is in
front of me, I believe I own it right and
I'm not phased by anything. It just doesn't phase me.
But I've seen people who have been reporters, for example,
and you put them in front of the camera, brother,
they sweating bullets, They nervous as hell, they're stuttering, they

(17:04):
don't know what to say. They're trying to gather their doors.
They're trying to be ultra careful. They don't know what
to think, what to say, or whatever the case. And
I'm like this, they have no chance. They have, But
people think it's easy.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Everybody can't talk on camera, everybody can't speak in front
of us, in front of an audience. We've seen some
of the greatest players not be able to do what
you and I do on the regular, and people just like, well,
how do you do it? You just do it, you
just do it. I don't I don't see you, I
don't hear. All I hear is my own voice.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
You. I'm a little different than that. I think that
you and I would be a little bit different than
that because that's your gift. And that's cool me as
anybody producer, anybody would tell you when I'm on the air,
that's why they named me the executive producer. First take.
I ain't asked for the job. I didn't need another job.
The last thing I needed another job. Bro It ain't

(17:57):
like they throwing extra money my way for this, you know.
But they came to me and I'm like this, They're like, why,
they say you're producing the damn show anyway. On the set,
you're looking at the camera. I know this camera is on,
I know this camera is off. I'm imagining what the
audience is doing because I have a connection with the audience.
This is what they want to hear. This is what
they don't want to hear. This is who they want
to hear from at this particular moment in time. This

(18:19):
is who they want to hear what this particular moment time.
All right, Steve, it's time to jump in a Steve
is time to lay back, because the objective is the show.
It's not me, it's not you, it's the show. And
the objective is to make sure that the people on
camera are maximizing their potential in terms of their presentation
to the audience, to grab them and the real amen.

(18:40):
That's how I'm thinking, right and or now that it
wasn't at the beginning. At the beginning, I was a
lot like that. But as time went on, you're just
seeing it. You're saying, well, wait a minute, why did
you the quarterback this person I've always That's what I say.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
See for me, I got look, I know what everybody's
supposed to do, but I focus on them on my job. Now,
if I need to tell somebody a route or they
need to pay this, blitz you high or you got
a block, Well you.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Show the world that what you wanted on Twitter. Then
you like, yeah, that's what you're going to do. That's
that's that to me is my job.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Let me ask you a question, like when you say
like these viral and people ask like when do you
know what you're gonna say a lot of times when
stuff goes viral, I had no idea because I don't
know what he's gonna say, right, you don't know what
everybody's gonna say. But sometimes he just it just happens.
A moment happens. How much is just reactionary or because

(19:36):
like I said, you have a lot of different You
have mad Dog, you have Ryan Clark, you have d O,
you have swag Goo.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
You have so many different people.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
So it's hard to get a beat or rhythm to
what they're gonna say if.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
You don't know them, okay, and if you don't know
the audience okay. And so what happens is I know
what the audience wants from Ryan Clark, I know what
it wants from swag Oul. I know what it wants
from Molly. I know what it wants from Mad Dog.
I know what it was from Latsky. I know what
it wants from Shannon Sharp for the purposes of that show.

(20:08):
And so I'm looking at Shannon Sharp and I'm like,
and three times Super Bowl champion. That's one of the
greatest tight ends in NFL history. That's a Hall of Famer,
And damn it, he laughed, and he's boisterous. He gonna
come right at you and all of this other stuff. Okay,
this is what they want, and this is what they're
going to get right now. You don't want to give

(20:30):
it to them too much all in one bowl, right,
Want spread it out, he says, want s freaking it out.
You want a little bit here, a little bit there.
All right, it's ten, ten fifteen o'clock. Boom, ten fifteen,
Here we come. Do Momentum is swelling all of a sudden.
That might be a little bit too much. Might want
dollar back a little bit because we're coming at eleven.
Men might come in at eleven fifteen. Help, we're coming
at eleven thirty. See That's how I'm thinking. So it's like, okay, yeah,

(20:54):
I want you to shine, and I want you to.
I want you to beat you because I'm gonna beat me, right,
And so here we come and the audience is watching.
How do you know that because you paid attention to
the audience, You're not sitting up there manipulating them. You're
not disrespecting them. You're showing them you appreciate them because
you're paying attention to what they're telling you and showing
you they want a lot of times you have talent

(21:15):
and it's like, listen, this is my lane and there's
something to be said about that where you know who
you are and you know what you bring. That's not
to be disrespected, that's to be appreciated. Okay, here's his strength.
Well if I have a different strength, how do I
get to compliment that so he can shine while we shine?
That is the objective when you're trying to win, and

(21:36):
it's applicable on a football field, on a quarter play,
or on a television set. But how many people are
thinking like that? I'll tell you who. The winners think
like that, the losers don't. It's very simple.

Speaker 5 (21:48):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
I want to address some comments that you said, because
you said condolence is in advance yep, he's the modern
day black hole.

Speaker 5 (21:54):
He's not used to getting beat down. Welcome to the
beat down.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Well, let me tell you, let me elaborate. First of all,
obviously I was abou physically. I got no shot. I
got no shot. I mean, let's get that out the
way right now. Let's get that out of the way
right now. Saying let's get that out of the way
right now. I will not talk about back. I got
no shot whatsoever. But you know, I've seen you. I've
seen you debate quite all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm
you could do your thing. But you know you ain't

(22:20):
never been up against me. You say this little a
little different going up against me. You see what happens
is you got people that are trying to win the debate,
to be right, false. It's about your perspective up against mine,
and who can convince the audience their perspective is better

(22:42):
than the next. That's what it's about. You see a
lot of times somebody get like somebody that is a
mistake to argue with Shannon's shop about the facts of football.
You don't do that, not if you didn't play Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, please,
you got no shot. But you can't go like she
knows something.

Speaker 6 (23:00):
I was really nice.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
I heard what you said, but you see you said
this two weeks ago. That not consistent with what I
just heard. You saw this game right there? Now, I'm
not you, but damn it, I got two eyes. I
saw that.

Speaker 5 (23:14):
Are you telling me what I saw was a lot? Really?

Speaker 1 (23:17):
You're sure about that? What did you say this a
year ago? You see? These are the kind of things
like you know you obviously you know you love yourself
some Lebron James. Yeah, yeah, he's not. I just got
the foll with them JA to remind hung up on that. Yeah,
the blastph for me coming out of your mouth. Right,

(23:39):
It's okay, you can believe that. You can believe that,
but we'll do.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
I'm sure you know what the first Lebron topic, right,
don't need to be nobody.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
Here's what's gonna hurt you. Here's what's gonna hurt you
because you see when you're talking like that, people but
that No, I'm gonna sit back and let you do,
and then I'm gonna say you finish, are you figuring sure? No?
And you're gonna be like nah, And I'm gonna say
you gotta wait now because I waited. Here I come,
and you're gonna have to deal with the tsunami that

(24:11):
I'm gonna bring. I'm gonna rain down upon you when
it comes, especially to that up here, and that's what's it,
and that'she You're gonna have to listen, Lebron, Listen. I
got this man. The game was started in nineteen forty seven.
I got Lebron James. The thousands of players that have

(24:35):
played in the NBA, I got him number two all time.

Speaker 5 (24:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, you got people walking around like that's disrespect it is.
I got a number. See see that's the motion.

Speaker 5 (24:46):
That's a much right there.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
Listen, let me tell you that right now, I personally
believe a legitimate argument could be made that I'm sitting
in front of the greatest tight end in the history
of football. Some people bring in Gronk, Tony Gonzalez, other
players them in Travis kelf course, but you're in the
conversation yourself, and you know because you're breathren. I mean,
they give you my love and respect, right, I can

(25:08):
say that. But my point to you is is that
if somebody said you weren't number one, you don't feeling
so so why you got to be insult to the
buildings because that's the motion.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
But go see, you told me your storm was coming.
See your storm happened for nine years, then took two
years off, and it happened for three years and took
another three years off, and then it kind of just
was like drizzling my thought storm being going for twenty
one years raining.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
You could say that that my retort to that would
be six NBA Finals losses, six final losses, six finals losses.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
I just want you to tell me one thing, and
were going to make this sure, tell me the team
that he faced that was the twenty seventeen or the
twenty eighteen Golden State Warriors.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
What you mean, I don't want to say your question
Michael Jordan.

Speaker 5 (25:59):
Tell me the team with Michael Jordans.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
I want you to tell me the team that Michael
Jordan faced that was the equivalent of the seventeen eighteen.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
No one can I respond to that? Sure?

Speaker 6 (26:07):
Can I say why?

Speaker 1 (26:08):
No? One? Do you know why? Because none?

Speaker 5 (26:12):
No?

Speaker 1 (26:13):
That's exactly what okay, cee cee. See that's the ultimate
equalizer or usurper picked whichever one you want to. You
want to pick. You understand that Jordan is six and
ohe NBA frontals. You understand that Jordan was m v
P O six NBA frontal. Do you understand that Jordan
never even allowed a final series to go seven games?
Said it never win seven game?

Speaker 3 (26:31):
Also, I also know he just started going to the finals
because I burned back excusually.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Ten time NBA scoring Champion, nine time All Defensive Player,
All the Defensive First Team. You do know that, right? Yeah? So,
so in other words, it was Lebron on both sides
of ball? Was he that dominant? Oh?

Speaker 6 (26:47):
He was?

Speaker 5 (26:48):
You know he should have won it?

Speaker 1 (26:49):
You know he should want you are you kidding me?
I give me this?

Speaker 3 (26:54):
You know, Goodwell, Lebron James should have one defensive Player
of the year. How do how does margins All, who's
the second team All Defensive player, be defensive Player of
the Year.

Speaker 6 (27:04):
I agree with that.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
I agree with that. But the flip side to it
is that as we watched Lebron James, even with his
greatness at one point in time as a defensive player,
we never looked at him and said, oh my god,
that's that dude. Defensively you had you had no Lebron
is universally respected and revered. Mj was feared. You know

(27:27):
the difference. You know the difference because there are people
who have feared you. You know the difference better than me.
You know the difference between reverence and fear.

Speaker 5 (27:37):
Look, you know this. You like John Wick.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
I like James John can I have jameson, but you
could be John Wacke. I preferred James Bond.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
John shot up the whole place, kill everybody. Okay, James
Bond killed a few people, but got the ladies.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
They do the same. That's right. Was walking talking out
the ocean and he said, magnificent Deale. Remember that this
smaller and that was where you know that that's that's
stuff and stuff like Pierce Bronston. But you know Daniel
Craig of course, Sean Connery demand Okay, I mean I'm
trying to say the versatility of James Bond is with

(28:14):
Jans and you could say that, but could.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
Guard one through five. You seen him do it.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
I'm not denying that park on one end and at
last five minutes I got timmy. I also saw him
get checked when Jason Terry was guarding him in the post.
And his finals against Dallas you going to deny that. No, Okay, then,
so that's your question. Has there ever been a time
when Michael Jordan showed up in an NBA finals and
you literally looked at him and said, yo, he show up.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
Playing nobody. Let me ask your question. I'm gonna do
you like this here? Tell me the guy that he
faced that deal were the equivalent of Kevin Durant and Jordan.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Well, I was. I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say the
equivalent of of Kevin Durant. But let's go down the list.
He beat Magic for his first time back.

Speaker 5 (29:00):
What's seventy three?

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Okay, I find I'm going I'm going down the list
the list. I didn't hear you say that when Magic
was here, but we're talking about you.

Speaker 5 (29:09):
Didn't say that.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
What Magic was.

Speaker 5 (29:12):
The man on the ninth nine.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Finals And I feel you on that. And by the
way he took wasn't Kareem and worthy, but.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
You saw what he did. But joined in the first
game put a triple double on in the head and
put on it. That's cool, Okay, say he backed them
made look like Kareem Tom Will Jones fit.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
That's fair. Michael Joe, I'm sorry Magic Johnson, the first title,
Clyde Drexler and the Crew, the second title, Charles Barkley,
Kevin Johnson, don't ignore that, Damn Mally and them. The
third Okay, okay, Peyton the Glove with Sean Camp and
also you've got call Malone John Stockton, and you have

(29:49):
an NBA game that was considerably tougher at that particular
moment in time than today's NBA game is in terms
of physicality and what's allowed.

Speaker 5 (29:57):
Yes, so you can appreciate this. You can. I appreciate
that before you could.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
Put your when you could put your four onmre people,
when you can hand check them, when you can do
a lot of things you can't do now right now
you get caught for passing gas.

Speaker 5 (30:09):
You will, But it's a different game now, Okay, what you.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
And the Old school Guard have equated physicality with talent
and skill, the gathering the game more skilled.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that.
But you would know this better than me because you
were an all world player. Even though the game of
the NFL has evolved significantly. You know good and damn
well that if you were playing in this time, Oh yeah,
you would have adapted. Yes, you played in that time,
you adapted the game in the sixties and seventies, you

(30:43):
would have adapted to no time. So what I'm trying
to say to you is this, Michael Jordan was what
he needed to be. If he was playing today, he
would be what he needed to be in order to
be successful today. That's all I'm trying to say. When
you see greatness on that level, you have to concede
that that's the case.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
But see all they asked Michael do with the cook
Lebron had to cook, he had to clean, he had
to wait tables to take order.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Well, you could say that, But what I'm saying that
if the brother's doing it on both sides of the Florida,
then obviously he's doing more than one thing.

Speaker 5 (31:13):
He's doing that too.

Speaker 3 (31:14):
But how many guys you know that on top five
and Top five?

Speaker 1 (31:19):
How about this? How about once you Quille O'Neil with
Penny Hardaway, Nick Anderson, three D, Dennis Scott and those boys, Yeah,
going Orlando, right, how about the fact that they could
even get the ball pass half court because Scottie Pippen
and Michael Jordan had him on locket.

Speaker 5 (31:35):
Yeah, with full Corp press.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
We end never see Lebron do that.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
We never see Lebron do that.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Bron that you stop it. He never did it. You remember,
he never did it.

Speaker 5 (31:43):
You remember with d Rose with the MVP, y'all voted
d Roll the m v P. What do.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Excuse me? Excuse me, d Rose? What kind of team
did ye? You come? Tell me know? Whing those boys wasppoint?

Speaker 5 (31:56):
They did enough to get the number one seed. That
so what you're a.

Speaker 1 (32:02):
I voted him in VP and still picked Miami to
win that series. I knew they want to go be
Miami in the Best of seventh. The playoffs are different,
all right, But that don't mean Lebron deserve the MVP.
I know. By the way, I don't even knock Lebron
James for not getting the MVP, because when you're that great,
you're not gonna put all your efforts in over eighty
two games. You're playing for April Man and ju So
this is entirely plausible. I'm very fair of Lebron jaf

(32:24):
your dollars sometimes most times, most times, actually I say
all it's just that I call it like I see it.

Speaker 6 (32:29):
I'm not emotional like you.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
No no, I I like, you know what, I got
a call to day for one Michael Jordan.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
He rolled up on me in a black ass uva
the winter.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
That's true, that's true. Yeah, I was scary. I thought
he was. I thought I thought it was a drive
it was in them drive by. Scared of living hell
out of me. You still say that, mean that's that,
That's an absolutely true story. But at the end of
the day, all I'm trying to say is that Lebron
is phenomenal. He's great. We should throw no shade on him.
One of the greatest ever Top B top three, you
say it, one of pH He will never be greater

(33:04):
than Jordan to me. But more importantly, let's go to
Koreem Nineteen time All Star, six time league MVP champion
on the high school left champion, champion in the NBA. Okay,
good lord at Merka Fall, time leading scorer before Lebron's
had passed him, all of that stuff happened. I'm just saying,
come on now, the resume is better, But I still

(33:26):
don't believe he was the player that Lebron James is.
All right, But what I hold, and I'll say this
to you, I'll tell you something that I've very really said.
If you took Lebron james career from twenty twelve to now,
and that was his history from his first title to
what he is now, and you wanted to make an

(33:48):
argument against Jordan, I'm listening. The problem is we don't
get to ignore those first seven or eight years where
there were a couple of occasions where one he was
accused of quitting and number and I don't believe that.
By no, I don't believe that you are drunkard. No no, no,
no no, I'm talking about this. God, I got you,
but I feel you. But it's true, but it's still
excusing drunken. But the point is against Boston, I don't

(34:13):
believe that it was a lot of stuff going on
in Braun. That's none of our business. That people they
were totally unfair to him, including his damn teammates. But
that's a different story for another day. I never held
that against him. But when you got four games against
the Dallas Mavericks in which people looked at you and said, choke,
you know what you cannot get past I can't.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
I can't argue that I can't.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
And that to me, that to me sealed the deal
about the MJ Lebron companion.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
So what what what if he were to win a
title this year, thirty nine years of.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
Age, So so that going to race Jordan?

Speaker 3 (34:51):
That interesting that you go see, that's the argument that
people have when I was talking about Tom Brady not
playing well, I'm not trying to take away with Jordan's accomplished.
I agree, he got those rings, he got six finals MVP,
he has six championship, he has five.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Regular season MVP.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Right if Lebron gets another title stephen A, I'm not
gonna raise what Jordan did, but he already he already
here from me. Okay, all he doing is just.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
But but what I'm saying to you is I already
talked about the Dallas thing, and I talked about moments
which you can appreciate. What I'm trying to say to
you is that when you are that dude, that doesn't
happen to you often that happened to Magic when they
called them tragic, because yeah, four you get all of
that under sad I'm saying, but for the most part,

(35:37):
that doesn't happen. And this is the kind of thing
that you also have to pay attention to as well.
Not only do you not get to say that about Jordan,
but when you look at Lebron, think about this. You
want me to tell you what I hold against him,
just as much as I held against the Dallas before me.
What the following year with the All Star Game, you
got the ball in your hands. It's an exhibition. It's

(35:59):
an exhibition. It doesn't count. It's all in fun. Kobe
claps his hand, God Rest his soul. He's like, yo, listen,
come on, wait, you got d Wade on the court,
you got Mellow in the corner, and he threw the
past and all three of them, along with Kobe, descended
on Lebron and said, yo, what's up what you're doing?

(36:20):
Because they knew he was psyched out, he was messed up.
And what I'm saying to you is that Kobe wasn't
like that. MJ wasn't like that. It's d Wade wasn't
like that. In his first NBA Finals appearance, they down
owe to the Dallas. E Wade goes berserk, averages thirty
seven in the last four games. I'm just saying this
stuff like that. It's not that you look at Lebron

(36:41):
and you diminish him. It's just that you can't elevate
him above somebody like MJ. When I got that evidence
to support my argument, that's all, and that's why I
got him number two author on God strike me down.
I mean, my lord, I mean what it is. So,
I mean, the number two all time in the history
of the game. And it's an insult.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
Only you and Rich Paul and people like that feel
that way, most of us saying individuals know better.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
No, let me ask you this.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah, you and I have conversation, and people like, well,
how closely you're Stephen there? I said, I met him
in twenty fourteen when I came on the show. I said,
we've talked over the here, we exchanged numbers, and we've
talked over the years. But I said, over the last
year and a half or so, I was going through
some things and he was the one guy that was
in this business that I felt I could talk to.
It would stay between us, but he would give me

(37:32):
sound advice. And so now you have your thing with
First Take. You you are the voice, you are the
face of First Take, You're the first face of ESPN.

Speaker 5 (37:42):
What made you reach out say, bro, I want.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
You because I got love for you, bro, and' that's
just me being a man and speaking his two brothers.
You know, you know our former boss at first Take,
Jamie Hardwiz, who was over brought you over that first
one and all of that, and he knows my history,
he knows what I stand for. I remember when I

(38:07):
first You can ask him. I remember when I first
arrived on first Take and I rolled up in there
and I saw a bunch of white folks, and I said, Yo,
we're the brothers and the sisters that you don't think
I'm gonna be sitting here working with a bunch of
white folks, do you? I don't mind white folks. I
ain't got nothing against y'all. God bless you. You understand saying
we all brothers and sisters the eyes of God. When
all of a sudden, dumb but you ain't gonna just

(38:27):
have me surrounded by a bunch of lily white folks.
You better sprinkle sprinkle some in. And so you know,
he brought one. And then the next thing, you know,
I picked two or three others and made sure to
diversify that staff. And then one of the things that
I did when I came in there. I knew Skip
was going to want to debate me and whatever, but

(38:48):
I was talking about subject matters that we needed to
broach because it was still his show. But he respected
me enough to get my opinion, and I was like, look,
we need all of these other people because I want voices,
and I'm just I'm built. What I mean by that
is there's no shade on you, on anybody else. But
I don't believe anybody's knocking me off my perch. I
will knock me off my perch. You know, corporate stuff,

(39:09):
bureaucratic stuff, that's stuff you can't you know. But I'm
talking about in terms of my own air performance, my
job performance. I don't worry about it. You know what
I worry about the day that I want to leave.
And I haven't done anything to create opportunities for us
to continue. And so for me, it's like I look
at you, I think that you're smart, You're obviously incredibly accomplished.

(39:30):
You ain't gonna never hear me say no disrespect to anybody,
not to bring up nothing. Ain't gonna never hear me
say three super Bowl championships, a Hall of Fame status
don't mean nothing. I don't roll like that. That's not
who I am. I'm the kind of person that I
argue with you about football, but I want the audience
to know, Yo, you the football expert, right, not me.
I'm the reporter that walks in and I'm like, this

(39:53):
what I saw, and tell me I'm wrong. This is
what I'm seeing. Tell me I'm row. This is where
I'm comforting. Just like me and you talking about that.
I know you. I don't give damn how much basketball.
You know, you'll know no more of basketball than me.
I've been coming. I learned from living legends and all
this stuff. But I still want to hear what you
have to say. If you can listen to me talk
to football, why the hell can I listen to you
talk about basketball? And so all of that and then
your heart being conscientious brother, caring about the issues that

(40:17):
you're caring about, speaking about the issues that you speak about. Now, brothers,
iron sharpens iron, and yeah, I got mad Dog Russo
that's white. I got Dan Olofski. That's a white dude.
You see what I'm saying. You know, Jeff Saturday, at
one time he was on the show That's a white Man.
But the bottom line is I want it all. I
want to make sure there's brothers, the sisters, black and white, ethnic,

(40:39):
you know, Hispanics, Asian. I don't give damn who it is.
I want to make sure we're representing America and we
make sure that everybody that looks at our show says
I can identify with what they're saying. But in the end,
when it comes to me personally, you know whether it's
Ryan Clark, it's Marcus Spears, all right, it's Damian Woody,
it's Lewis Riddick, the list goes on, and nor my brother,

(41:01):
Michael Irvin. That's now Aver, That's that's one key, Shawn Johnson.
These are my boys. I go back decades with these,
These are my brothers.

Speaker 6 (41:07):
You know what I'm saying. They will tell you.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
You ask anybody that knows me. I'm about getting you paid,
I'm about helping you become successful. I'm about letting you shine.
I'm not threatened by anybody's appearance. It's my obligation.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
But you've heard it, you do it. You've heard the comments.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
Yes, man, Stephen a man, he's strong will he bragged
blah blah blah, like Shannon strong Will.

Speaker 5 (41:34):
Blah blah blah. How is that gonna work?

Speaker 1 (41:37):
They don't know. They don't tell people.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
I'm say, two people that strong will can absolutely get
along as long as there's respect. Absolutely, the moment one
disrespects the other, the other losers respect for the one
that disrespected him.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Right, So now it's just a matter of time exactly.
And that's not gonna happen because I don't roll like that.
It's like, Yo, I'm gonna argue with you about your points,
but you know what, we gonna agree. We gonna disagree,
but at the end of the day, we brothers, and
we gonna sit up there and try to do what
we can to make our product shine. That's our responsibility
because if we do, if we do otherwise, all we're

(42:15):
doing is inhibiting the other success. Right, we're getting in
the way of what we're trying to do. That makes
no sense whatsoever. And not only that, that's setting a
bad example of our community. If I really need to
get deep about it, because what happens is is that
always so they can't chill, they can't sit up there
and do a show together. They can't get along. You
see that crabs in the barrel mentality. Blah blah blah,
nah man, we showing something different, you know, first take,

(42:37):
I've been blessed and fortunate enough throwing shade on nobody.
We've been number one for twelve years. We gonna be
number one for thirteen. It's just that simple. In fourteen
and damn it, if I do it for fifteen, gonna
be fifteen. That's the way that's gonna be. That's how
my mentality is. And I don't root for anybody to fail.
I just root to be the best, right, And there's
a difference. And as far as I'm concerned, anybody that's

(42:59):
with me, we the best. This is what we're gonna do.
So now it's we. It ain't stephen they it's weak.
And when you come to first take, because you ain't
start yet, you're gonna see it's a family. You gonna
see we get along. It ain't fake. We rolled with
one another, We vibe for one another, We watch one
another's back. It has always been that way under my

(43:20):
stewardship of the show. And I can say my stewardship
of the show because the show was handed to me.
They ain't come to me, and I just took the
title and off. No, they came to me and said
it's yours. You're responsible for it. If I didn't want
share this shop at first take show and be a
first take how I roll, no question. But I had
to come out that day because with all that you

(43:41):
were behind.

Speaker 3 (43:42):
See what you're saying now is that you told me
month in advance, because you were telling me things that
were going on at Park Hell, I didn't know it.

Speaker 5 (43:50):
I'm like, hold on, I drive this building every day.
How the hell you know what?

Speaker 3 (43:54):
I don't know you and you telling me, Bro, it's
going down like this, it's happening.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
Like this, and I'm just scratching my head.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
I'm like, I'm at this building every day and everybody cheezing?

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Reason? Was I right?

Speaker 5 (44:07):
You was absolutely spot on?

Speaker 1 (44:09):
And tell you I was right, you know. And by
the way, it wasn't because a fox. It's because I
know the business, right. I've been here for thirty years.
I can see them all away, you know. I can
see the hand writing on the wall. I knew when
it was over for you, Bro. I'm gonna be real
with you. I knew when it was over, and I
was like, I'm here, you see what I'm saying, because because.

Speaker 6 (44:32):
I knew what was gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
What happens is when you got noise and we gonna
call it like liten. I'm gonna call it like I
see it. You don't want to do this, let me
do it, all right, because I've been in the business
long enough. When you're black and you have the kind
of evident apparent meaning public situations like that, we don't win.

(44:59):
Everybody circling. The Sharks are circling. Now it's not one
person and it's not you know, the collusion going on. Instinctually,
people tend to believe this belief. Disbelieved that and the
Sharks are circling. And that's why I came out. You
know the number one reason I came out, even before
first tape was even on my mind. You know the

(45:19):
number one reason I came out, Shannon Sharp and I said,
I want Shanna Shop on first tape because I wanted
the world to know that you will want it. That
was the most important thing to me. I wanted the world.
I didn't want you to be in a situation where
the sports world looked at you and said, what do
you do?

Speaker 6 (45:38):
He must have done something persona round blah blah.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Blah blah blah. So I said, I said, if he
ends up, he ends up here.

Speaker 6 (45:44):
The Hanchos know I want him.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
But more importantly than that, this is a brother that
I think has done a lot of good work on
television that has helped our community. And as a result,
it's incumbing upon me because of the perch that I
sit on.

Speaker 6 (45:58):
To let them know he's.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Wanted, right, don't cut him off, because that's what they
did to me in two thousand and nine.

Speaker 6 (46:05):
They cut me off and left me for dead.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Bro. And I'm not talking about ESPN. I'm talking about
the industry. They cut me off and left me for dead.
They thought I was done. They were write my epitaph
and I knew it, and I said, I was blessed
and fortunate enough to have enough connections and to do
what I do to overcome it. I don't know if
this brother does, so let me let the world know

(46:27):
he has me and we'll go from there.

Speaker 5 (46:31):
That happened.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
That absolutely happened like that because you and I was
talking and you was like, Bro, I got this, but
soon as I get out of this meeting, I'll hit
you back. And we were talking twenty minutes, thirty minutes
an hour, and you took every last one of my calls.
And I'm thinking to myself, and I remember getting on
the phone calling my sister and I said, like, maybe
it's probably gonna happen. I say, because it's not coming
from inside, it's coming from somebody that I knows the business.

(46:55):
And he wouldn't bullegize me, but he told me that
it's a ninety five percent chance that is going to happen,
and he wants me on his show.

Speaker 5 (47:05):
And I'm like, I don't want. I think I'm good
at what I do.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
And for him, it did my heart good because I
know what you represent in this industry to say I
want him on my show. Whatever it is, I don't
believe nothing. Look you go back and from when I
was with the Broncos for twelve ten years, went to
Baltimore for two, back to the Broncos for two CBS

(47:30):
for a decade.

Speaker 5 (47:31):
I would fall for six years.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
Now.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
One person ever said anything bad about show that you're
difficult to work with. He did this that my greatest
compliment from players is guys that were on my team
said shouting, show off.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
The greatest team I'd ever had.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
He's my favorite teammate, the way he approached it, the
way he was. And so for you to come to
me and to say what you said when you didn't
have to do any of it, and nobody would have
held that against you, because, like you said, that's what
would have happened.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
And I heard it.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
Man, he must have did no, showed up every day
on time and did a hell of a job. I
remember when Jamie Horwitz, who we were talking about, came
to recruit me in twenty sixteen in April at the
w Hotel. He said, you're gonna be a star. Yeah,
I said, I said, James, I know what he said.

Speaker 5 (48:17):
Trust me. He says, I know, Tavern.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
It goes deeper than that, because you see Jamie. Whether
he wants to tell you this or not, I knew
back then Skip was auditioned in you because whenever I
took off, you would be there. Yes, And what Jamie
wouldn't tell anybody is that there were extra days that
I would take off just so Skip could bring you on.

(48:40):
Because again, if you're not creating opportunities for other people,
what good are you?

Speaker 5 (48:47):
Right?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
My pastor says that I'm not the most religious person
in the world. I mean, as promiscuous as I've been
in my lifetime, at least for the person I mean.
I mean, I am in no position. You know, I'm
a lot better now over the last over the last decade.
And so, but Lord, I have my issues, no question
about it. And and and you know, my pastor would
say all the time, there's no success without a successor.

(49:10):
And so when I look at you know, for me,
all the brothers that are on the show. One of
my proudest moments was when Michael Irvin came last year.
And the reason why it was proud because I loved
the playmaker. He and I are very very tight with brothers,
and I know what his name brings and the stature
that it holds. And so you're thinking that he comes

(49:35):
and others are gonna feel alienated, But if you watched
him when he was on the show with us, it
was a brotherhood. You see what I'm saying. It was
a brotherhood. You know how great he is exactly. But
it's like all of these all I mean, or Lobsky
and are C and everybody's regular They wanted to be
on the air with him, right, And so my point

(49:56):
is is that.

Speaker 5 (49:57):
That's how it's supposed to be.

Speaker 6 (49:59):
It's like, wait a minute.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
It the NFL constantly talks about what a brotherhood exists.
Well guess what first take is a platform for brotherhood.
So when Shannon comes on, yeah, you're gonna be on
the air with me, but guess what them brothers gonna
slide up in there. Y'all need to be with each other.
You need to be next to each other. You need
to be, you know, verbally knocking somebody like me upside

(50:22):
the head when I'm coming at y'all like, ye, I'm
not a new journalist. I saw this, look at it,
and y'all like, look at this guy right here. You
know what I'm saying. I mean, and we're laughing and
having a blast. It's entertainment, bro, But it's information, right, Okay,
it's perspective. It's serious stuff that needs to be addressed.
It's the whole gamut. And think about it. We got

(50:43):
the national airwaves for the worldwide leader available to us
to disseminate and display our message. I believe, our culture,
our perspectives and put them all on display for everybody
to see to come back or to breaks. But the
point is, at the end of the day, you ain't

(51:03):
gonna fill alone. You gonna be there and we gonna
be together. Why Because I'm gonna have your back, That's why,
and they gonna have your back. And that's the way
it's gonna be. You know, people ask me it's gonna be?
Will people ask me? Stephen A is like, bro, how
do you say? What you say?

Speaker 3 (51:21):
And then Chuchelle, you go to the game. You might
be bumping into some of these guys, say, how do
you handle that situation? I say, if I see them
out now, they acknowledge me, I acknowledge them back.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
If they don't, I keep it moving, keep it moving.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
I don't make it personal because I don't know these
guys well enough to make it personal. I'm talking about
a given situation. You didn't play good.

Speaker 5 (51:41):
And last night.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
It doesn't diminish anything that you accomplished before last night.
It doesn't diminish anything that you might accomplish moving forward.
I'm talking about a specific set of events that happened
last night.

Speaker 5 (51:53):
How do you handle that? Stepen day?

Speaker 3 (51:54):
Because I know see most of times they look at me,
they do a double take. They're like, nah, I'm gonna
let that go.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
They don't want that's person.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
But with you, I'm thinking it, like, man, why you
say that?

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yeah? Well, first of all, I respect any of them
who comes up to me, man to man in confront. Yes,
because if you want to have a conversation. Here's where
I'm big on. If I said something publicly and I'm wrong,
I'm gonna correct it publicly, thank you. I'm not gonna
do something publicly and then apologize privately right now. If
I'm wrong, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it publicly.

(52:30):
I'm a man up because that's the kind of man
that I am. That's how my mama raised me to be.
The other thing that I'm gonna do. But if I'm right,
I'm not budgeing. You ain't gonna scare me, You ain't
gonna intimidate me, you ain't gonna phaze me. Let's get
it on. Like I tell people all the time, figurarely
or otherwise, it's not about getting your ass kicked. It's
about what you're.

Speaker 6 (52:49):
Willing to take an ass kicking for.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
You gotta be principled, and you gotta be somebody that's
willing to stand on something and I'm the kind of
person THAT'SI understand on something. I'm not trying to get personal.
I'm talking about your game, right Listen. I've seen players
do some stuff behind the scenes. Man, I'm walking out
of a hotel room whatever, I see whatever, and I'm
like this. It ain't a legal or nothing like that.
But I'm just going like this, I don't know what

(53:12):
you talking about. I keep it moving. You know, my
business my business some means. But when you shoot two
for twenty h that's my business. Where you losing gage,
that's my business. When you sticking up the.

Speaker 5 (53:23):
Joint, that's my business.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
Wen, you're not showing up in practice, that's my business.
When you're sitting there bitching and want and wan in
the morning about your money but you ain't earning it,
that's my business because that's your career that you've decided
to put on public displays.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
Right.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
That's the difference with your personal business.

Speaker 6 (53:41):
Man.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
I always got you covered with that. As long as
you know, don't ask me to assist in breaking any
laws or anything like that, because I ain't going to
jail for your ass it ain't gonna happen. But outside
of that, I mean, ain't none of my business.

Speaker 5 (53:50):
I keep it moving football.

Speaker 3 (53:54):
You love your team, I'm thinking you like all things
New York Stealers.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
You the Steelers got gonna die hard Steelers face because
the first date, the first game I ever saw was
the Immaculate Reception, Wow, when I was six years old,
my dad the Immacular reception Franko Harris against the Raiders,
and I fell in love with the Black and Gold.
Ever since, I still haven't given Neil o'donald for that interception.
Through the Lag Brown and Super Bowl. I still am
recovering from that. I still have given Ike Taylor for

(54:18):
given up a damn touchdown passes the Maarius Thomas that
t Bow threw. Don't get me.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
That might have been the worst moment of your own
that career. That might have been the worst ones either.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
Man.

Speaker 6 (54:27):
Listen, man, I had Oh my.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
God, I was. I was with a girl I was
dating at the time, you know, her fond self and everything,
and I had my mind on other things and t
Bow connected that pass. I collapsed face first on her
living room rug and laid there for two hours. Didn't

(54:52):
do nothing at night. Totally ruined my night. Yeah, totally
ruined to do nothing. I didn't want anything. It was
I was so damned depressed of all people. And I
love him deally, he's my friend. But that non throwing
Tim Tebow throws eighty yard touchdown Pad, I could not
believe to save my life that that happened. And I

(55:15):
couldn't recover that night, Bro. I was depressed.

Speaker 6 (55:17):
But those two moments are my worst as a Steeler speed.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
So obviously, if you're a Steelers fan, you have to
hate the Cowboys because when the seventies, they always met
in the Super Bowl, and the Steelers always beat.

Speaker 4 (55:30):
Him the right, the right, Roger Starbuck and Drew Drew, Tony,
Joe ass out of here come in and Stealers took
him out. Yes, Bradshaw, Swan, Stalwarts, even Franco Harris Well,
I really didn't like that much as a running back,
you understand. I like Rocky Blant more than I like
Franko Harrison.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
He was a full back. But the Steelers and the
steel Curtain me and Joe Green L C. Green with
Jack Lambert, Jack Han Melt blunting. I like, Lord, this
is what's all about? Yeah, steel Yes, I couldn't root
for no New York teas they didn't win any It
was terrible. They're terrible. They're terrible, terrible.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
So now you basketball, that's your thing. What's what's steven
A's favorite sport?

Speaker 1 (56:12):
It's basketball. But I've grown to really really love footballs
because because football has been established as an event.

Speaker 6 (56:18):
So that's Sundays.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
You know what I'm saying, when you come to New
York one the time and bring you by the crib
and bring you you the crib. You know saying, I
got I got the main cave, just set up. It's
set up.

Speaker 5 (56:27):
Now you know we're gonna watch the game together.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
They're right, They're right. We can do that. We do
that with Ryan Clark, Barcus spills all they talk about
coming one time. I was just invite you all over
to make sure I got some catered food. Yeah, hell no,
hell no. I cooked some lasagna, cook some stek Hell yes.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
We do alf here.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
You might not eat the lasagna, you know what I'm saying,
knowing you you're watching the cabs and stuff like that,
but with some of us gonna eat it. But I
will tell you this, I ain't cooking for a bunch
of men. That ain't happening. But I'll tell you if
I tell you this right here, I tell you this
right here, right now, you know you're gonna go. Football
has established itself as an event. But really the two
things I love most, it's basketball, and nothing beats a

(57:10):
big time boxing event. Oh yeah, Like when I was
at Ero Spence, I saw you right, It broke my
I picked Corfort to win.

Speaker 6 (57:20):
I ain't know even win like that.

Speaker 5 (57:21):
Ye, it broke my heart to see Ero.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Spence get whipped like that. It really really did.

Speaker 6 (57:26):
I didn't see that coming.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
I might be at Canilo versus Charlo o'challo and it,
but se, my problem is that Charlo's moving up to
weight classes. I'm scared for him now. He got mad
skills and he got hard and he walks around looking
like the bigger guy. But he ain't been in the
ring with somebody that's punching him from one hundred and

(57:48):
sixty eight pounds r in a real fight, And so
that's my concern. His brother got some issues that he
got to resolve, that's what they say. But he's the
natural super middleweight, so he was the one who's, in
my opinion, should have been fighting Charlo. I'm sorry for
the Canilo rather than this guy. But those big Tom
boxing events in Vegas, I mean, nothing beats it.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
I mean, this Dispense fight was really big. But it's
been a while since you had those. I remember going
to the Mike Tyson and the Mayweather. It was an event.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Now you Mayweather Pacia, Mayweather Canilo Hoyer. Yes, that was
a big event too. But I will tell you nothing
was really bigger than Mayweather Pacquia. We had waited so long, yeah,
and want it was five years too late late, But
we didn't know until after the fight that it was
five years too late, you know what I'm saying. So
leading up to the event, oh my god, it didn't

(58:40):
get any bigger.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
But you know the thing is everybody that Mayweather fought,
he made him look like it was five years too late, right,
And that's how the great that's the greatness of him.

Speaker 5 (58:50):
Yes, everybody that he fought, they like what he beat. Sugar,
he beat Sugar, Sugar.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Jane mostly he'd beat Sugar Shane mos second round. Yeah,
almost heart up as dropped him.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
But you look at you look at the champions that
this man beat and made them look mundane and beating them.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
You talk about Mayweather I would say the same about Jordan.
But that's the difference. Oh you know, I'm glad that
you heard that about what I'm talking about. That's what
I'm saying, you know, because Jordan will make you look
like you're less than what you're all like before Scotty
Lebron fos Scotty and Lebron will beat you, I know
he but mj would make you.

Speaker 5 (59:29):
Look like less than what you are.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
I know Scott Scotty, I know Scott is gonna don't
call list and don't invite what's transpired and everything, you know, But.

Speaker 5 (59:39):
That Scott is fault.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
Scotty was wrong.

Speaker 6 (59:40):
Scotty was wrong.

Speaker 5 (59:41):
Oh yeats. But no, no, no, no, no, no. Let me
tell you how it started.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Okay, you know it started in the Last Dance, because
the Last Dance was supposed to be about Jordan's last dance.
Why are you putting Scotty Pippen in there for an
event that you weren't even on the team.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
Let the journalist in me correct you go ahead. The
last dance it was about the last season for the
Chicago Okay, the last season. Yes, So what happened is
is that they all on their way out so you're
telling different stories about them and their careers with the
Bulls while they're fading into the twilight. Yeah, so that

(01:00:16):
kind of stuff does make it relevant.

Speaker 5 (01:00:18):
But you know you're gonna make Scotty look bad.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
Well, Scotty deserved to look bad.

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
But you don't have to tell it. There are a
lot of times.

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
Steven A wait a minute. Now, it ain't like he said, Yo, man,
this is the woman he was messing with her something. No,
he said, Yo, you've passed up this contract.

Speaker 5 (01:00:34):
You wanted more Miami.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
Damn this public information. You Ryan Stork, don't sign this
deal because if you sign this deal, you can't come
back to me because I'm not gonna renegotiate your deal.
I mean, damn, Michael Jordan's gone. You want to be
that dude, and then you're gonna sit up there and
refuse to enter the game because of Tony kok coach.
I mean, that happened in front of millions of people watching.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
It did.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Come on, man, I.

Speaker 5 (01:00:58):
Tell you the story.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Why not part of the story. But Dan, let me
ask you tell we weren't around me. Excuse me, excuse me.
Jordan was still around. He was coming to visit the
team Scottie, people wearing the sneakers, kicking his feet up.
Look at the bottom of the soles of the shooter. Jordan,
come on back, come on back, all that other stuff. Hell, yo, Jordan,
wasn't there that You didn't say nothing about that. By
the way, where did you play? Did you play different?

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Did you play in Baltimore? Yes, So we shouldn't talk
about that. Yeah, we should talk. We should talk whatever
having to Baltimore. We need to be, we need to
get we need to be.

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
Keep that quiet. But here's the thing. It's a part
of your story. But here's the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
Just the way I look at it, I'm not gonna
tell an event that I wasn't a part of. So
anything that happened in Baltimore from two thousand and two
thousand and one, if I tell it in my story,
I can tell it in my story because I was
there when Ray went through what he went through in Atlanta.
I was there. I was picking him up from the courthouse.
He was living with me in my basement. So if

(01:01:56):
I want to tell my story, that I should.

Speaker 5 (01:01:58):
Be able to include.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
But that's a far that's a far different angle. The
man was accused of a crime. It was off the
field is very personal and even though you were involved,
that's his personal business. There's nothing about Scotty Pippen turning
down a contract for Scotty Pippen refusing to enter a
playoff game. That's personal.

Speaker 5 (01:02:22):
No, but he's saying light.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
But he said when Scotty was talking about having the
back surgery and he wanted a contract, and Jordan said
he's being selfish. Even though I might agree with, I
ain't saying nobody's gonna be selfie because I want everybody
to get as much money as they can, right, So
I'm not gonna say that. But I'm just saying I'm
not saying George. I just think that Scotty was surprised
that Jordan took the stance that he took and said

(01:02:46):
what he says.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
That's fair. But I will tell you this, Jordan wasn't
only the start to show. He was also an executive.
So we all know that that's number one. He is
an important component to bring up number two. And more importantly,
you gotta remember that was in the aftermath of him
turning down the contract and then being bitter about it.
I'm sorry taking the money rather being a bit about it, right,

(01:03:09):
and so you took the money that Jordan and Ryan
Stoff essentially advised you not to take. You ended up
being bitter about it, and that was willing to let
the team suffer because you got to remember where it's
personal for Jordan. If you're a tight end, which you
were and your quarterback, you say it, yo, bro, don't
take this money because you're gonna be bitter about the contract.

(01:03:31):
He doesn't listen to you. He takes the money anyway,
then he's bitter about it later on and refuse to
step on the field with you. Leave you out there
hanging by yourself. You don't have something to say.

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
Whoa you mean to tell me? Jordan and went on
them jabs buy himself.

Speaker 1 (01:03:48):
No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, I'm talking about this.
At the time, he complaint. Oh no, at the time,
he complaint. At the time he was complaining about Scotty
being selfish. He was on the court without him. But
he was like, come on, you're leaving me out here
because of the decision I told you not to make,
but you didn't listen and you made it anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
But I think you will agree that hurts Scotty more
than anything to hear Jordan's say that.

Speaker 6 (01:04:10):
Okay, fair enough.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
Are we sure that that's all that's hurting guys?

Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
No, there's some other thing that's going on behind this.
There you go. There's never just always.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
I didn't say what, and I ain't gonna say what.
I just asked you a relatively rhetorical question that I
know you know the answer to. I think it's safe
to say that we all know.

Speaker 6 (01:04:31):
Yes, this other thing, Scott is a little enough said
about it?

Speaker 5 (01:04:34):
Yes, okay, okay? You and what is it with you?

Speaker 3 (01:04:38):
Like every time you say something, you say my sources
say this right, And it seem like players go out
of their way to try to refute what you said
on there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Well, first of all, when your voice is potent and
it's gonna go viral, right, and it's gonna resonate, and
they think it's gonna compromise their brand, that's what they're
gonna do.

Speaker 6 (01:04:59):
I understand that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
I remember, I tell you a story one time I
had a coach go up in front of reporters. Stephen
A's wrong. He don't know what the hell he's talking about.
I can't believe they even let him report on the team,
blah blah blah blah blah, and then walk by me
and winked because he did it because he didn't want

(01:05:23):
people to know he was the one who gave me
the story. I've been a journalist for thirty years. I
got sources all over the sports world, right, every single
segment of every single show, I get text messages. It's
a player, it's a coach, it's an executive, it's a
player person or director. In my case, sometimes it's owners,
cause I know quite a few, right, Okay, And so

(01:05:46):
I have sources all over the place. Does that mean
I'm always right? Absolutely not. What happens though, is I
never said I was. I said this is what I
was told old. And when you make that judgment call,
what do you making a judgment call about.

Speaker 6 (01:06:01):
I ain't making a call about your personal life.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
I ain't making a call about something ultra and dacive
or whatever. You know. The other day, when I made
the news about Lonzo, I'm like this, they said, Yo,
Stephen ame. They said, sometimes it's like it's hard for
him to stand to stand up from the position in
the chair. All right. I'd heard the same thing on
several occasions well, two years ago, you missed forty two games.

(01:06:26):
Do the injury. The next season, missed the entire season.
This season is coming up, the team announced. Think about this.
The team announced the June that he would be available
before the new year. Think about that. So I'm going
like this, you gonna literally sit pool side and hop
up and down in a chair from a seating position

(01:06:49):
when you done missed forty eight percent of your games
and just your fourth or fifth year your career. Brother,
you clearly are not healthy. Okay, you wanna get literal
with it. Maybe I shouldn't said or whatever. That's what
they say, but you ain't exactly. So I'm like, really,
that's what you want to refuse. And I like Lonzo
not nothing against them. I hav done against his daddy,
whatever the case may be. But I would say to you,

(01:07:12):
go back to the days when I've covered I was
a beat writer for the felth in seventy six ers,
and I'm covering Alan and Iverson and beyond. I've been
a journalist for thirty years. I was a beat writer
for ten. I was a general sports columnist for another
seven or eight. I've been around and so there's been
plenty of times when people have refuted what I've said
and then years later come to find out I was

(01:07:32):
telling the truth all along. You go ahead and you
denied that. I remember one time I had a player.
I'm in Saint Thomas is where my family's from. And
if you go to Saint Thomas's spot called red Hook,
and Red Hook is where you're going. You take the
boat from Saint Thomas to Saint John's. It's only a
fifteen minute boat rocket and I'm literally docking away from
Red Hook going into the ocean. I get a call

(01:07:55):
up one out and it's saying I'm lying. I'm like,
what the hell are you care? You already told them
you leaving. It's hurting my brand. And you realize how
a lot of cats are thinking. They're thinking about their
social media following. They're thinking about the connections that they have,
They're thinking about how that's gonna be parlayed in a
monetary value for themselves down the line, and how I

(01:08:16):
could be compromised. And so when you see these denials,
let's say, you say, all right, it makes sense, I
got it.

Speaker 6 (01:08:22):
I leave it alone.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
But my attitude is I'm not giving you a death sentence,
And I'm not talking about your personal business, right, I'm
talking about relatively obvious stuff. Calm the hell down and
stop making it bigger than what it is and you'll
be fine.

Speaker 5 (01:08:33):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
The conversation that I saw a little bit of it
about well, Steph Curry, I think on gilb with Arenas
Agent Zeros podcast saying.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
He's the greatest point guard. You agreed or disagree.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
I agreed, but I was mistaken. And the reason why
I say I was mistaken is because what I wanted
to elaborate on is when you're talking about a typical,
quintessential point god, you're talking about a facilitator. Magic Johnson's
the greatest ever. Yeah, there's no question. What I was
talking about was impact from the position, and to me,
Steph Curry's marksmanship, combined with his ability to move without

(01:09:14):
the ball, puts a defense's head on a swivel. And
as a result of that, because of the panic he
creates because of his extraordinary marksmanship, you have to pay
rapt attention to him. You can't afford to Billy pay
attention to anybody else. And that, to me, is a
similar impact to Magic Johnson's ability to get to the

(01:09:34):
basket throw, no look passes, and especially Magic Johnson in
the open court in a fast break. But if you
put Magic Johnson in a half court setting, he backs
you down, he throws the ball to Kareem abdu Jabal.
Open court is worthy? Is Byron Scott's cooper. You know
what I'm saying, This stuff like that, pick your poison.

Speaker 6 (01:09:52):
I was talking about impact.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
I wasn't talking about a quintessential facilitator.

Speaker 6 (01:09:57):
That's the point guard.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Steph Curry is clearly not that.

Speaker 5 (01:10:00):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
I don't really look. I look at Steph as a
two right. I understand that because.

Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
All of you got new age guys, Dame Lillard, Steph Current,
all these guys are two guards masquerading. They just they're
not the point guard. I'm looking at point guard like
Magic John, Stockton, Jason Kidd, Mark Jackson. When I think
point guard, that's what I'm thinking.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
I got you. We agree, we agree, we agree. I mean, listen,
Magic Johnson is so phenomenal. And Michael Jordan has been
arguing on me about this forever because Magic John's the
greatest in his eyes as well. So you know what
I'm saying, it's one of those and changing that dudes
man changing antal changeing Michael George's you ain't got no
snowball chance in Helifloria. But but but but he's right,
And and Eddie Johnson does NBA radio, He's absolutely right.

(01:10:41):
He was talking about a mad Dog Russo and his
story and he was talking about he was absolutely right.
We know that as a pure pass that Magic Johnson
is the greatest facilitator the game has ever seen. But
I'm saying as an impact, you could talk about Steph
Curry being the two guard, but I would tell you
he has the ball in the hands enough the offense
runs through him, and the impact his marksmanship creates creates

(01:11:04):
just as much habit as Magic Johnson situated. And that's
all I was trying to say, which is why, even
though if you're taught them about a prototypical point guard,
you would pick others before him, if you're talking about impact,
it's him and Magic Johnson.

Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
Yeah, oh we do, no question, there's no denying that.
Exactly when you look at Lebron. Let's take Lebron and you.
You were covering the NBA when Lebron got in, yep,
I said Lebron is overachieved because no matter what you
thought he might be, ain't nowhere in hell you thought
he would be this good Steve to day.

Speaker 1 (01:11:39):
No, I didn't. That's why I got him number two.
Old time. Lebron James is one of the greatest ever.
Do it and listen, we're gonna miss him.

Speaker 6 (01:11:49):
When he's going.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
I can sit up there and I can have my
basketball decisions as if Michael Jordan won him two. But
I gotta tell you, man, I got so much love
and respect for Lebron, and a lot of people they misconstrue.
You know what I mean by that when I say
I got love for a brother that I barely know,
because it's not like I talk to him every day
or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:12:07):
Even though we accord you to one another in the whole.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
Nine, I'm saying, I appreciate who you are and what
you've meant. Yes to our community, to basketball, to young men,
particularly young black men everywhere the student is phenomenal. Man.
And And to be a guy that was on the
cover of Sports Illustrated and the only blemish in his

(01:12:31):
entire career is that I'm taking my talents to South Beach.
That is literally the only staying on his career.

Speaker 5 (01:12:39):
And he raised money for the boys and Glad.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
I mean, it's ridiculous. A businessman, extraordinary actor, he did
a great job and everything. Think I'm joking when I
put the tick of him great actor, great because because
you know, we so sens of develolebron Jas actually had
a ticker creator for first take great actor, great business man.
Don't be there for you, it's no be there when
you bring about saying, I said, can we get it
out of the way, because I want to make sure

(01:13:02):
he knows I recognize all the greatness about him. Listen
to the movie Trade Wreckord. You see what he did.
He was great, He was great. He did a great
job you know with Amy Schulman. Believe I mean, he
was fantastic.

Speaker 5 (01:13:12):
You know, I got it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
But the point is that the dude is phenomenal on
a multitude of levels. And when he has done for
us as black people in this nation in terms of
his business acumen, his commitment to excellence. You know, this
brother takes care of his body. He's always in shape.
I mean I looked at He's the reason that I

(01:13:35):
got mad at Anthony Davis last.

Speaker 6 (01:13:36):
Year because I'm looking at Anthony Davis.

Speaker 1 (01:13:38):
You know this brother vouched for you, right, you know
this brother his name on the line for you, right,
I know you. I know you got him the ring
in the bubble, but you understand that.

Speaker 6 (01:13:48):
Don't stop there?

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
Right? How is he in better shape than you? How
is he more focused and dedicated than you? Could you
take your ass over his house and and mimic his workout,
use his trainer, use his nutritionness, do something, and you
under saying I'm saying, I'm like, it's like, come on now,
look man, I'm the star. First day he tell you

(01:14:12):
some shin shaw, I'm gonna do some more pushups. Bro'ess
what I'm saying. I'm gonna change my diet even more.
I ain't gonna let you down, bro, I'm not. I'm
not gonna be there. I got shinning and Ron RC
sitting across from me with him with his sitting this
facility in Louisiana and all of this.

Speaker 4 (01:14:31):
Other stuff, And I'm gonna roll around with a belly.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
And looking all shit. Oh no, no, no, it ain't
going down like that. It ain't going down like that.
I'm gonna be in shape, bro, I've been getting the
shape I already lost some pounds. I really do it.
My body fat and half. I did all that. But
what I'm I'll never be the black Hawk, but you are.
I ain't trying to do that. But you ain't gonna
look at me and go like this. Damn he needed
to get the Jimmy ain't in shape. I ain't gonna

(01:14:55):
do that. I ain't gonna do Homa bring it that.
You got Molly sitting in the middle and stuff like that.
You sitting across from me. I'm like, and I'm looking Chabby, Nah,
it ain't going down like that. And I'm looking at
Anthony Davis like, ain't there's nothing inside of you that said,
you know, I need to be in shape. You gonna
drop forty one game and eleven and next Come on, bro,

(01:15:17):
come on bro. You know it's like you looking at
Lebron and I literally almost went on the air.

Speaker 6 (01:15:23):
It was like, you know, Lebron, I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
Sorry I felt that bad for you because I'm like,
in his twentieth year in the league, he's in better shape,
and he the best player, and he actually don't want
to be He actually wishes you were in better shape.
He actually wishes you were the better player which you
are where you bring your a game, but it's sporadic

(01:15:47):
because of a lack of dedication. In my opinion, I
don't know that, but I'm like, wouldn't you think that
if you were Lebron, Like, wait a minute, when something missing?
You ain't doing sun right.

Speaker 5 (01:15:59):
I'm almost ten years more in the league with more
wear and tears.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
Come on, man, come on, man, and you in l
A and you know this because you've been out here,
live out here now a different flavor. You know you
got to be disciplined to be out here. You can't
you you you can't easily locate the distract I mean
they are easy to find. Distractions.

Speaker 3 (01:16:21):
Well, that's the thing with discipline. It requires you to
do your best with no one. You think, no one
is watched. There you go, there you go. You know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
Listen. When I'm in l A, Bro, I don't come
outside until I finish my work out. Other than the
first take, I don't come outside until I finish my
workout because I know once I get outside there's gonna
be a wild before I get back.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
I'm just not gonna put You're gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:16:43):
Be because I'm just I'm just not gonna want to.
I'm just like, you know what I'm saying. You know
that's right.

Speaker 5 (01:16:48):
We're gonna be We're gonna be in the gym together, in.

Speaker 1 (01:16:51):
Gym that I'm not listen, you wanted you want to
meme that people will be laughing at me for the
next two decades have me in the gym with sharing
his shop. Come on, man, you know what I'm saying.
That's like, that's like the rock standing next to Snoop Dog.
We ain't doing that. We're the snupids my job. You
know you know I love you, baby, You know I
love you. Know what I mean? Come on now, I

(01:17:12):
ain't doing that. I'm not getting in the gym with you.

Speaker 5 (01:17:14):
You won't work out, huh, just won't work out.

Speaker 1 (01:17:16):
I'm gonna work out every listen, I work out. You
know what I might do that I might I'm gonna
wait a few months, though, I'm gonna wait a few months.
I'm not gonna do that just yet.

Speaker 5 (01:17:26):
Okay, Dame yea man and James Harden situation.

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
Yes, shir Dame is you know he looks he saw
James Harden get fined one hundred thousand for calling Daryl
Mourray a liar. He's like, I ain't trying to, you know,
lose any of my money. So what's what's your take
on those situations?

Speaker 1 (01:17:45):
Well, when I think about Dame, it's more sensitive to
me because Dame could have demanded out several occasions and
he never did. And it's Portland. It ain't like he
didn't demand out of La on my end, right, he
didn't demand out a poor right, okay, and he was
never gonna get anybody to come to pot he was gonna.

(01:18:07):
So now that he's been there a decade and he's like,
it's time look out for the brother now. Now, should
he have handled it a tab bit differently in terms
of all right, I shouldn't have said, just Miami, try
to work behind the scenes to get this done. Maybe
he shouldn't have done that, right, But the bottom line

(01:18:27):
is he's given Portland everything he's had, right, and you know,
you moving in a different direction, you drop your number.
The third overall pick is your school. Henderson's play your position.
Come on, y'all, get it done, you know. And so
that's how I feel. I support Dame on that. James
Hard is a different animal, and I like James, but
James gotta be more accountable. You got everything you want.

(01:18:51):
They gave you everything but a Pacify and a BIB
in Houston. Whatever you wanted they gave They did everything, money,
helicopter rods, massad, therapist suits, hang out, the strip club
or whenever you want to everything, you want to Vegas,
whenever you want me. They gave you everything, and Darryl
Moury took care of you to the point where Mike
d'antonia didn't even show negative players at James Harder. When

(01:19:11):
James Harden was in the film room, he showed about
everybody else wouldn't even show home in the film room.
This is me covering the NBA. I'm telling you what
I know. Then you force your way out. You want
to go to Philly because you want to go with
Darryl Moore. You want to follow him there, but they
say no, So you want to go to Brooklyn. They
tell you no. Initially, you show up the camp out
of shape. You make it very very clear that you
ain't trying to do anything because you're trying to get

(01:19:31):
the hell out of town. So they ultimately trade you
to Brooklyn. You get in Brooklyn, they you force your
way out of it because you want to go with
Daryl Morey and Philly, which is where you wanted to
go all along. Now, although we can't absolve Darryl Morey,
if you lied to the man, you lied to me,
ain't nobody giving, ain't nobody blaming, right, you know, if

(01:19:53):
you told him that, you owe him that correct fit period.
But why is anybody gonna be sympathetic to James Harden
with what James Harden has done on three separate occasions,
and now you're doing it a fourth And you gotta
remember when he was in Houston. I want Dwight Howard.
I don't want Dwhight Howard. I want Carmelo Anthony, don't

(01:20:15):
want Carmelo Anthony. I want CP three. I don't want
CP three. I want Russ. I don't want Russ. And
now one single championship to show for it. It ain't
like you are champion making these demands. You getting paid.
You're a show stopper, we get it, but you have
no championships to show for any of your efforts. At

(01:20:38):
some point in time, somebody got to be willing to
say to you, yo, can you give me a little
bit more? Oh? By the way, don't get me started
with close out games in the playoffs. We just saw
what you did in the Game seven nine points, three
and eleven shooting, and a Game seven close out game
against Boston. You had him for Game six, you were
up three to two on your home turf in Philadelphia,

(01:20:59):
and look what happened. Those are the kind of things
that I'm talking about. And so when something like that happens, man,
I can't support that, right can. I can like him
and be cool with him, but I can't support those
decisions that he's can't do it. What's Katy's legacy going
to be? What's Kevin Durant's legacy gonna do?

Speaker 3 (01:21:20):
I think, Stephen A. He was up three to one
on the Golden State Warriors. He's up three to one
on a seventy three win team, lose Game five, lose
Game six, lose Game seven, and in games five and
six and seven of games five and six, he shot
the ball terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:21:38):
Yeah, I will tell you this. I think that Kevin
Durant is one of the greatest players that I've ever seen.
But when I saw how things materialized in Brooklyn and
then he went to Phoenix and got bounced out in
the second round of Denver. What I said was, I

(01:22:03):
can't put him above Lebron. I used to look at
him and his offensive arsenal and think that, But what
I realized is that I'm not showing enough respect and
appreciation to the leadership that Lebron has exerted and exhibited.
Lebron has been the face of every franchise he's been on,

(01:22:26):
even though d Wade was that leader in Miami. And
when you look at Lebron, what he had to deal
with with Kyrie, you know, what he had to deal
with when he arrived in LA what he had to
deal with with all the vitriol aimed in his direction
in Miami and stuff like that. Mental toughness, ultimately leadership accountability.

(01:22:49):
You know, of course his he is in Cleveland. Of course,
when you look at all of these things, he showed
an ability to deal with things. Kevin Durant did not right.
Kevin Durant is a phenom. I'm player, a good brother,
really authentic in a lot of ways. I got a
lot of love for him. He is a two time champion,
in two time NBA Finals MVP. We can't tell I
don't care that he's playing with the Golden State Warriors.

(01:23:11):
He averaged thirty five, he was the MVP. He balled out,
you know, he showed his greatness. But the problem that
I would tell you that was really put on display
in Brooklyn. He needed to be a leader. But he
doesn't want that. He's already told you that, And that's
the difference. Lebron wants it. Lebron wants to be the leader.
Lebron accepts it.

Speaker 6 (01:23:32):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:33):
You know, Kyrie is Kyrie, and you know I'm not
here to I'm not gonna throw no shade. Me and
Kyrie have had our issues. That stuff has been resolved.
But the point is is that at the end of
the day, Kyrie, that is somebody that Kevin Durant, if
he were that leader.

Speaker 6 (01:23:52):
Had to reel in right by simply saying, man.

Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
Bump all this. We trying to win the chip. Kyrie
doesn't hurt his ankle against Milwaukee in the playoffs, Brooklyn
might have won it all right, because I think they
win that series against Milwaukee, and I think they could
have beaten Phoenix. I mean, it's just that simple to me.
And so when I'm looking at it from that perspective,
I'm just saying to myself, you, Kevin Durant, it's about
living and let living, and I'll do my job now.

(01:24:19):
It's about making sure that the ultimate job is to
try to win the chip and letting nothing stand in
the way of that. If you're on a football field,
Ray Lewis might have been the leader.

Speaker 5 (01:24:31):
You ain't gonna be quiet.

Speaker 1 (01:24:33):
If you see cats blowing your opportunity to win the
Super Bowl Championship, You're gonna be like yo. And I
remember when Isaiah Thomas, the Great Isaiah Thomas, two time Champion,
Hall of Famale Isaiah Thomas was arguing, will be one
time about Kyrie And I said to him it was
over the back seat thing, and I said, I'm gonna
end this conversation right now, Zeke by one simple question.

(01:24:55):
If a member of the Detroit Pistons that was such
an integral part of your champion your ship hopes, took
that position, what would you have done? Isaiah started laughing.
He said, as a team, we had have snatched his
ass up, we had sat him down, tied them up,
and we had ejected the shitting. To myself, he said,
now you might have been mad at us.

Speaker 5 (01:25:15):
You might have been mad at us, right, but we would.

Speaker 1 (01:25:17):
Have done it, I said, I rest my case. All
I'm saying is that at the end of the day,
were trying to win and anything that gets in a
way of that is secondary right to that actually being
the priority. It's all I'm saying. And I think Kevin
Durant should have had that attitude, and I don't think
he didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:25:35):
You look at the West, the Nuggets won the championships.
I like Nicola Yokich. I think he's one of the
two best players in all of basketball. You got Phoenix
this is a year book and Katie together, Brandley Bill joined.
You got the Warriors CP three. What's gonna be his
role in that situation? The Lakers if Anthony Davis is healthy,
I like that. They they have depth. Austin Reeves I

(01:25:57):
like him.

Speaker 1 (01:25:58):
I like him.

Speaker 5 (01:26:00):
What's how's the westcot shaking?

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
First of all, we always root for the Lakers because
they're stuff to colorfor. I mean, you know, if you
ask me, do I want to go to San Francisco
or La is l a all day every day twice
for Sundays, so so just for my own personal preferences,
it's always La La Miami is my dream scenario. That's
why I was so miserable doing COVID because the one
time I wanted to get my dreams in the bubble,

(01:26:26):
I was so depressed. I was so depressed. But I'll
tell you this, I don't believe in Anthony Davis in
terms of his availability. I'm not talking about his skill set.
I'm not talking about whether he cares or not. I'm
talking about injury prone, sporadic. There's something going on with
him where instead of talking about me getting in the gym,

(01:26:49):
you need to be jogging in him to get in
the gym, because it's just up and down. It's like
it's like it's like this brother sat up there, ate
healthy meal one day and then ate a bag of
skittles the next, and it's this plumbing.

Speaker 5 (01:27:01):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
I don't understand it, and I can't have faith in that.
I think they'll make the playoffs. I think they'll be formidable.
I dismissed the Clippers because I just don't believe that
Kawhi Lennard will ever be healthy. I just don't believe that.

Speaker 5 (01:27:12):
Well U Paul George's miss Damn.

Speaker 1 (01:27:14):
There's much time I agree with you. That's totally totally true, Troy.
I remember I just saw the numbers recently. I think
Paul George misses about thirty eight percent of his game
in Kauhi is at forty eight percent. So I think
it's around that. Paul George talking about he gonna play
bully ball and all that. We'll see, you know what
I'm saying, Especially Hen talking to him and Devin Book
was going back and forth. I got to see that
right because I know Devin Book is coming that dude,

(01:27:36):
de Book. Devin Book is real and I'm talking about
his mentality. He ain't scared of nothing. He coming for you.
So I definitely respect that. And we're gonna see what
Bill and kd do together as well. Phoenix, to me,
should be the favorites. You look at Denver, uh, They're
obviously formidable and you got that cohesive missile. I would
tell you a rematch between Denver and Phoenix and all
likelihood the conference finals as opposed to the divisional playoff

(01:27:57):
round semifinals. Rather, we'll see that, but that's what comes
to my mind. I don't expect much from Dallas, even
though Anthony Edwards is on the rise, I don't expect
much from Minnesota. I don't expect much from Minnesota. I
think that was to me they don't have the person out.

Speaker 3 (01:28:10):
Do you think do you think Minnesota should not run
the team through Anthony Edwards as opposed to Cat Yes, yeah,
I agree.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
I agree totally. I think that Anthony Edwards is one
of those dudes. He's one of those dudes. He's coming
and I feel that way. But I definitely think that
when you look at the two teams, I would look
at Phoenix and Denver, and then I would look at
the Lakers and Clippers on the outside on the come up, right.
That's how I view the West. You didn't mention the Grizzlies,

(01:28:37):
obviously the Josh situation. Hopefully, I think they're people should
have mentioned the Grizzlies.

Speaker 3 (01:28:41):
They're appealing his twenty five game suspension, so I'm under
the assumption that it's gonna stick. Let's just say, for
the sake for this argument, it's going to stick.

Speaker 1 (01:28:49):
It's gonna stick.

Speaker 3 (01:28:51):
You've been outspoken yet, I've been very outspoken, and I
don't know jall, but if I could sit down, I
just think he was I just thought he was moving
in a direction that wasn't conducing to accomplish what he
really really wanted to accomplish. That's been an outstanding basketball player,
be a brand the job, brand being one of the
faces of the NBA. I agree with you, what if

(01:29:13):
there's some advice you could give him. I don't know
how well you know.

Speaker 6 (01:29:15):
It's dad, I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:29:17):
I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:29:17):
I've met him both at once.

Speaker 1 (01:29:20):
John's a great player.

Speaker 5 (01:29:21):
Jo's phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
And I think that Jah is gonna come back with
a vengeance. You know, I really really believe he's gonna
come back with a vengeance. He's gonna recavoc. And I
love the acquisition of Marcus Smart I got bossed by
the way as my favorite overall.

Speaker 5 (01:29:36):
Really yes, I do.

Speaker 1 (01:29:38):
Wow. I think porzingis at seven to three with the
ability to step away from the basket and shoot, combined
with Tatum and Brown still keeping Al Horford okay and
Robert Williams in the mix with a Derek with a
Derek White, with a Malcolm Brogdon the range and sixth
man of the year. I think when you look at
their depth, athleticism and perimeter shooting, their ability to defend

(01:29:59):
the fact that was Zula has a year under his
belt coach and the team. I think all of those
things bowled well for Boston. They been knocking on the
door long enough. You Jalen Brown, you just signed three
hundred million dollars, You damn well better show up. And
if you and if you Jason Tatum, who's in line
for about three hundred and sixty million, you damn well
better show up. And so I'm gonna assume that they will.
But I think Mark is smart. Losing him it'll be

(01:30:22):
felt to some degree, but I definitely think it's gonna
help Memphis immensely, right, And I think that, you know
a and I think that.

Speaker 5 (01:30:28):
And you get Steven Adams back Stan Clark.

Speaker 1 (01:30:30):
And people don't realize Adams and Clark being gone. Lakers
don't beat them like that. If Adams and Clark are healthy,
that just doesn't happen, cause Adams and Clark are no joke.

Speaker 6 (01:30:40):
And so I take that into consideration as well.

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
Having said all of that, I'm not sure. And they're
shooting collectively, right, okay, So that concerns me. I think
they're sporadic defensively, that concerns me. I think they're coaching
concerns me to some degree, So I look at Memphis.
But in terms of my advice to Joe, it's this, man,

(01:31:03):
some people you gotta leave behind. And I don't mean
cut them off like you don't know them. I don't
mean cut them off like you can't be with them.
But I'll give you a perfect example. I got brothers
that I grew up with in Queens, New York. Half
of them are dead cause you know, the drug game
was real prevalent then, and I was blessed that I

(01:31:25):
was never a part of it, but most of my
friends were. And you know, I got a couple of
I got a couple of brothers that you know, did
some time, and I'll always look out for them. I'll
always have love for them, Shannon, they can't hang with me. No,

(01:31:45):
they can't hang with me. You're not coming to work
with me. You're not coming to a game with me.
That's not happening. I see a neighborhood. What's uff?

Speaker 6 (01:31:53):
How you doing? You need me for anything?

Speaker 1 (01:31:55):
What's so? What you need? I can help you. I'm
more happy to do that. So I'm not told about ostracizing.
But the NBA is your business. What happened with Ja
Moran cast him about sixty million ounces. Sixty million ounce,
You ain't getting that back, no matter how much money
you get, you ain't getting that back. And so for me,
you know, with his dad, Look, I'm a father, you're

(01:32:18):
a father. Here's the deal. I know you can't tell
your son, literally tell him what to do. He's a
grown up, right, but certain things he don't need to
be doing it right in front of you. Correct you
the grown up, you dad, and you are not supposed
to be trying to live the life he live in.

Speaker 5 (01:32:40):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
Y'all made it and you're gonna make it even more.

Speaker 5 (01:32:44):
And so it's not to cast.

Speaker 1 (01:32:46):
Dispersions, assault them, detegrate them in any way. Who wouldn't
root for Ja Moran? Who ain't rooting for him to succeed.
I don't know anybody that they I know I'm rooting
for him. I know you're rooting for them. But how
are we helping you? If we see you doing stuff
that we know could potentially lead to your downfall and
we say nothing, are we really trying to help you?
If we say nothing, No, we're not trying to help you.

(01:33:08):
And that's why we say something, because we want you
to correct the errors so you could rise and prosper
and live your life.

Speaker 3 (01:33:16):
I don't know what you feel about this, but I
said this at the time the seventy fifth anniversary. I
said Anthony Davis shouldn't have made it over to White Howard.
Stan Van Gundy said, you can't make a case to
say is Anthony Davis's career has been better than the
White Howard.

Speaker 5 (01:33:33):
What's your take on that?

Speaker 6 (01:33:34):
I kind of agree.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
Anthony Davis was a prolific scorer, but at the end
of the day, he wasn't relevant until he arrived to
the Lakers with Lebron correct Dwight Howard was a three
time Defensive Player of the Year, extraordinary shot blocker and eraser.
Was never the offensive player that Anthony Davis know us,
but certainly was just as impactful, yes, and morel because

(01:34:01):
he was on the squad that Anthony Davis won a
championship with as a reserve, right, which means he's got
a ring too, right, And so you offset that and
now look at their careers. Even though the talent that
is Anthony Davis I consider to be better than the
White Howard, right, the impact of your career is not

(01:34:23):
greater than that of the right Howard.

Speaker 3 (01:34:25):
D White Howard took the team to the NBA finals. Yes,
he did in his prime. He's one of the five
best players.

Speaker 5 (01:34:29):
In the NBA.

Speaker 1 (01:34:30):
Absolutely, absolutely, So I can't disagree with that. I can't.
I can say Anthony Davis is a better talent, yes,
but it also highlights what you must not be doing
because a lesser talent, that is Dwhite Howard was more
impactful than you were. Right.

Speaker 3 (01:34:45):
Players under twenty five, you got Luca JT, Trey Young, Zion,
Anthony Edwards. You know what, Zion, because you've been very
I've been very outspoken, Steven that you know, I'm a
nutritional guy. Guy, I'm in the b and I said
that he just do me. I said, y'all a chief,
Oh Shaddy, you don't know what's going on. I say, bro,
the man is three hundred plus. I can tell he's

(01:35:08):
not eating the way he should in order to maximize burgers.
But you know, you you know in New Orleans eating
gumbo and you say and Jumbaliah everything.

Speaker 5 (01:35:19):
Yeah, So what Joa?

Speaker 3 (01:35:23):
How do we how do we get Zion to understand
because I think the greatest person that he needs to
sit down and have an hour long conversation with is
Charles Barkley. He's a more athletic Charles Barkley.

Speaker 1 (01:35:37):
I just gotta be honest. I don't think he cares enough. Wow,
I don't think he cares enough. I'm not saying he
doesn't care. I'm not talking about caring. I'm talking about
that fire passion that it's the end all beyond, because
I believe he's in a market he don't want to
be in. That said, I believe if he was in

(01:35:59):
New York or someplace where he really really wanted to be,
we see a more dedicated zion to his physicality. And
the point is is that I don't know that to
be sure. But you can't walk around as big as
he is. No, and tell me you dedicated, right, You can't.

(01:36:19):
You can't because even when you're when you're restricted in
terms of your mobility, you know what you'll do. You'll
eat less and you'll eat better because you'll fear bloating,
you'll fear blowing up and not being ready when called upon.
Once you here, that hasn't been the case.

Speaker 3 (01:36:34):
Because if you eating bad while you're active in running
up and down the court. What the hell you think
you're gonna eat when you can't run up and down
the court, that's right. So now the thirty pound that
you took off because you was healthy and athletic and
running up and down the court, you better put fifty back.

Speaker 1 (01:36:51):
Home, exactly. And that's exactly how I feel. And because
of that, again, I love Zion's game. I believe he's
a potential superstar in this league.

Speaker 6 (01:37:01):
He's something to behold.

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
But I think it's fair to question his commitment to
his conditioning, right. And if you're questioning somebody's commissions, you know,
commitment to conditioning, you're questioning whether or not they care.

Speaker 6 (01:37:14):
And that's really what it comes down to.

Speaker 5 (01:37:15):
The right.

Speaker 3 (01:37:16):
We've talked about players under twenty five, Luca, Jason Tatum,
Trey Young, Zion, Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Chake, Gil just D Fox,
or Jordan Poole. I'm gonna give you one guy of
those guys I mentioned, who you taking.

Speaker 1 (01:37:30):
A lot of people would say Luca, I'm gonna say
Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum sixty nine, jaseon to shoot the three.
I saw Jason Tatum drop forty six in a close
out playoff Game six in Milwaukee's I saw Jason Tatum
handle his business in the game seven. I've seen a
young Jason Tatum, who ain't even twenty seven years of

(01:37:52):
age yet be a primary option on a team that's
going to five conference championship game, a championship series, in
an NBA Finals. I just look at him and I say,
and not only that, we just talked about conditioning. There
have been times when we looked at Luker and we've
said he ain't in shape. He's getting in shape right

(01:38:16):
the season progresses, correct, we.

Speaker 6 (01:38:18):
Look at Jason Tatum from day one and say.

Speaker 1 (01:38:20):
He's in shape right.

Speaker 6 (01:38:22):
That matters to me.

Speaker 1 (01:38:23):
I would go with Jason Tatum.

Speaker 3 (01:38:26):
Andre Agodalad says, the player with the mentality is closest
to Kobe Bryant is Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 5 (01:38:33):
You agree with that.

Speaker 1 (01:38:35):
Closest to Kobe Bryant is Jimmy Butler. As far as mentality,
you could say that I would beg to differ who
you like.

Speaker 6 (01:38:46):
Devin Booker, Jimmy Butler works.

Speaker 1 (01:38:51):
But the difference between Jimmy Butler and Devin Booker is
Jimmy Butler doesn't care that much about offense until the
postseason arrived. Right, Kobe cared about it all the time. Yeah,
And Devin Booker cares about it.

Speaker 6 (01:39:04):
All the time.

Speaker 1 (01:39:05):
Right. They coming out looking for their shot from opening
to off. Jimmy Butler sometimes you literally feel like you
gotta throw something at him just to make him shoot
the basketball he does. It's not a priority for him.

Speaker 6 (01:39:20):
And that is why I would say no on that
Kobe comparison.

Speaker 3 (01:39:23):
Not much as known about Steven H's private life. Yep,
You like myself, are very very private.

Speaker 1 (01:39:29):
Yep. How have you been able to maintain that level
of privacy? Number one, I'm quick to sell somebody to
mind that damn business, you know. And that's a kind
way of putting it. And I will cancel a woman
in a heartbeat that talks about my business. She utters
my name, what publicly about us? She gone, I wouldn't

(01:39:55):
have happy for us better?

Speaker 6 (01:39:57):
I don't care. I don't care, you.

Speaker 1 (01:39:59):
Know why, because I want you to know who my
woman is when she's missus Smith. I'm talking about publicly.
I'm not talking about you know, shann ain't gonna Shannon
go beat my girl.

Speaker 6 (01:40:12):
You know, Jamie's Matt. I'm not talking about that.

Speaker 1 (01:40:14):
I'm talking about announcing that you see us and people talk.
Oh no, let them talk. You better not talk.

Speaker 6 (01:40:23):
I will cancel you quick.

Speaker 5 (01:40:25):
And can't so she can't post none on I G
Never I would.

Speaker 1 (01:40:29):
She wouldn't. She wouldn't make it to my crib. I'm
telling you, I'm not joking. She wouldn't make it to
my crib. She can live five minutes away, she'd be
going by five five minutes. I don't play that because
here's the thing. I'm in the public eye. Let me
tell you what to test what I detest. And I've
never done this to another man. It makes me cringe
when this happens to a man. I can't get over

(01:40:50):
how these stars be messing with somebody and then you
with somebody else. But that's who he used to mess with. Nah, yeah,
no nothing, I mean you talking about it could be
an ex. I'd be like, what are you talking about?

Speaker 6 (01:41:03):
That's a friend. I don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 5 (01:41:05):
Step you messed with her?

Speaker 6 (01:41:06):
Who ain't you mess with?

Speaker 5 (01:41:08):
I don't know what you're talking.

Speaker 6 (01:41:09):
Ain't none of your business. I'm not doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:41:12):
You know when she missus Smith, you'll know who she
is until that time, I might have messed with her.
I might not have messed with her. You'll never know.
I don't do that. And I can't stand when we
see people out here like sharing their information and you
know it's on Instagram and Twitter. We've grown ass men
and women. When did everybody? When did your business become

(01:41:34):
everybody else's business? Don't I don't vibe with that. I
have no patience with that. And anybody who knows it,
and I mean anybody who knows me, they'll tell you
right now. I live in La five minutes from where
we are. They wouldn't make it to my crib being
my woman. If I saw something on social media that

(01:41:56):
was initiated by them about me, they out.

Speaker 6 (01:42:00):
I wouldn't hesitate.

Speaker 1 (01:42:01):
I have been that way my entire adult life and
I will never change When in that regard, I could
be getting ready to getting married, wedding called off. So
it was all the way game with me. So it
was all the way game with me.

Speaker 3 (01:42:12):
It was always your It was always says once you
got into the public eye, was to be private.

Speaker 1 (01:42:17):
Absolutely, it's not everybody's business. It's not everybody's business. Look,
I know people business. You see me I'm on TV.
I'm a professional journalist. I challenge anybody to talk about
stephen A talking about their personal private business. Now, if
you're walking on public and putting everything on display and
all of that, all right, that's fine, you know what

(01:42:38):
I'm saying. I just talked about Megan good to find
that stuff the other day. Okay, I get it, you
understand me, says an late that I mentioned you. She's
been fine for you.

Speaker 6 (01:42:45):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:42:46):
I got it your stuff like that. But you don't
hear me talking about people's private business. I don't do it.
I don't and I never ever will.

Speaker 3 (01:42:55):
I read where your daughters don't like when people come
up to you and ask for autograph when they're in
your presence.

Speaker 6 (01:43:01):
Oh oh my lord, listen man.

Speaker 5 (01:43:06):
Do they have a social media presence a little bit?

Speaker 1 (01:43:09):
But I try to monitor it, and you know, I
lead that to their mom. But I will tell you
this for me, Oh my god, being a dad for daughters,
it's the greatest blessing and the worst curse. Because the

(01:43:30):
blessing is you didn't know what love is until they
You thought you knew what love was then.

Speaker 6 (01:43:36):
They came along.

Speaker 1 (01:43:36):
The curse is you didn't know what love is until
they came along. So you're never at piece. You're always worried,
worried about everything, worry about everything. And they did Daddy's
you know, daughters. So they like me from the standpoint like,
first of all, I'm not that special, I'm just dad.
What is so big about you? I mean, please, why

(01:43:58):
all you do is talk on television? I mean you cares?
Oh lord o, can we hurry up? Please? What do
they want your or to grab four? I mean, but
then they get attitude, cause it's like they're taking our time,
hurry upright, like literally, and it's like and I knew.

Speaker 6 (01:44:16):
I knew from the time my.

Speaker 1 (01:44:18):
Daughters was like seven, eight years old. I came home
and I had to do I had to get to Dallas.
I was supposed to go from La straight to Dallas.
I literally flew home on the Red Eye just to
take them to school and to give them a hug
and a kiss.

Speaker 6 (01:44:37):
And I took them to school.

Speaker 1 (01:44:39):
They were all happy and bouncing around and all that stuff.
And the children school and I said, Okay, Daddy gotta go.
They're like what And I was like this, I probably
they gotta go to work. Right in Dallas, and the
teachers like just go just go right, and I get

(01:45:02):
on get on the road. I'm going to the airport
and I call the schools speak to and they like,
could you call back later?

Speaker 6 (01:45:09):
They don't want to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (01:45:10):
And I'm like, this is seventy eight years old, right,
It's like and I knew then my life's over. It
belongs to them.

Speaker 6 (01:45:18):
They run my life. So I squeeze in things for.

Speaker 1 (01:45:21):
Me, right, But they're the generals. That's how it goes.

Speaker 5 (01:45:25):
Do your kids watch your kids?

Speaker 1 (01:45:27):
Are?

Speaker 5 (01:45:27):
They are at the age now they understand what you're fourteen?

Speaker 3 (01:45:30):
Yeah, so they understand what you do. Yes, they know
who they know who Diad is.

Speaker 1 (01:45:35):
That's right, that's right. And they see me lied on
a lot because a lot of times I've been accused
of saying something or doing something that they didn't know better,
or I was accused of being someplace like that and
you was with us, you know. But but it's like
it is what it is. They understand it. And I
tell them it's about tough skin. You can't overreact to everything.
You out to understand when you and the public eye,
people gonna lie you all the time. They're gonna invade

(01:45:57):
your privacy, they're gonna instigate stuff, they're willing to looking
to provoke a reaction. And I can't give it to
them because if I do, then I take debate and
it can jeopardize what I'm trying to build. And so
you explain those things to them and you hope that
they understand.

Speaker 3 (01:46:11):
What advice would you give a young journalist, because you know,
the newspaper business is not what it was when you
got into it. Everybody gets there, you know, because it's
so instantaneous, not stephen A. You got social media. So
now ain't nobody just sitting there watching the six o'clock news,
and ain't nobody just just reading the newspaper?

Speaker 5 (01:46:30):
So what advice would you give young journalists?

Speaker 1 (01:46:32):
First of all, understand that everything feeds off of information.
You've got to be about the business of acquiring intel
and information because that means you have something to talk about,
you have something to write about, you have something express
opinions about, whether it be via radio, television, podcast, newspaper, magazines,

(01:46:53):
dot com, whatever, whatever content is. King content will never
go anywhere. How people are receiving that content is what
has changed linear television was once here. Now it's dissipating
before our very eyes. There's some people that are projecting
within the next decade, YouTube will be more popular than
some of the networks, if not already, and so you

(01:47:14):
have to take that into consideration. That's point number one.
Point number two is that you're trying to build something,
build a brand. Know who you are, know what you
stand for, Recognize what gravitates folks towards you and what doesn't.
And that's how you go about the business of building something.
Number three, Master your business. You gotta know what you're
talking about. You gotta know what you want to do.

(01:47:36):
A lot of people want to podcast, Well, do you
know what comes with the podcast? It ain't just a
microphone and a camera. There's a production team that gets
that's behind the scenes. There's a sales and marketing angle.
There's a sales angle that comes with it, a marketing
angle that comes with it, a technological angle that comes
with it. These people operating these cameras, you know, you know,
these microphones, making sure the audio is right. Except so,

(01:47:57):
how much is that gonna cost? Okay? What level of
course comes with it? Okay? One of the things that
I would give advice to a lot of students want
to come up no matter what major you take, minor
in business, because everything comes down to business. Now you've
got to be about the business of knowing what your
business entails. That way, you know how to do business.
You know what you're negotiating, you have an idea what

(01:48:19):
it entails. You know when you've made mistakes and how
to pick up on it. I started my own podcast
months ago. I've made a lot of mistakes. Why because
I never had a podcast before.

Speaker 6 (01:48:28):
I had to learn through osmosis.

Speaker 1 (01:48:29):
But I put myself through that fire initially on purpose,
so when it grew as it's been growing that I'm
in a position to now make the proper decisions because
I use, you know, that infancy period to really learn
and gain knowledge about the industry.

Speaker 6 (01:48:47):
How much is going.

Speaker 1 (01:48:48):
To cost, what my losses and my profits look like,
et cetera, et cetera. All of those things the things
that you have to know because the business itself that
used to exist is no longer. Now they're looking for
you to bring your.

Speaker 5 (01:49:00):
Business to them.

Speaker 1 (01:49:02):
Shannon Sharp, you own your own podcast club Shayshay over
a million followers doing your thing. Proud of you, my brother,
keep doing your thing, no doubt. You got to keep
doing that. You own and operate your business, and there's
people around you that's working for you. So you're going
to be attractive because you're bringing a business to a
potential network to buy to least two et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 5 (01:49:24):
They don't want to.

Speaker 1 (01:49:25):
Just employ people anymore. They don't want to deal with
that overhead. They don't want to deal with the expenses
that come with the overhead.

Speaker 5 (01:49:31):
They want you to deal with that.

Speaker 1 (01:49:32):
Now, got McAfee the deal he just signed with me.
You got so many people hating on him. Shut up,
all of y'all.

Speaker 5 (01:49:39):
Shut up.

Speaker 1 (01:49:40):
The man had his own business. He spent years developing
his own business, betting on himself, just like you bet
on yourself, Just like I'm betting on myself. I just
started betting on myself because I was hindered contractually and
I had a lot of obstacles to overcome in my
career before I could get to this point. Although this
was always the vision, I had to start late. This
is what comes with it. When you know those things,

(01:50:02):
you become a business. And as jay Z would say,
I'm not a business man. I'm a business man and
that's what people want to see.

Speaker 5 (01:50:09):
I'm gonna get you out of here on this one.
Yet we both work with Skip.

Speaker 3 (01:50:14):
You work with him, I think a little longer than
I have, and we both have given him credit for
opening up his platform and allowing us to be who
we are, and we could grow our own platforms, become
as you mentioned earlier, businesses of myself.

Speaker 5 (01:50:29):
What's for the people?

Speaker 3 (01:50:31):
I don't know how many people have heard, And I'm
gonna follow up after you, Skip, what's.

Speaker 5 (01:50:36):
He really like?

Speaker 3 (01:50:37):
Because I think the thing is, if you've never met him,
you just see him on television, you say, Okay, that's
himming who he is.

Speaker 1 (01:50:42):
Skip's a different beast. I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:50:44):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:50:44):
If you can just describe him in one simple way
you can you can't. This dude's definition of advice is
dieing mountain dude. This dude was in the sixties and
in the seventies, running anywhere for five to eight miles
a day, eating the same meals for breakfast, lunch, at dinner,
introducing himself to his now wife and their first date.

(01:51:08):
You will never be more important than my job. Get
over that from now or don't bother. I mean, that's
his definition of turning her on. I guess. So I'm
just like that's he's a different animal, you know, And
there are highs and lows that come with him. Correct.
He knows that there's highs and lows that come with me.

(01:51:29):
There's highs and lows that come with you and everybody,
and that's the way it goes. But you know, I'm
a man first, and it's about a core decency of appreciation.
The reality is is that no matter how problematic, and
he can be problematic at times, no matter how problematic

(01:51:50):
he can be, the reality is is that I wouldn't
be where I am today if he didn't give me
that opportunity on first take. And so for me to
be where I am and to know that it's spring
its springboards off of something that he was directly involved
in making happen. For me to insult him in any

(01:52:12):
ways just disrespectful. It's wrong and it's something that I
would never do. Now. That don't mean I can't disagree
with him absolutely. That doesn't mean that I can't feel
that he's wrong. And anybody like a Jamie hard with
yourself and others who know me have gotten to know me.
In your case, you know, I would tell him he's
wrong to his face. Right, he knows where I stand,

(01:52:33):
But it doesn't take away my love and appreciation for
him and the fact that he will always be a
brother from another mother to me. Yes, So I've always
made that clear with everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:52:44):
Yeah, it's not often that someone can give you that opportunity.
And I I I and I've said this several times.
For me, I cannot let six months ruin six and
a half good years, because sometimes people are willing to
throw everything away for one mistake, a one bad comment,
or one something like this. And even though that was
all we were supposed to get. My sister tells me

(01:53:06):
this all the time, says Shannon, this was all we're
supposed to get. About four months ago, I had Tabitha
Brown sitting great.

Speaker 1 (01:53:14):
I've interviewed her before. She's fantastic. Stephen A.

Speaker 5 (01:53:17):
She had no idea this was going on.

Speaker 3 (01:53:19):
So we wrapped the interview and I'm gonna end it
on this one and I'm taking off my microphone.

Speaker 5 (01:53:24):
She says, is a mix off.

Speaker 3 (01:53:26):
I said, well, I'm taking my mic off, you can
take yours off. We took our mics off and she
leans in close to me. She said, I had a
dream last night. God told me it's gonna be okay,
and for you to go ahead and do what you
need to do, she says, it's gonna be different, but
you need to go on your own now. God told
me that, she said. Now you do what you want

(01:53:48):
to do with it. But God just she says, And
when I get dreams like this, and I'm ever in
the person's presence, it's my duty to tell.

Speaker 5 (01:53:55):
Them a month later.

Speaker 3 (01:54:01):
Yeah, And I'm like, and when she's telling me to
Steven day, you see how you looking at me.

Speaker 5 (01:54:05):
I'm looking at her. Now you know what's going on.

Speaker 3 (01:54:09):
She said, God told me this last night. And it's
funny that I'm sitting here doing this interview. Did this
interview with you? And I needed to tell you this
once she told me that I was at peace because
I'm racking my brain. I'm like, what did I do?
Did I say something that I fend somebody? I mean,
I just I think I'm doing a great job.

Speaker 1 (01:54:27):
She said, be at peace with it. Yeah, and that's
what I told you. You did, That's what I told
you because the reality of the situation is is that
you know, I'm not going to apologize. Listen, I got
a lot of friends over there, all right, We all
know that I know a lot of people. But that
don't mean that what happened to you is fair play
and simple. Okay, that ain't the end of the world, Nope,
but it is what it is.

Speaker 5 (01:54:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:54:48):
So you know, to me, it was just important for
us in this industry to stand up and say, yo,
he's one of us. You can't get them go out
like this, And that was it for me. It was
like it was just that simple. You go wherever you want.
You want to come first take, fine, you want to
go somewhere else, fine, because I got my crew here,

(01:55:09):
first take. And I'm not trying to get rid of
anybody saying because I'm not gonna do this forever. And
when it's my time to cost, my time to go right,
and it's time for somebody else to step up. But
as long as I'm here, my attitude was gonna be. Listen,
the people that have been a treasure and attribute to
this industry are the people that I'm going to do
all that I can to remind folks this is what

(01:55:30):
they do. I don't want to be one of those
dudes that I got these platforms first take, and I
got my podcast, and I'm doing the NBA Countdown and
I got more stuff coming down the line and everything
like that, And all I'm talking about is what I'm doing.
That's my job to highlight where everybody else is doing.

Speaker 3 (01:55:48):
You you wanted to few stephen A because I know
a lot of people that have could have opportunities to
help somebody, but they want to be the only ninja
with money.

Speaker 6 (01:55:57):
No, I don't want that.

Speaker 1 (01:55:59):
And I told you this, and I tell the audience
that I told you this. I said you might be
a first take for one year, you might be a
first take for years to come. It's my responsibility, and
I'm dead serious, it's a heart attack. It's my responsibility
to make sure that you are more successful with me
than you were before you arrived. That's what you told me.

(01:56:19):
That's my responsibility, and I'm gonna make sure it happens.
Come Hell of higher water. We ain't going down, brother,
we only don't.

Speaker 5 (01:56:27):
You know that.

Speaker 1 (01:56:29):
That's just the way.

Speaker 5 (01:56:30):
It's gonna go. Man, coming HBCU is the takeover.

Speaker 1 (01:56:37):
I ain't trying to lose I'm never about that. Anybody
that knows me an't about that. I don't mean no
disrespect to nobody.

Speaker 5 (01:56:44):
Y'all heard it. But I got here. M as good
as it gets right here. Steven A. Smell, Monday, September four,
No death, Grinding.

Speaker 2 (01:57:01):
All my life, sacrifice, hustle, pay the price. Wanta slice?
Got to brow the dice, the squad all my life.
I've been grinding all my life. Look all my life
and grinning all my life. Sacrifice, hustle, pay the price,
Want a slice?

Speaker 1 (01:57:16):
Got to brow the dice, the squad all my life.

Speaker 2 (01:57:18):
I've been grinding all my life.

Speaker 1 (01:57:22):
Yeah,

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Jason McIntyre

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