Latest / Bussin' With The Boys / Best of the Bus: Stephen A Smith On Competing With Pat McAfee + Staying On Top At ESPN

Transcript

Best of the Bus: Stephen A Smith On Competing With Pat McAfee + Staying On Top At ESPN · Bussin' With The Boys

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Tell you want to kick it off.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Busting
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: with the Boys. Very special guest today. The legend if
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: you've been turned on ESPN every probably in your entire life,
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: you've seen this man sitting in front of you giving takes,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: going at people, having absolute receipts for everything. Mister Stephen Asmith.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: What's going on, fellas? How y'all toing? How y'all doing?
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Man good to be here, Yeah.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Living the dream and we're happy you came on. We
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: actually just saw you an hour ago doing a little
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: hit on ESPN. I will tell you this, it is
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: a very unique thing doing real TV because it's so
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: fast paced.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: It is it is. It's fast paced, and in our
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: case is live. So you mess up, you mess up,
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean? And ain't like somebody's going
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: to say, we don't even have a seven second delay,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: so you know, an any kind of hiccup that takes place,
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: you could say the wrong word, the wrong thing or whatever,
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: you can gind yourself in trouble. So that's the pressure
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: that comes along with doing live television.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: But I like it, so it is what it is.
• 0:52
  Speaker 5: How do you manage to keep your level of enthusiasm
• 0:58
  Speaker 5: work ethic with every thing you're doing. You're also now
• 1:01
  Speaker 5: in the podcast space, which is a massive one, by
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: the way, and shout out, shout out your boy Bailey's here.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I followed him a while. I know he kind of.
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: Does a lot of your stuff, but he does. How
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: do you manage all of that stuff?
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Well, y'all do what you love. That's number one. I
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: don't have a job. I have a career. I've often
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: said when I give speeches and lectures, I say a
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: job is doing what you have to do to sustain
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: or elevate your quality of life. A career is doing
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: what you want to do, and it just so happens
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: to do those things. But I also think the pressure
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: of covering sports contributes to that kind of mentality. You know,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: you guys played in the NFL. You got guys I'm
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: covering to play in the NBA, Major League Baseball, professional boxes, UFC, fighters,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera. These are the best in the world.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: And when you consider the fact that you not only
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: didn't do what they did on.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: That level, but it was because you couldn't.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Yet you get to sit in judgment of how they performed.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: How receptive folks should be to how.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: They perform, how receptive people should be to your commentary
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: about it.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: Then you owe it to everybody.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: To make sure that you put forth a full fledged
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: effort with passion and enthusiasm to let everybody know not
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: only are you not playing around, but you care that much.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: And so that's the very least that you can do.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: And that's what I try to bring to the table.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: When you're fighting through that process of knowing that these
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: guys are playing at the highest level, doing their thing
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: at the highest level, and you are saying there in judgment,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: how was the process for you as far as like
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: feeling comfortable with putting out a judgment knowing you essentially
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: haven't done what they did.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: You know, it was easy for me in this regard.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I remember when I started out in the business and
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I had a clerical position at the Winston Salem Journal
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: newspaper in Winsters Salem, North Carolina, because I went to
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Winston Salem State University, which is in historically black college
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: and university. And I went there and the sports editor
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: of my first week on a job sent me to
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Wake Forest University, right down the road. Wake Forest was
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: the number three ranked team in the nation in soccer.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: The only soccer match I had ever watched was Pele
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: in the nineteen eighty Olympics for the you you know
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: of I guess right, And so what happened is that
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: I knew nothing about soccer, and I went to the
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: coach who's now.
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: Deceased, God rest his soul.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: His name was walk Chisowich, and I walked up to
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: him and I say, I know absolutely nothing about soccer.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: I've never covered it on anything, sir, but the boss
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: sent me over here to do a feature on you guys,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: and I don't know what I'm doing, but I really
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: want to be a sports writer.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Could you help me?
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: And he summoned the entire team over and he said,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: for the next three days, because my piece was doing
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: a week.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: He said, for the.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Next three days, you guys are to give complete unadulterated
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: access to Stephen. To Stephen, any question he asked you
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: answer and he said you Steven. Meanwhile, every single practice
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: of every day this week, you will be standing right
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: next to me. And he talked me the game of soccer.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: And then when I finished the piece, which ultimately had
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: the sports that it to call me into this office
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: the next day and say, congratulations, you're the new beat
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: right of a wait for a soccer. When I went
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: to the coach after that and let him know, he
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: said to me, what do you think you've learned? What
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: do you think you should have learned? I said, listen
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: and learn. He said, you didn't play soccer, but you
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: learn from those who do. And as long as you
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: do that, then you're in a position to critique any
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: of us because the knowledge that you're getting is not
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: of your own, it's one that was provided to you.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: And as long as you make sure you articulate that,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: you will be respected because they know the lens that
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: you're looking through is not that of your own, it's
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: of ours. And I carried that with me for the
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: rest of my career.
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: How was it when you started to get those close
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: personal relationships with athletes you're obviously covering and now you are. Yeah,
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  Speaker 5: I mean you're obviously ser for starting out and everybody
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: knows you. But as you're growing and then getting those
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: closer relationships with guys and then having to go on
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: TV and talk about, you know, stuff that as an
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: athlete you know, is like personal to you? How did
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: you start to balance that?
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: As The parts about your performance never phaze me because
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: you perform in a public platform, so the games themselves
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: speak for themselves.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: You shoot two for twenty, it's on you.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: You throw three.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Interceptions, that's on you. You fumbled three times or whatever. You
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: get burned and you're a cornerback and somebody catches to
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: over two hundred yards on you. Okay, that's on you.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's nothing I can do for you. And
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: that is what it is. And I don't give a
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: damn about how you feel because that was in a
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: public setting and you put yourself on front Street, and
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: that's what you have.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: To deal with.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: It's the behind the scene stuff subject to interpretation and perspective,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: or the personal stuff that I'm very, very guarded about
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: because what happens is is that if I have a
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: relationship with you, the assumption is that there's a trust.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: How do you become friends with people you do? You
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: become friends with people you have no trust for, you
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: don't believe in at all. You think every word out
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: of their mouth is a damn line. No, that's not
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: what you do. Usually you cultivate these relationships, and there's
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: an affinity for one another and a level of trust
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: that's built. So when somebody comes with a different perspective
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: than the person you have a relationship with and it's
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: an opposition to what they're saying to you, it can
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: get tricky, and at that particular moment in time, you
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: have to remind that friend, that person who's become a
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: friend that you've cultivated a.
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: Close relationship with.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I've got an obligation to be fair even if
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: I know or I believe you and I think they
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: may not be telling the truth. They're saying this for
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: the record now off the record. I ain't gonna do
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: that to you. But if they say to you on
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: the record, you know what, he ain't shit, he's a liar.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: This is what he did, and blah blah blah. It's
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: not like I can make up a quote.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: I gotta quote him. That's what he said. I gotta
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: give it to them, okay, and give you an opportunity
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: to respond.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: So it can get challenging in that regard, but that
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: really calls for you to remind somebody of your professionalism,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: your ethics, the responsibility that comes along with the job
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: title that you have, and it also serves as a
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: reminder to that person that trusts you, why did you
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: trust me to begin with? Because I exercised those same
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: principles and cultivating the relationship I did with you, I
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: can't go against it just because you're a man.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: I can't do that.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: And I've had those situations of my career before, confronted
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: by those kind of things, whether it be Alan Ivsen,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Kobe Bryant, Shaquille or Neil Michael Jordan himself.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: The list goes on and on.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: You certainly have had those things where people have given
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: their different perspectives aside for that would be different from
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: something that they said to me or whatever.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: And that's the challenge that you have to deal with.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: But when you're known as being straight up and up
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: and up, what you learn to find from professional athletes
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: that they appreciate most is.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: Not being blindsided.
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: They see you coming, you know, they ain't open the
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: paper or turn on the TV the next day and
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: utterly shocked by what you're doing. And I think the
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: greatest example of that was Isaiah Thomas when he was
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: the head coach of the New York Nicks. They looked horrible,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: and there was a game in which they lost by
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: forty five to Boston and Boston, and it was the
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: most emotional that I had ever been in my career
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: because I actually called him up and I almost started
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: crying because he's the person that granted me my first
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: ever interview as a reporter, and I had to call
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: him to let him know tomorrow, I'm calling for you
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: to be fired.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Oh damn, because it was that bad.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: It was that bad, and I knew that he had
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: a lot going on on a personal level. His mom
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: was dying, and you know, he wasn't all there with
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: the New York Knicks at that particular, so much stuff
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: that was going on in his personal life that he
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: had to deal with that it really didn't give the
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: ideal example of what he was capable of doing as
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: a coach. But the situation had regressed to such a
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: point nobody worth their salt could support him staying on board.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: And I had to call him to let him know,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: this is what I'm doing tomorrow. And he said to me,
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: do what you gotta do. Bro, I understand.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: And is that a common thing for you when do
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: you have a relationship with somebody and that it goes
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: downhill in a certain way where you give them a
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: call and you let them know. This is how I'm
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: about to go about business.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: I'm the kind of person even if I don't have
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: a relationship with you, if I know you and I
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: know I can get in touch. If I know you
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: well enough that I can get in touch with you
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: and I have something to say about you, I'm.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Gonna call you.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: I'm that guy. I'm not that guy that's on TV.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: But never like when you don't see me in the
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: locker room and stuff anymore. Blame ESPN. You got me
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: doing every damn show. So you know what I'm saying.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: I'm on a half hours.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: You know, I gotta travel to this city that city.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: I can only do but so much. But everybody that
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: knows me knows I've always had that reputation. I will
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: show up to the games. I will show up to
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: the locker rooms. There are times when people would see
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: me lurking on a basketball court and they'd be like,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: who does he think he is? Like he's walking around
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: the court before the games when guy's on the layup line.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: They didn't realize the reason I did that is because
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: I knew I had a national television platform, and I
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: knew that I didn't have to be that beat right
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: with a bunch of reporters surrounding your locker after a
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: game or something like that, but you might want to
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: holler at me. So I wanted to be in their vicinity,
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: so if they wanted to speak to me, they can
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: either come over and speak to me, or come over
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: and say, look, call me later, or plan on meet
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: me at this spot later or whatever so we can talk.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: It was my way of giving them that kind of
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: access to me in case they wanted to reach me.
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: In those in those like UH, in those situations like
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: when you're closer guys have there has there been a
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: relationship of yours that has been burned because of uh?
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Alan Joverson and I didn't talk for eight months. And
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: this is when I was the beat writer. Like for
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: those that don't understand, when you're the beat writer, wherever
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: the team goes, you go every single day, every single practice.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: You gotta cover the team.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: I was covering the Philadelphia seventy six ers and Alan
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Iverson and I went eight months without talking and the
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: only time we talked, well, a couple of times where
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: he was like fuck you and I like fuck you too,
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: Like literally, it was like that you said it back
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: to him, right, get right?
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: I did, you know? Because that's how I felt at
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: the time, because I felt he was wrong, you know.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: But ultimately a friend of his that ultimately was killed
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: the years later, believe it or not, literally got us together.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: And how do we get together? He had me meet
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: him at the club at two o'clock in the morning.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: And I met him at the night club and a
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: looking at me like I was crazy because I showed
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: up by myself. I said, I'm here. I said, I'm
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: here by myself. I said, cause I can be. But
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: more importantly, I'm right. I did not do anything wrong,
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: you did, you know? And we had a discussion and
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: we were fine.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: What was he claiming that you did wrong?
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: Well?
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: He was writing some articles, some article that I had written.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: He felt that I should not have written it because
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: I didn't have all the facts that I didn't get
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: his side, And I was like, you mean after trying
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: to reach you for three days, you mean, after trying
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: to talk to you, You mean coming to Fridays, coming
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: to the club, you know, hollering at your friends and
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: all that I'm like you knew I was looking for you, said,
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: your inaccessibility doesn't get to determine my productivity. I'm going
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: to do my job. I reached out, I tried to
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: find you. You weren't available. If you were available, I
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: would have told you everything. You would have given me
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: your perspective, and it might have altered my content. You
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: weren't available, and you thought being inaccessible was going to
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: prevent me from doing my job.
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: Well it didn't.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Lesson learned. Make sure when I'm trying to reach you,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: I reach you because I'm not.
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: How can I put this fellas? I mean, I got
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: a good life. Now.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: You know, you make a little paper, and you know
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: life is cool. You know it's a right.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: But I was never one of those nerdives dudes that
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: needed my career to have a life. I always had
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: a life, excuse my language. I always have shit to do, okay,
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: for my own individual pleasures, okay. And I got better
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: things to do with my time to chase your ass
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: around for a story. So if I'm looking for you,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: and I'm looking for you, and I'm looking for you
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: at some point in time, you better hope I'll find
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: you if you want to have some influence over the
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: kind of things that I'm going to say, and if you.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: Avoid me for too long, that's at your own peril.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Now it's changed now because now I'm on national television
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: and so and we live in the age of streaming
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: in the digital stratosphere.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: So you know, if you're in the morning, then.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: You're getting two hundred and fifty three hundred thousand viewers.
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: That's considered good. Well, I'm doubling up on that.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: We've been number one for twelve years with a flagship
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: show for the network, the worldwide leader. We're number one
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: every day and so I don't have to worry about
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: people watching us now. And then, on top of it all,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: in the digital stratosphere, me myself and I by myself
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: generate over two billion views annually. You're going to see me,
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: You're going to hear me. Do you want to have
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: some influence over what I say or not? If you
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: talk to me, I have no problem. I have an
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: obligation ethically to listen to what you have to say
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: and to make sure, even if I disagree with you,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: that the context that you are providing is accurately display.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: If you don't talk to me, that's your damn problem.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Owe you nothing. I owe you, absolutely positively nothing. All
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: I have to say is whatever I want to say.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: I tried to reach him for comment, he was unavailable.
• 14:32
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• 15:32
  Speaker 5: the smartest way to hire.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Back to the episode, when you're established yourself doing all this,
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: how did you establish relationships with these athletes and also
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: stay as unbiased as possible and become a straight shooter.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: When did you start to realize, Okay, I'm finally getting
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: the reputation of who I actually am, and I feel
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: I can be more free to be myself.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: Well from day one, I always let them know, don't
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: look for any pity from me when it comes to
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: your game, because everyone's watching. If I'm sitting there and
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: I'm talking to y'all right now and we're having a
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: private conversation, that's between us, and I can interpret it
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: and I can we can discuss it, and I can
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: shut up about it, go on my merry way, and
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: it's between us. But with these cameras rolling with the
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: world watch and I can't help you. What you say
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: is what you say, What you own is what you own,
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: And it's the same principle when you're watching these guys perform.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: And so the first order of business is for me
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: to let them know that I'm going to be incredibly
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: objective in calling out.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: What I see on the basketball court.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: But there are other things that I do, and this
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: is where the relationship really elevated. I'm from the streets
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: of New York City. No, I didn't smoke weed, but
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: I know about getting high because I was surrounded by
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: it all my life. I was surrounded by drugs all
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: my life. I was surrounded by violence all my life.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: I was surrounded by folks party and all my life
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: all of this other stuff. So all of the things devices,
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: the temptation and everything like that. I'm a street wise brother.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: I kind of know. So if you show up to
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: a game, I don't need a test to know if
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: you hide. I'm looking right at you. I know if
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: you hie, I know if you drunk. And then when
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: you dig the way that I dig, because remember, I'm
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: a beat right at the time. So you get to
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: know everybody, And this is what people don't realize about
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: few people that are beat writers.
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: With a beat writer's.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Nature, you don't only just know the athletes, the coaches,
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: the player personnel, directors of scouts.
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: They value.
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: You know their families, You know their friends, you know
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: their hanger ons, you know their associates, you know all
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: of that stuff. So just imagine that you're covering sports
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: and you're dealing with twenty year olds and late twenties
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: and early thirties, and imagine the stuff that you're making,
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: all of this money and the stuff that you might
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: find yourself getting into because you know, you live in
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: a life that most people don't get to live.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: Think about the trouble that brings. You think I didn't know.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: You think I didn't know that.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: You got traded because you were fucking the same girl
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: as the coach, and the coach wanted you gone. You
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: think I didn't know that the coach couldn't stand you
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: because you tried to came on. You tried to come
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: on to his wife, and his wife was interested. Do
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: you think that I don't know that you really really
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: can't stand this dude, because guess what, you wouldn't trade
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: with this team because that former executive used to screw
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: around with your wife and you didn't want anybody to know.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: That's why.
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: When you remember, if you recall when we were doing the.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: Whole Boston Celtics thing where emil U Doka got pushed
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: out because of a consensual relationship with somebody.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: You saw me going.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: Ballistic because I was like, oh, that's the first time
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: that happened. I've been in this business for thirty years.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: Ain't a year that went by that I don't know
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: about people screwing around in the office. It's always happening,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: like always, But this guy is the one y'all.
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: Gonna bust Now.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: That pissed me off because I'm like, there's a code
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: and what I didn't want to say, but I will
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: say any damn way because I'm still getting pissed off
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: about it just thinking about it. It was almost like
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: it's like, wait a minute here, you know, did I
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: bring up the black element? Sure, because there's a whole
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: bunch of white dudes the last time I checked, y'all
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: like sex too. You don't saying nobody's telling you on
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: y'all have it, nobody's tying that to damn right, Ain't
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: nothing wrong with it.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: So the point is, So the point is I get it.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: I get it. But what really ticked me off as
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: well as that.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: There's certain codes like if you without getting into details
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: because I don't want to get sued you kind of
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: know that the person that he was with had connections
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: to somebody else within new organization?
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: Can I say that?
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: So I'm going like this now, is that not the
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: epitome of weakness?
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: As men? Your woman?
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: There's nothing around with somebody allegedly right, and you victimized
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: in him? Well, he wanted to relationship with you, she was,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: but he victimized.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: But you're still probably with that person.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Really now, I'm saying that as men, we would call
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: a dude out for that. We'd be like, yo, b
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: it's pretty damn weak. I mean, if you couldn't handle
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: your business, you couldn't handle your business. But as wrong
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: as he might have been, unless he was your friend
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: or brother, whatever, he ain't owe.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: It to you. You understand saying she did. But they
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: called him out.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: And I didn't want to go nuclear at that moment
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: and say that, but that's what I was thinking, like,
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: you know, you got to be pretty damn weak to
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: be instigating this kind of shrapnel against that guy because
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: you didn't handle your business.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm not fault.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying she wasn't wrong and he wasn't wrong
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: or whatever, but there was another element to it that
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: came with it that you saw there was a level
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: of victim of then dictimness and hostility aimed solely at
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: him who was not married and he wasn't involved with you,
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: So why is he the one suffering more than anybody else?
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: That's where I was coming from, And those kind of
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: perspectives you get from seeing a lot and being around
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: a lot and covering sports and seeing a whole bunch
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: of things that go on. That was the stuff that
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: that noise away at me because I look for consistency.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: I want fairness. It doesn't matter whether it's right wrong, whatever,
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: I understand it. We could debate that, we can debate
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: it or whatever, but consistency needs to be the order
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: of the day when we're doing this. And that's what
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: I try to bring.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: When you talk about you brought the code.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: And obviously it's easy sitting as Steven A Smith right
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: now to go, but when you're a beat writer just
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: trying to scratch and claw for that interview and you
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: know things are going on and you could it'd be
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: very easy for you to get way more clicks or
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: way more whatever by saying, hey, so and so is
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: cheating with so and so or whatever philandering was going
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: on in this facility?
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: How did you figure out the code?
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Like? How quickly do you learn that this code exists?
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Well, for me, it's a personal decision. My personal morals
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: and ethics are different than other people. Fellas, there certain
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: lines I'm just not crossing. I don't know y'all from
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: a cannapign I'm just meet y'all, happy to get to
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: know y'all.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: Show all the time. I've watched a couple of times.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: Y'all do a great job.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Man, I could see you doing something that I might
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: deem to be unethical as it pertains to your personal
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: relationship with somebody.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: Man, ain't none of my damn business.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: I might not like it, I might hold it in,
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: but I'm not diming you out. I'm just not doing it.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: It's none of my business. Now you're on a football field,
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: you play like garbage. That's different. You know what I'm saying.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna say that, and by the way, and by
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: the way, and by the way and by the way.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: If you do that, because we've seen people. I've seen
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: people show up the games and you look sluggish. The
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: audience didn't know you was screwing somebody two hours ago.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: But I did because I knew her. You see what
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: I'm saying.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: So I'm not gonna tell on you, but I'm gonna
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: go like this. I don't know what was wrong with him.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: He seemed a bit slow, you know, the legs did
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: seem to be there. You know, my way of letting
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: him know, Man, I know what you did. It's a
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: matter with you. You couldn't wait till after the game, you know.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: That's how I've done or a guy that you know what,
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: you're on a source a little bit. You' drinking a
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: little bit too much alcohol. You know he's supposed to
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: be doing that. You're supposed to do that the night before,
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: not an hour, but not the hour before.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: The game, you know.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, I'm looking at you like, you know,
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: you didn't seem like yourself.
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: You seemed a little bit off kilter.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: And you know they raised the eyebrow because they know
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: what I'm alluding to the audience, does it? You see
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: what I'm saying. But I'll do stuff that's to let
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: him know. Yeah, I could, but I'm not. But don't
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: think I don't know. Come on, man, do your job.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: Do your job and then afterward live your life. And
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: so you know, I've been doing stuff like that, you know,
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: throughout my career. The difference between me now and then
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: you got some of these athletes can't stand my ass,
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: hate my ass, whatever case may, because they see me
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: on TV.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: They don't have a relationship with me.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: For the reason why is because I'm stuck in studio
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: and I can't get to the games the way that
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: I used to as many gigs. I used to go
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: to like two hundred, like one hundred and twenty hundred
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: and twenty five games a year. Now I have to
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: cut that in half because of my schedule. But the
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: reason why they could feel that way now compared to
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: the way they were before is because before this was me,
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: I'd roll right up into the locker room.
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: You seem like you got a problem. What's up?
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: You can't possibly have a problem, How could you possibly
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: have a problem?
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: You know, what the hell you did? You know?
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: And I would roll up on them like that. I
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: remember years ago, mad love and respect for John Wall.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: But John Wall I was doing first take. John Wall
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: walked up and he was like, you know, I just
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: wish cats like you know, Stephen nay, you know, you know,
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: say something on TV. Be man enough to you know,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: come to the locker room knowing good and damn well.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: I couldn't get to Washington that day. Man brother said
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: that stuff. Man, I took off my microphone a good
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: commercial break.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: I flew to DC. I was in front of his
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: locker that.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Night, like what like, I'm scared to do my job.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: It's not not talking about no fighting or anything. You're
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: acting like I'm scared to do my job. This is
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: my job. I am not scared to do my job ever. Ever,
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: this is my job. Personal stuff is beyond the scope
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: of the job. That's all that's that's wrong. You know,
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: somebody disrespecting your family member, your girls are no. No,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: you want you want to bust ass, can't have that
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: because you violating codes.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: But me just doing my job.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: If you can't play, you can't play.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: You play like garbage. You play like garbage. You messing up.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: You're messing up me scared to do that.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: Anybody that implies that they're gonna see me in front
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: of that locker room, they're gonna see me in front
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: of that I'd walk in the middle of the Dallas
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: cowboyd locker room after a game. If they said something
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: like that about me, you got to be crazy, because
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: that's the job and I'm never going.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: To be scared to do my job.
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: Your first big break getting in the national television can
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: you talk about that? And then also seeing it transcend
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: into what it's become, and obviously the.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Spotlight of Stephen A. Smith.
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: But when was your first big break on when you
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: do hit that national television scene.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: I think when people would say when it was CNNSI,
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: which was a big deal because I was on the
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: NBA show on Sunday mornings. But I would say the
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: real big break was when I went to Fox Sports
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: Television because it was before the formation of the best
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: damn sports show period, and I was on their national sports.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: They had their national sports desk. Kevin Frazier, who's now
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: at Entertainment Tonight, was one of the hosts along with
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: various others. He's a dear friend of mine and I
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: went there. Jim Rome had Rome The last word I
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: believe was the name of the show when it kime
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: the ESPN, it was Rome is Burning, which is always
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: a great name. I always loved that name. But I
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: was there, and Jim Rohn would bring me into his
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: office after shows and talk to me and give me
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: guidance about some of the mind fields to maneuver through
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: and what kind of things to watch out for, which
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: I was always greatly appreciative for. And so I would
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: call that my first big break because being in television
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: and making that kind of noise when ESPN was so prolific,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: that was one thing, but then the creation of the
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: best damn sports show period. They offered me the job
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: full time. I turned it down, which is how John
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: Sally got offered the job. The reason I turned it
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: down is because I knew that my aspirations would end
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: up at ESPN one day, and I knew in order
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: to achieve that, I had to be taken seriously, and
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: I would never be able to be taken seriously if
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: I was sitting next to a comedian that was Tom
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Onnold every day. I'm not talking about him specifically, I'm
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: talking about any comedian.
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: It was a comedic show, or at least they aspired
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: for it to be.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: That way, and for me to go there and sit
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: next to him every day, I knew.
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: Esthetically, optics wise, that.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: Would not be a good look if I wanted to
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: be taken seriously. So I declined to play that role
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: on that show and instead elected simply to be an
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: NBA insider for that network, and lo and behold. A
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: year later, ESPN came calling, and two thousand and three
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: I landed at ESPN and everything is taken off since then?
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: How do you get to that conclusion with best dam
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: of sports show period where they're offering you a job,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: They're offering you probably more money than you've been making before,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: and to have the wherewithal to sit there and be like,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: tactically strategically in this video game of life I'm playing,
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: this is not the move to make. Although it's better
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: right now than it is.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: Same thing you're doing now. You're playing a long game.
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: You know, Clicks would be nice, Views per episode would
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: be nice. A subscriber base that builds is something that
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: you want. We all know what the business entails. But
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: if you want to do something and just be a
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: one off, that's entirely different than building a career that's sustainable.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: And for me, I always played the long game. I
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: still do. I think ahead. You know, somebody asked me
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: the other day, They said yo, man, what did you
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: do when you got your contract in twenty eighteen?
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: I said, I went home.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: I was a little sad for a little while because
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: I had lost my mom a year earlier. God rest
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: her soul after long battle with cancer. And I said,
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: so I licked my wounds there because I was sad
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: because I knew the kind of money that I was earning,
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: what I was going to be able to do for
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: her if she had been alive, and I had never
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: had a chance to do that, you know, for what
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: I would have been able to do for alfter I
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: signed that contract. But then ultimately I spent some time
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: with my sisters and you know, and my family, my
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: daughters and everything like that for the weekend. That Monday morning,
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: I woke up and they said, what were you thinking about?
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: I said, my next contract? And I wasn't playing.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: I knew that I had five and a half years
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: to go, and I was thinking about five and a
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: half years down the road. What am I going to
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: do and where am I going to be in five
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: and a half years. And that is my mentality always
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: to try to maintain three, five, ten steps ahead, to
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: see the forest from the trees to anticipate the kind
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: of things that are going to happen, so I'm not
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: lost in the shuffle, and we're not rewinding the clock
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: back to two thousand and nine where I'm asked out, unemployed,
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: wondering what my prospects are, wondering whether or not I
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: have any living off my savings, and knowing that I
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: had about six to eight months to survive on that.
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: My goal is to never be in that position again.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: And so I think, like that.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: What is your vision? What are your vision for yourself
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: down the road?
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: Like you know, obviously you sign the massive deal with ESPN,
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: You're You're Stephen A.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: Smith, You've come out with the podcast.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: Everybody knows this media landscape on the leveraging building your
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: own platform. Okay, I'm on this massive network. You might
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: think you're.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Building me up.
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: Let me go show you how I can do it
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: on my own as well. What is the north star
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: look like for you five ten years done there? Well?
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: The north star for me is to have that level
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: of independence, to establish it in such a way where
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: I'm there because I want to be there, not because
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: I need to be there. I love working for Disney
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: and ESPN. I love being associated with the world of sports.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: I think that's one of the five pillars in this
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: nation that you want to attach yourself to if you
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: can pull it off. And I'm certainly not interested in
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: giving that up. But I'm neither going to lie nor
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: be apologetic about what i want for myself. I've done
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: a lot at ESPN. My contract's up in seventeen months.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: I'm interested in staying if I have the opportunity to
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: do an abundance of other things that I want to do.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: If that opportunity doesn't present itself, then I'll have decisions
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: to make, and so will they. I own my own
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: production company. I'm producing a docu series. Actually, it comes
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: out later this month as a three part series on
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: the history of sports commentators. I've got another series that
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: has been green lit, a drama series that I've created
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: that I'm not at liberty to talk about, but it
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: has nothing to do with Disney or ESPN. I've created
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: a drama series that's coming out. I've got my podcast,
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: which is not really a podcast, it's a show. Why
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: because I spent my own money and seven figures to
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: build my own television studio, I want people to look
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: at it and think hybrid. It not linear, it's not digital.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: It could be both. You want a linear sports show,
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: got you? You want a sports digital show? Got you?
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: You want a podcast? Got you? You want a late
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: night show? Done?
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: You want an afternoon talk show? Fine?
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: You want me to be another version of PTI or
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: something like that.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: Good. You want another creation of First Take? Fine?
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: You want me to create a weekly format show that
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: would rival Real Time with Bill Maher or the John
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: Oliver Show or the Daily Show. Fine, whatever it is,
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: I can do it, because I've shown I can do it.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: And so that's where my mentality is having the doors open,
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: the opportunities available to me, and being in the position
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: to explore things that I may have never imagined because
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: I never knew it was available to me. Because all
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: anybody thought about when they saw me with sports, now
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: they don't think like that anymore. They see my range.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: So who's to say whether it's me or somebody else
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: that wants to work with me comes forth with a
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: level of creativity and ingenuity necessary to say, Stephen Aate
• 33:37
  Speaker 3: is what we think we could do with you and
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: for you is the kind of money that you can make.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: Because the one thing I will never apologize for I
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: am about my money. I want to get paid. I
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: ain't apologizing for that shit to anybody. I'm not talking
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: about Disney, I'm not talking about ESPN. I'm talking about colleagues, contemporaries,
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: people who have been in this business, who knows what
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: it takes to succeed. Look at my resume, look at
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: what I've accomplished. Oh, make no mistake. I intend to
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: get paid.
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: I can tell you that.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: Right now on this on YouTube and we post this
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: black and white music behind it self titles the Whole
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: Thing that is Gonna Go Nuts. I know you, I
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: know you got to leave. But obviously the competitive drive
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: the why you have literally everything. And in sports, when
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: you're on a team, your goal is to win the
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Super Bowl or the NBA Championship, all these different things.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: You're competing against other teams, but also internally in the
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: on the team you're at, you're competing with the guys
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: around you. And so ESPN comes in. You talked about
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: two billion views, you talked about being the man number
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: one for twelve years, and you see ESPN making a
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: pivot to McAfee. Obviously great for the network. How do
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: you in your mindset view. A guy like McAfee, who
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: is extremely good at his job in a lot of ways,
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: is changing the course of mainstream media and all those
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: things competitive standpoint. Also as a as a partner.
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: I am an aberration in this regard. I love Pat McAfee,
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: love the death, love the death. I love his swag.
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: I love the fact that he's an honest brother. He
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: don't give shit, lets you know exactly where he's staying.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: That's my kind of dude. That works for me now
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: as he as polished politically as me, Nope, because he
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: has no desire to be number one and number two
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: if we're being honest.
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: He's white and I'm black. He didn't have to be.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: I had to be.
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: So I get all of that, and I'm not knocking
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: him for it. I get it. Pat McAfee is a
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: sensational talent, and it would be stupid for me not
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: to root for him because he's one of the pioneers
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: in this business, just like Bill Simmons is, just like
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Joe Rogan is in others. What they have done for
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: themselves in the digital stratospy, it speaks for itself.
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: I'm new to this.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: I'm a baby, I got I'm approaching five hundred and
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: fifty thous and subscribers in ten ten and a half months.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: People see me, Oh my god, you're averaging over two
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: thousand subscribers a day.
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: And look at the views forever. So it's just climbing
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: and climbing.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: And look at the consistency to growth, especially by God Bailey,
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: the social media gurule. I mean these strategies. He's painting
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: this beautiful picture every day. I'm looking at the fact
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: that my numbers pale in comparison to those folks who
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: have been there and have like a four.
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: Or five, seven, eight year head start on me. Why
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: because I'm looking at who's number one?
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: And why?
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: Okay?
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: But in the same breath, don't get it twisted. I
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: love Pat pet knows that I'm rooting for him. I
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: help him anyway. I can't help him. But we know
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: who number one in linear television is. You know, way backseat,
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: you've been number one for twelve years. People come, people go,
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: people come, people stay.
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: But there's a top perch.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: Now you could take it away, knock on wood. It
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: could be next year, be next week, it could be
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: two years, five years from now, whatever. But Since twenty twelve,
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: it's been me with Skip, Payler's with Adam, with Max Kellerman,
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: with Adam with a Polpoerrie of contributes. It don't matter.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: I come to win, and when it comes to linear television,
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: that's exactly what the fuck I have done. And so
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: my attitude is, as long as I'm doing it, I'm
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: gonna continue to win.
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: McAfee or no McAfee, get up or no get up.
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: It don't matter who it is, FS One, Comcast, whatever
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: you come for me, I'm coming for you.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: I'm here to win.
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: Digital is different because I'm a baby, I'm crawling, I'm
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: an infant. You understand I'm saying I ain't even learn
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: how to walk yet. You understand them saying let alone
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: run and sprint. But once I get to that point,
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: I'm a comfort folks then too. But in the process
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: of doing so, it will never be to root for
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: them to fail. And that's why I'm very guarded when
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: people sit up there and they try to remember Dan
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: Levata said one time, you know, he wants to ruin
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: Skip's career, and he had to retract that statement because
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: that's totally fault. I never want Skip to fail. I
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: just don't want them to be number one over me.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: Same thing with Keith Shawn, Michael IRV and Richard Shermanham.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: These are my boys. I don't want them to fail,
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: but they know who's trying to be number one. And look,
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: these are Hall of famers, these are Super Bowl champions.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: When they roll up over there, Yeah.
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: Man, we know you.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: I said, you know I'm coming for you, right, you
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: know you know you don't expect to beat me.
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: You understand now.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: Of course, one day somebody can hell, it could be
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: them with somebody else, but all in fun, I'm letting
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: them know I don't ever root against you.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: I don't ever want you to fail.
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: But in the same breath, it is perfectly within my
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: right to want to be number one. And I want
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: to be that guy that's at the top of the
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: perch that reaches back white and black, finding young talent
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: folks on a come up, inspiring and motivating and assisting
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: others in being their best selves.
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: But do I want you to be better than me? No?
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: No, And I'm gonna do everything that I can to
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: make sure you're not better than me. I've done it
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: in linear television. I'm going to continue to do it
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: in linear television at least as long as I have
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: a contract to do so, and hopefully I'll be able
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: to do it in the digital stratospy as well, and
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: then after that.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: It's kind of production we're doing around here that we're
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: trying to throw in this talking about being the one
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: Steve A.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: This has been an honor man, Thank you so much.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: I wish we had a longer time. I don't know
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: if you saw on the internet all black versus all
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: white team.
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: Okay, I did not see. You didn't see that. I
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: did not see.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Have been something you be covering, you know that one?
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: And if you look at the old white team except
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: for that backing on defense, not a bad squad.
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: I'll check it out, Yeah, I'll check it out.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: I think I think the bunch squads minus twenty four
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: and a half when we go.
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: Well over it.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: But it'll be all right, Okay, Hey, we'll get your man, siate,
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: y'all man, all the best of both of y'all.
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: Man. Keep doing the great job been doing.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: We'll be seeing you soon, all right, yes, sir, take
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: ca