Latest / Earn Your Leisure / EYL #287 Stephen A. Smith On Learning From Being Fired From ESPN, TV Contracts, & The Business of New Media

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EYL #287 Stephen A. Smith On Learning From Being Fired From ESPN, TV Contracts, & The Business of New Media · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
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  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
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  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will
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  Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,
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  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security Earners.
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  Speaker 3: What's going on?
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  Speaker 4: Listen, eylu is relaunching, revamping, retooling. That's why we're creating
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  Speaker 7: Head over to e y L University dot com. That's EYL.
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  Speaker 7: dot com.
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  Speaker 5: See you there, all right, guys, Welcome back UYL. This
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: is the episode that we've been waiting for long time.
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: If you follow our journey, obviously you know we're a
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: business platform and we talked to people of the highest
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: level when it comes to entrepreneurship and investing.
• 2:07
  Speaker 6: But at our core we're sports enthusiasts.
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: Yes, athletes die hard sports and yeah, some would say experts,
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: especially you.
• 2:21
  Speaker 6: You know, all kinds of.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Weak do do, Like who was.
• 2:24
  Speaker 6: The sixth man on the.
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: Knicks in nineteen eighty seven when they in the first
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: round of the playoffs, like it's just a bunch of
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: useless You.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Probably start of the person just now listen, I might
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: have it was Kenny Walker.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: When I think about when I think, first of all,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: most of my most of my stuff that I just
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: look it up, man, I just look it up, make
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: sure I read a lot, and all that stuff. But
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: for me personally, it's certain moments it's just embedded than
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: your brain. John Starks and NBA Finals nineteen ninety four.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: My heart is still broken over that.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: My heart's still broken over with conference finals. Hubert Davis
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: getting a foul call for Scottie Pippen on a shot
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: that shouldn't have been called a foul.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: We lost the came I remember Pipping got called for
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: the foul. Hubert Davis benefited from there. Went to the line.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Game five, they win, that Knicks win Game six. H
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: Knicks lose games sorry, and then we come back and
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: win game seven. But that was you know that Hugh
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: Hollins called and it was ridiculous. Yeah it was, But
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I was happy that the Knicks one fet me, you
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. But but I mean, that was
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: the closest to but see you thinking about that. To me,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: I'm thinking about the closest the Knicks been or the title.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: That was the closest they've been at Game seven against.
• 3:36
  Speaker 8: You, that's when he threw up two for eighteen, two
• 3:41
  Speaker 8: for eighteen overall, one for eleven from three point range,
• 3:44
  Speaker 8: and pat Riley for some inexplicable reason, he still hasn't
• 3:47
  Speaker 8: explained to me how you're going to acquire Rolando Blackman
• 3:51
  Speaker 8: in the middle of the season and don't put him
• 3:53
  Speaker 8: there when the only reason you went out to acquire
• 3:55
  Speaker 8: him shooting was because you needed to shoot it in
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  Speaker 8: case John Starks got cold.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: He was streaking.
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  Speaker 6: You ride with the horse that you came in with.
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  Speaker 8: No.
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  Speaker 3: But the point is you made the move for the
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  Speaker 3: sole express purpose of knowing you couldn't rely on John
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  Speaker 3: Starks to be consistent. One game he'd blow, he'd he'd
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: do great, like he did in Game six, and then
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: the next game he he might not show up. And
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: that's why you got a reliable marksman like Rolando Blackman.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: So how you don't use him in the finals championship
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: on the line it some scars are and I can't,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I can't. I can't shape that one I'll never shake
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: that one.
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: No, that's just the introlaz. So Stephen A.
• 4:38
  Speaker 5: Smith needs no introduction, a legend in the sports broadcasting world,
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: and somebody who's actually transitioned how we watch sports.
• 4:46
  Speaker 6: There's been a few people throughout history.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: That have you know, added their mark to journalism, and
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: you're one of them.
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  Speaker 6: For sure.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: Another think of Stewart Scott, I think of yourself. I
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: think of a few other people Obon for sure, no doubt.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, transcendent figures, guys. I looked up to God rest
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: Stewards God's soul. I miss him every day. One of
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: the greatest to ever do it. And Will Bond is
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: the Godfather is still around and I'm blessed and fortunate
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: enough to call him a colleague at ESPN and we
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: do NBA Countdown together. No matter what you see. The
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: great work he did it the Washington Post, the great
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: work he's done for PTI, part of the Interruption is nothing,
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  Speaker 3: nothing compared to him as a person. Will Bond's one
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: of the most beautiful people you never meet in your life. Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: We had the pleasure of meeting him at an event
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  Speaker 4: for Steph Curry.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I was telling them just how much.
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  Speaker 4: Even when I used to watch sports reporters right rest
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: in peace, Dick Chap, when those guys are be on
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: it was like him, Mike Lup, you just watched it
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: because you got to put a face to the people
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: you were reading.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, I mean, those are the important It gave
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: us a lot of hope, a lot of inspiration. He
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: was on there, Brian Burrough of late Brian Borough. Let's
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: say today, he was on there. David Dupree, he was
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: another individual that was on there on occasion. Obviously, guys
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: like Howard Bryant the Great now John Saunders god rest
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  Speaker 3: is so he's an iconic figure in the business as well.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: There's so many people that you know, when you think
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: about what I'm doing today, they paved the way. David
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  Speaker 3: Oldris as well. It wasn't for them, I wouldn't be
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  Speaker 3: where I am today.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, well, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.
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  Speaker 3: I'm good to be here.
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  Speaker 1: Man.
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  Speaker 3: Let's do it.
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: So all right, let's start out with this business show
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: where we like sports. So I want to start with
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: a question that's related to both sports and business, and
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: I want to talk about college sports and what's happening
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  Speaker 5: with college sports. It looks like it's new pro league.
• 6:35
  Speaker 5: Right when you look at the transfer portal, it looks
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: like free agency, which you don't even have a car.
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: You could just leave at any point in time, right, Right.
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  Speaker 5: But then I also want to talk about nil collectives.
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: So they're saying John Caliparry is going to start with
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  Speaker 5: at least five million dollars, and a lot of people
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  Speaker 5: aren't really familiar with the NIO collective.
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  Speaker 6: They heard about nil deals.
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  Speaker 5: But it's like the NIO collective, a bunch of essentially
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  Speaker 5: from all like a bunch of wealthy bullsters, can just
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  Speaker 5: come together and just pull up a pool of money
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  Speaker 5: and just you know, give kids. It's like a way
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  Speaker 5: to pay players under the gaze of nil and not
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  Speaker 5: it be illegal. Right, So so much has changed over
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  Speaker 5: the last eighteen months, So what's your thoughts on those
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  Speaker 5: two things?
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  Speaker 3: Specifically, doesn't bother me at all. And the more headaches
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  Speaker 3: it causes for the NCAA, the more headaches it costs
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  Speaker 3: for particular programs, the better I feel. You've spent decades
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  Speaker 3: exploiting these athletes under the cloak of amateurism, and I
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  Speaker 3: would have respected it more if it were applicable to
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  Speaker 3: you as well. If you were a coach, if you
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: were an administration and you didn't benefit off of the
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  Speaker 3: exploits of the athletes, then I'm down for it. But
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  Speaker 3: that's not what has happened. We've had coaches having a
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  Speaker 3: myriad of ways to generate revenue for themselves, clinics, coaching
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  Speaker 3: in summertime, salaries, they've earned speaking engagements, et cetera, et cetera.
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  Speaker 3: We've seen the athletes perform, and we've seen the money
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  Speaker 3: come back to the universities. And what do they do?
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  Speaker 3: They funnel it throughout the universities. The administrators get a
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  Speaker 3: little bit more, the chancellors, the provost presidents, they get
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  Speaker 3: a little bit more. Different other programs within the school
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  Speaker 3: that are non generate revenue generating sports they benefit from it.
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  Speaker 3: But the very athlete who went out there and perform
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: and generated this level of interest is somebody that you
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  Speaker 3: couldn't find it within yourself to ensure that you would.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: You would, they would be compensated in some capacity. And
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  Speaker 3: the reason why it resonates with me so profoundly is
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: because you know, I remember when Chris Webber fab five
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Michigan and those guys were complaining about stuff and whatever,
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  Speaker 3: and you have these folks on the having you know,
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  Speaker 3: under the mentality, you know, you're getting a scholarship. You're
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: getting a scholarsip. You should be happy, but they were
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: never happy. And how much of a stickler you were
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: if folks got flights home. In Chris Webber's case, you're
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: going into a bookstore and you're seeing a uniform, a
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: jersey with your name on it. But if the store
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: gave it to you for free as a violation, you know,
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: stuff like that. You know that you're getting a vast
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: majority of these high profile athletes from desolate environments and backgrounds,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: and you're telling them they can't fly home for the holidays.
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  Speaker 3: They can't get a car, they can't you know, you
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  Speaker 3: couldn't even rent them a car whatever. It might have
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: been a violation. So those kind of things, you would
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: think they would have had the decency to be a
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: bit lax and to understand with all the money that
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: these athletes were generating, that, you know what, you could
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: turn a blond out of certain things. All right. If
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: the guy want to go home for the holidays, let
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: him go. If somebody wants to come if the parents
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: want to be flown in for you know, to be
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: with him for Christmas because he can't, you know, he
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: can't go home and see him. All right, we could
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: turn the bloder. He didn't do any of that. You
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: kept you would dog it in restricting what the athletes
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: can get. So now that's not the case. You know,
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: you read what yourself and the headaches that come with it,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: the coaches that can't take it. Cal no Doubt is
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: leaving Kentucky in part because of that. Nick Saban no
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: doubt retired because of that.
• 10:23
  Speaker 6: You can because of that, because of what.
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  Speaker 3: And il transfer a portal of the combination of it
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: all and what kind of chaos it's caused because it's
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: relinquished the degree of control from them. Nick Saban told
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: me that personally could he was before he retired. He
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: was complaining about what a headache it was you talking
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: about agents that are treating He felt like they were
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: damn near and bezzling you know, money, you know from
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: universities and stuff, you know what they were doing. Those
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: were his That was his terminology. He was completely turned
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: off and utterly disgusted as to how things had transformed
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: and how it changed, and I didn't blame him. I
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: didn't think he was wrong. I was just saying the
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: NCAA brought it on themselves because of how they were.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: So if these athletes find a way now to get
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: paid more, power to them. Power to them.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: It's interesting because I was kind of thinking that it's
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: like that transition of the old model, because even for
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: cal his model was the one and done. So to
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: see the one that done not work now, I'm like, well,
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: what was really changed? And if you're going from a
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: place like Kentucky with has a boatload of boosters right
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: endless money, right, and going to an SEC school like
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: Arkansas where there are boosters but.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: They got some money now, but they have chill.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: I'm saying that they have the football component. But Kentucky
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: has been playing well over the past couple of years.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: That change is happening with the coaches, you said, Saban,
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: I've thought about guys like Roy Williams and like these
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: older guys who had came in with a system both
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: in college and I mean college basketball and football, to
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: where you see new guys coach Prime exceeding at this
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: because he's able to adjust and get back to this
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: even like a Dan Hurley.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: Now, who's just just one.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: It's more about the players and figured out, it's transfer portal,
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: it's nil, it's all these things.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: Well, the first first thing we're gonna do as we
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: sit down here right now, is we're gonna define what
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: your definition and success is. Because let me tell you something.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Cal ain't been successful, not in recent memory. You got
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: four over the last four years Kentucky. Right, well, I'm
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: success and I'm telling you they've been bounced out in
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: the first round, fourteen seed, lost to Saint Peter's the
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: fifteen seed, and then didn't and then went to the
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: second round loss? Has it been to the sweet sixteen
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: and four years didn't make the n CAA tournament. Okay,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: so you're at Kentucky, which is blue blood? Okay, we
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: know what Huh can we throw away that turn? No?
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: Who's is you common? Blue blood? Yes? What is so defined?
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Blue blood? Lengthy period of time in which your dominant shines,
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: where you're relevant, you're a big time program. You know,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: you're constantly in the mix for national type. The level
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: of notoriety you gain is different from what the average
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: school gets. Like for example, Villanova's won a couple of
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: national championships. We're going to talk about Villanova in that regard.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Georgetown won back in the day. We want to talk
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: about them in that regard. North Carolina has been relevant
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: since the sixties seventies. Duke has been relevant since Newton
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: Skrzyzewski arribbed in the eighties. Bill self had Kansas relevant
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: since the eighties. Kentucky with Patino add of rope oviously
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: before him with them Patino, Tubby Smith. Now you got
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Coli par in twenty twelve he wins a national title.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: Those are the content that when you're talking about blue Blood,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: you're talking about programs essentially that could recruit itself. You
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: mentioned that program and everybody you know, you you come
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: knocking on somebody's door, They're gonna open that door and
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: listen to what you have to say. A lot of
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: schools heard, No, not those programs.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: That's all I mean by that, right, So, like A,
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: Ucla was fitting that even though they haven't since.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: Nice Cla hasn't won since ninety five, Jeds won, Ucla
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: hasn't won since nineteen ninety five. You consider them that
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: out west because of John Wooden, what they've done and
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: what in Bill Walton, Kareem me abdujaball those kinds of things.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: The know Bannon's and all of those guys in nineteen
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: ninety five Westbrook Well Foeams. Okay, because you look at
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: it from that standpoint, you'll look at it from there.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: But that's what I'm talking about. Kentucky's in that line
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: and so, and not only that. Part of it is
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: not worrying about the finances because your alumni base and
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: the money that's funneled into the program is not something
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: that you have to concern yourself with because the school
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: will always be people to take care of those folks.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: That's Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, u c LA, Kansas. And
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: now you come from a financial standpoint, even from a
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: financial absolutely, because the absolutely.
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: I'm asking from a financial standpoint only because we know
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: that football brings a majority of the money.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: For these schools. Duke is an exception in a sense.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: You're talking about the school, I'm talking about the program. Okay, gotcha,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: got You'm talking about the program. Gotcha. UConn's program, basketball,
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: KULD give their facilities are better than Kentucky and women's.
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so let me ask you this and then I'm
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: to ask a follow up question. Okay, Deion Sanders, Yes,
• 15:09
  Speaker 5: shout out to coach pro that's our guy. He recently
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: said that Travis Hunter and his son Shador, there's certain cities,
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: certain teams that he already knows they're not going to
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: in the draft because he doesn't want them to go
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: to them. He's pretty much dictating their draft board. How
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: do you feel about that?
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: It doesn't bother me. If you can manipulate the system,
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: and you can do it legally, what's the problem. Eli
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Manning was drafted by the San Diego Chargers said I
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: don't want to be there, and the Manning family, along
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: with their representation, ensure that he wouldn't have to go
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: to San Diego. You know, you had a black man
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: tries that at that particular moment in time, he wouldn't
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: have been in the NFL.
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: Well, all right, So this leads me to my next question.
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: Eli Manning definitely did that, right, and somebody else did
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: do that in basketball? Who we hardly ever speak about this.
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: Kobe Bryant, Charlotte.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Kobe Bryant didn't do that?
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: What did he do?
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: Can Jerry West? Did it? Thank you?
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: Sir? Explain the situation.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: I'm telling them this. Jerry West was the was the
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: general manager for the Los Angeles Lakers, universally recognized at
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: that time as the best executive in the business. Profound
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: respect and deference and deference to Jerry West. Jerry West.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: If you recall, the Charlotte Hornets drafted Kobe Bryant thirteenth overall.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: All right, well, clearly twelve teams missed the boat on
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: Kobe Bryant. You're the Lakers, you going to the playoffs.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: You got the Eddie Jones, the Eldon Campbell's of the
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: world and Nick van X's of the world and people
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: like that on your squad. Okay, so guess what we
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: could hoodwink these brothers into taking this deal. And they
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: did that with Charlotte because they had Charlott saying, Okay,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: this brother's got potential, but it's probably years down the road.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Why don't you take the center of Vla de Divac,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: who's more than a serviceable center than some supplementary parts.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: And then you know, by the way, we'll take Kobe
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: Bryant in that sit not realizing Kobe was gonna be Kobe.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: But Jerry West was known as a guy that had
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: that eye and at that time in terms of a
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: talent evaluator, which is why when he elected to pass
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: up years later as a consultant for the Clippers who
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: had the twelfth and thirteenth pick on Michael Porter Junior,
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: everybody was like, really, there must be something wrong with
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Michael Porter because there's no way on earth that that
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: eye that Jerry West has with miss out on his talent. Well,
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: it wasn't. His talent is that Michael Porter Junior was
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: perceived as having back issues because he had an injury
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: plagued history coming into the Pros. And then while sitting
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: in the draft room, they were talking monitoring how slow
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: he was getting up from his chair, and it looked
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: like he was coming into the league with back problems
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: and stuff like that, and that's why they passed up
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: on him. I'm just saying all of that to say,
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Kobe Bryant, even though a lot of people didn't see
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: how great he would recognize how great he would be.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: Jerry West was one of those people that was privately
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: telling folks, you have no idea, this brother the second coming.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: He's gonna be special, but just really.
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: Quick and he has the vision to say, I'm training
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: value Devis, but in the back pocket, I'm going after
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: this guy was about to leave Orlando.
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: Okay, but it wasn't just a regular trade though, right
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: Kobe did he not make it known that he did
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: not want to play like he was unhappy he wanted
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: to play for the Lakers.
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: No, he made it known that he wanted to go
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: to the Lakers because Jerry West had let him know
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: if you if you, if I can get you, I'm
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: gonna get you here. But I need you to make
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: some noise exactly because if you make this noise that
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: Charlotte isn't going to want to keep you because they
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: know they're gonna have a disgruntled player and as a result,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: I'll be able to grab you. And I'm just saying
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Jerry West manipulated all of that. It was in the
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: whole of.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: Fame three times for it, and rest in peace to
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: Kobe wanted to do it. But what I'm saying is
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: that he still played. He was vocal, he played that
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: role of and he went to the greatest franchise in
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: NBA history.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: And respectfully, you're not hearing me, I'm telling you, but listen,
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: a white executive who was profoundly respected and recognized as
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: a genius and an architect. Okay, manipulated the proceedings. So
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Kobe opening his mouth was at the behest of West.
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: No, I get it, I get it.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: But what I'm saying is if West wasn't But if
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Jerry West, this is the point I'm trying to make you.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: If Jerry West had never said any such thing, and
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Jerry West ha just sent back, played his position and
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: we'll draft whoever we could draft when again, and he
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: never said anything, Kobe Bryant would not have been in
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: the position to do what he did. Okay, all right,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: it was that Jerry West.
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: But even behind Eli Manning's father was behind the scenes,
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: absolutely sorty somebody behind the scene. What I'm saying is
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: that Eli Manning, Kobe, no matter how it was done,
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: they fled their way into a promising situation and it's
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: not reflected on their resume. When you have somebody like
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: Lebron James who literally was drafted to the worst team
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: in the NBA and built that team up to an
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: NBA contender before he left in an NBA champion when
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: he came back, he should get extra points, right, because
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: it's like I'm just saying.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Is that why we hear it? That that's what we're doing.
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: There's no validity, no val to that. Storry from the
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: bottom doesn't mean anything.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: It's not about start from the bottom. It's the analogy
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: you're using. First of all, you're blaming Eli coming out
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: of college and Kobe coming out of high school rather
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: than Archie Manning who's damn near deified in the NFL
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: circles for assisting and manipulating those receded and Jerry West
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: who was deified in the NBA circles for manipulating em proceding.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: So you're giving blame to Kobe and Eli when it's
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: not them. That's number one. Number two, Lebron James went
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: to the situation he want. He went to Cleveland, had
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: the number one overall pick from Akron, Ohio, thirty minutes away.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: He wanted to be there. He wanted to be there.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: That's what That's what he had, that's what he wants. Well,
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: of course I understand it. Well, let me tell you
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: he didn't have it harder than Jordan. But I will
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: tell you this. Look at Jordan's roster. When Jordan came
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: into the NBA. Look at who the coach was, look
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: at who the players were. Okay, the point is that
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: that's not true. And then when you look at Lebron,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: you go to Cleveland. Certainly he didn't inherit much and
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: nobody's denying that. I'm simply saying that when you look
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: at his situation, he was where he wanted to be.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Eli was where he wanted to be, Kobe was where
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: he wanted to be, and all of those things are true.
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: Said the Angel ended up with Philip Rivers. Man, huh,
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: So they ended up with Philip Rivers. They had a
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: franchise quarterback. I want to go back to that draft
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: because we always talk about the power of relationships and
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: how relationships can take you and open doors that money can't.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: And so the number one picking that draft was obviously
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: Alan Overson cob the same draft, best draft class ever.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: You as a beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquiry at
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: the time, covering him, building a relationship with him obviously
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: has changed a lot for your career.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: I wonder when you look back now and.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: Kind of for for having foresight, we don't see reporters
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: having the same type of relationships that I imagine that you.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: Would have with him.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I wonder what you think the cause of it is?
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: Or is it because the athlete of today modern day
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: has their own platform to express themselves. Has that Has
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: it changed the way that beat writers sports reporters can
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: now interact and have relationship with athletes.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: That quickly is yes. I was the beat writer in
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: ninety seven ninety six, I was the backup beat writer,
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: and then the next year I took over the beat
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: for Alan Iverson current And I say Alan Iverson because
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: there was a seventy sixters beat and then there was
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: the Alan Iverson beat. Because his brother always got himself
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: in something and as a result of that, I always
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: had to work over time covering him, you know, and
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: it was like a nightmare and we got to run
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: and joke. We still laugh about it to this day.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: Every single year I went on vacation, every incident he
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: got into was when I was on vacation, and meaning
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: I had to come off vacation to deal with some
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: mess that he had gotten himself in. It just never
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: ever failed, and I just used to be so mad
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: at him over that. Right, But when you talk about
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: today's player, it's the avent of social media. It's the
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: fact that they got a voice, is the fact that
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: they don't necessarily need the fourth state, which is the media,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: to disseminate any kind of message on their behalf. They
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: feel they can do it themselves, and they never trusted
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: the media. And as a result of for trusting the media,
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: you were always looking for an excuse to have a
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: different outlet. Back then, you didn't have it because social
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: media didn't exist. No Instagram, no Facebook, no Twitter, and
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: none of that. And so because that didn't exist, you
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: had no choice but to rely upon media. So the
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: next best thing was to find somebody in the media
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: that you could remotely trust to some degree, and that's
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: pretty much how it happened. Michael Jordan had somebody that
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: was mard Rashad. Isaiah Thomas had people as wise as
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: he was he knew city, the city you know, or
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: a national voice or whatever. He always had an outlet.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Charles Barkley, same situation, Shaquille or Neil Patrick, you and
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: another's There was always somebody And in Philadelphia, I was
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: that guy for Alan Iverson. But it was a bit
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: different than an orthodox for me because I call it
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: like I see it, not to say that other people
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: did not, but they were, you know, they were a
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: bit more cautious about it than I was. I didn't
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: give a damn because my attitude is I'm not getting
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: personal personal businesses. Your business. Long as you don't end
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: up in the police bloggers or something like that where
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: a bunch of people see you doing something, it's none
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: of my business. But your game is my business. That's
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: what you do in a public forum. And when you
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: perform in a public forum, I'm not gonna tell the
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: audience they saw something different than I saw. If what
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: I saw is what the audience saw, If what they
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: saw is what I saw, I'm gonna I'm gonna confirm
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: that no matter what, because that's something you did in
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: the public forum. Obviously, that doesn't endear you to the
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: professional athletes sometimes, you know, they get upset, they grow
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: to hate you in certain situations and all of that stuff.
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: And if you are a journalist, and I think that
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: when you fast forward to today, I don't think people
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: realize that when they see me, they honestly act like
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: I really give a shit that they don't like me.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, they listen man athletes, oh yeah, athletes, coaches,
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: the list goes on, and it's not just them, it's
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: not just athletes. Well at times it can be. But
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: I don't care. And the reason why I don't care
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: is because of what I told you about not getting
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: personal and sticking to the game. But number two, they
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: don't know my background, my background as a journalist. You're
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: not supposed to be in the business of making friends.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to call
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: it like you see it. You're supposed to be in
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: pursuit of the truth as best as you possibly can
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: get to it. That's what you're supposed to do. And
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: most importantly than all, you're not supposed to care about
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: friends being friends, meaning you're not supposed to care about that,
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: not your friends, not If you cultivate a friendship, you
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: develop a friendship. Sure, but I'm not walking in trying
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: to be your friend. I'm walking in doing a job.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: And over the course of doing a job, if we
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: cultivate a relationship with one another, that's called There's plenty,
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: and Alan Iverson or any professional athlete, coach, executive owner
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: will tell you I don't say nor write a minimum
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: seventy five percent of what I know I don't do that,
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: but there's certain things that have to be said, and
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna say it. Because we don't have things giving
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: dinner together, we ain't exchanging Christmas gifts together, you don't
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: pay my bills. Have a job to do and I'm
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: gonna do it. And so knowing that that's my background,
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: it shocks me to this day how folks will sit
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: up there and and say some of the things that
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: they say. Folks will hate, or they'll talk about how
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: they feel about me or whatever the case may be,
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: and they never tell y'all why they give little vague
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: notices about you know.
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: I think I think you have to understand too that
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: it's people have emotions, right, So nobody wants to hear
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: negative things about themselves right on any level. And I'll
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: use Kyrie example, right, we interviewed his mom and we
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: met Kyrie.
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: Skyrie, good guy, but.
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: I felt like the media it became a personal issue
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: with Kyrie, especially over the vaccine and a variety of
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: other things that I didn't understand.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: The media or fine the media. I won't deny that
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: you talk about me well just I know, I mean,
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: because I can answer for me, all.
• 28:16
  Speaker 6: Right, So I'm right here, Okay.
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: So for Kyrie, for instance, what what would you say
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: for people that say that you went too hard or
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: it turned personal for Kyrie.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Earth, I will openly tell you they are not wrong.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: That several people told me that players coaches. Kyrie's close
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: with a few coaches. They personally called me, personally asked
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: me to back up. The only time that I will
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: concede that it got personal for me, and it's been
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: resolved and it's all good. Kyrie and I probably never
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: speak again in life, and that's fine. But I ain't
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: got nothing but respect for the brother because he's doing
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: what I want it all along him to be on
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: the court, showcasing how marvelous he is as a basketball player,
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: instead of finding one excuse after another to miswork. Now,
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: I understand that COVID wasn't one of those things, or
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: I understand, but Kyrie knows how much work he's missed,
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: and he know COVID ain't the only reason why over
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: the years. Now, I ain't gonna give details, but I
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: know him, okay. And so when you miss work and
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: you still getting paid, but an audience out there doesn't
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: get to see you put your marvelous skill sets on display.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: I have an attitude about that because I'm a basketball
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: lover and I want to see that brother play. I
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: think he's one of the greatest talents this game has
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: ever seen, and I want to see him play. The
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: COVID thing. Everybody wanted to ignore what I said. I said,
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: bump COVID. Everybody got that. I understand, I get it. Okay,
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: I took the vaccine, but I know plenty of people
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: who didn't. I don't blame him, I understand it. My
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: point was that was the latest excuse to miss work,
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: because there's a bevy of other times he misworked for
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: excuses that had nothing to do with COVID. I'm like,
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: how many excuses you're gonna invent? I meant it then,
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: I mean it now. If he was here in front
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: of my face, I tell him to his face, he knows.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: But when it got personal, which is where it's my fault,
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: not his, my fault, his father got involved and there
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: was a tex exchange between me and his dad that
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: I felt was personal and I felt crossed the line.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: That was when it got personal, not before then. That
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: was when it got personal, because I'm like, hey, hey, you
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: got your daddy involved, you understand saying and you know
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: that you're wrong, because there's some things that went down
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: with me and Kyrie as none of anybody business. And
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: let's just say I looked out and to roll up
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: on me like I'm the enemy was offensive to me.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: And so because that was offensive to me, I addressed
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: it properly. I have never told and I never will.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: That's his business, but he knows. And so when dad
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: got involved and Dad knew I was really offended, and
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: so we started, it was like no holds barred. Then
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: it's like, I'm not inventing anything. I'm not making it up.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: I'm just not trying to act like I'm neutral. I'm
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: letting you know where I'm coming from, you know. In
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: other words, at that moment, I didn't like your ass,
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: and I was saying it unapologetically. But then, because we're
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: gonna be real and honest and authentic, I'm at a
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: Lakers game and Kyrie Irving rolls up on me. I
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: got my back to I feel a slap in the back.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: Lakers playing playoffs and Kyrie rolls up on me. I
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: just want to see if you're gonna have that same
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: energy in my face and I looked right at him.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: I said, do I look any different? Do I sound
• 32:16
  Speaker 3: any different? I'm right here, And then he humbled me.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: He said, quote, yo, dog, at this point, it ain't
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: even about me and you. It's really about you and
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: my father. And you got me up in this mix.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: And it was like a punch in the face because
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: at that moment I was like, I didn't realize it.
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: And at that moment, I was like, you're right. And
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: if you notice, at Laker games, our seats on the
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: opposite side, across from the Lakers bench, but down so
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: it's across from the visitor's bench and down baseline. I
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: left Kyrie that second, walked over to my seat, and
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: I text his dad and I said, Kyrie just said
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: this to me. He's right. If you want to meet,
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: I will meet with you. I flew back to New York.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: The next week, me and his dad met up. We talked.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: We both fested up to what we did wrong to
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: each other as men. He apologized. I apologized, and I
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: apologized even more so because he ain't the journalist with
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: the public platform. That was me. So I said I
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: was wrong even more so than you. I apologize your
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: son was right. You're right. It will never happen again.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: And me and Pops have been cool ever since. We
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: even text each other from time to time. How you doing,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: how's everything going, or whatever, because that's what men do.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: You know, I was wrong, and I have to own
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: up to that. You know, when I was years ago,
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: you know, one of the things stories that I'm associated
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: with his Glenn big Dog Robinson, and how he felt
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: about me, and that's one of those times where it
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: could have gotten ugly, you know, because he wanted to
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: do some things to me, you know what I'm saying,
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: and I wanted to do some things to him, and
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: because I thought that he had gotten the coach fired
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: Randieers after he succeeded Larry Brown and stuff like that.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: We got into it in the Denver locker room, got
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: my face blah blah blah, la ain't nobody backing up.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: And when that happened, the hostility that existed spanning years
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: to the point where like we would stay each other
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: down and then people like just walking between us because
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: they just like this, this is unnecessary, it's ugly and
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: all this other stuff, and it hit me there, I
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: was wrong. Too, because my position was as a black man,
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: to do that to that coach his first head coaching
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: job in the NBA. You know, you five at the
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: fifty two games. He ain't gonna get another opportunity. You
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: wouldn't have done that to George car You wouldn't have
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: done that the lab Brown, but you did it to him.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Blah blah blah. But then I said, wait a minute.
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: I'm usually pretty damn good at this. I didn't zero
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: in on my professionalism. I let it go in my commentary.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: But also what really hit me his son was in
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: Houston and they had a game. I'm trying to remember.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: I think it was the Warriors game against the Rockets.
• 35:32
  Speaker 3: Playoffs all the side, and I forgive me if I
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: don't remember the regular season playoffs. But I saw his son,
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: and his son was hesitant to speak to me. I
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: didn't go up to talk to him. I just walked
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: by Glenn robson the third and I just walked up
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: and I saw how nervous he looked, like I was
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: going to do something wrong to him, and I said nah,
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: And I rolled right up on him and I said,
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: whatever happened with me and your dad, it's my fault
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: professional journalists. I'm the one that's got this platform. I said,
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: I shouldn't have taken it this far. I don't want
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: you thinking for one second than anything that you do
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: is gonna be influenced by me and your dad's relationship.
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: I've never seen Glenn Robinson again, but I told him,
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: if I see your dad, I will walk up to
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: your dad and I will apologize, because that ain't right.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: You know, when you see a kid ain't got nothing
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: to do with it, he walking around fidgety about what
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: you're gonna say about him or what I'm like. Damn
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: you know that I can't let that happen. And so
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: those are the two I only bring up those two
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: incidents because those are the two incidences that stand out,
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: and those are the one the two incidences where I
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: genuinely feel I was.
• 36:48
  Speaker 6: Wrong and I.
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: Was wrong. It's not often I feel wrong, but those
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: are two incidentss where clearly I felt I should have
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: been the bigger and the better man and I wasn't.
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: So I mean, it says a lot about the integrity
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: the character of the man yourself speaking of, because that's
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: why players would trust you. I feel like you were
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: one of the first guys I ever heard about. I
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: got sources. I got sources, and that became a thing,
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: and it was like everybody's talking to CVNA, like how
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: does he get there? Before there was a wove, it
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: was like we got a it's coming from you first.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: When I came the free agents or the trades, it
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: was you. So I'm wondering from winstin stalem See to
• 37:31
  Speaker 4: beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquiry to being on the
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: ESPN I told you beforehand, I was there when you
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: were ESPN Radio in New York Suthern ten fifty at noon,
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: this is this is part of my lunch break, to
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: being on TV, to having first take, to being the
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: EP of the show, and now for all likelihood having
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: the crown when it comes to sports media. Was this
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: all part of the plan or are we finding new
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: avenues as your career is expanding, your finding new experiences.
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: I think it's both. It was always part of my
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: plan to be recognized as great as being great at
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: what I do. And they say I'm great at television.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: We'll go with that. I don't know whether it's true
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: or not, but I'm gonna take it. You know, it's
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: a blessing to be number one. It's a blessing to
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: be at the top of the heap. I didn't see
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: that coming, and that's because of fans like yourself and
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: others out there that have supported me throughout the years.
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: Who the hell would I be if I didn't have
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: that support. So I'm humbled in regards to that. I
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: know that my blessings come from some from from above,
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: and I'm constantly mindful of that. But I also know
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: why I give myself credit is my relentless pursuit for
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: success and for excellence A and just as significant of
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: an A. It's basically understanding how to see the forest
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: from the trees. When I was in Philadelphia at the
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: Philaelphin in quir recovering the seventy six Ers in two
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: thousand and one, this was what changed the course of
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: my career. I'm breaking stories. They got this guy Phil
• 39:18
  Speaker 3: Jazz and the God Arrested Soul used to write for
• 39:20
  Speaker 3: Philelphia Daily News covering the Sixers for decades, and they
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: had these other writers and it got to a point
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: where everything basketball wise, it was my town. If there
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: was a story coming out of New Philadelphia in the
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: sport of basketball. It was coming through me. I was
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: just I was on a roll and I was that successful.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: And the seventy sixers get to the finals, they make
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: that run Vince and Ai and the semifinals Toronto Philadelphia
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: going back, dropping fifty plus on each other. It was unbelievable.
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: It was so that series was so sensational. Toronto had
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: beaten Philly with Vince Carter I think scoring fifty four
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: that night, and Billy King was like, are you seeing this?
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: This is fantastic. After loss, He's like, I ain't never
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: seen nothing like this. I mean, these cats going at
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: it like I mean he was. It was like it
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: was that kind of atmosphere between Toronto and Philadelphia. It
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: was electric. Man. And then in the finals, Philly went
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: in the Conference finals, they went against Big Dog and
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: and Ray Allen and Sam Counsell and those boys. Both
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: series went seven games. Philadelphia went. And then in Game
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: one of the NBA Finals, it's the first time I
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: ever met Denzel Washington. I'm at the Staples Center, which
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: is just open, and I'm walking towards the tunnel and
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: somebody comes up and wraps their arm around me, and
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: it's Denzel I had never met him. He's like, so
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: tell me what the Lake's gonna do. The Lake's gonna
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: do this. You know what I'm saying as the first
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: time I ever met him. And I said, oh, this
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: is done in five, y'all. God damn. He was like,
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: anybody got no answer for Shack and Kobe on a
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: come up? I mean, sopful a. They got no shot,
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: I said, And I said, well, he said why not?
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: Why not? A sweet why five? And I said the
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: same thing that I said on a national sports report
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: on Fox Sports. I said, AI get you on. It
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: was my exact words, AI get you on. He drove
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: forty eight, Game one, stepped over ty Lou, you know,
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: did his thing, blah blah blah. Through those playoffs, me
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: being number one, I was reduced to writing an eight
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: hundred word article and that was it. Trying to build
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: subscribers for the newspaper. They brought in the investigative team
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: to features write, a team and people from other departments
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: all pouring in writing every possible thing they could about
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: the playoffs because subscribers was buying a newspaper and that's
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: how they was making their money. And I was like,
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: not that you don't know it's about money, because you
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: get you get that everything's about money, but it's slapped
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: me in the face. My level of production, what I
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: was bringing to the table meant nothing to them. Nothing.
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: All they cared about was generating those dollars through subscribers
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: and folks buying the newspapers during the playoffs, shot through
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: the playoff front. So it was an eye open up
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: for me because it just refreshed my mind and reminded
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: me that everything comes down to business. And so think
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: the money, where's the money at, where's it coming from,
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: what's gonna where the money's gonna get funneled from. Pay
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: attention to that as you move forward. And that's how
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: sports talk radio. You getting paid seventy five hundred thousand
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: for the newspaper, you getting paid three four hundred, five
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: hundred thousand for radio, you know, you getting paid a
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: million for television. That's how it was back how much
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: it was the beat writ again at that time for me,
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: I was at about seventy five thousand. No, but it
• 42:59
  Speaker 3: was ultimately because I started working for CNNSI and then
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: after that Fox Sports Philadelphia wanted to keep me in
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: toe so they came to me and they had boosted
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: my salary up to one hundred and fifty thousand, right
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: plus you know Fox Sports, I was getting about another
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: one hundred and seventy five thousand, So I'm like, cool,
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: that was good. But I'm just saying that for me.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: I saw that, and I said, newspaper's dying. You saw
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: the cachet of ESPN, dot com elevator, you saw digital
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: coming into play. You saw newspapers they were panicky because
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: the executive was talking about there was a subscriber base
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: was dipping and stuff. And suddenly I started That's when
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: I went from reading the sports sections to reading the
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal in Bloomberg News,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: and you know, I started reading those things paying attention. Okay,
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: the economy, they're saying this is bad right now. They're
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: talking about inflation, they talk about this that all right,
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: the unemployment rate is dipping because you know, when white
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: folks catch cold, black folks catching pneumonia, so it's always
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: worse for us. So I'm like, whatever the situation was,
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: I'm like, it's gonna be worse for us. And I'm like,
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: what am I gonna do? The position myself and from
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: that point forward, I would always be forward thinking in
• 44:19
  Speaker 3: that regard.
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: So with that being said, we're in a new age
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: of media now where we're seeing independent shows, even people
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: that have, you know, strong followings that they've built from television,
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: like a Shannon Sharp and he's going crazy with Club Shasha,
• 44:35
  Speaker 5: and then we see Cam and May starting their own show.
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: You started your own independent show, but you said it's
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: not a podcast, it's a show. And we see the
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: Ringer being sold for two hundred million, So it's so
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: much money that's being generated.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 44:48
  Speaker 6: ESPN laid off I think, like how many thirty people
• 44:50
  Speaker 6: a couple months ago.
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: Troy from the analyst side, I mean Disney.
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: No, just in general from that broadcasting team. They laid
• 44:57
  Speaker 5: off a lot of people people. So how do you
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: see the media business pivoting on the economic side and
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: what's your plan personally?
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: Well, podcast wise, it's already pivoted. You've got thousands upon
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: thousands of podcasts, so there's no way to get around that.
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: I'm proud of my man, Shannon Sharp, Club Shay Shay
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: doing his thing, no doubt about it. The Cat Williams
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: interview was off the chain and I think more than
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: half of his subscribers came because of that interview alone,
• 45:26
  Speaker 3: So major, major props to him for pulling that off
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: and doing what he did, and he deserves a lot
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: of credit. But Nightcap ain't nothing to sleep on either
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: with him and o Cho Senko may and kill and
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: give it arenas you know, so major props to them
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: for that. But I would tell you that you know,
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: when you see the paradigm shifting in our media business,
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: it's because the public has stated we're not interested in
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: linear television as much as we have. What people are
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: confused about is that doesn't mean they're not interested in
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: the content that linear television provides. They just want it
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: in a different platform than linear television provides. They don't
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: want it on a TV screen where you got to
• 46:09
  Speaker 3: buy a TV. They want to be able to watch
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: it on it.
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.
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• 48:02
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy Noman, the United States
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, Attempted illegal border
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now, under President Trump, America's laws
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: border and families.
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: Will be protected sponsored by the United States Department of
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: Homeland Security.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: Phone they want to be able to watch it on
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: their iPad or their laptop or whatever. And not only that,
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: if you really really think about it, it's nothing different
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: than what society has done for ages. Youngsters dictate the direction.
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: They may not pay the bills, but they dictate the direction.
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: So it's like a kid that's growing up right, Well,
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: you know what, I don't feel like doing this. I
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: feel like doing that. I want to go to the movies,
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: but then after that, I want to go to the
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: amusement partner. Then out there. I want to go to
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: Cony of You in New York, You and Brooklyn. I
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: want to go to Coney Island. Well, hell, I want
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: to go to six Flags. Well, damn it, not six Flags. Now,
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: I want to go to six Flags down in Virginia. Okay.
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: Oh by the way, now let me go to Disneyland.
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: Oh that's the Anaheim. Oh damn it, Disney World. I'd
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: rather go there. You see what I'm saying. History has
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: shown us that these transitions, that trans that take place,
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: it's dictated by our youth. Not financed by it, but
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: dictated by it. Because if you're a parent, you're going
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: to give the kid what they want for the most part,
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: if you can afford to do it and they deserve it. Well,
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: guess what. That's exactly what's happening now. The kids are
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: telling the parents who happen to be executives at the
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: linear networks, this is what we want. Not only that,
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: streaming has proliferated, and so when you look at Amazon, Apple,
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: you know, Netflix and everybody else with you know, Prime Video,
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: all of this stuff. They've created different platforms that has
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: forced the linear world to capitulate to the direction that
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: it's going in sooner than it would have liked. And
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: as a result, you're seeing a dwindling number. But it
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: makes me laugh being at ESPN when people act like
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: ESPN is losing this audience. No, we're not. We're just
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: losing it on digital. I'm sorry, on linear, me losing
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: it in digital stratos fere go. Check out ESPN YouTube's number,
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: esben YouTube numbers. Look at them compared to everybody else.
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: Look at their numbers. You understand they can talk about
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: Disney Plus and stuff all they want to. Well, we're
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: talking billions upon billions of dollars that are being generated.
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: You saw that there was recently a shareholders meeting where
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: it maintained Viviger remaining as the CEO of Walt Disney.
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: What has he been talking about? We ain't losing. We
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: ruling out Disney Plus. We've seen them drop the ESPN
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: phone in the past. We've seen them drop other stuff
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: in the past. How come you ain't say goodbye to
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: Disney Plus? How come you ain't say good bye to
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: the ESPN plus because there's money to be generated there.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: You just got a master. They are trying to figure
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: out what to do with ESPN. Yes, no, no, but
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: that's only because again, as a linear platform. As a
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: linear platform, okay, we might pair with Warner Brothers and
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: Fox and what have you, because we got to compete
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: with the market cap that is Amazon and Apple, all right,
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: and even combined they're worth about a little under four
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: hundred ESPN, Warner Brothers, Discovery, Fox, you worth about under
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: four hundred billion. Well, Apple, Amazon, y'all know this better
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: than me, because y'all experts in this field. There worth
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: nearly three trillion apiece. So that's what you're competing with.
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: They just don't choose to specialize in the sports landscape
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: the way that ESPN does. So what I'm saying to
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: you is you come to me years ago. I now
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: knew none of this. I paid attention to none of this.
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: But now I'm looking at everything that's transpiring and how
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: they're doing business where our audience lies. You can't tell me,
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: for example, first Take. This is the success story of
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: First Take in an age where the linear audience is
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: dwindling and fading and shows are getting canceled. Our ratings
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: are up. We're at a point now where I'm measured
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: against me, the show is measured against it year over year.
• 52:54
  Speaker 6: This is what all right?
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: We up year over year for twenty consecutive months, We've
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: been up year over year. That's bringing in over five
• 53:01
  Speaker 3: hundred thousand viewers. Did you know that annually on ESPN
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: digital like YouTube stuff like that. I myself, by myself,
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: generates over two billion views a year annually by myself
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: for ESPN, for ESPN on YouTube, ESPN YouTube stuff like that. Yes,
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: So I'm saying their platforms over two billion by myself.
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: And so when when I look at that, I'm like,
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: how could in a less audience. Of course, we still
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: have the audience. They're just watching us in different platforms
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: and you got to know what those platforms are and
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: how to monetize it so you know how to make
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: your money. But the audience hasn't faded. It's just that
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: they've said, we want to watch y'all on different platforms.
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: We don't want to rely on the TV to do it.
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: So this is, I mean's a couple of things to unpack.
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: The Yes, the one thing that ESPN does have that
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: the Apples and vasions don't. Amazon has the MLB and
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: Apple has them, right, everybody's trying to get into live sports. Yeah,
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: obviously ESPN has it with the NFL pretty much every league.
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: As you know, you're watching that as a businessman. Obviously
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: you're you're working for the company, but as a businessman,
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: you're starting to see the club. Chase's right, like, yes,
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: you have your own YouTube channel, right, six hundred thousand subscribers,
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: congratulations on that, thank you.
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: We saw Ryan Clark recently use that as leverage to negotiate.
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: So as you're building the I P are you you're
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: looking at this like this is also my leverage, right,
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: because it's, it's it's. It comes to a point now
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: where if you're watching ESPN like we watch McAfee, it's
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: well documented the amount of money he's making, which is
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: congrats to him because it's a totally different format.
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: Fees. It's working.
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: But you watch the landscape, right, you see everybody at Fox,
• 54:59
  Speaker 4: you see CBS, right, you see ak Men, right, Steven
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: a more popular than all these guys. Are you building
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: the leverage in terms of you know what my turn
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: is coming? Let's talk.
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: I already have, I mean get twenty nineteen. I mean
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: we saw it. Let me be very clear that it
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: was always the intent. My time's come, they have been.
• 55:32
  Speaker 3: The clock is running. No, I'm good.
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: Let me explain that to the people who may not know.
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: Right twenty nineteen, you have the five year deal. Everybody
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: sows a five year deal.
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: My deal ends in June of twenty twenty five, So
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: next year, yes, next something. The clock is on next, next,
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: next June. My deal ends. But talks ain't gonna happen
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: in next June. It's gonna happen a long time before that.
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: That's number one. Number two. I say that, and you
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: know I love being on this platform. Talking to y'all
• 56:09
  Speaker 3: because we talk in business. We ain't responding to idiotic
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: trolls that are like, yo, you know this is what
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: he wants. You don't know what I want. Correct, Okay,
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: you don't know what I want. Let me be very clear.
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: I'll state exactly what I want on this show right now.
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: I want to position myself to stay the best, to
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: be as profitable as I can possibly be, and to
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: be not just a revenue generator, but a revenue sharer.
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: That is what I am after. It is always what
• 56:55
  Speaker 3: I was after. But people don't realize that when you
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: talk about this, because you brought up the questions. So
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna get to your point about you know, in
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: terms of my plan and building my stuff and what
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: it was all about. Everybody knows. ESPN five me. In
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: two thousand and nine, we had a contract dispute. I
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: thought that I deserved more than they offered. I was
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: appalled at the offer they made me. I did not
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: like it. I did not appreciate it. I felt disrespected
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: and I said no, not realizing that they were going
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: to say, effort, you can leave, and that they had
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: all the leverage on the planet because the same person
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: that saw the forest from the trees and newspaper got
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: cocky and didn't pay attention to the landscape in television
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: and two thousand and eight going into two thousand and nine.
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: So I'm here thinking, just make sure my phone's turned off.
• 58:06
  Speaker 3: So I'm here thinking, fellas.
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: They screaming my name. They know me everywhere. I'm on commercials,
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: I'm on the side of buses. Please shit, I'm the man.
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: Of course you're gonna pay me. No, I wasn't on
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: the definitive show. I wasn an appointment viewing. Remember quite
• 58:29
  Speaker 3: frankly my show on ESPN two from two thousand and
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: five to two thousand seven and got canceled in two
• 58:33
  Speaker 3: thousand and seven. Remember I was on the NBA Countdown.
• 58:36
  Speaker 3: Got pulled off from NBA Countdown in two thousand and eight.
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: So all I had was radio, which was expendable, and
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: sports and appearances. You didn't have a definitive place where
• 58:48
  Speaker 3: you knew to catch me. So what did they do
• 58:51
  Speaker 3: under the old regime. They signed me a contract in
• 58:54
  Speaker 3: two thousand and eight. They give me six hundred thousand
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: dollars less than what I had turned down, okay, and
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: less at than what their initial offer was. Right then
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: on top of it all, they kept me off the
• 59:12
  Speaker 3: air all of a sudden, y'all didn't see me, you
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: didn't hear me. What happened to stephen A still in
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: the contract, still employed, showing up to a game in
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: Atlanta for the playoffs from Miami and Atlanta. It's all
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: of my books, straight shooter showing up to the game,
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: and I'm writing for ESPN dot com and I wasn't
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: allowed on Sports Center. You're talking about a brother that
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: would be on the air, and went from being on
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: the air two hundred and fifty to three hundred days
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: out of the year to being on the air three times,
• 59:48
  Speaker 3: and so as a result, out of sight, out of mind.
• 59:51
  Speaker 3: So when the additional contract came or when the contract
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: came down in two thousand and nine that I was
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: looking for, there was no contract. We've decided were going
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: to move in a different direction, and I had no
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: recourse because they had spent the year the previous year
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: diluting my potency because I wasn't seen nor heard from
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: by the audience, and ultimately it stripped me or whatever
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: potency I had, I had no leverage. And then on
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 3: top of it all. Let's call it what it is.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: I'm a brother. So what happens is is that you
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: get let go or there must be sinno. He might
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: not be somebody we want to mess with. We don't
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: need to touch him. And and I was toast and
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 3: that reality hit me, and it was the scariest shit
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: that ever happened to me. Because I'm a new dad.
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: I'm unemployed. You know, I had lost my job at
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: the Philadelphia Inquiry at the time because I was beefing
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 3: with new management because they didn't want me there any
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: longer because I was doing so much work in New
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 3: York for ESPN and I was never in Philly, and
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: so everything came like a tsunami all at one time.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: And so when that experience happened, and ultimately I'm unemployed
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: for ten and a half months, living off my savings. Okay,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: from that point forward, I get back into Fox Sports Radio.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: I get a guid that's the former president of Cumulus Radio,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: Mike McVeigh, that is tutoring me on radio on how
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: to do radio right, but more importantly, prioritizing with me
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: the importance of learning the business. You thought you were popular,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: but you didn't know where was your data, what was
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 3: your ratings? What kind of revenue did you have did
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: you generate? Do we know where to find you? Are
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 3: you appointment viewing? And when I saw all of that
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 3: and I recognized that, I said, the worst thing they
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 3: could possibly do is give me a shot, a second chance,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 3: because what happens is is that I'm gonna study this business.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: So I get back in Skip Bayles's comes to me.
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 3: Bys's no, not a call. We're in a parking lot
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: of Bristol, Connecticut, ESPN headquarters outside of building four. Skip says,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: I know you got your dreams and your visits are
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: doing NBA blah blah blah, he said, but I need you.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: He didn't need me for ratings, they were doing fine,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: but on an everyday basis, he needed someone he felt
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: he could trust on a five day a week basis
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: that was gonna bring that heat, bring that energy, and
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 3: somebody he felt and his words wasn't gonna backstab them.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: And so he said, there's only one man, and he said,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 3: I need you to do this for me. Remember in
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: two thousand and one, they were gonna give us our
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: own show to go up against PTI. When we were
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 3: both at Fox. But what happened was is that at
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 3: the eleventh hour, for some reason, David Hill, the boss
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: of the Fox at the time, they'll go with it.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: And so fast forward, this is eleven years later and
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: here we are, and he asked me to do it.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: I thought about it, and I said, he's right, because
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: I want my own show. They probably ain't gonna get
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: me my own show again. They gonna probably leave me
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: on the NBA or whatever. This is the thing to do.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: Let me go ahead and do it. I come on board.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: We skyrocket to number one in one month. One month
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: we were number one on the ESPN two, which was
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: a big deal because the ESPN two wasn't getting that
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: kind of shine. And then from that point forward everything happened.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 3: And so now we fast forward twenty fifteen and then
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: ultimately twenty and nineteen and negotiations take place, and I'm
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: a different beast because I walk in there and it's
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 3: no ain't no emotion. These are my numbers. This is
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: what I deserve. Can I have that place? Well, Steven,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: we think you deserved to say, okay, but these are
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 3: my numbers. And instead of them saying go after yourself,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: they were here, I was here, We met here. You
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 3: see what I'm saying, and so from that point forward,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 3: it just prioritized for me knowing the business. We fast
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 3: forward to now the business has changed. It's about you
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: got so many people about podcasting. Listen. I didn't want
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 3: to advertise this to everybody or whatever. And I'm not
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 3: saying it's not a podcast. I got a great deal
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: with our Heart Radio for the next year and a
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: couple of months or so that expires co terminus with
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 3: my ESPN contract. You know when that key is being
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: contract and so does everything else. You know, for me,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 3: from a negotiating standpoint, that's best suited for me, that's
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: what I negotiated. Yes, it's a podcast. In terms of
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 3: the audio portion. I built the studio. I built a
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 3: television studio. When you look at First Take or Get
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: Up or shows like that, the PTZ cameras, the JIB
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: and the JIB operators and the producers, that's what I have.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 3: I'm not here for a podcast. I'm here for a show.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 3: I'm here to not just produce my show, but to
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 3: find young talent to produce shows for. I'm not here
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: to do just the sports show. I could do a
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 3: late night show. I could do a daytime show. I
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: could do a political show similar to Real Time with
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: Bill Maher, the Daily Show, you know, stuff like that.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 3: It can go in any direction. The space that I
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: do it in is rented. Everything in the space is
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 3: owned by me with the sole express purpose of building
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 3: Mister Sas Productions, which is my production company. So when
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 3: people are talking about a podcast or whatever, first of all,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 3: my podcast it was never a sports podcast. It was
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: listed under what is it a society in society and culture?
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: Society and culture. That's number one, number two. It was
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: that way. If you remember, it was originally called No Mercy.
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 3: I wasn't allowed to use my name initially, and then
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: ESPN gave me permission later because I still have an
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 3: employee contract, I had to carve out my independence. So
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: all of these years, people like yourselves and great, by
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 3: the way, major congratulations to y'all. Y'all got a damn
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 3: million followers crowd now doing y'all thing. Major props to
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 3: y'all well deserved, well deserved. But what I'm saying is, well,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 3: what y'all are doing. I said this to Shannon because
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 3: Shannon's like, don't you think about doing this. Don't you
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 3: think about doing that? I said, Yo, Shannon, You're a
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: former athlete, a three time super Bowl champion, Hall of Famer,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: Cam and Mace hip hop artists doing their thing. You
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 3: brothers doing your thing. You got to remember I didn't
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: have that independence. I had an employee contract, and when
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 3: I came back in two thousand and nine, I wasn't
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: in a position to have my independence. I haven't now,
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: and so now it's a different animal because this is
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: what I waited for.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: I hesitate to say those kind of things often because
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: to people it's a license for them to assume I
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 3: want to leave ESPN. I'm not happy at ESPN. I'm
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 3: not happy at Disney. Couldn't be further from the truth.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: I got a great job, I got a great bosses.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 3: I got a personal relationship with Bob Iger, to Jimmy
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 3: Pittarro down Den Bergland, the powers that be on speed dial.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 3: I just finished talking to President this morning. I have
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 3: it like that within that company period. Okay, but they
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 3: understand business better than me, and if the opportunity is
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: great for me to stay, I'm happy to stay. If
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 3: they feel differently than I do, then I got to
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: be ready to make moves. But it's a beautiful thing
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 3: because the level of freedom that y'all have had, that
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 3: athletes have, that former athletes have, former artists or present
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 3: artists have, I never had. I have been an employee
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 3: all my life, full time employee, meaning one until a
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 3: year ago when I carved out the independence to do
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: my podcast, to build my production company, and to have
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 3: that separate and apart from ESPN. So when everybody looks
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: and they're saying, you know, I'm doing this, I'm doing that,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 3: and I'm looking at the numbers, but I'm looking at
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 3: cats been doing this, doing this for years, doing that
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 3: for years. You know. Major props to the mcafees of
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 3: the world to build Simmons of the world. Joe Rogan's
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 3: a beast. I mean, these guys are phenomenal, make no
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 3: mistake about it. They deserve all the credits in the world.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: They've been doing this seven, eight, twelve, twenty years. I'm
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: at one. I'm coming. This is what I've been waiting
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 3: for all my life. So I'm fifty six and i
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: feel like I'm going on twenty six. I'm just getting started.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 3: Because I've never had had the freedom and what so
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 3: many of these fools and social media and the trolls
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 3: and all of them don't realize it. You brothers, the
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: brothers that I mentioned, Shay Shay, you know, all of
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 3: these cats, the athletes, y'all will never know how thankful
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 3: I am to y'all because y'all had a level of
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 3: courage and bravery to exercise your freedom. I didn't have
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 3: the freedom, so I didn't have the courage to push
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: for it for so long until recently. That's why you
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 3: see me when people call you like, damn, he did
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 3: this interview, He did this interview, He did that interview.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: It's my way of showing my gratitude because everybody that's
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: doing it, it's like, yo, y'all, I'm not hating. I'm thankful,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Even with Pat McAfee. I mean,
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 3: I'm a brother. He's a white boy, know say and
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: white doing and all of that stuff, because we know
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 3: the rules are different for them than it is for us.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 3: But I can't even tell you how grateful I am
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 3: to him. He came and ESPN gave him that Wait
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 3: a minute, they gave him now he on YouTube, Well
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 3: what they gonna get to the brother that's literally on
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 3: ESPN and has been there for twenty years. I wrote
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: down the numbers. You see what I'm saying. Those are
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 3: those are the kind of things that I'm talking about.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: And so I'm looking at Bill Simmons, you Spotify, and
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 3: I'm looking at Joe Rogan and Spotify and now Apple.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 3: I'm watching it all. And when I come to the table, yeah,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna have all those numbers. Yeah, can I read
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 3: some of them? Sure? All right? So we talked about McAfee.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 4: He has a five year deal seventeen million a year,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 4: Troy Aikman at Fox eighteen million a year, Joe Buck,
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 4: I mean, he's a Hall of Fame talent fifteen million
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: a year. And we know Romo, and we just thought
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 4: what Tom Brady got? That's what did Tom Brady get
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 4: over three hundred and fifty million more than he made
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 4: it as an entire football playing how many years?
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: I think ten years, ten years.
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 9: It's a ten year, three hundred and fifty seven million
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 9: dollars deal. Before we leave three hundred and seventy five
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 9: minut I'm glad you said that, though, before we leave,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 9: I mean, if you rush me it's fine, I'm good,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 9: but that Jalen wrote, but I wanted to just say
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 9: something I don't want to forget. He interviewed Jalen Rose,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 9: and he brought up a good point that I never
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 9: thought about before. All those names that you just named, Shot,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 9: they're all excellent, but they're all also white men. So
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 9: his thing is that sports football and basketball, which dominate
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 9: the ratings, are dominated by black people for the most part,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 9: and he felt that he had an issue that why
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 9: is there no black people that's getting paid at the
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 9: highest level when there's obviously a lot of black people
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 9: that are qualified that have played the sports, that have
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 9: not played the sports but still know about the sports,
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 9: like yourself, and he when he kind of went through
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 9: these numbers, and I never really looked at it like
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 9: that because nobody really looks at how much, you know,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 9: sports analysts are making. But I'm like, damn, that's that's
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 9: that's interesting and it's pretty alarming as well. Right, So
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 9: what's your take on that?
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 3: Well, my take is, let me be the elder statesman. Yeah,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 3: all right, we got to grow up and learn that
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 3: there's a game that has to be played in every
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: walk of life. Do you see the stuff that's happened
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: in our political stratosphere. You think Barack Obama didn't want
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 3: to curse a few people are could you imagine what
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 3: Michelle Michell Obam from Chicago. Could you imagine what that
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: sister wanted to say to some of these people she
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: had to deal with. Let me tell you what our
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: problem is as black people, and I'm gonna say it
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 3: because I can. When Michelle and Barack Obama didn't do that,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: we instantly understood you can't do that. They're trying to
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 3: win to presidency. It's gonna cost the vault, right, we
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 3: understand that. But when it comes to our own selves
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 3: in corporate America, we don't get that. All of a sudden,
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 3: we got selective amnesia. That's nonsense. That's nonsense. It's not
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: about whether Jalen Rose is right or not, because I'm
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 3: not refuting what he's saying the point that he was
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 3: bringing up. But there's a game that has to be played.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 3: Did you play it well enough? Because Hee in two
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 3: thousand and nine, I didn't, and I got burned. Now
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 3: if I said that, when white folks catch a cold,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 3: black folks catching the modia, meaning that it's always gonna
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 3: be worse for us than it is for white folks.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: Ain't that another way of saying that. Ain't that an
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 3: example that falls under that umbrella. So this is me
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 3: if I knew y'all personally and we vibed one another,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 3: and you trusted me with your business in terms of
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 3: just confiding in me, right, and then I see you
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: doing something because you told me what your goals were
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 3: and what your ambitions were. But then I see you
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 3: doing something that's gonna compromise that, I'm gonna pick up
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 3: the phone.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 6: And call you.
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 3: You broke up, come in, Uh huh, because you said
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 3: this was your goal. And the reason I use that
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: analogy I'll never forget. And if you ever speak to him,
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 3: you can ask him. Scoop Jackson, Chicago sports writer. It's
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: my dog. I love that brother, love him to death.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 3: I would go up to school. I did go off
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: to school because only one time I went up to
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 3: him years ago, and I like, yo, bro, brilliant basketball, mind,
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 3: brilliant writer, the whole nine. Please understand, you got to
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: look the part blah blah blah blah. You know saying
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: Justin can't always be baggy jeans and the whole all
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 3: of this other stuff. I don't care about none of that.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 3: I got to be me at all times, all course,
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 3: even if it's dressed like this. Is how I addressed Eve,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 3: and I said, you don't mind it affecting your money?
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: He said not at all. I said, my dog, because
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 3: he said I don't mind it affecting my money. Now,
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: if he had said, I still want to make this,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 3: I'd have been like, now, I see now, I got
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 3: a problem with you because I'm because the formulas at
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 3: some point, at every it changes. It's not the same
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 3: now but back in the day, because this was back
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 3: in the day. Back in the day, the formula was
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 3: the formula.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 3: I just happened to love dressing shop because I've been
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: dressing poor. I grew up dressing poor, and I believe
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 3: in dressing with fly ass clothes. That's our business wise.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 3: That's just me. But but that's it's not everybody. But
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 3: I'm saying I'm good. I was good with him because
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 3: he accepted that. You got a lot of people who don't.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 3: They want to come to people like y'all, and they
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 3: want to talk about the unfairness and the inequities that
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 3: exist when we all know as black men, they exist.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 3: So what you're gonna do to maneuval your way around it.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 3: You could be in the financial sector, you know things
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 3: I hope to know. There are things that you know
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 3: good and damn well, you got to deal with that.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 3: Ain't fair, It ain't right. That ain't on an up
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 3: and up. But it comes with it. And so for me,
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 3: there's a way that you have to maneuver your way
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 3: around it. It'll never make them right for paying some
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 3: folks other than they pay others. But you brought up
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 3: the names of ESPN. Let me tell you something right now,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 3: I can sit here as a black man and tell
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 3: you I don't have a single solitary problem with any
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 3: dollars they paid to anybody. Pat McAfee was kicking ass
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 3: with over two million subscribers on YouTube when they decided
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 3: we want to embrace the world of digital and this
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 3: is a dude that we can do that with. There's
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 3: nothing to talk about with Troy Aikman and Joe Buck.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 3: You do understanding, No, No, that's not the reason is
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 3: that do you understand they pay for themselves?
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 6: What do you mean they pay for themselves?
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 3: Because they're calling a game. People watch it, not just
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 3: that the NFL will what us to have a game
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 3: because their voice is on it. So in other words,
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 3: what I'm saying to you is, when you look at it,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 3: this no secret Troy Aikman and Joe Buck if they're
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 3: not there, I don't know the answer to this. I'm guessing,
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 3: but damn it is me. So it's a pretty educated guest.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 3: Where we're talking about sports media ESPN. I'm willing to
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: bet that we would not have had the Dallas Cowboys
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 3: Tampa Bay Buccaneers playoff game if Troy eight Men and
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 3: Joe Bunk weren't calling it. You know how much money
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 3: that one game generates for a network? They pay for themselves.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 3: They pay for themselves. Anybody that would look You look
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 3: at a Kirk curvesheet, ABC, Amazon, You look at Mike
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: Greenberg Morning Show, the Ultimate Host. You look at the
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 3: people that they paid. My god, Tom Brady, that's Fox. Yes.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 3: Tom Brady is a seven time champion who, by the way,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 3: is pretty damn articulate, can be very opinionated. Just go
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 3: watch him on the Steven A. Schiptcher. When I interviewed
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 3: them on YouTube channel a few months ago. Listen to
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 3: this brother talk football. He had the audition, and they
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 3: probably said, oh shit, this we got some in here,
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 3: gonna lock this brother for ten years. That's not it.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 3: What I've said is I pay attention to all of
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 3: those numbers because my turn is coming. Espn never came.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 3: They never heard me come to them and say, rip
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 3: up my contract. I don't want to honor it. They
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 3: never heard me say I ain't showing up to work.
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 3: I want more. No, all anybody has heard me say,
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 3: people who succeed at a very high level usually get
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 3: awarded according to the market. So all I do is
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 3: watch the market. No one wrote for folks to make
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 3: money in this business more than me, because I'm looking
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: at the market and I'm going like this, ah, franchise,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 3: That's how much money's out here, franchise And I'm loving it.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 3: I'm saying it's like it makes me laugh. Like now
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 3: we got Shannon shopping. He was on Fox and his
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 3: career was over and all of this nonsense. Now, I
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 3: wasn'tletting that happen to that brother. Okay, oh but damn
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 3: he on first take.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 7: Now.
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but he's also got club Shashae and he's also
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 3: got nightcap, and I'm like, hmm, well, where was he
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 3: in year one? Because this is what he's doing now, major,
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: major props to him. But I'm not violating his trust
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 3: by telling you what I told him. This is my
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: first year. I got over six hundred thousan subscribers since
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 3: I was allowed to use my name. Y'all know about
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 3: the algorithm's YouTube and all of that stuff. Ain't nobody
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 3: calling up No Mercy. They called up stephen A, and
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 3: No Mercy wouldn't pop up. So now that it's the
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 3: steven A. Smith Shaw gets, guess what pops up. That's
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 3: why I've got over six hundred thousand subscribers in year one.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 3: I'm looking at that, and the mistake people make is
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: they think, oh, we ESPN, what you're gonna do? You
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 3: gonna pay them? Nah, I'm very confident that ESPN is
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 3: gonna be fair by me. If they're not, then that's
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 3: a different story. But don't I don't think that's gonna
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 3: be a problem. I tell you, my bosses show nothing
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 3: but love to me. My point is, I'm shocked that
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 3: everybody hasn't brought up all the other opportunities because there's
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 3: a big world out there, and I'm coming to it
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 3: for the first time. I am. I got the excent
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 3: of a twenty six year.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 4: I want to talk about because he brought up Shannon,
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 4: but I want to talk about something that that doesn't
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 4: get brought up a lot. Yeah, And as part of
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 4: I attributed to a part of your legacy, and that's
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 4: the doors that you're opening for others. So you are
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 4: the executive producer on First Take, sir, we can get
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 4: into the roles at that place, but opening the doors
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 4: for Dani Orlowski, having Molly on their Marcus Spears, every
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 4: single Clark, every person, every person on it's hand picked
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 4: by you and handpicked by me. I think a jj
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 4: Reddick and his first encounters were on First Take. You
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 4: now see him have a show with Lebron. It's like
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 4: that starts from having that dialogue and going back and forth.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 3: And figuring out talk about how intentional.
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 4: You are about making sure that not your legacy, but
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 4: the legacy of journalistic integrity in this space means to you.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't mind talking about both. Journalistic integrity obviously
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 3: is significantly important to me, which is why I acknowledged
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 3: with Kyrie's dad, with Big Dog Robinson, I was wrong
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 3: because when you're wrong, you're wrong. And you know, especially
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 3: when it comes to us as men, as black men,
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 3: you ain't worth a damn if you can't admit when
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 3: you're wrong, if you know in your heart you feel
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 3: you wrong, if you can't admit that, you ain't worth nothing.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 3: So I'm definitely about that, but also about the fact
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: that you know, journalistic integrity matters, because I want anybody
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 3: that's in front of me to know that I live
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 3: on that. And what I mean by that is this,
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 3: it doesn't matter what I feel, whatever your story is,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 3: you have a right to tell. Even at my worst,
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 3: with those two incidences, if they said something, if there
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 3: was something that was there, I never, ever, ever in
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 3: my career have intentionally reported it's something false. I don't
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 3: take stuff out of context. I don't do that. I
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 3: don't live I will put my personal integrity and humanity
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 3: on center stage. Name the time and place and the audience,
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 3: and I'll show up. That's me. That's what I live on.
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 3: So that in that regard journalistic integrity. Absolutely on a
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 3: personal side, man, it's amazing what age does to you.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 3: When I think about myself two years ago I'm in
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 3: the hospital. It's New Year's Eve. I got COVID. I
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 3: got double pneumonia in both lungs. I'm not breathing while
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 3: doctors tell me we're gonna try the steroid and it's
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 3: an about it. It's your work in about three to
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 3: four hours. If it doesn't work, we gotta call your
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 3: family in the world trouble. It was that bad, and
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 3: I couldn't believe it, because, you know, God bless her.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 3: You know, very few people on the planet are closer
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 3: to me, to my youngest sister, Carmen. I got four
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 3: older sisters. She's my youngest. My sister Carmon and I
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 3: are very very tight, but calm and smokes every day.
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 3: Carmen got COVID on a Friday. She was find that Monday,
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 3: and I'm sitting there. I don't do this stuff, and
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 3: I'm on death's door and I'm like, you gotta be
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 3: kidding me. Comet believe it, you know. And I experienced
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 3: that I had had surgery on both shoulders, both torm
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 3: rotator cuffs and both shoulders, needs that I hadn't addressed
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 3: in years. I dressed all of that, and then I
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 3: had this going on and I had so much happen
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 3: to me that a few months later, because I couldn't
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 3: do anything, I couldn't get in the weight room, I
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 3: couldn't get in the gym and train, nothing like that.
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 3: It was months months later before I could do that
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 3: when a doctor finally told me, you get to go.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 6: Oh.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 3: I've been in the gym ever since. I've lost about
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 3: thirty eight pounds thirty eight to forty pounds. Body fat
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 3: was at twenty nine point six percent. It's at ten
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 3: point four eleven now. I got to get back to
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 3: ten point four to ten. It was at ten point
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: four two weeks ago. Cholesterol was over three hundred down
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 3: to two hundred. I was on a verge of being
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 3: a full blown diabetic. My insolent resistant levels, they said,
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 3: was at a twenty seven. I dropped it down to two.
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 3: I did all of this, and I feel better than
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 3: I felt since I was in my early twenties. That's
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 3: how good I feel compared to what I once was
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 3: a couple of years ago. I bring all of that
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 3: up to say, my life is going this way if
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 3: all I got to show for it is what I benefit.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 3: I just woke up one day and I didn't feel good.
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 3: I was like, yo, man, there's a lot of brothers
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 3: and sisters out here that could use my help, my expertise,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 3: what I bring to the table, Give them some shine,
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 3: give them some my opportunity. And it became more important
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 3: to me. Not to say that it wasn't before, but
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 3: it became more important to me than ever before to
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 3: be somebody who gives back. I smiled when Ryan Clark
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 3: got his new contract. I smiled when Shannon got an
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 3: extension to the deal that's gonna keep him through the
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: NBA season, Because when I originally signed him, he's only
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 3: supposed to be on till the Super bowls Now he's
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 3: now he's on through the rest of the NBA season,
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 3: and I'm quite sure they're gonna give him something down
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 3: the line. The dan Olowski's the Marcus Spears of the world.
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 3: You know JJ Reddick, you know, I mean, don't get
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 3: me right of the I mean we we we're cool
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 3: with each other, but I don't know him like that.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 3: But I got a tremendous respect Molly, you know, my
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 3: matriarch on the show, and what she brings to the table.
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 3: The Kimberly Mars Monica mcnuts of the world call the
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 3: nick Games and all of this other stuff. First Take
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: is a flagship platform now that you that that takes
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 3: folks in springboardwards them for additional opportunities, and they were
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 3: handpicked by me. And it makes me feel good, It
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 3: really really does. Man. I don't I don't know how
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 3: to explain it, but you know, I don't want to
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 3: sound too damn old, but I damn They'll feel like
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 3: a proud parent when I see these folks maximizing the
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 3: opportunities and taking advantage of Because when Max and I
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 3: Max Killerman and our party ways, when when we when
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 3: they when they handed the show to me as an EP,
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 3: I knew what they were doing. Yes, so on you
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 3: now get it done or else? You know. It was
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 3: like that. And I went to all of these contributors
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 3: one by one, called them or met him face to face.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 3: Jeff Saturday, let me not forget him too that I
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 3: think he does a fantastic job for Paul Fine, bamb
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 3: you know, Joe Fort and Bab with the gambling gaming,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 3: all of these people. I went to them, everybody that
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 3: contributes the First Take, and I said, this is what
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 3: I need from you, everybody's different. What you'll give me
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 3: on first ticket is different than what you might give me.
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 3: Everybody's a different personality, different diction, different tenor different momentum, energy, etc.
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 3: And I studied each of them and I said, this
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 3: is what I need. And I don't know if anybody
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 3: in the business can say this. We got about thirteen
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 3: different contributors on the show. Every single one of them
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 3: stepped up, every one of them. I don't have one
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 3: single complaint. Mad Though Russell let me forget him. I
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 3: don't have one single complaint Damian Woody, Dominique Foxworth, Bart Scott,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 3: Chris Canty, all of these guys. I don't have one
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 3: single individual that has let me down. And I'm not
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 3: talking about totality. I'm talking about every day they come on,
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 3: every single one of them. Even when JJ Reddick and
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 3: I got into it a couple of times on the ear,
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 3: I had to go on the air and tell people
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 3: stand down. I asked them to do that. Come right
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 3: at me, you got something to say say it, Just
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 3: be able to take it. It's all I asked. Kendrick Perkers,
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 3: let me not forget my brother. You know, stuff like that.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 3: You know, Jay Williams, all of them. I can't say
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 3: enough about him. I mean, I sit here as a
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 3: very very grateful individual. And Shannon Listen, I didn't know
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 3: him that well. I knew him, like he said when
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 3: he was on the Talk months ago. He was like,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 3: I knew him, but I ain't on him. Same here.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 3: I know him, but I ain't know him. You know,
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 3: we said alo to one another. He got on me
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 3: about eating too many damn crunchberdies. I had that belly
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 3: needs to get rid of it, the whole nine. I'll
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 3: never say a negative word about Skip Baylor's ever. That's
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 3: my man. He got me started on first take. Who
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 3: knows where my future would be if Skip Baylor's didn't
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 3: afford me that opportunity. I don't agree with everything he
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 3: says or does, but I'll always have love for him
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 3: because of my gratitude to him. But I saw what
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 3: had happened to Shannon, and I knew I was there before.
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 3: When they let me go in two thousand and nine,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 3: I didn't have it. Stephen A. Smith, who was an
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 3: executive producer for his show on a major network, to
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 3: watch my back, and I brought him. I told him,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 3: you want to come to first take. I got you
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 3: and all this brother all he wants. Respect him, No
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 3: disrespect him.
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 6: That's it.
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 3: You're set. I'm saying three times, Suo Bow Champion, hall
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 3: of Famer. You know what I'm saying, Yo, man, respect me.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 3: It's all he wanted, se easy requests. He got no
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 3: choice but to respect somebody with those credentials. And this
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 3: brother comes on the air every Monday and Tuesday, bro Fellas,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 3: he brings the rain, brings the rain. He's doing all
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 3: the stuff he's doing. But there's no short change in
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 3: Ryan Clark, Pivot, no short change in Swag Gool Kendrick,
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 3: all of them. No short changing. Nobody let me down.
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 3: And that's why I've been so successful.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 5: Well, Stephen A has been an honor and a pleasure.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 5: Y'are a scholar and gentleman. Thank you for taking the time.
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 5: And you know a lot of information that was provided
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 5: that I think people can actually learn from because it's money.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 5: That's why we created the platform right to actually provide
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 5: a blueprint for people that have done it in real
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 5: time and people that are on to come up to
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 5: learn from. So I think you know you've gave a
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 5: lot of insight and he was extremely transparent about your
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 5: own personal story.
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 6: So thank you for that.
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 3: Sure, I appreciate it, man. And tell y'all y'all doing
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 3: a great job, man. And just look, y'all interview a
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 3: lot of people, You ask a lot of questions, but
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of knowledge that y'all have to drop.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 3: So keep dropping it because we all needed all of us,
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 3: you know, And especially with the way the industry is changing,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 3: the way it's evolving, the opportunities that are out there,
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 3: the opportunities that are going to potentially get missed, et cetera,
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 3: et cetera, it's incredibly, incredibly important that y'all keep bringing
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 3: a voice to all of this kind of stuff. And
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 3: that's why I addressed it when you brought up the
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 3: whole Jalen Rose point in terms about knowing the game
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 3: and all of this other stuff and not just knowing
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 3: the game, because he definitely knows the game, but it's
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 3: got to be your willingness to play it, because the
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 3: industry is going to demand that you have a level
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 3: of tolerance before it surrenders some of its assets to you.
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 3: If you don't prove yourself to be somebody that they
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 3: can trust to surrender some of those assets to you.
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 3: They're gonna know you're never gonna get it, and if
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 3: you don't get it, they're gonna give it to somebody else,
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 3: and far more often than not, it's gonna be somebody
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 3: that don't look like us. And so you just got
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 3: to keep that in mind. And I think with brothers
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 3: like yourself really educating us and talking to us about
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 3: business and about the mind fields that exist out there,
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 3: I hope that you realize how pivotal that is moving forward,
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 3: because now more than ever, we gonna need it. I'm
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 3: sitting here in my position and I'm telling you I
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 3: needed so imagine how many other people are gonna need
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 3: it as well. So keep bringing it, keep bringing it.
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 6: Thank you, and you could watch the show on your YouTube.
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 3: Channel, Stephen A. Smith Show YouTube.
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 5: A with Apple, Spotify and Uncle Spotify everybody everywhere else.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 6: All right, God, thank you for rocking on with us.
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 6: We'll see you next week. Peace.
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 3: Peace.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador
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• 1:33:35
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  Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
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  Speaker 2: Will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of
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  Speaker 2: Homeland Security.