Stephen A. Smith On ‘Podcast P With Paul George’

Stephen A. Smith talks not loving the Anthony Davis contract and the players he would apologize to on “Podcast P with Paul George”.

We share highlights from this week’s episode of “Podcast P with Paul George”, presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment, featuring ESPN sports journalist and analyst, Stephen A. Smith.

In this episode, Stephen A. Smith and the guys sit down to discuss his short-lived basketball career, why Anthony Davis’ record-breaking contract was a questionable call for the Los Angeles Lakers and getting into a profanity-laced argument with Rich Paul for saying LeBron James was the 2nd best player of all-time.

Later in the episode, Stephen A. reflects on his biggest career regrets and wanting to apologize to former Milwaukee Bucks great, Glenn Robinson and acknowledges that he’s had to learn to pull back after going too hard after certain players including Kwame Brown, Kyrie Irving, and Demarcus Cousins.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

[12:21] STEPHEN A. SMITH ON HIS SHORT-LIVED BASKETBALL CAREER

“Yes, I was on a basketball scholarship at Winston-Salem State University my first year there. I cracked my kneecap in half and I was never able to play again. I kept trying to come back and practice, but this is in the late-80s, technology wasn’t then what it is now, I was at a division two school, they didn’t have the facilities necessary for me to rehab. I actually had to leave school for a semester to go home under my mother’s insurance to rehab because they wouldn’t pay for the insurance in North Carolina at that particular school because my mother’s insurance wasn’t going to cover me there and they wasn’t going to cover me there. They paid for the operation but they didn’t pay for the rehabilitation. So I never completely recovered from it.”

[15:42] STEPHEN A. ON ANTHONY DAVIS’ NEW CONTRACT: HIS TALENT IS WORTH IT, HIS CONSISTENCY IS NOT

“Look, I love AD. I talked to his daddy during [the] playoffs. I know he was a bit sensitive to what I was saying. Love AD as a person, love him as a player. 62 million dollars? 62 million dollars? Let me tell you something bro, his talent is worth it, his consistency is not. He will show up one day, he will not show up the next. He will drop 40 in Game 1, 11 in Game 2. Now me, I’d much rather have you averaging 28 to 30 night in, night out. Rather than each and every night is like a goddamn rollercoaster.”

[18:00] STEPHEN A. ON THE MOMENT HE FINALLY MADE IT

“My brother, the very last conversation we had before he passed two months later, he said to me ‘you’re going to be a star for ESPN. You’re going to be the #1 sports commentator in America. Walk it down, you’re going to take this goddamn industry by storm.’ That’s what he said. When he passed away, I made a promise to myself I would never go back to visit his grave site until I got hired by ESPN. And it took me 11 years but when I got hired by ESPN, I went to his grave site. And I said ‘I did it.’ And I could hear his voice saying to me ‘Actually you didn’t. I said you was going to be the biggest star, I didn’t say you were going to arrive. You still got work to do.’ So, for me, that was a big, big moment.”

[27:17] STEPHEN A. ON HIS BIGGEST CAREER REGRETS, WANTING TO APOLOGIZE TO GLENN ROBINSON

“There’s several [regrets], if I’m being totally honest. Me and Big Dog Glenn Robinson, if I see him I’ll apologize to him. It’s not that what happened – I didn’t report anything wrong, I didn’t do anything wrong. But I took it to a place it didn’t need to go. And the reason I took it to a place it didn’t need to go was because I was really pissed off at him. I felt like he got Coach Randy Ayers fired…in fairness I don’t talk about it because Randy Ayers has asked me to let it go, [Maurice] Cheeks has asked me to let it go all of them have asked me to let it go. And the truth of the matter is I let it go a long time ago because it needed to be let go. If Big Dog Robinson and I were in a place, somebody was going to die, somebody was going to be killed. That’s how deep it got. Because it was like, you could see the hatred he had for me and it was mutual because I felt like he didn’t represent the coaching the way it needed to. And I said this is going to far and the moment it hit me was when I saw his son. His son was in the league and was walking by me almost like he wanted to put his head down. Not because he was disrespectful, almost as he was fearful that I was going to have something negative to say about him. And I said it’s on me. I’m older, I’m the journalist, I’m the professional.”

[42:20] STEPHEN A. DESCRIBES CHARLES BARKLEY & KEVIN GARNETT AS THE NBA ATHLETES HE’D LIKE TO DEBATE WITH MOST

“Well the obvious answer would be Charles Barkley because of what we see him do. We see him on TNT for so long we forget the brother is a hall of famer and one of the all time greats…I will tell you this, the other person that I would love to sit on a set with me or across from me any day of the week would be Kevin Garnett. Because he’s a real one. Now we would have to talk to KG because FCC airwaves, this brother sometimes doesn’t pay attention to that but that’s the deal with him.”

[43:51] STEPHEN A. ACKNOWLEDGES GOING TOO HARD ON PLAYERS AT TIMES AND HAVING TO BE REELED IN FROM TIME-TO-TIME

“Back to Kyrie, I had a couple cats call me that grew up with his dad that are friends of mine, but the biggest people were his godfather, Rod Strickland, that’s my man we go back a long ways and of course my brother, Kenny Smith. Kenny Smith called me and was like ‘yo, he’s us. He’s one of us.’ He wasn’t just talking about being Black, he was talking about where we’re from, Queens, Bronx all that stuff. He said, ‘this ain’t right or wrong, this ain’t about your information, but damn you got that pulpit.’ And I told Kenny, ‘say no more.’…Listen, we don’t talk much but…Paul George can roll up on me, like ‘Stephen A. can we talk. I got you, no problem because that’s how much love and respect I have for you. Now some of these other players, you don’t have no chance in hell…but anybody that I have a relationship with I’m gonna listen to, I’m gonna respect and I’m gonna make sure they know they can influence me. I’m not a closed book. As a journalist you have an obligation not to be a closed book. You’re supposed to be open-minded. You might be right a lot but when you’re wrong, you gotta own that shit.”

[48:50] STEPHEN A. MENTIONS BEING PROUD SEEING CURRENT NBA PLAYERS SUCCEED IN THE MEDIA SPACE

PG: “You mentioned being on Draymond’s show, we’re growing in this space now from the OG’s doing it with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, myself now and the younger generation, Pat Bev, all of us jumping into the podcast world. With the success that we’ve been having in this space, what is your honest takeaway from us athletes being in the content space?”

STEPHEN A.: “I’m incredibly proud of y’all! I think that there’s a lot of people in the business that won’t admit it but they don’t want’ y’all to succeed. But what I would ask you to consider is that have some compassion for them who feel that way. Because here’s what they’re not gonna tell you. You’re getting $35-40 million already, this is our job, if…Then I look at the other side of it, I’m not just a Black man, I’m a brother, and so when I see Brotha’s out there diversifying their portfolio and maximizing the opportunities that will be potentially available for them, not only am I rooting for you all, I have an obligation to help you, if you ask…I want everybody to succeed and I think there’s room for everybody, believe it or not.”

[1:05:41] STEPHEN A. PUSHES BACK ON PEOPLE WHO THINK RANKING LEBRON JAMES BEHIND JORDAN IS DISRESPECTFUL

“I got him as the second best player in the history of basketball. I got him, ahead of Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar]. I got him behind no one but Jordan. And I said to Mr. Chirper himself, Rich Paul – my boy – and I said, you act like that’s an insult. This dude [says] ‘it is an insult.’ I said ‘get the fuck out of my face.’ Exactly what I said! I don’t want to talk to you no more. When you gonna treat like I’m disrespecting a man, who I’m saying in the history of the game that started in 1947, you gonna tell me I’m disrespecting a man by saying he’s #2 of all-time you’ve lost your damn mind. I’m not talking to you.”