Source: Power 105 / Power 105
For the past few years Stephen A. Smith’s been ESPN’s most popular and polarizing on air personality for a bevy of reasons but regardless of the hate he gets he was still able to secure a record bag to secure his spot at the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network.
Today the loved/hated ESPN personality from Queens, New York sat down for an in-depth interview with The Breakfast Club and answered every and anything asked of him by DJ Envy, Angela Yee, and Charlamagne Tha God.
From giving his opinions on numerous sports players to how he feels about being called an “Uncle Tom,” Stephen A. Smith addresses all kinds of topics in the way you’ve become accustomed to hear him address stuff.
Here are the 9 things we learned from Stephen A. Smith on The Breakfast Club.
Like most non-hating fans, Stephen A. Smith believes that the league is doing Carmelo “wrong” and he belongs on a team somewhere. “Melo belongs in the league. There ain’t 250 players let alone 450+ players better than Carmelo Anthony.” Though he doesn’t think Melo’s career is over, he’s hoping LeBron works his magic and gets him over to the Lakers. Melo’s already insinuated he’s willing to come off the bench. Make it happen, Bron!
Smith says that a few athletes have tried to press him personally for his commentary about them but “that didn’t work out well for them.” SAS be rolling with his goons from Queens, b. When Morris from the Washington Wizards smacked his butt, Smith says that he thought it was all in good fun until a few days later Morris said he smacked his butt because that’s all he was able to smack. Stephen still waiting for him to try that again.
Though Smith wasn’t happy with the Giants trading OBJ to the Browns, he does recognized that the only thing we’ve learned from an OBJ featured Giants team is that “You can lose with him and you can lose without him.” Ain’t that the truth.
Stephen says he got into writing and journalism because he got left back in the fourth grade because of his first grade reading level and remembers how the kids in his hood clowned him for that. At that point he promised himself “Nobody’s ever gonna laugh at me again for my lack of intelligence.” That was the turning point in his young life and found his future in journalism. Props.
Though it’s his job is to cover all things sports, Stephen says he won’t talk about what a sports player does off the court unless it gets out publicly, then it’s “open season.” “If you do something in your private life that’s your story to tell. But if you allow some of it to get out and you don’t talk about it, the worst thing you can do with me is be inaccessible because then you’re giving me the license to speculate. You’re giving me the license to go to different avenues to find out this information and you did that to yourself because I wasn’t looking for that story.”
It’s not only players that Stephen A. Smith seems to upset, he remembers that Shaquille O’Neal’s mother was “furious” with him because he was “too soft on my son. You’re not holding him accountable enough.” So he did and Shaq got tight about what he wrote, but Stephen pointed at his mother and said “she told me to write it.”
When asked who was the better co-host between his former PNC, Skip Bayless, and current co-host, Max Kellerman, Stephen A. confirms what most already knew (no shots), Skip Bayless was that dude. “Max is a brilliant brother. Knows his history… but if you ask Max who was better to work with, me or Marcellus Wiley, he’d say Marcellus Wiley because that’s his brother. Skip Bayless is my brother from another mother, man.” And yes, they’re still tight even though Skip went to Fox Sports where he and Shannon Sharpe’s Undisputed is First Take’s direct competition.
Asked if he gets offended when people call him an Uncle Tom and Sellout, Smith says “I do” but not in the way “where I lose sleep over it. Excuse my language, but they can kiss my ass.” He adds that “I don’t think I’m selling out, I think I’m looking out. What I’m trying to do is inform them of the world that awaits.”
As for whether he’s thought about getting a baldy or hair growth treatment, Stephen says “Yeah!” But he feels that getting a baldy isn’t an option due to having a “snozz for a nose” and a “noggin” in the back of his head, it wouldn’t be a good look for him. So Hair Club for Men is definitely on the table.
