The Stephen A. Smith ShowFull Show: Donald Trump disrespects NABJ and VP Harris, I have more to say on Jayson Tatum not starting in Olympics.
Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
Stephen A comments on Donald Trump’s disastrous appearance at the NABJ Convention and his longstanding history of attacks on the racial identities of Kamala Harris and other politicians of color. In Paris Olympics news, he talks about the USA Men’s Basketball team’s win over South Sudan and the player roster.
Stephen A comments on Donald Trump’s disastrous appearance at the NABJ Convention and his longstanding history of attacks on the racial identities of Kamala Harris and other candidates of color.
In Paris Olympics news, Stephen A. talks about the USA Men’s Basketball team’s win over South Sudan and the player roster.
Stephen A. answers viewer Tweets.
On The Stephen A. Smith Show, Smith gives you his renowned point of view, breaking barriers beyond the world of sports, and tackling pertinent issues across entertainment, pop culture, society, business, and politics. Three times a week, you'll hear his LIVE unfiltered opinions on the day's biggest headlines as well as straight-shooting interviews with top celebrities, game-changers, and thought leaders across the societal arena. The Stephen A. Smith Show is sure to entertain, inform, and motivate anyone who tunes in.
Drama is everywhere.
It's at the Olympics, it's back here in the States, it's at journalism conferences.
Everywhere you turn, it's drama.
I guess people's primary ambition is not to be bored.
Huh. I guess that's why you want to watch Steven A.
Smith Show coming at you right now.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to the latest edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show, coming at you at the very least three times a week over the digital airwaves of YouTube and iHeartRadio. By the way, as always, let me pause to show a moment of appreciation for all the support I'm receiving from my subscribers and followers.
We continue to climb.
We've now exceeded over seven hundred and fifty three thousand subscribers on YouTube over the digital airways of YouTube, and of course we've exceeded over to two point one million downloads over the last couple of months or so on iHeartRadio. So I can't thank y'all for the love and support enough. Keep it coming, and I'm gonna keep on coming.
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Just go to straight shoot book dot.
Com once again, straight shooterbook dot Com to get yourself a copy. You got a lot of stuff to get into in the sports world, in Olympic competition, but I got to get to this first. Okay, this is where I'm getting started, and it's in the world of politics because it's making news. On Wednesday, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump made an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalist Conference that's the NABJ, where he sat down for and in If You, moderated by ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott, Fox News host Harris Faulk, and Semaphore reporter Katia Goba. During the discussion with Trump, Rachel Scott's opening question to Trump was about his past racial comments, and needless to say, Trump had a noteworthy response, I'm not going to even into fear. I want y'all to see this for yourself. Let's go to the video tape, play tape.
You have pushed false claims about some of your rivals, from Nicki Haley to former President Barack Obama, saying that they were not born in the United States, which is not true. You have told four congresswomen women of color who were American citizens to go back to where they came from. You have used words like animal and rabbit to describe black district attorneys. You've attacked black journalists, calling them a loser, saying the questions that they ask are quote stupid and racist. You've had dinner with a white supremacists.
At your Marologua resort.
So my question, sir, now that you are asking black supporters to vote for you, why should black voters trust you after you have used language like that.
Well, first of all, I don't think I've ever been asked the question so in such a horrible manner. A first question, you don't even say, hello, how are you? I love the black population of this country. I've done so much for the black population of this country, including employment, including opportunity zones. With Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, which is one of the greatest programs ever for black workers and black entrepreneurs. I've done so much and you know, and I say this, Historically, black colleges and universities were out of money. There were stone call broke, and I saved them and I gave them long term financing and nobody else was doing it. I think it's a very rude introduction. I don't know exactly why you would do something like that. I have been the best president for the black population since Abraham Lincoln.
Wow. Oh you heard Trump there?
And there have been many questioning the decision to have Trump at the conference at all, including my friend Roland Martin.
As we discussed on yesterday's show.
The decision was also denounced by Black Enterprise CEO Earl Butch Graves Junior, who decided to withdraw from his appearance on a separate panel discussion at the conference. Before I even get into that, let me say this about what Trump had to say just now, or what you just saw him say. I had no problem with the question that Rachel Scott asked. Rachel Scott is an outstanding reporter and correspondent for ABC.
What she said and the question that she posed was accurate.
You're showing up to the National Association for Black Journalists as a presidential candidate, particularly one on the conservative side, where you know the vast majority of African Americans are not going to vote, you have to expect piercing questions that are gonna make you uncomfortable. And instead of Trump responding the way I believe he should have, which I'll get into in a second, he showed his petulance, his belligerents, his immaturity, and his lack of leadership as far as I'm concerned in terms of being presidential and understanding of the corone that should come with a position. Now, here's the deal. If you are Trump, you're looking at Rachel Scott. You know what you should have said, what you should have brought up was some of the things you tried to allude to. You know, when you think about Trump's economic policies and how it helped black voters in his first term, there's a lot of people that make that argument about him. There's a lot of people that say that the economy was thriving before COVID came about.
They talked about that, They talked about.
How he should compare his record against the Biden record, particularly with inflation ravaging our country at this particular moment in time.
They talked about that.
They also talked that he also should have talked about more specif what he's done for historically black colleges and universities. I know Roland Martin alluded to him potentially not telling the truth about that. But Trump should have made his case, Okay, he should have made his case if there was a case to make.
Okay.
He should have talked about low inflation during this term. He should have talked about the economy being robust.
Okay.
He should have talked about border control and how open borders, which has taken place since the body and administration has taken office, is something that we've all have meanted since ten and a half million immigrants have crossed the United.
States borders illegally.
We should have talked about those things and all you have to do is answer the damn question. But instead he's like, you didn't even say hello, how are you? And all of this other stuff. I mean, come on, come on now and then and see this is the thing that bothers me too, because I'm watching Harris Faulkton on Fox News. I'm not going to denigrate and disrespect her, but I watched her on Fox.
News this afternoon, the day after her.
This panel discussion took place, or this discussion with the former president took place, and there were three panelists, there were three moderators.
Harris Faulkner was one of them.
And she's sitting there there talking about how it didn't go the way that it was supposed to go, and watching Trump's deputy communications director I forgot her name, lamb basting Rachel Scott and Coba and Goba rather and talked about they were unprofessional? How are they unprofessional? How are they aun professional? Harris Falkner, you were up there with them. I understand that you're working at Fox News and you don't necessarily want to go after a former president Donald Trump the way Brett Bear may have when he asked them very poignant questions.
Go back to Fox News from a year ago or so.
Watch Brett Bear's interview with Donald Trump and the questions he asked the former president, especially when he picked them apart on how Trump proclaimed aims to hire great people to work for him, yet numerous people that used to work for him wouldn't endorse them, and he called them all types of names all over the place, like ten eleven different people.
And Bret Bear dissected.
It with a fine too comb used his quote, said what he quoted, what he said about each individual, and asked him the question. Rachel Scott pretty much did the same thing. What's the problem And if you, Harris Faulkner, how you gonna let anybody go up there and talk about your colleague like that when you know they didn't do anything wrong. Asking tough questions is not a crime, especially coming from members of the fourth of State. That's what we're supposed to be doing. And he knew in advance what was coming. Now, major major props to Donald Trump because he's the first Republican candidate if I can recall.
To show up at the NABJ.
Yes, they've interviewed candidates before, but it was usually via satellite.
It wasn't them showing up in person.
He showed up in person orbit at twelve o'clock Central Standard time on a Wednesday, which is the first day, which is when most people wouldn't be there.
Fine, fair enough though he showed up. He showed up.
But I think that he dropped the ball and he missed an opportunity. And why did he miss an opportunity? Because instead of showing his knowledge as the former president, what he was privy to, and the information that could have debunked or knocked down some of the accusations that were being thrown against him in his estimation, he went to the same old, same old, his petulant route. I mean, it's very rude, very nasty. Now we can't sit up there and point to racism.
Why can't we point to racism? You know why?
Because Rachel Scott asked the question when Caitlyn Collins for CNN was asking him question when she interviewed in one on one in front of a town hall, he called her questions nasty and rude. He's turned against anybody. If you ain't pro Trump, you anti Trump. And he acts the same petulant, belligerent, disrespectful, rude and mature way towards everyone. He's equal opportunity. So when you bring up race, all white folks are going to do or anybody who supports him is going to do. Is showed a litany of other people he said the same thing about who don't happen to be Black. That ain't the argument to make against him, It really really isn't.
But having said all of that, he still handled it wrong.
He still missed an opportunity, and just a couple of weeks after a failed assassination attempt against him, where he had the ultimate visual with the American flag behind him while Secret Service agents are surrounded him, while he raised his fist and talked about fight, fight, fight, while blood.
Was trickling down his ear and the side of the right side of his face.
He had it all and all he had to do was chill and try to be president and let other people spew their rhetoric.
But he didn't do it. He didn't do it at all.
And as a result, now we're back to talking about that Trump that we wanted out of office because he was too divisive.
And we can't. And this is where I'm disgusted.
I'm personally disgusted by Trump because I wanted him to take advantage of the moment to force.
Us all to look at his policies.
And how he governed and juxtaposed that to how Kamala Harris would govern based on some of the policies she may have supported.
So we can.
Decide what is best for America. But we don't get to do that now. And we don't get to do that because when he acts like that, we know how divisive he's going to be. We suspect he's going to be on a revenge tour. We don't know if he'll govern because of it. Okay, Then we hear about Project twenty twenty five, which is really about the Heritage Foundation and some of their ideas as it pertains to a conservative movement that they're going that they've been putting out there for conservative pundits and elected officials to follow. And we're gonna bring that up, okay, and we're going to speculate about what role Trump plays because some of his former employees and what have you were people that were working on Project twenty twenty five. And even though that's a political issue and I'm all for discussing that's as we already have on this show, my problem with it is that we don't get to get into the real issues. I'm not talking about Project twenty twenty five there. I'm talking about his behavior and how that's the focus instead of what he has to offer the black community compared to what Kamala Harris would offer, because I've been twenty sixteen. Where Trump really really made noise is when he showed up. I believe it was in Detroit, Michigan at the time, and a bevy of other places.
He looked at folks.
In the audience who happened to be black, and he says to them, what are your god to lose? In other words, the Democratic Party hasn't done anything for y'all.
That's what he was saying. And yeah, some people saying, huh so, woman, he gets.
Six percent of the vote, and then in twenty twenty gets eight percent of the black vote, and they were speculating that now it could grow to eighteen to twenty percent for this election. And then he acts like that, and then you find yourself saying, oh, hell no, hell no, we don't need more of this for four more years.
We don't need this. We need an adult in the room.
We need somebody's gonna govern, We need somebody's gonna act right. This is what pisses me off, because he's gotten us away from comparing his record in governing to that of Kamala Harris to us now focusing on his behavior. I'll get back to more of that in a second, because that wasn't the only thing that Trump did. Don't let me get started with what he said about the vice president. I'll get back to that in a moment. Let me transition for a quick second to Butch Graves Junior, because he issued a statement, you know, the CEO for Black Enterprise, He walked away from a panel discussion that he was supposed to have just this morning at the NABJ conference and he issued this statement quote.
I must emphatically state.
That I disagree with the decision of the leadership of NABJ to develop a panel featuring one presidential candidate, in this case, Donald Trump, in a session that does not include any black media organizations and for that matter, black male journalist. It appears that this panel was developed to accommodate the presumed Republican nominee and not potentially ask any of the difficult questions to Garner respond that black people want, need, and deserve to hear. In fact, this decision was indeed one of folly and cowardice and not in keeping with the historic tradition of the NABJ and Black media as a whole. Let me say this to you I'm not going to say that the people up there weren't doing their job with the questions that they were asking. But I don't blame mister Graves for making his decision one bit.
There is no excuse while at the NABJ.
That former President Donald Trump didn't have a representative from a black media organization asking him questions.
There's no excuse for that.
Zero zero zaying ABJ, it's the National Association of Black Journalists. How can a black owned media business not play a role in interview in the president?
That was egregious. He's right about that.
He's also right about a man not being up there asking him the question. Just like it would have been wrong to have three men up there asking questions, it's wrong to have just women up there asking Donald Trump questions.
Wrong.
And it's yet the latest example of the thoughtlessness on a part of the NABJ. There's no way around that. That's how I feel about it. I completely understand where he's coming from because on far too many occasions in the past, I've looked at some of the decisions that have been made by the NABJ and I'm like, what are you thinking? What are you possibly thinking? So I don't blame him one bit. I don't blame him one bit. Having said all of that, I have more than that on my mind. It's the Vice President. I'll get to her and mister Trump in just a second. You're watching the Steven A. Smith Show over the digital airways of YouTube and listening to it on iHeartRadio. Okay, everybody, you know what Tom it is. It's Tom for stephen A's Sports Picks. I'm about to go bananas right now because today I'll be making picks for some of the biggest names in men's basketball who are playing in the Olympic Games right now. But you might be saying to yourself, how do you do that, stephen A. I'll tell you how I use Prize Picks. Of course, that's right.
You see.
Prize Picks is a skill based, real money daily fantasy sports game where you select two, three, or even up to six players and predict if they'll have more or less on their projected stats for the game. And it's not just basketball and the Olympics we're talking about, Oh no, no, no, no, no no. There's also baseball, the WNBA, tennis, golf, even boxing. And get this sign up with code says, and Prospects will give you fifty dollars instantly when you play your first five dollars plus lineup. You don't need to win your lineup to receive the fifty dollars bonus. It's guaranteed. All you have to do is play a five dollar lineup on Prospects and you'll get fifty dollars instantly. Now, let's look at all my winning picks for today. Let's go to number one on the list, Yannis and the Gumpo for Grease more or less twenty eight and a half points.
I'm gonna go with less on this one.
Twenty eight and a half points is a lot in the Olympic competition, forty minute games.
Whatever.
I understand, he could do what he wants to do or whatever. I just don't know if he's gonna be the ultra aggressive individual we see him uring a the NBA games in the night and night on basis, where is forty eight minutes a night going against the best talent in the world, et cetera, et cetera. I think you can see other people involved. It's not that he can't score more than twenty eight points. I just don't think he'll need to be as assertive and aggressive as normal in order to.
Do all of that. So I'm gonna go with less.
I think he's gonna have about twenty five twenty six points. Okay, I'm gonna go with less on this for Giannis at the couple.
The Greek freak. Okay.
Let's go to Shae gil Just Alexander for Canada Team Kenada more or less thirty one and a half points rebounds assists. We're gonna go with more because it's Shaye gilg Is Alexander. You know he can put up points. You know he could put up assists. You know he's got the size from the guards about to get his share of rebounds as well. Thirty one and a half points is reasonable. I think he pulls that off. Let's go to his teammate, former New York Nick Now remember in Toronto Raptors in the NBA, but obviously on Team Canada as well. R J Barrett more or less than twenty seven and a half points rebounds assists. He's so up and down. You know that's my thing with r J Barrett. You know he could do it. Whether or not it's gonna be this particular game.
I don't know. I'm gonna go with less on this one.
I think it's gonna be less than twenty seven and a half points last or not least Jamal Murray Denver Nuggets, also Team Canada more or less than eight and a half points. He's Jamal Murray. He's a champion, He's a He's a big time shooter. He operates in the clutch. The more pressurize the moment, the more he shows up for the most part, got a lot of love and respect for that brother. I'm gonna go with more in this case for him. Okay, I'm going to go with more. Those are my picks. Ladies and gentlemen, flow with me on it. Okay, I'm usually right about these things. In case you didn't notice, Welcome back to Steve day Smithshow right here with the digital airwaves of YouTube and iHeartRadio.
Believe it or not.
More on Donald Trump. You know he made more headlines during his appearance at the NABJ. If you can't beat him, then question their ethnic origin. It appears Rachel Scott It once again asked Trump if he believes Kamala Harris was a quote unquote DEI higher take a Listen to his response.
Do you believe that Vice President Kamala Harris is only on the ticket because she is a black woman?
Well, I can say no. I think it's maybe a little bit different. So I've known her a long time indirectly, a claim very much, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know is she Indian or is she black?
She is always college.
I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the way and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went she became a black just to be I think somebody should look.
Into that too.
When you ask a continue in a very hostile, nasty time.
Jesus, ladies and gentlemen. A vice president of the United States is multiracial. She has also been a member of the Congressional Back Black Caucus as a Senator. She's a graduate of Howard University, in historically black college.
Uh So.
Trump saying what he said, it's just annoying it's just annoying. You know, when we look at original cons at our original Constitution, what have you, and it talks about black folks being three fifths of a man.
For example, if.
You had a spec of black in you throughout history, particularly with white racist in America at the very least in the past, you had a spec of black in you, you would consider black.
So let's get that out the way.
Number two, you're just looking at Trump and wondering what in God's name are you trying to accomplish?
And then I thought about what.
I said on Cuomo on News Nation last night with Chris Cuomo, and he talked about what was trump? Was Trump's objective? What could he possibly be thinking by some of the things that he's saying. And one of the conclusions I deduced was that you know something, you know, most of us, whether right or left, lean towards the center. We like compromise, We want to be reasonable, We want to make sure that there's decorum and professionalism and decency in our society. There are folks that operate on the fringes and they squealed the loudest and we hear them and a lot of times if you're thinking about Trump, as is the case with other politicians on both sides from time to time. To be fair, you want to appeal to your followers, your constituents, to make sure they know that you're still that dude. See when you look at some of the American citizens that rally behind Trump. You know, Hillary Rodham, Clinton was wrong when she called you know, some of them deplorables and stuff like that was wrong.
It's wrong to say.
Okay, I'm telling you right now, each and every single one of us work with Trump supporters. We work alongside them, we work for them, We've used to work for them, We mingle with them, or whatever. Everybody's not gonna be honest and forthcoming about their support for him. But make no mistake about it, there's a whole bunch of people. You don't get seventy four million votes and all of them stand in front and center and saying, yeah, he's my guy.
No, a lot of them ain't gonna say anything.
They just go to the polls and they pull that lever for him, or they press that button for him. Make no mistake, that's how it goes down. And so when we sit up there and we allow ourselves to engage in and SENDI every rhetoric for anybody that would support him, because we think about some of the things that he says as opposed to a lot of the things that they believe he may have done. All we're doing is being transparent and our vitriall towards somebody else that could potentially do us harm. We don't know, because they'll know how we think about them, and they won't admit it, but say so quietly. But in the end, what I'm trying to say is this, you're Trump. What's the number one reason. Let's get down to this. What's the number one thing Trump follows? Love about Trump?
Let me tell you what it is that he doesn't give a shit.
That he talks smack about politicians on Capitol Hill, about the policies that they put forth, about a society that he believes they've contaminated. He's given a voice to the voiceless, because there's a whole bunch of people, millions upon millions of people out there that felt that Capitol Hill and the residual impact it had on our society. They felt they weren't being heard and they were being cast aside. And then Trump comes along and he speaks their language. They don't want him showing the choral They don't want him being respectful. They don't mind if he's a bit misogynist that, they don't mind if he's a bit xenophobic, they don't mind.
If he's disrespectful. They don't care because it's what they want to do.
But why do they want to do that, Because they believe that folks on Capitol Hill have gotten away with far too much and they don't want to hear compromise. They believe the degradation of our society as we've witnessed things transpire over the years.
It's their fault.
And Trump is gonna sit up there and he's gonna have control, and he's gonna make them march lockstep with him, or he's gonna assist and get rid of them. And they love it, and they love it. But what he said about the Vice President Kamala Harris was wrong, it was off, it was disrespectful.
It's no cause for.
It unless you believe it appeals to folks far more than we realize.
And that's what Trump and that's what he's playing towards now.
After hearing of Trump's comments, Harris of course, had her response at a campaign rally in Houston yesterday.
Take a look, it was.
The same old show, the divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people.
Deserve better, Yes, the American people deserve better. They deserve better than him acting that way. They deserve better than a petulant child disguised as a grown man running for the highest office in the land. For folks ain't trying to hear that, because they're looking at how he's governed. They're looking at the economy, they're looking at security, they're looking at crime, they're looking at our borders. They're looking at all of these things. And that's what Trump should have focused on. Somewhere along the way. Kamala Harris is gonna have to focus on that too at some point.
Now.
As it pertains to Trump, Trump has repeatedly attacked as opponents and critics on the basis of race. He rose to prominence and Republican politics with false theories that former President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, was not born in the United States.
Birtha ism. Remember that, because that's what it became known as.
Was just the start of Trump's history of questioning the credentials and qualifications of black politicians.
Vice President Kamala Harris is the daughter of a.
Jamaican father and a former prominent professor at Staff and University, and had an Indian mother who is a biomedical scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, both immigrants to the United States. Trump seems to have difficulty understanding that people can be multi racial in some people's eyes. In my eyes, he's just going back to a familiar playbook because it works for him.
That's really what it comes down to.
Coming up, Team USA men's basketball got another winning I'll talk about it next after a word from our sponsors. Major League Baseball is in full swing in the NFL season is fast approaching.
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Welcome back to Steven DA Smith Show right here with the digital airwas of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio. The USA men's basketball team was once again dominant yesterday, beating South Sudan one O three to eighty six to improve the two and zero.
And lock up a spot in the quarterfinals.
All Oys won Steve Kurr's roster decisions after not playing Jason Tatum or Tyreese Halliburton in the team's first game versus Serbia, Tatum was in the starting lineup, finishing with ten points and five boards, while Halliburton chipped in with six points in eight minutes off the bench. Meanwhile, Joel Embiid went from starting in game one to being the only.
Guy who did not see the floor.
In the second game, Anthony Davis started, but it was Bam Outebayer coming off the bench, who had maybe his best game for the national team with eighteen points and seven rebounds. Asked about people questioning his lineup decisions after the game, Steve Kerr had this to say, quote, the NBA is so popular worldwide, and the regular season is kind of a soap opera, and so we understand that, and social media takes over and everything becomes so dramatic. I think we need to give these guys more credit. They're here to win a gold medal. They're pros, they're committed to each other.
End quote.
Final game of group play will be Saturday at eleven fifteen am Eastern Standard Time, versus Puerto Rico. For those of you who care, here's the deal. That's a real easy thing for coach Steve curtisay, and it's not that he's wrong in any way. It's just that it's not that simple, ladies and gentlemen. Tyree Halliburton didn't play. We didn't say anything about that. You know why we didn't say anything about that when he didn't play. You know, the other day when Jason Tatum was bench because Tyrese Halliburton is a young guard, he was in the players. Although Indiana got to the Eastern Conference finals against Boston this year, you know, we understand that there's levels to this.
And when you look at the Drew Holliday and when you look.
At some of the other talent that exists on Team USA, all right, it's gonna be pretty difficult for him to crack the lineup and stuff like that. We understand that. For the most part, what we're saying is that Jason Tatum is a superstar in this league. He's the reigning defending NBA champion. See when we sit up there and we talk about this kind of stuff, this is the thing that drives me nuts. Everybody act like they don't understand what the hell I'm talking about. It's Jason Tatum. We understand the greatness of Kevin Durant, maybe the greatest Basketball Olympian.
Ever, we understand who Lebron James is. We also saw Team USA beat Serbia.
About twenty six points. You can't find time for somebody like that. You're talking about, Oh, it's very difficult to play more than ten. Well, what ten players are better than Jason Tatum. He's six ' nine and could play the one, two, three, or the four position. When you bench Ebid, that's understandable. You're going against south to Dan. They're running up and down the floor. Their success is primarily predicated on perimeter shooting.
Joel Andbid is never one hundred percent healthy.
He's had foot injuries, he's had knee injuries, he's had back injuries. That might not be a game his all world talent needs to participate in. We understand that Jason Tatum was healthy. Jason Tatum is spry. Jason Tatum is six. Ain's a six nine dude that can play guard and forward. He can play four different positions. What possible excuse could you have for sitting him on the bench and then to tell him beforehand this ten dudes.
We're gonna play for you. Well, let's go down the list.
Lebron who's approaching forty the BAM out of bios of the world, along with Anthony Davis. That's a given they're playing the five for you. We got that Kevin Durant. Suure go play Kevin Durant ahead of him. I got Dad, Devin Booker, Drew Holliday, Derek White. You got two dudes that are his teammates for the Boston Celtics whose job is to defer to him. But in the Olympic competition, he's riding a bench while they're playing. Stop it, Stop acting like y'all don't know what the hell I was talking about. You know exactly what I'm saying, not talking about Steve Kerk. First of all, you should be able to find a way to play more than ten dudes in a twenty six point victory, because guess what, you're that superior. You actually could find a way to do that. But that's neither here nor there. But when you elect to betch somebody, you could have been Derek White, who's been playing well. I understand that you could have bet you Holiday like you did to insert Jason Tatum into the starting lineup for the game against South Sudan.
With Steph Curry to backbourd what's the problem.
We weren't talking about Steve Kerr and his coaching in terms of, oh my goodness, you only played ten.
Dudes, not all twelve dudes.
We were saying you went to Jason Tatum before the game and said, we're probably not gonna be able to find you minutes.
To a twenty seven point per game.
Scorer or All NBA First Team in the last three years, who is the reading defending NBA champion and he flying across the ocean to participate in the Olympic competition to sit on the bench.
Y'all don't understand that.
Y'all don't understand now, that is not something that is supposed to happen to somebody the caliber of Jason Tatum.
Do that to Derek White, do that to Tyrese Haliburton. And I'm not.
Saying that they don't deserve to play because their quality players. I'm saying, if you're gonna do something like that, do that to them. Do that to a Joel and Bed against the South Sudan because we don't want Joel and Bed running up and down the court like that when you don't really have to worry about an opposing big man because that's not what their squad's success is predicated on. So this is a game you probably would be able to take a rest. I saw a Bam out of Bio clapping back of my man Brian Winthors, because Brian Windor suggested that one of the bigs wasn't going to play, and he suggested it would be Bam out of Bio instead of Joel and b and Bam took some kind of offense at that and tweeted something out some lyrics from fifty cents. I got all of that, But Bam Autebayo has a point because he can run up and down the floor in a way that Joel Ebid might find problematic.
So you need to sit this one out, big fellow. That makes total sense.
Just like if you decided to bench Jason Tatum in the game against Serbia, Well, you got a knee injury, or you got an ankle injury, or you got a back injury.
We need you to sit out for this one. We got this coverage. That makes sense.
But to sit up there and go to him before the game, knowing he had no physical ailment whatsoever, knowing he was ready to go and to look him in the face with a straight face and say, well, we gonna probably bet you because we got ten other dudes.
That we're comfortable playing before you.
How could you not think that would affect him?
How could you not think?
How could you think that would That's a good thing. That's all I'm trying to say. I see people coming after me, and they'll remain nameless because there are people that's trying to come at me that's in this business. They just want clicks and they just want to be heard because nobody gives a shit about them when they're on the air, So they're trying to get attention from me, and I'm not going to give it to them. But to challenge me, like you don't know that I'm making sense. Come on, man, come on, y'all.
If you disagree, you disagree, I got I got that part.
But come on, it's a salient and decent argument that I'm making. It's Jason Tatum we're talking about. It's Jason Tatum. That's all I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. It's Jason Tatum. No, he doesn't have the person out of their sizzles and you love seeing them with his son pregame and postgame, during the interviews and.
All this other stuff. The brothers a hell of a.
Player, and he's a champion, and he's the reigning champion. He's an All NBA First team player for three consecutive years.
He's the real deal.
He is not somebody that you sit on the bench seventeen minutes just four points and all of this stuff the other day, So what, so what?
I don't give it.
The MV scores no points. He can't have zero minutes because you got ten dudes that should be out there before him. That's nonsensical. And it's not about coming to win the goal. We know that the ultimate that's the ultimate priority. But Steve Kerr has achieved.
Too much to not know how that looked.
Just because he was classed for stified and professional and called it a humbling experience for him, doesn't mean he wasn't pissed off, doesn't mean he wasn't hurt, doesn't mean he wasn't embarrassed.
And if Steve Steve.
Kerr was so so right and so righteous, how he go from playing zero minutes to being in the start line of the next game. Because you know, you shouldn't have done that shit to begin with.
Period your tweets up next to close out the show.
In a minute, you're watching the stephen Ate Smith Show right here over the digital itwas with YouTube, and of course iHeartRadio.
Don't go anywhere. I love your tweets. Be right back.
Let's go to some tweets before we get on out of here for the weekend, because I got a lot to do this weekend, so it'll probably be the last time you see me for a little bit at sports guys showing zero rights at stephen A.
Smith.
If the goon squad had Lebron James as this sixth man and the mon Stars had MJ as this sixth man, both in their prime, who's winning in a game to twenty one?
Well, I'm always gonna go MJ.
I mean, that's just your way of asking me about MJ compared to Lebron. I'm always gonna go MJ. The only edge I will give Lebron James' longevity. No one has ever been this good for this long. But Lebron at his best against MJ at his best.
I'm going with MJ.
I'm going with MJ, especially if they had to guard each other.
I'm definitely going against m J. Definitely going against MJ. Just so you know. Next week, please.
At NBA World twenty four, right, stephen A, Who do you think will take the biggest leap next year in the NBA?
Hmm hm.
You know, if I had to pick a sleeper, I would pay attention to Sacramento. You can't say a big leap because Minnesota was already in the conference finals. So I understand that. I think we gotta pay attention to Orlando. Polo Banka Road is the real deal. It's a tough one, gotta think about it. But I will tell you off the top of my head. I mean, even though we expect the stuff from them and they ended up losing to the Knicks in the first round, I think with Paul George there and Philly retaining a Kelly Oubray, Tyrese Maxie still having Joel Andbid, I think I think Philly. I think Philly. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they end up in the NBA finals. I'm not saying that's gonna happen over my knicks name. Don't let my Knicks get get giggee. You know they I mean got Kel Bridges kept n Oobe still got Brunton and the Vincenzo and Josh Hart.
Don't let my knicks get a legitimate big man. Don't you do it?
Julius Randall, come back, don't you let my Knicks get a legitimate big man. Now it's gonna be on it, Poppet, But until then, I gotta.
Look at Phil up here.
Seventy six ers can't ignore it. I would save them. I would say the next tweet, please give it to me. At NBA seventy seven younger right, stephen A. Smith, Shaq versus.
Gobert at five foot each. Who you picking? I'm gonna pick Shack all day, every day. Cause Shaq was a monster.
Colbert is formidable Defensively, he would have had no answer for Shaquille O'Neil. Shaquillo and ne would have shoved him aside like toilet, like like paper.
Okay, and go beer.
Don't have that kind of offensive repertoire to his game. Shaq looked to destroy and demoralize you. Kobe once said it, Shaq was a mean dude on the basketball court, that jolly giant that you see on television, and you know joking around and dancing around. Who was comical and funny as hell. That ain't the dude that was on a basketball court, on a basketball court. He was a man child. He was Sergeant Harris's son.
Move out the way. I'm here to destroy you. Don't stand in my path.
That's shack him and go big even side shack all day every day.
Next tweet, please give it to me at DV zero NCH. I don't know what the hell ADDS stands for. Steven A. Smith.
Are ghosts real in your opinion or is it nonsense? I never think about it. I know that there's certain things that are spooky. You know, you look at a haunted a house that looks haunted and stuff like that. Spooky you hear, you know, sounds and stuff like that.
Yo, there's this hotel.
I'm not gonna say the name because I don't want to get sued, but there's this hotel in the Bay Area. It's not me, but my assistant or my bodyguard, some of my colleagues.
They left the hotel. They were scared.
They were hearing noise, they thought they were seeing things. Now, I didn't bother me. I didn't see anything. I wren't worried about it. They hear a slider, little noise like like like like one of my boys. Because he's such a chicken. I always mess with him. I do that Friday the thirteenth sound.
Yeah, just hear that sound. He said.
That Friday the thirteenth kind of sound when you hear Jason creeping up on you.
Or something like that.
I do that to him because he's such a She's such a chicken when it comes to that stuff.
You know what I'm saying. It don't phaze me like that. You know, I ain't free to no ghosts. Then tenn who you gonna call ghost Busters? Oh?
Now I like that movie. I like that song. But my latest memory a ghostbuster is when lightweight contender Frank Martin they call him the ghost right, and he stepped into the ring.
And he came in there first.
If you remember, before Javontae Davis came out, they were playing Ghostbuster.
Ghost Buster, Who's you gonna go? Ghost Buster?
He was mocking them, telling them I'm gonna kick your ass.
I'm gonna knock you out, and then.
Laughed walking into the ring and sure enough knock him out.
That's just the way it goes, you know what I'm saying. Anyway, that's it for this edition to the stephen A. Smith Show.
I gotta get on out of here because I'm heading to the National Association for Black Journalists conference. By the way, first tape My Day Job for ESPN will be on live from Chicago tomorrow morning at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois.
I am in root there. Although I've been on vacation.
I'm coming off just to do that show for the folks at the NABJ in the city of Chicago.
Your boy stephen A is on his way. I'll be in the house.
Looking forward to seeing and talking to everybody in the days and weeks to come.
So stick around.
You never know when you'll hear from me because I'm prone to just do that even when I'm on vacation.
Oh, let's get the work.
I got something to say. That's what you could do when you have your own platform. But anyway, I really enjoyed the week talking a lot of stuff. I can't wait to get in the more to support stuff with NFL, NBA and.
Everything in between.
So stick around because there's a lot of action coming our way in the weeks and months to come, and God will and I will be right here talking about this stuff with.
You, to you and for you.
Until next time. Everybody's Stephen. They signing off.
Enjoy your week and be blessed, peace, love, Talk to you soon
