The Stephen A. Smith ShowStephen A's Quick Hitters: Caitlin Clark's true testament to greatness! Jayson Tatum was shocked at Olympic benching!
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 discusses comments made by Jayson Tatum about his motivation heading into the NBA season and the impact of WNBA “Rookie of The Year”, Caitlin Clark’s playoff TV viewership ratings.
I want to transition to sports and hit two sports topics before we.
Get on out of here today, all right.
The first is Jason Tatum, the Celtics forward who addressed the media yesterday as the team is getting ready to defend the title. Tatum was asked about his motivation heading into this season, coming off too healthy scratches during the summer Olympic Games in Paris, where Team USA actually won gold. Take a listen to what Jason Tatum had to say.
Check this out.
I'm curious what you learned from your experience at the Olympics this summer. That's a broad question. You want to be more specific.
Is it something you're gonna draw motivation from?
I guess I want to address the You know, I didn't play in two of those games, that's what you mean.
That's part of it.
Yeah, uh, motivation, I guess. I guess you could say that, and if you want to simplify in real time, it was tough. Did I need any extra motivation coming into the season. No, I don't. I wasn't. I'm not going to give anybody in particular credit that you know, they're motivating me to come into the season. It was a unique circumstance, something I wasn't having the experienced before my playing career. But uh, I'm a believer that everything happened for a reason. I was coming off a championship, the highest of the highs and cover two K and new contract, and you know then that happened, and whatever the reason is, I haven't figured out yet, But I am a believer that everything does happen for a reason.
I listened to that sound, and I'm so appalled. It's hard to put in the words. I want to emphasize that. When it comes to head coach a Team USA, Steve Kurr I considered him to be one of the top six coaches in the history of basketball. I think what he's accomplished in Golden State is nothing short of phenomenal. I think he was clearly worthy for being the head coach Team USA. I think he's a future.
Hall of Famer.
He personified championships, winning championships Chicago as a player in San Antonio, as a player in Golden State as a coach. Had Dan Mike D'Antoni listened to him when he was the GM in Phoenix and Mike D'Antoni was the coach and you want to bring on Tom Thibodeau as essentially his defensive coordinator. Had Mike D'Antoni listened to Steve Kerr, he might have won a championship with a Mario Stotter of my Steve Nationals boys at Our West when Steve Kerr was the GM. So this man is a champion, but none of us are flawless. Imperfections invade all of us. And when I think about what he did to Jason Tatum during the Summer Olympics, it is inexcusable.
Damn They're unforgivable. This is a first team All in player the last three years.
This is a reigning defending NBA champion. And a month later he was riding the bench for Team USA. And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, not only was he riding the bench.
It was in favor of two dudes who.
Spend eighty two games a year deferring to him, and jew Holiday Okay.
And Derek White. They defer to him. How are you gonna play them?
But you can't find time for Jason Tatum, who's six ' nine, got a handle, got a shot, can defend, can flat out ball. I'm not telling you that he should have averaged twenty or thirty minutes.
Lebron James was phenomenal.
Steph Curry was phenomenal in the last two games, the semifinals.
In the gold medal game, I get all of that.
Anthony Edwards was bawling the bam out of bios, the Joe Ellen Beads of the world.
Everybody, Drew Holliday and Derek White played well. I get all of that.
I'm just saying, you can't find minutes for Jason Tatum, really, and then you go up to him before the Servia game, a game in which you won by twenty six points, and you tell him I may not be able to find time for you.
Before the game.
It's unforgivable. It's unforgivable. And I don't care what anybody said. I'm glad that Steve Kurrent gonna be coaching Team USA and twenty twenty eight because I.
Think Jayson Tatem is gonna be on that team.
But if Jason Tatum never wanted to see this man again, if you never want to talk to this man again, I couldn't blame him, because how do you justify not playing him at all and basically telling him before the game, you were gonna be hard pressed to find time for him. You didn't know how everybody else was gonna play. It's one thing to make game time decisions where it's in the throes of action, and all of a sudden, Serbia got you in a hole in the semifinals and you don't know what to do, and so you stick with a.
Line of it. You don't play somebody. I get that part.
How the hell do you go to Jason Tatum before tip off and tell him, I don't know if I'm being a fun time for you, I don't understand that. I ain't gonna even get into how I feel about Jaylen Brown not even being on the damn team. Well, what that can bring to the table, not just shooting for him to jump shots, not just shooting threes, but his athleticism, his fervor, his passion, the way he attacks the basket, the way he can defend.
He ain't on the team. We know that wasn't basketball reasons. We know that was about something else.
Being a socially conscientious brother who's outspoken, highly intellectual and educated, and his feelings. That's why he was kept off the team.
In my humble opinion that Nike beef.
All of that comes into play because we know how influential Nike is with Team USA.
It's speculative as that may.
Sound, it appeared to be a reality when it came to Jaylen Brown, because how do you lead that brother off the team? Him off the team? Jason Tatum benched in favor of two dudes and Drew Holliday and Derek White who are on the Boss of Celtics, who spent all year deferring.
To those two who just wanted to championship.
And by the way, Jaylen Brown was Eastern Conference Finals MVP and NBA Finals MVP.
Really really, but Jason Tayom just showed you who he is.
Class personified. He ain't gonna feed too much into it. It's unnecessary, but it is what it is. It is what it is. Next subject we're gonna get to is a WNBA and another accolade on the impact of Kitlyn Clark Okay, the reign and Rookie.
Of the Year.
Yahoo Sports reports that the Indiana Fever, especially Kitlyn Clark, drew the most viewers for a w NBA playoff game and over twenty years, a one point eight million on ABC only two w NBA Finals games going back to the year two thousand average higher viewership. All I wanna do is use this as an opportunity to highlight there's opportunities that took place. See, there's a lot of fallout from the imminent greatness of Caitlyn Clark.
Number one, Team USA. They should have had on that team.
There's a reason why other teams were drawing more of a crowd than Kitlyn Clark during the some Olympic games.
They were drawing all teams.
Those teams were drawing more of a crowd than Team USA because Team USA decided to.
Leave Caitlyn Clark home.
Don't give me, oh, it should go to just the best players. There's plenty of teams that we could look at, and the best player wasn't necessarily on the team. Secondly, you will clown, you will cower. Listen, you've been craving attention, more eyeballs.
Et cetera, et cetera. What happened?
You got Caitlyn Clark out there, and Caitlyn Clark is.
Out there, and lo and behold, what is the deal? It is a.
Situation where somebody like a Caitlyn Clark is drawing eyeballs. It would have elevated the profile of women's basketball the world over. It was an opportunity for women's basketball to achieve what it has.
Been clamoring for for ages. You missed that. We get into Cheryl Swoops.
We already talked about that on this show, A superstar female basketball player for years. The first were her own signature shoot back in the nineties, A champion on every level. Now an analyst in the game, refusing or be or showing flagrant resistance to giving Caitlyn Clark the shine that she deserved months ago, clearly because you wanted others to get this shine and you felt they were being left behind because of everybody fawning over Caitlyn Clark. But you didn't see the big picture. Cynthia Cooper had to tell you that. Nancy Lieberman had to tell you what the big picture was. So that was fallout from the whole Caitlyn clark arrival and her imminent stardom, and now here we are yet again. We saw view of ships during the final four in the NCAA tournament. Leading into the final four, we saw viewership numbers blow out the charts for the WNBA draft. We saw it elevate even more for the opener to their season to WNBA All Star Weekend in Phoenix, Arizona. And then we saw the numbers where they were drawing more of a crowd of the Indiana.
Paces of the NBA in some cases the viewership. And now we heard about the one point eight million. By the way, that one point eight.
Million was on Sunday, NFL Sunday. And this woman, this young lady, drew one point eight million viewers.
On a football Sunday. Think about that.
Dallas was playing Baltimore Ravens. Pittsburgh Steelers was going on and route to going undefeated. Houston was getting stormed by the Vikings. Caleb Williams of Chicago was struggling. Seattle was going undefeated. Philadelphia had beat the Saints, Patrick Mahos found a way to beat Atlanta.
Everywhere you turn.
NFL action, that's fantastic.
But one point eight million viewers say, were gonna watch Caaitland.
Clark the WNBA.
I know you don't want to tell to say. Rather, your boy steven A was right. You don't have to. He knows, he knows.
Finally, before I get on out of here for the day, I wanted to take a moment to send heartfelt congratulations to my friend and my buddy and colleague, the one know the Ebony.
K Williams, host of Equal Justice, would judge ebidy K Williams on the birth of a daughter, Liberty Alexandria Williams, who was born in New York in August.
Ebidy K Williams is a.
Beautiful, brilliant woman who has blessed us with her presence right here on this show, sitting right on that couch over there with me. Months ago when she was here, she was pregnant. You see her there right here, and I knew she was expecting and what have you. And she's a very very private person, but it's something that was very very important for us.
She's always always.
Wanted a beautiful child and she has it now. Very very few people in this world we might wish for them to have happiness and joy, but some people who actually do deserve it more than others because of who they are, the way they act, the way they conduct themselves, and what they stand for.
That would be her. She is absolutely.
Wonderful and I congratulate her on behalf of the everybody here associated with the stephen A. Smith Show, and of course me personally who's known her for years. This was this was everything to her. It's all she's ever wanted and she has it now. I'm so happy for you. All the best, God
Blessed to you and your beautiful daughter.
