More NBA free agency to talk about more politics to get into. But damn it, you know what's on my mind more than anything else. Oh J Simpson b Et Awards, Really really steven A. Smith Show coming your way. Let's go. What's up? Everybody? Welcome to the Ladies's edition of The steven A. Smith Show, coming at you at the very least three days a week over the digital airways of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio. As always, I want to take a moment to show my gratitude to my subscribers and followers that have now eclipsed more than seven hundred and sixteen thousand. Appreciate the love, Keep it coming, and I'm gonna keep on coming. And let me not forget iHeartRadio. In the last two and a half to three months, there's been over one point two million downloads on iHeart Radio. So I can't thank y'all enough for the support the show. Can team used to grow and grow and grow and shining more and more every day. Can't thank y'all for the love and support. Keep you coming, and I'm gonna keep on coming all right to make sure you want to continue to like the show. And what have you just picked the bell to get notified of all of our new content too, and you too shall be the latest member of the Steven A. Smith Show family. And while you're at it, don't forget to pick up a copy of my New York Times best selling book, Straight Shooter, A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes, now in paperback. By the way, just go to Straight Shooter book dot com once again, that Straight Shooter Book dot Com to get yourself a copy. Let me get right to it, because yesterday I was talking about NBA free agency, Paul George going to Philadelphia, Klay Thompson going to the Dallas Mavericks, CP three going to the San Antonio Spurs. We'll be talking about Jason Tatum a little bit later on in the show because he's the new three hundred million dollar man. We'll talk about what he deserves, whether or not he truly deserves that, and what that means for the rest of the NBA moving forward. Not to mention the Lakers and all of this other stuff that's going on, but on my mind right now is something I could have easily touched on yesterday, but you know, I hadn't seen all of the BET Awards but I saw it last night, and I'm gonna get started with that because this past week and the BET Award, something we look forward to, something that's been a ratings bonanza. Give credit where creditors due. This is a celebration, supposedly a celebration of black culture, music, and philanthropy. Yesterday we talked about will Smith's performance, Remember that Usher's Lifetime Achievement Award and subsequent speech. Remember that. Well, today, somehow, someway, I've got to talk about something else. I noticed that caught my eye, and I'm sure y'all saw it, And if you didn't see it, I wouldn't encourage you to go back and see it, because I'm pretty pissed off about it. Did y'all see the n Memorium segment paying tribute to quote black excellence in terms of that we unfortunately lost this year. The individuals that we lost the tribute included the luminaries like Clarence Avont, Willie Mays, lou Goassi Junior, Dexter, Scott King, just to name a few. Okay, However, there was a notable silence from the crowd when the image of O. J. Simpson appeared on the Big screen. You may recall O. J. Simpson died this past April after a battle with cancer. Yes, he is known for being a Hall of Fame on the football field out of USC and ultimately with the Buffalo Bills in his NFL career, but he was also accused of double murder his ex wife the Cole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman back in nineteen ninety four. To thirty year anniversary was just the other day last month, June twelfth, to be exact. OJ was acquitted of those charges in nineteen ninety five, but later found liable for their deaths a few years later in a civil trial, and the families of the Cole Brown system and Ronald Goldman obviously criticized the BET Awards for paying tribute to Simpson as well they should. I don't blame them one BET And I'm gonna say this to y'all, what's up? What's up? See Jesse Collins production company, same man that produced the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Phenomenal, phenomenal producer produce the BT Awards. Okay Constance Orlando an executive VP, no doubt she was involved as an executive VP for B. E. T. Scott Mills, he runs BT as well. He's been doing an exceptional job. I'm not here to cast any aspersions on them as individuals and the wonderful, wonderful work that they've done over the years. Let me be very very clear, it's not for me to judge. Their body of work speaks for itself. I'm just talking about this one thing. And you know, you got Tiamri up there. She's given an introduction paying tribute to all of this, and then OJ's face pops up on the screen and you can hear the audience a gap. Clearly everyone didn't approve of that. Clearly most people were shocked by that, and they should be ladies and gentlemen. We got to call it like we see it in the eyes of most people. Regardless of an acquittal. O. J. Simpson is a double murderer. Yes, he ultimately was convicted in a civil trial and obliged to pay thirty three and a half million dollars to the Goldman family, which he never really really did till the day died. Never happened, but we all viewed him as a double murderer. He was ostracized and considered a pariah by the vast majority of American citizens. Why because regardless of what people want us to believe, unlike most situations, unfortunately, we saw the trial and yeah, the glove didn't fit, so you must have quit. And the late great Johnny Cochrane pulled that off. And I've had called Douglas, the famed attorney working on Johnny Cochrane's team during the Old J trial, on this show on a few occasions, and he talked about the preponderance of evidence that validated a civil suit against O. J. Simpson, but not necessarily a criminal suit because there were holes in the argument that were left by the LAPD and beyond basically going out of their way to ensure that a person that was guilty in their eyes would be convicted and then backfired on them. We know that story. But in the end, Nicole Brown Simpson is gone, Ronald Goldman is gone, the Brown Simpson family, Brown family. Rather, it's still around, the Goldman family. Fred Goldman, who I've always had a strong level of sympathy for, is still around. And you're OJ Simpson. I know this is not popular to say. And two of them are boys, because I love Mason, I love Cameron, and I know what respect they have for OJ. I'm not casting any dispersions on anybody like that. They have their relationship with them and that's their business. More power to them. My attitude is this O. J. Simpson never gave a shit about black people until he was indicted. Never gave a damn. You know you look at it Jay Z's album I'm Not Black, I'm old j Okay, that was what OJ said. I ain't black, I'm OJ. Never gave a damn, Never gave a damn about black folks until he was indicted on murder charges. Never gave a damn about black folks until he was ostracized by and large by society as a whole. Never gave a damn. And it just amazes me how we would sit up there and I'm looking at it. Forget the fact that in memoriam he was celebrated, he was mentioned. What have you? I mean, I'm looking at it from the standpoint. How should the family of Carl Weathersfield, How should the family of Willie Mays feels? How should the family of Bill Cobbs. Y'all don't know about thatpulous actor that he was Ghosts of Mississippi knew Jack City and a plethora of other films that he was a part of. He was a legendary figure. How's his family supposed to feel when they're mentioned in the same breath as oj Simpson? Think about that for a second. The b ET Awards, I mean, I know, okay, I know that it's no longer owned by Bob Johnson. I get that part. I understand that. I understand that in two thousand. All right, I'm just pulling from my notes, heedg to make sure that everybody knows that I kind of know. I'm gonna do my research here. Paramount then Viacom two thousand they were sold by Bob Johnson for three billion dollars. We get all of that, And I'm quite sure I don't know this definitively, but it stands the reason that black folks ain't running a Paramount. But do you have black and division rules in charge of b E T? Which is fair? Which is the right thing to do. I'm just sitting up here, absolutely positively flabbergasted that whether it's Scott Mills, whether it's Connie Orlando, whether it's Jesse Collins home ever, how do we let that happen? How do we let that happen, and we got to call it like we see it. There's just no reason to celebrate this man. Okay, yeah, he should rest in peace. Sure, we should never talk about him again. Here's the bigger issue. We should never be given a reason to talk about him again. We certainly shouldn't be celebrating O. J. Simpson. I'm sorry, not when two people were damn near decapitated and he was the prime suspect, and we know that an over zealous police department fed up the case, which ultimately got him acquitted because he had one of the greatest lawyers this nation has ever known, in Johnny Cochran, the late great Johnny Cochran. OJ never gave a damn. He hung around white people, he lived, you know, that white culture. He didn't give a damn about his own. Ain't nothing wrong with that. We want to go to golf clubs and be members of golf clubs and all this stuff and live a pashaffluent lifestyle. Hell, we all trying to achieve that, or know I am. But what you never hear me say is that I'm not black. I'm Stephen A. Oh, I'm very black. Most of us are, if not all of us. I'm talking about in our spirit and then our soul. It's never something we want to detach ourself from. That was oj Simpson, And when we do shit like this, it stains all of us because we're giving tacit approval for his alleged acts. When we shoved that aside. This ain't like the jury letting him off in a criminal case where they saw holds in an argument where they knew the LAPD engaged in unethical behavior. And on top of it all, you had the backdrop of the LAPD and how they were treating citizens in LA at that time and for decades prior to that, which had basically sullied and alienated the black community against LAPD for years. This is not that case. This is the BT Awards. This is a celebration of blackness, a black culture, of black entertainment, of black excellence. And when you do something like this, you got folks outside of community c see see that shit, TMZ talking about it, NBC talking about it, CNBC talking about it, CBS talking about it, USA Today talking about it, PBS, everybody but PBS. When that kind of stuff happens, how do you think that benefits us? And that's a story that we don't get into nearly as much as we should. Did it ever occur to anybody? To remind just something the responsibility we have. I'm not blaming any of the folks there in the audience. They didn't know. And even though pet is owned by Paramount, it's still bet black folks everywhere all up in there, and that's what we celebrate. We as a community are gonna be held accountable for that. Subliminally, subconsciously, people gonna look at us, what raised eyebrows and think, as a community, Oh, you down with that? You cool with that? That's what you celebrate. The collective whole is what matters, not one individual, not one individual. God rest his soul. God will deal with him because God knows what he did and what he didn't do. It ain't for me to judge or anybody else to judge. But we saw what we saw. The trial was televised. His actions and his dismissiveness and disassociation and distance from the Black cammunity was self inflicted. He created that he wanted nothing to do with us. Where's this affinity for him? Where's the evidence that he ever gave a shit about us? I just don't understand. And I think that when it comes to something like that, you gotta guard against that. I'd love to know if tmury knew anything about that, because had that been me and they asked me to MC that segment and I saw that OJ was a part of it, I would not have done it. And if I was on that stage and his face popped up, I would have been miked up on camera and I would have been like, I don't know whose idea that was, but I don't have anything to do with that. I didn't know. That's what I would have said. Now, everybody ain't me, and I understand that, and I'm not judging in regards to her anybody else. I'm just saying, come on, come on, we all suspect we know what he did, but nobody definitively knows what he did, but God himself, OJ himself, and of course the souls of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, so to be for God to judge. But I gotta tell you that was a bad look on the part of the BT Awards. It really really was. Don't get me started with all that twerking and all of that stuff. I had to tell my daughter was on the phone with me. I made a turn to channel. I'm gonna just leave it at that, my teenager, I ain't want us seeing that all that damned twerking and ass is hanging out and all nah nah. But this stuff with OJ, it can't get much more class less than that. And by the way, it also begs the question right now, if you're the Oscars, you're gonna celebrate Woody Allen, what are we gonna do if Bill Cosby's name comes up eventually? I mean it begged, you know, Harvey Weinstein, stuff like that with other events. It's gonna be interesting to see what other events do Oscars emmy stuff like that. It's gonna be interesting to see what other others do. Only last part I would make is this was Andre Brower mentioned I don't recall if he wasn't he should have been, and I don't think he was. I didn't see it. How is he now mentioned get on a bus? Along with various other movies he's done over the years. He was another fabulous actor. We got a guard who we celebrate, ladies and gentlemen who are willing to celebrate sometimes as a reflection on us more so than it is on those folks, especially when they're gone and we're still here. Sometimes you really really needed to let them rest in peace. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Coming up, Jason Tatum or the Boston Celtics gets paid, Donovan Mitchell gets paid, And what's Paul George's legacy now that he's left the Clippers. I'll get into all of that and more up next right here when a stephen A. Smith show over the digital airways of YouTube, and of course iHeartRadio back with more in a man. Okay, everybody, you know what Tom it is. It's Tom for stephen A's Weekly Picks. If you are a sports fanatic like me, then you can't just watch the games. You need to be a part of it all. So how do I do that? I play Prize Picks, of course. Prize Picks is a skill based, real money daily fantasy sports game where you select two, three, or even up to six players and choose if they'll have more or less than they're projected in game stats. It takes less than sixty seconds to make your picks and put you right in the middle of the game. Tom Action, Okay, so pick the stats of all your favorite players, oh Tani, Caitlyn Clark, even Christiano Ronaldo. Okay, then if you go to Prospects dot Com right now and use promo code SAS, you receive a one hundred percent deposit bonus up to one hundred dollars. Guess what That ain't no joke. Okay, So go to Prospects dot com. Type in mind. This is SAS for first time deposit match up to one hundred dollars. Pick more, pick less. It's really that easy today. However, I will not be selecting any players or sports. I want to go off topic. Okay. July fourth is around the corner, and that means it's time for the Nathan's hot Dog eating contests, held every year on July fourth in Coney Island, New York. Okay. The reigning King and Queen of the Mustard Yellow Belt is a guy named Joey Chestnutt, who won his sixteenth title last year after eating sixty two hot dogs and buns in ten minutes, and Mickey Pudo, who holds the record of forty eight point five Nathan's famous hot dogs in ten minutes okay, and won a ninth title last year with thirty nine and a half hot dogs and buns eating, Well, Lord have mercy. I just want to see who's gonna take the crown. We know Joey Chestnut did. He's not there this year, so I want to see who's gonna take the crown. Says he ain't participating. So today I'm picking a number of hot dogs eating it. This year is Nathan's hot dog eating contest, so let's get right to it. Let's get right to it. Raining Women's champ Mickey Pseudo break last year's record with more or less than forty and a half hot dogs eating. I'm going with more. Okay, she got more last year, she got more than forty last year. Why would I not think she's gonna get more than forty this year? I'm going with more. I'm going with more. Let's go to the next one. James Webb more or less than forty six and a half hot hot dogs eating. I suspect less here. I don't think he's gonna get past forty five. That's just me. That's just me. Okay, Nick Weary more or less than forty four and a half hot dogs eating, I'm gonna go with less with him too. I just can't imagine. I mean, lord, I mean and then to see them wet the bun while they eating the hot dog. I like hot dogs, but I like it on a nice toasted bunch, not a soggy bun. I don't know how they do it. I don't know how to do it. And by the way, I just don't know how they do it. I'll leave it at that last, but not least. Gideon og more or less than thirty seven and a half hot dogs eating eating. I was tempted to say more, but for some reason I suspect less with him too. Okay, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go with less. Okay, So basically that's it. That's more plus less, less and less. That's what I'm going with for this fourth of July. I'm guessing though it's hot dogs. I can barely eat two a month. I can't imagine somebody eating nov forty, so forget me. William. Welcome back to Steven A. Smisheald right here over the digital airwaves of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio. Let's get to the NBA, y'all, because Jason Tatum and the Boston Celtics just agreed with the team to a deal yesterday, making him the least highest paid player. The deal is a five year, three hundred and fourteen million dollar extension, which is also the largest in NBA history. Tatum led to Celtics to their eighteenth NBA title just a few weeks ago, taking down to Dallas Mavericks in five games. Both he and Jalen Brown, who also signed a record deal last summer for about three hundred and four million dollars, form arguably the best wing tandem in the league today. Here's the bottom line. The champions and when Jason Tatum won the championship, that's a little five disabansion of the fourteen masion, even though he's gonna get it anyway. So let's get this out the way. The second Jalen Brown got three hundred and four million dollars. The only way that Jason Tatum wasn't going to get his bag and wasn't gonna get more than Jaln Brown is if he had gotten hurt and suffered some catastrophic injury. That was about it. Even with Jalen Brown and his money, Jason Tatum was the number one option. Jayson Tatum averaged twenty seven a game. Jason Tatum led the number one team in the NBA all season long. They had the best record in the game, okay, and they were clearly the best team. I don't know why the hell I got caught up in Kyrie and Luca and how they were flowing, but I know why I picked Dallas because I thought that Porzenkis would not be able to play at all in the NBA Finals. I never thought he played games one and two. I never thought he'd looked the way he looked in Game one. But I digressed. At the end of the day, Jason Tatum is a star in this league. He deserves every penny. And with the climate being what it is, the salary cap elevating to what it has elevated too, with the salaries for NBA players escalating, with Cats getting forty eight to fifty million dollars in more normally, you can't knock anybody for giving Jason Tatum this money. He's not even twenty eight, and Jason Tatum has been in five conference finals, two NBA Finals, and he's now an NBA champion. There's nothing to talk about here. He deserves every freaking penny and he certainly deserves. He certainly can't. We can't argue with this. And he showed up in the NBA Finals too. It's some choke job. Now. He didn't have great Games one and two, but he showed up in Games three and five. I can tell you that much. The brother balled ot and did what he needed to do, and he deserves his dollars. This ain't news to me. It's long overdue and he deserves it now. It's gonna be interesting to see that Embiid and Paul George and Tyrese Maxi are in there. Let's see what happens with that, and let me move on a free agency where Klay Thompson ended his thirteen year historic run with the Golden State Warriors. Yesday, Clay agreed to a three year, fifty million dollar deal to play with the Mavericks alongside Luka Doncik and Kyrie Irving. Of course, so it's the end of an er in Golden State, where Clay won four titles with the Warriors alongside the great the greatest shooter of God ever created in Steph Curry and of course, the one and only Draymond Green. But this last season was especially tough for Clay as his relationship with the franchise became strained over his contract discussions. Clay averaged just under eighteen points this season, his lowest sense in second season with the team. I want to get to Paul George in just a minute, because I wanted to get from from Jason Tatum to Paul George. But I'll get back to that. Let me say this about Klay Thompson. I went back and I looked at some numbers. I'm a huge fan of Klay Thompson. I think he's a future Hall of Famer first ballot. I think he's one of the greatest shooters we've ever seen in our lifetime, top five shooter of all time. I also think that if Klay Thompson hates the media for life, I wouldn't blame him because if you remember years ago when he was not voted on one of the All NBA teams. If you remember that, right, the media cost Klay Thompson thirty million dollars because Kemba Walker was put on the All NBA team and Klay Thompson wasn't. And Klay Thompson was furious about that, and he should have been. He should have been. But when you hear about friction between him and the Golden State Warriors, that's clearly Klay Thompson caught up in his feelings. It really really is. Klay Thompson under his rookie deal made about nine million dollars. He signed a five year deal with Golden State thereafter that gave him an addition of about sixty eight million dollars. If you remember an twenty nineteen NBA Finals between Golden State and the Toronto Raptors, he tours acl Okay was out for the entire season next season. This was in June. The next season he was out. I forgot that that July. When the Golden State Warriors knew that Klay Thompson would be out for at least an entire year, they still gave him one hundred and ninety one million dollars. And then he tore his achilles in a pickup game and was out not just for the nineteen twenty to twenty nineteen twenty twenty season, but ended up being out for the twenty twenty twenty twenty one season. He got paid thirty two and thirty five million dollars. He got paid him. There's sixty eight million dollars for not playing the game. So in a world of business ladies and gentlemen, we can't sit up there and look at a guy who was paid for not playing. They paid you all of these years. There's been slippage in your game to some degree, even though he did sh you forty five percent from the field, in forty one percent from three point range and averaging about twenty a game. After they all start break this past season, we can't sit up there and look at Joe lakeup in the Golden State Warriors and act like they shafted Klay Thompson. They didn't Klay Thompson. I don't believe he believes that. I think he wants a fresh start. I think he sees Comminga and Pajemski. He knows that's the direction Steve Kurr wants to go in. He also knows that his playing time is going to be compromising. He doesn't want that problem. He knows that Dallas needs shooters, so him leaving Golden State should not be that big of a news. Him ended up going to Dallas, that's an obvious choice. With Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncik and what they can do for you, because obviously Dereck Jones is no shooter, not as PJ. Washington, even though he can make some threes. And so if you got Clay out there, he opens things up for Kyrie, he opens things up for Luca. Plus he opens things up for Gafford and Lively. So it's a good thing. Here's where the story should lie. Why the hell didn't you go to California? Why don't you stay in California and go to the Lakers? Could it be that he didn't want to go someplace where at least it's perceived that the superstar is picking the coach and the draft picks akajj Reddick and Brownie James via Lebron James. Could that be the case? Could that be that Clay Thompson didn't want to be in that predicament, or could it be the fact that Golden State obviously they consider the Lakers a rivalry. They want supremacy with the state of California, and Clay didn't want to do that to them. I don't know the answer to that question. I just know it's legitimate that Lebron James is willing to take a pay cut and nobody that he wanted. King James Harden stayed with the Clippers, Klay Thompson went to Dallas. How come the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Lebron James and Anthony Davis to a lesser degree, couldn't get somebody to come to LA. I'm just asking, I'm just asking, let me switch to the back to the Eastern Conference. Because of the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. Are you know? They're now considered arguably the biggest threats to Boston Celtics after acquiring Paul George, all star forward leaves the Clippers after five seasons and three playoff appearances where he couldn't get LA past the second round of the playoffs, even though I say it's Kawhi Leonard that couldn't get them past the playoffs, by the way, but now Paul George joins Joel and Bean and Tyrese Maxie as the Sixers looked at the throne the Celtics. It's simple for me. I think it's a perfect fit for Paul George, It's a perfect fit for the Philadelphia seventy six Ers. I do think this move elevates the seventy six Ers above the New York Knicks being the number one threat to the Boston Celtics. But I also don't believe we should stop there. We have an obligation to talk about Paul George, who I love, not just as a player, but as a guy. I think he's one of the nicest people on the planet. Loved working with him. By the way, during the NBA Finals, enjoyed that here's a deal. Paul George has missed thirty three percent of his game in the Clippers uniform. George is one of the longest tenured players who have never played in the NBA Finals. Paul George is also an individual that has averaged about forty seven games a year up until this last season, when I believe he played about seventy four. All right, he played seventy four games this past season. First four seasons in Los Angeles averaged forty seven point three games per season. And by the way, the Clippers have not won a playoff series since reaching the twenty twenty one Conference finals. So even though I was on the record saying that Darryl Moury has the most pressure on him to make sure you feel the roster that can produce results, to knock off the bosson Celtics. Make no mistake about it. I did not mean to imply that there is no pressure on Paul George. We saw one of the reasons the Sixers didn't achieve is because of Tobias Harris, not his game, because I believe Tobias Harris has gained. The problem with Obias Harris is that he wasn't aggressive, He wasn't assertive, and he didn't step his foot forward and be that aggressive individual that you needed him to be to take some of the load off of Joel Andbid and Tyrese MAXI. That was the problem with Obias Harris. And when you consider the fact that the Sixers were willing to let Jimmy Butler walk out the door in order to retain Tobias Harris, that makes it even worse that he wasn't willing to step up. Paul George doesn't have that problem. Twenty two points a game, forty seven percent shooting from the field, which was a career high, forty one point three percent shooting from three point range, which was a career high. Over ninety percent shooting from the free throw line, which ninety point seven to be exact, which was also all a career high. Paul George could be that dude, because we know what he brings defensively, and now you're talking about him having the ability to defend the Jalen Brown or to defend the Jason Tatum. That's gonna only help the Philadelphia seventy six ers. What that means is that Paul George has to bring the kind of game we know he's capable of bringing in order to help the Sixers get over the hump. He is not devoid of pressure, and I did not mean to imply that he was. I just feel mores on Darryl Morey because you still need a couple of other pieces. But Paul George has to step up and get it done. It's just that simple. So I just wanted to make sure that I said that and got that out the way before anybody could convoluted or could misconstrude my position. By the way, as an aside, let me now forget to mention Donovan Mitchell. He signed three years over one hundred and fifty million. He's gonna about fifty million a year from the Cleveland Cavaliers. This means nothing to me. Donovan Mitchell deserves the money. I personally don't believe that's someplace he wants to stay. He's just making sure he gets his money first. He could always ask out later. And if you're the New York Knicks, to anybody else, you might have some tradable assets. I love Donovan Mitchell. I think he's a number one offensive scoring option. I think he's a star in this league. I think he's good for twenty five at night. He is no joke. He is worth the bag, no doubt. I just don't see him staying in Cleveland. I know he just signed, I know he's committed there, but they all do just to make sure they get their money, and then after that they ask out. So I still think that next season will be Donovan Mitchell's last in Cleveland. But that's just me. That's just where I'm coming from. But I'm happy for him. Good guy, star player, deserves his bag. Coming out the Supreme Court hand former President Donald Trump of victory. Whether it's ruling yesterday, I'll get into that right here. When the Steven A. Spenshaw over the digital airways with YouTube and of course iHeartRadio back with more in a minute before I close out the show, Everyone knows how demand excellence, and I'm in it to win it. So that's why I've teamed with Prize Picks, America's number one fantasy sports app, to turn my sports knowledge into some big time money. In case you already didn't know, Prize Picks is a daily fantasy app where you choose two, three, or even up to six of your favorite players and then simply pick more or less on their projected stats. It honestly takes less time than it does for Asia Wilson to dribble up the court and hit that long range game winning three point shot. Every basket, every strikeout, every goal gets bigger each and every single week. So download the Prospects app today and join a community of more than three million members, and if you do, Prize Picks will match your first time depositive up to one hundred dollars. Yeah that's right, you heard me, So go to Prospects dot com right now and use code sas my initials. Of course, in case you didn't figure that out, just use promo codeesas on prizpects to receive a first deposit match up up to one hundred dollars, and then let the games begin. Prize picts, pick more, pick less. It's really that easy. Welcome back to the Stephen Aate Smithsfield right here over the digital areas, the YouTube, and of course iHeartRadio. Moving on to politics, where yesterday the Supreme Court issued a ruling in favor of former President Donald Trump on the issue of presidential immunity. For the first time in the history of the High Court, it ruled that presidents can never be prosecuted for acts within their core constitutional duties. In addition to that, the Supreme Court says presidents are presumed to be immune from prosecution for most of their official actions. President Biden responded saying the conservative majority on the Court has set a dangerous precedent. He added, quote any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the aforementioned conservative majority, said a former president has quote absolute immunity end quote for acts within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. The decision leaves it to the lower courts to determine if most of the criminal acts Trump was accused of in the wake of the January sixth indictment are official or not. The ruling all but guarantees the case will not go to trial before the November fifth election. Are we surprised? Are we really really surprised? But before I even get into all of that, let me say this because as it regards Donald Trump, he posts it on social media because you know, he always has something to say the minute he thinks anything works in his favor. Within minutes of the ruling, he said, this big win for our constitution and democracy. Proud to be an American. That's what he said. No surprise there. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat out of New York, and the statement reacting to the ruling said House Democrats quote will engage in aggressive oversight and legislative activity to ensure that the extreme far right justices in the majority are brought into compliance with the constitution. You see, let me try to be a little delegate here. I could say I told you so, but I won't. We're trying to act like the president is a normal person that have normal rules and regulations and laws applicable to them, just like everybody else. That's what we want to believe, Okay, is what we want to believe. Let me throw out a bunch of rhetorical questions for y'all, do you, as an American citizen, just an ordinary American citizen, I have the right to declare war on a nation? Do you have the right to do that? Do you have a right to withhold weapons to another power, another country because you don't like how they're conducting their own war? Do you have the right to do most of these things that presidents can do, like signing stuff in the law after Congress and Senate brings it to his desk. You have the right to do that. You know the answer to that question? Why are we acting like we don't know? The key to the ruling as far as I'm concerned by the six conservative justices is they were basically talking about his actions as a president. He has the right to talk to the attorney general about whatever's going on. He has a right, you understand, if he wants to declare war about somebody without worrying about being prosecuted. Because if you're going to get prosecuted for something, that might influence your decision to be the commander in chief. And they're taking that into consideration. But rather than get into the technical mumbo jump of all of this other stuff, it shows the damage when we've allowed ourselves to politicize our courts. I've always been in opposition towards the president or any administration picking Supreme Court justices. I think Supreme Court justices should have term limits. I don't think they should be allowed to stay in office for the remainder of their natural lives or until they retire. I think you should have maximum twenty year window as a Supreme Court justice. Every twenty years, there should be somebody else up in there by law. That's what I think. I don't believe it should be selected by either party. I think folks who are involved in the law. I'm not talking about a legislative body. I'm not talking about the House of Congress. I'm not talking about the Senate. I'm talking about separate and apart from them. Someone associated with the judiciary should be deciding whose Supreme Court justices are. And it shouldn't be based on party affiliations. It shouldn't be conservative or liberal. That's my personal opinion. But rather than get into all of that, let me just say this. It's no surprise. It's no surprise. And when you see Biden going off and you see a King Jeffreys taking the position that he had. Would he have said that had the ruling been in the favorite of liberals, that's why we can't We have to take it with a grain of salt. We can't trust any of them. Would you have said that if the ruling had leaned toward the liberal side. We know what Sonya Soto Mayo said in her descent. We know what Kantarji Brown Jackson said in her descent. We get that they're liberals and they feel a certain way. You're conservatives, you feel a certain well, you're conservative, you don't have any problem with this ruler for the most part. Well, if you're the liberal side, excuse me, what level of culpability are you willing to embrace because of this? Because this is the real reason I brought up the subject. You understand, ladies and gentlemen, that the Democrats are making the same mistake that they made with Ruth Beta Ginsburg. Now I understand that Arriva Martin political analyst and what have you. I love her, I love her being on the show. I understand what she said yesterday when I asked this question about Bill maher calling President Biden Ruth Beta Biden. She said there was no correlation. I beg to differ. I emphatically disagree with her. Let me remind y'all, and rewind o'clock. It's twenty fifteen, two thousand, approaching twenty sixteen. Barack Obama is in office. The Obama administration desperately wants Ruth Beta Ginsburg, who had health issues. By the way, God rest her soul, but she had health issue at the time. They desperately wanted her to retire so they could elect or select her successor for the Supreme Court. She refused. Why did she refuse to step down because, according to numerous reports, she swore up and down Hillary Rodham Clinton was gonna beat Donald Trump in the election, and she wanted Hillary Rodham Clinton the first women's president in the United States of America. Had that happened, she wanted hard to be able to select Ruth Betta Ginsburg's successor. And what happened, Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the election, Donald Trump won. Ruth Beta Ginsburg didn't step down, so years later, while Donald Trump was in office, she passed away. God rest herself. And because she passed away, Donald Trump was able to select her successor and to other justices, and as a result, instead of the majority being five to four, because that's what it would have been had Ruthbaya Ginsburg stepped down, that Barack Obama selected her successor. The court is now six ' three. What's happening right now? Bottom shows up on a debate stage after months and months and months of scrutiny about his cognitive decline, and what have you agreeing to a presidential debate that has never really been this early. We usually see that the Democratic of the Republican national conventions. He goes and he engages in the debate prior to all of that, clearly to prove a point, and ended up putting forth an absolute disastrous performance, to the point where the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Atlanta Journal, Constitution, the New Yorker Magazine, along with various other folks within the Democratic Party, and what have you calling for him to step down and step aside so a Kamala Harris or Wes Moore, a Gaven Newsom or somebody can step in and go for the Democratic nomination to win the presidency of the United States of America. That is what is happening. How do we not see the correlation Ruth Bader Ginsburg resfuses a step aside. President Biden refuses a step aside. The Democrats go for it. It cost them a Supreme Court justice seat. The Democrats are going in for this now it may cost them the presidency. How do we not see the correlation, ladies and gentlemen, I'm just talking about it. I'm asking you. I'm not even taking any hard and fast stances. If I'm some definitive I have some definitive answer because I'm some officient out or no, I'm an American citizen who pays attention and votes. That's what I do. And I encourage you to go to the polls and vote, no matter what side you're voting for, go to the polls. Make your voice heard. Don't sit up there and be silent. Don't be a participant in the process. Barack Obama said it during his speech during the Democratic National Convention in twenty sixteen. You gotta get in it. You gotta be a participant. You can't just sit on the sidelines. This ain't about yes, he will this about yes. We can remember all of that. Well, you need participation in order for that to happen. And also you need sense like common sense, like paying attention and the sea and the tea leaves and understanding what's going on here. This does correlate Biden's refusal to step aside does correlate with Ruth beta Ginsburg. And in that instance, it cost you a seat on the court for the Supreme Court. And we see what it has transpired since then. Roe v. Waded along with various other things. Again, I'm not taking sides. I'm just telling you what the facts are. And so now here we are again, and what we got is a situation where we gotta look at it, and it's like, listen, this is what's gonna come down to. It's gonna cost you the presidency. And why is it gonna cost you the presidency? Because you want to stay the course when staying the course has clearly worked against you in recent in the recent past. You're gonna do it again. You're gonna do it again. Good luck with that. Good luck with that. Let me get to my tweets before I get on out of here for the day. Please, let's see what tweets we got coming up here, because I want to see what people's got to say at just Kenny one eighty one writes Stephen A. Smith, is it time for Genie bus to relieve Rob of his duties and give Bob Meyers a shot. What I'm gonna say to you is, that's a damn good question. Bob Myes went to UCLA, he lives in California, he's a native there, and he's an elite executive who has four championships on his resume. Kind of knows what he's doing. I watched Rob Polenka mess out on getting Tyler. I watched Rob Polinka hire Frank Vogel and then he's gone. I watched him higher Darbingham and then he's going in two years, nice high, JJ Reddick. I'm looking at the roster yet the mercy of Lebron James, no matter how Lebron James tries to deny it. I'm not saying that he's making choices or whatever, but this notion that he has nothing to do with the decisions that the Lakers make as a damn lie. Nobody believes that. Nobody. So I don't want to say it's time for Bob Myes to replace Rob Polinka, but I will say Rob a Link is on the clock, and he's got things to prove, because if it's not good enough for Frank Voga to win the championship and keep his job, If it's not good enough even though he didn't want Russell Westbrook and others didn't want Russell Westbrook, then I'm not talking about Russell Westbrook with the Clippers, because I think he's been fabulous. I'm talking about the Russell Westbrook that had a disastrous stay with the Lakers. But Rob he Linka made that happen right because Lebron James wanted them to. If Frank Voger couldn't keep his job and darvinham takes you to the Western Conference finals his rookie year and then the second year he loses to the reigning defending champions at that time in five games, if he can't keep his job, well, how many coaches were gonna get rid of before we look at rober Linka. So again, I'm not advocating for his dismissal by any stretch, but if I got a guy like Bob Myers out there, it is legitimate to simply ask the question, how long do you keep them on the sidelines when you have an opportunity to have him? How long do you do that. Sometimes it ain't about the other person doing a bad job. It's about knowing what a great job this person can do because they've already done it. That's all I'm saying. We'll see what happens next. Tweet what do you got for me? Show me what you gotta Let's see it there at ben Affleck Steven A. Smith, what's one piece of financial advice you wish someone told you. I've always been told to save and invest my money. But I also think that when I think about financial advice, understanding risks that you want to take risk for everybody else is different. Some people are renegades and they want to put it all on the line. I'm one of those guys. I'm relatively conservative in my approach. I will take risk with anything that doesn't risk my quality of life. So if I have a base number that I'm able to say this would help maintain and sustain my quality of life, then I'm all for taking chances right up until that quality of life is in danger of being compromised. At that particular moment, I get conservative and I'm just not gonna let that happen. And so for me, that's how I look at it. Of course you should save. Of course you should have a nest egg, and the perfect world, you should have six months salary in your bank account. In the event that you can't afford you're not making any money, you're unemployed or whatever, you've been compromised, a six month nest egg for you to sustain your quality of life. That is good, exceedingly good, is if it's at least a year, because it buys you time to go out there and get an additional opportunity before your stuff starts getting diluted. But also the biggest thing is don't live beyond your means. That's the biggest thing. You can buy whatever you want to buy. You can do whatever you want to do, but make sure it's within your means. Don't spend excessively where you live in check to check because you can't stop spending. When you do that, you have no discipline, and inevitably you will fall because your habits are not good. And that's what you have to remember. Do we have any more tweets? Any more tweets? Right here? Two more to go before I get on out here at Amen twenty twenty four Wolves Stephen Smith. If the early bird gets the worm. Why do they tell you that good things come to those who wait? Because patience is a virtue and all that glitters ain't gold. Yeah, the early bird gets the worm. Fine, I got all of that, but you didn't bring up the aftermath of all of that. How it feels once it got the worm, How the worm makes it feel? Was it did it satiate? Did it please you as much as you thought it would be, was it as fulfilling, etc. That's not to say you wait forever, but patience is called upon by the wise far more often than not. And so that's the way that I look at it. That would be my answer to that question. Last tweet here what you got at Gerald Underscore, mont Fort, Steven A Smith, Stephen A. Smith. What would be Golden State Warriors title chances if they land a big time player like Lori Marknen Well, that depends on who they would have to give up. Lorie Marketing can Ball I like him a lot? And with Steph Curry did, they would be special. And Draymond Green and his defensive prowess, they would be special. Kaminga and Pajemski there, sure, but chances are you'd have to give up something to get him and what you're gonna give up because it has to be a lot, so you gotta pay attention to that. Plus, I personally believe Golden State didn't have a chance against the likes of the Denvers of the world, the Boston Celtics of the world and others because size matters, and I think they need a big so Draymond can do all the things that he does without having a guard centers and without having to preoccupy himself energy wise with people so much bigger than him. If you remember when the Lakers, when I'm sorry, when the Warbians were winning championships, you had Andrew Bogan in the middle, you had Ja Ja Pajulia in the middle, you had big bodies to throw out there. So Draymond didn't have to spend so much time flexing against these brothers. That's what you need. You need some girth. I think Golden State has the greatest shooter God has ever created in Steph Curry. I think they have a multitude of players on this squad who can really really ball. I think they have athleticism, I think they have talent, They clearly have exceptional coaching, and I think the combination of all of those things, they just need girth. And if they have girth, I think they'll be just fine. That's the answer to my question. I think they need that more than they need a Lorri remarketing. But I get where you're coming from because he can play and he would compliment them very very well. That's it for this edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show. I want you all to make sure you enjoy your Fourth of July and beyond. I'll be with you later on this week. Enjoy your time with your family, your friends, your loved ones. We only live once. Y'all live it up, have a good time, smile, laugh, enjoy your time with loved ones, people that you care about it and you do care about you, Okay, don't have a bunch of phony as people around you smiling in your face but stabbing you in the back and ey chance they get you. Don't need people like that in your life, especially around Fourth of July that's about to come together. Loved ones, friends, families and everything in between. That's what you should be thinking about. That's what you should be doing. Okay. In case shit I didn't know, I got to get on out of here. I'm gonna enjoy my fourth of July. I hope that you all do the same. I'll be back with you on Friday. This Friday with the Stephen X. Smiths Show right here with the digital areas of YouTube and iHeartRadio. Until then, Peace of love, everybody,