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Jan. 17, 2023 - Sean Hannity Show
37:03
Best of Hannity - Stephen A. - January 16th, Hour 3
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If you want to be a part of the program on this Friday, we're gonna take a little a little break, much needed break from everything that's going on with Top Secret, classified information, hypocrisy, media mob insanity.
Uh, and we're gonna talk to our friend.
It's an honor, it's a privilege, it's a pleasure to have in studio somebody who's uh really genuine genuinely a great friend of mine, somebody I have enormous respect for, uh, but we are friends.
He's taken a lot of crap uh for that, more than I've had to take for being his friend.
I don't know why.
Uh Stephen A. Smith is with us.
Uh buddy.
You got your new book out.
It's called Straight Shooter.
Yeah.
A memoir of second chances and first takes.
And by the way, I want everyone to know it's available on Amazon.com, Hannity.com, bookstores everywhere.
And now before I get into this book shocked me.
And I read it cover to cover.
And I'm I don't get shocked often.
My first question is when did we first get to know each other?
Uh because I don't remember.
I'm trying to think.
Listen, um, during 2009, when ESPN let me go, um, I was doing, I was on the circuit, you know.
Fox, MSNBC, and I was all over the place, and I was doing interviews because I was thinking about a career that expanded beyond the world of sports.
And, you know, I used to be on ABC radio and and and stuff like that, and then you had me on.
And I you defended you.
Yes, you did.
Well, you did that that is true.
You absolutely defended me with some of the controversies that I have been involved in in the years that followed.
But at that particular moment in time, I go on the air with you and I'm going back and forth with you about my opinions.
You're like, wait a minute.
This guy's not off his rocket.
You thought I was doing some left some some left wing zealot or whatever, and you found out that listen, I'm a I'm an independent, yeah, I've got some left-wing views about things, and I've got some things that I'm conservative about.
And so all of a sudden we could have a discussion, and it was a an agree to disagree kind of relationship without there being any kind of animosity.
And from that point forward, we've always kept in touch, we've always communicated, and you've always invited me on your shows.
And here's the here's the thing that shocked me about the book, and where I don't get shocked that often.
I I I we never had that time to sit as friends and talk about life.
And I read this book.
I will tell you, I tear it up another number of times.
I had no idea about how how hard your life was when you were young, the adversity that you had faced, uh, the challenges you had to overcome.
Um, and and now I admire you that much more for it.
Let me let me give an example for ex i in this book, because I I read that you had left been left back twice.
Yes.
In fourth grade.
Third grade, I got left back.
Oh, third and fourth grade.
Well, whatever.
I got left back in third grade that June.
I went to summer school and then I got promoted to the fourth grade.
And then after I went I completed the fourth grade, I got left back again, and this time held back for the entire fourth grade year.
Right.
Okay.
Now th this is where it gets really hairy for me, and that is that you hear overhear a conversation between your mother and your father.
Yeah.
And that conversation is your dad pretty much dismisses you as as dumb and stupid and and get over it.
This is just the way it's gonna be.
And then your mom heard it and and realized that you had heard it.
Yeah.
She was talking to him in the kitchen, and we had a back porch just a few feet away.
The door was closed, but the window was open.
And I was sitting on the back porch crying because the kids in the neighborhood were all laughing at me because they found out I got left back and they was I was the only one on the block that got left back.
And so I was pretty embarrassed and I went to the back porch, and while I was sitting back there sobbing, my mother didn't know I was back there.
My father didn't know I was back there, and they were in the kitchen just a few feet behind me with the door shut, obviously they didn't see me, and my father looked at her and he was like, he just ain't smart.
Just get over it.
That's you just gotta accept it.
That's he don't have it.
Just live with that.
I mean, that's devastating.
It was.
That's uh that's emotionally devastating.
You start the book out in your introduction uh talking about the day your mom dies.
Yeah.
And talk about that day.
And the difference between your mom and dad in terms of the impact in your life and your dad, you actually ended that introduction by saying, Because of him, I've never taken more than three drinks in a week in my life.
Right.
Uh I've never smoked or done drugs, including marijuana or what are referred to on my show as the weed.
Yes.
I I never married partly because I'm usually on the road for well over half the year, uh, but mainly because I never wanted to dishonor my marital vows.
This plays into your dad.
So talk about the day your mom dies and the r your relationship with your dad.
My mother died June 1, 2017.
It was opening game for Golden State, Cleveland Cavaliers, uh, that series.
And for me, it to this day is the most devastating thing that ever happened to me.
My mother was my everything.
Uh we were very, very close, very tight.
And because of the relationship that I had with my father, and because of the kind of man uh that he was, it put an inordinate amount of responsibilities on her shoulders.
And the resentment that I had, you know, with my sisters, the difference between us is that they looked at his infidelity, the womanizing, uh stuff like that.
My biggest thing was he didn't pay bills and he left the onus, that responsibility on the shoulders of my mother.
So my mother would work 16 hours a day, seven days a week.
She'd work at Queen's General Hospital and then go from Queen's General Hospital right over there near the Grand Central Parkway, right down the road to a nursing home, and she'd work from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven nights a week for 20 straight years with one week's vacation.
And to me, we had to do she had to do that because of what he didn't do.
And so for me to get to a point where my career was ascending, and I was able to do things for her that I never would have dreamed that I would have been able to do.
And for her to have her life cut short after a lengthy battle with cancer.
It was seven years.
Seven years, seven year battle with cancer.
And then I had been at the house that night.
My sisters were around or whatever, and we just thought that we knew she was transitioning to some degree, but we thought, you know, what she she'd survive or whatever.
So I went home to go get some sleep, knowing I was gonna come back in the morning.
And I live about 45 minutes away, and I pulled into my driveway and my sister calling, get back here now.
That's all she said.
And I didn't even park.
I didn't even change.
I just turned right back around and I drove home.
And by that time she was gone, and I saw my sister Abigail spooning her and hugging her, and I just saw her laying there motionless, and I just collapsed on the bed and I crumbled, and I don't even remember how long I cried.
And I remember that for the next year, the year and a half, there wasn't a day that I didn't cry.
And I was just devastated all the time.
Go on TV.
I remember one time you interviewed me about something, everybody, and I was very good at being in the moment and handling my business.
But the second I got alone, all I could think about was her.
And the misery just couldn't I just couldn't get out of my head seeing her motionless and knowing that she was gone.
What didn't make sense to me is that your mom wanted your dad next to her.
Yes.
And he spent most of this night where she's passing watching, I believe, the Golden State Warriors against somebody.
Yes.
And barely going up there and even saying hold holding her hand.
Correct.
Yeah, he does that was that was him.
Um I'm quite sure in his own way.
He believed he loved my mother dearly, but the selfishness uh never escaped him in my in my estimation.
It was difficult for me to say because it's not like I didn't love my dad.
I wish he was better.
Uh but the damage that his inactions, the data the damage that his irresponsible behavior caused the family, especially her, was really something that resonated with me.
And you know, from the night that she passed away, I mean, it was even the time before that.
It was a couple of months before she passed.
My sisters in our huddle, and we look at him and we sit him down.
We like, she needs you by her side.
And he said, you know, West Indian accents, stuff like that.
Ah, you don't know your mother the way.
I'm from the Caribbean.
That's right.
He's from St. Thomas.
You know, my mother and father were from St. Thomas Virgin Islands.
Uh, he was really from Antigua, but they lived, they was born in, she was born in St. Thomas.
They were both raised in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
All my relatives are from the West Indies.
And he said, Ah, you don't know your mother the way that I do.
He said, She's not sick.
It's all an act.
And I looked at him and I got in his face and I said, What the F did you just say?
I said, She's sick, she's dying.
And he looked me dead in my face.
He said, I got it.
I understand.
And I said, What do you mean?
You got it.
Your daughters, all four of your daughters are sitting right here.
They just told you.
They just told you.
And he said, They're not you.
They're women.
So he wouldn't listen to my sister say the same thing that I said because they were women.
And, you know, it it just an example of the many, many things that, you know, I had to deal with in growing up because on one hand, you got this man that you want to respect you and you want to love you and you want his approval.
But on the other hand, I'm a young man who l dearly loves my mother, my four older sisters, and I have these five women who are strong-willed black women who raised me to be who I am, who deserve all the credit in the world for what I've been able to achieve and accomplish in my life.
I want to explain that in a minute because there's a story behind that.
Uh but overhearing that conversation, what your dad said the exact words were, he's just not that smart.
He'll never succeed.
Just accept that.
Yes.
I believe in the next day you wrote about how your mom took you to see the movie Greece, something she'd never do.
Um that to me was pretty hard to hear.
It was hard for me to read that you I uh the way it read was I thought you got back left back twice in the fourth grade, but it was third grade, then you went to summer school, but then you got left back in the fourth grade.
That's right, and held back and had to repeat fourth grade.
And then there was this guy, I don't remember his name that you do you talk about in the book that you talk brought you and your mom into school and started telling your mom now you had figured out at some point they didn't have the word for it at the time.
You were dyslexic.
Okay.
So and that's a we know that's real.
Yeah.
They didn't know it then.
Correct.
They didn't have that name then.
Correct.
But this school principal person, teacher, whatever it was.
Mr. Caravan.
Okay.
He he brings your mom in and says, uh-uh-uh.
This kid's smart as hell.
Right.
I said, he gets bored easily.
If he's not interested in that topic, he's not interested.
Right.
Find something he's interested in and watch what happens.
He will be a star.
Is that a direct quote?
That's a direct quote.
You definitely did read the book.
I read the book.
That's exactly what he said.
And how right he was.
It was it was life-changing because he was a teacher that had the power to fail me or pass me or whatever, and he sat my mother down and he said he drifts.
He said, When he's bored, he doesn't hear you.
He said, People think he doesn't comprehend.
No, he never heard you because he's not listening.
It went in one ear and not the other.
He can't tell you what you said because he paid no attention to it.
He said, because that's how he gets.
He said, but when you find something that he's interested in, make no mistake.
And here's the interesting part.
I was interested in two things.
I was interested in sports, and I was interested in politics, but not as a politician.
I love the issues.
I loved watching debates.
I loved watching whether it was mirror figures, it was gubernatorial figures.
It was like that's why you text me and give me so much of your BS all the time.
No, no, no, it's not BS.
I'm usually right, Sean.
I'm usually right.
Just tell the world, I'm usually right.
But it's okay.
Then there was a moment where, man, this is rough stuff.
Yeah.
Where I guess your sisters were were giving you a hard time, and you were an act, you were the accident.
Right.
Yeah, they were just playing around.
They were always talking about, oh, please, you know, because I'm the youngest six.
My older sister Linda's ten years older than me.
Yeah.
My sister Arlen is eight years older than me.
My brother, my late brother that died in a car accident in 1992.
He was nine years older than me.
So you had Linda at 10, Basil at nine, Allen at eight.
My sister Abby Gill was six years old, six years older than me, and Carmen is four.
So four years separated me from Carmen.
So they used to be like, you know what, you're you weren't attention, you were an accident, blah, blah, blah.
My mother said, Oh, you shut up.
He was the only one who was on purpose.
That was a good line.
That was pretty cool.
That was a lie.
So she was saying that all the time.
When they figured out that this was a a reading issue, and it just didn't have the name dyslexia.
Then a number of people, including your sisters, I believe.
Yes.
In your life, they made it their business to get you up to speed in terms of reading.
Primarily my oldest sister Linda.
Linda was villa uh brilliant, valedictorian in school, um, and she was somebody that would sit me down and and literally taught me how to read, and then on the side, when I'd go for my friend Ronnie Robertson's house, who lived right around the corner from me, his older brother Timber was also very brilliant, and the they would they wouldn't collaborate with one another, but separately, they both worked on me overcoming my reading comprehension impediment, and that was when I was able to really, really take things to a new height.
And then you you start in radio.
Yes.
And you make your way into television.
By the way, I made more than you in my first job.
You made 15 grand, I made 19.
Yes.
That was the newspapers though, for me, 15,000.
That wasn't bad.
What was the first one?
Green uh Greenboro News.
And then you went to the Philly Bureau.
Then Philly Inquirer.
Philly Inquirer was after the New York Daily News as a high school reporter for 14 months.
Uh and then you had your first stint on TV, and then very well, and you went two years being off TV.
Well, that was ESPN in 2009.
I mean, I started off in television at CNN SI in 1999.
I went to Fox Sports in 2001.
I ended up at ESPN in 2003, and in 2009, ESPN decided to let me go over a contract dispute.
And so after when you know when that happened, um, you know, I was I was out of a job uh from that that May uh to that February, and then after that, um, I came back on and I was doing radio, and then I did radio for a year for Fox Sports Radio, and then they brought me back to ESPN radio, but they prohibited me from being on television.
But that changed.
We'll pick it up from we'll pick up the story from there.
Stephen A. Smith is with us.
What an incredible I I mean, starting at uh uh with a deficit that's you know, your own father thinks you're not gonna make it, you're not smart, you're stupid, just accept it.
And now one of the biggest stars in all of sports, radio, and television.
Uh he's now out with his own memoir, A Straight Shooter, a memoir of second chances and first takes.
Uh it's a phenomenal book.
It'll bring tears to your eyes, and it'll make you cheer for this guy more and more as you get to know and see what he went through and how he's been able to turn his life into this great success.
Uh, there's a lot for everybody to learn, including yours truly.
I've learned a lot in this book.
More with Stephen A. Smith, his book on Amazon.com, Hannity.com, bookstores everywhere uh as of next week as we continue.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional tass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down with verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey there.
I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started normally a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.
So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass.
You're our kind of people.
Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday and Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.com,
uh a first print edition, uh Hannity.com.
Bookstores everywhere.
Don't you have signed copies on Premier?
Yes, you know what?
What's the word?
I can't believe it's straight shoot a book.com, but I cannot believe I still have my right arm.
I signed, personally signed 25,000 signatures.
I got you beat.
I did 80.
You did 80,000?
Yeah.
I didn't straight shooter books.com.
I didn't know.
I think I think that I would hide from Simon and Schuster if they came to me for 80,000.
Did I not do 80,000?
Yes.
Your own person is Oh my lord.
We love dearly.
All right, quick break right back more with Stephen A and his incredible life story on the other side.
Let me come back more of the best of the Sean Hannity Show.
Stay tuned.
You are listening to the best of the Sean Hannity Show.
Sean Hannity talks to the people involved in the top stories of the day.
Every day.
All right, 25 to the top of the hour.
Stephen A. Smith really doesn't need an introduction.
His new book is out, Straight Shooter, a memoir of second chances and first takes.
You told another story.
So we we go through this whole evolution in your life, man.
You have a such a painful childhood.
What admiration I have for your mom.
We've talked about we have similar moms.
My mom was a prison guard working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, just like yours.
Um I didn't have the stress that you had with your father, and that's tough.
And that really was those words that you heard were brutal.
But you overcome this.
You find sports as a passion.
You start looking, I think you mentioned names like Brian Gumble.
Yeah, um, and you meant but Brent Musberger, I think he mentioned Howard Co.
Howard Coast.
Speaking of sports.
Um I love Howard Cousell with Mohammed Ali.
There's no better, there's no better nothing better.
Um then you run into a situation, you're you're playing basketball yourself.
Yeah.
In uh Winston Salem.
Yes.
Okay.
And you have a coach.
Yeah.
Clarence Big House Games.
Like a second father to you.
Yeah, legend.
Okay.
Something happens to the coach with his health.
Yeah.
I could not believe what I read.
I could not believe you did this.
Yes.
Tell the story.
He has some health issues.
I don't know what it specifically was.
I thought it was mild strokes.
Somebody said it could have been cerebral bully.
I don't know what it was, but sometimes he would show up to practice in games with a patch over his eye.
And he would, you know, he would lose conscience to some degree, like semi-conscious at at particular moments in time.
So I was a member of the basketball team.
I write it for the school newspaper.
And I said, I always would sit in this office and talk with him.
You loved him.
I loved him dearly.
Always will.
And, you know, I would talk to him and I said, Coach, you need to retire.
You're not healthy.
And we got into a little argument about it.
He said, I don't give a damn what you say.
Shut the F up and get the hell out of my office right now.
I said, Coach, I'm dead serious.
I'm not gonna watch you collapse on the sidelines and stuff like that.
You got a long life ahead of you.
And add something here.
You really had a genuine fear he would die.
Yes.
Yes, I did.
A lot of us did on the team.
We didn't know.
It wasn't educated.
We just looked went by what we were seeing from him.
And so I said to him, I'm right for the school newspaper.
I said, I'm gonna write a story that you need to retire.
And he said to me, you know, I don't give a F what you write.
You know, I said, get the hell out of my office.
I said, okay.
I said, you got a problem with that?
He said, do what you want to do.
And I went and I wrote the story about how he needed to retire.
And so so many people would take giving me heed about it.
Oh my Lord, you got you got teammates that were praying that I wouldn't lose my scholarship.
You had coaches that wanted me gone, the chancellor of the school.
He later denied that he had any recall of it whatsoever, but he wanted me gone or whatever.
And folks showed up to his office one day, and Coach Gaines said, Leave him alone.
He said he looked me in my face, told me what he felt and why.
And he got my perspective, and then he went and he wrote it.
He wants to be a journalist.
This is what comes with it.
Leave him alone.
What was the net result?
Well, I stayed on scholarship.
Um, and we just moved forward, and then ultimately, uh a few years later, uh, he was pushed out uh by by some alumni members who I'm still salty with because I thought they were very shady and how they went about dealing with him.
They didn't deal with him on the on the up and up, and considering what he had meant to that institution, being there for over 45 years, winning a national championship, being a perennial powerhouse, the black men that he had brought to HBCUs and a contribution that he had made to so many of our lives, because it wasn't just about sports.
You could be a great athlete of the great a great player, but Coach Gaines was the kind of person that that is all you were about.
Right.
He did not want to talk to you outside of the basketball court.
You had to be about something more than that.
And when in my case, I wasn't great on a basketball court, plus I was perpetually injured, but he looked at the contribution he thought that I would have off the court, and that's why he talked to me all the time and he embraced me.
Let's go back to the teacher that first identified you had this gift, this brilliance, or this passion, and that you in fact were smart as hell, smarter than anybody knew, and that you would be a star.
Because the w it's interesting, and I talk a lot about this on the program, and for some people this is a little repetitive, but you know, I studied Latin in high school.
Okay.
The Latin derivative for education is to bring forth from within.
And what this man was identifying to you and your mother is what he saw in you, a gift God gave you.
Yeah, which is like me, you have a big mouth.
And but you have a passion.
Right.
Well, I have a passion.
I got behind the radio microphone.
That was it.
Game over.
Check mate.
That's all I wanted to do, period.
I was done.
Right.
There was nothing else I was gonna pursue.
So you you found it in sports, and once you identified it, it was like a rocket ship.
It was a rocket ship.
Because what happened is is that he was a social studies teacher, and he would see how my interest, my fervor, and my knowledge would seem elevated with certain subjects compared to others.
So he was like, You're interested in this.
Why is it this way?
And I like this bores me.
And he figured out that my, you know, whatever level of excellence I put forth was contingent on what I was passionate about.
And so when he said that to my mother, it was like, wow, okay.
Now I took that, well, I'm passionate about sports.
Then I coupled that with the insults that still resonated with me coming from my father.
So all of a sudden he was a Yankee fan.
Now I'm watching baseball, and I know baseball.
You mentioned Craig Nettles, Junior, Greg Nettles, Chris Chambliss, and Ron Gidry, Goose Gossage, and all of these guys.
So I'm studying and I'm watching a game, and all of a sudden, you know, before long, my father's like, Well, what the hell is going on here?
He he ain't as as dumb as I thought he was.
This dude is telling me about what's going on in sports.
And you you described your father would sit there.
Why did he throw a why didn't he throw a fastball?
Should have thrown a slider.
That's right.
Why did that idiot swing at this pitch?
Why did that third base coach waive the runner home?
Which that graded him more than anything.
He could because his whole point is you ain't the manager.
You got One job.
Right.
How is it that you can't do that one job?
Keep this dude from getting thrown out at home.
How could you mess that up?
So my father was real big on those things, and he was passionate about it.
Well, in order to sit up there and debate with him or exceed his level of knowledge, I had to really study the game.
And so I used to watch these games and watch them over and over and over again.
And it got to a point where I knew what everybody's job description was.
And that's how I mastered the sport.
So when he would come back and say, This pitcher made that mistake, I said, No, Dad actually didn't make that mistake.
That particular hitter he was throwing the ball against, he always is susceptible to the slider.
That's why he threw the slider.
The mistake that he made was throwing a fastball because he was waiting for that pitch.
That's and my father's like, what the hell is going on here?
He said, Well, why the hell did this guy keep he can't even hit a single?
Well, Dad, he always swings and he always pulls the ball.
So what they do is they take the second baseman and the shortstop and they lean him over to the left because they know he's gonna pull the ball at all times.
If he just lays off of it a little bit, it'll get a blip to the other side.
It'll go to the other side.
And he saw that he was like, What the hell is going on?
I can't believe this.
And he would tell my mother, I can't believe what's going on here.
One more story about your mom prior to our her obviously passing away.
Yeah, is when you got fired, she kicked your ass.
Yeah, she did.
She put you in your place.
Yeah.
By the way, I wish I knew she sounds so much like my mother.
I love it.
Jennifer's not even listening.
You should be listening, Jennifer.
Well, believe it or lie, she didn't know you that well, but she would have loved the relationship that you and I have because my mother, this is the thing, and this is what I try to tell a lot of folks about uh a lot of African Americans, a lot of black people in this country.
You might have a lot of people voting Democrat.
That is not what goes on in our home.
Our homes are very, very conservative.
My mother wanna hear about your rights.
Yeah, you got a right to shut the hell up and do what the hell I tell you to do.
Or your father's gonna whip you behind.
That's what you ain't got no rights here.
You get rights when you get grown.
This is what we're going to do.
Yeah, we're gonna budget.
No, we're not gonna just spend.
Excuse me.
What do you mean spend spinster?
You have the money?
What is what's going on here?
My mother was a stickler for all of those things.
You know, you got gay rights, transgender, all of this other stuff.
No, not my mother's house, though.
You want to hear none of that.
This is my household.
Whatever's going out on the streets, it's going out on the streets.
But in this household, we're a Christian household.
Okay, this is the way I might be Episcopalian, I'll allow you to be non-denominational.
But that's about the level of flexibility that we're gonna have in this house.
Get the hell over it.
This is the way it was gonna be.
My mother didn't play.
She didn't play at all.
There was no compromise.
And so my mother was that uh of that ilk and she was that type of person.
So when I got let go by ESPN, I come home and I'm laying down in my bunk bed where I grew up.
And my mother was always good about it.
She wanted my, I know she knows I loved my toasted bagels with a little extra butter and some scrambled eggs and my hot tea with milk and sugar and stuff like that.
Oh man, that's what I love.
Did she give you your little teddy bear too?
No, she did not, but she didn't have to.
That was my teddy bear.
That food, right?
So I'm in the house, and this one particular day, as I write in the book, it's a tray.
It's a tray of the food and the tea and some orange juice, and on there is a handheld mirror.
And I was like, What is this?
And she said, I'm wondering when you're gonna take a moment to look at yourself.
It's real easy to point the finger at what they did, but what about what you did?
And then she went in on me about times that she overheard me on the phone, and I was being cynical about the bosses.
I was being cynical about decisions that was made.
Um, I would push back and argue a little bit too much.
I was never insubordinate or disrespectful, but I I I was I made life a bit uncomfortable.
And she was like, You're not a boss and you don't like people telling you what to do and talking to you like that.
She was like, Why should they want you if you're gonna cause them that kind of headache?
When are you gonna look at yourself?
And that's what she said to me as she walked out the room.
There's nothing I can say.
Quick break more with Stephen A. Smith on the other side, Straight Shooter, a memoir of second chances and first takes.
Uh, it's on Amazon.com.
We have a big link on Hannity.com.
And by the way, straight shooter book.com.
If you want an autograph copy, we'll continue on the other side.
Stephen A. Smith is with us.
His new book is out.
Man, this is a great book.
Straight Shooter, a memoir of second chances and first takes.
Uh, by the way, Amazon.com, Hannity.com.
If you want an autograph copy, it's straight shooter book.com.
It's that simple.
You know my son is your biggest fan.
Although he can't stand it.
We when you're going down on his Dallas Cowboys.
He's gonna hate it a lot more in the days and weeks to come because I ain't gonna let you know.
They got a game Monday night against Tampa Bay.
They're gonna let up.
Yeah.
I'm coming.
I'm coming.
But I want to see.
Listen, I like Tom Brady.
That story never ends for me.
Right.
I always cheer for him.
Yeah.
But I also like I'm a Dak fan, also.
Yeah.
I think he's I I think his time is now, and hopefully this year we'll see what he does.
Better hope for it.
So we could talk about all that, but that's not why I wanted this interview.
After re I I thought this interview was gonna be about all these wonderful people that you know and and you know, work with and interview and talk to and and your life and career a little bit, but but this isn't really what that book is about to me.
The book is really about you and about how you were able to overcome all of that to become this huge star.
Everybody knows who you are.
Everybody, and it was funny.
You mentioned at one point in the book you might you hosted for Jimmy Kimmel.
Yes.
Is late night in my future.
Yeah.
And don't ask me to be on your show.
The answer is no.
Oh, please, you'll come on if I want you to come on as many times as I appear for you.
You'd come on my show.
I would.
But listen, I uh listen, I like to have a good time.
Um, contrary to what people believe.
I've always wanted to do late night, but I've got a lot of different aspirations, whether it's radios, podcasts, my production company or whatever.
But I think that I've I've I've been blessed and fortunate enough to be in a position where I can have an impact.
And what I try to do is just have an impact and encourage people to be open to an abundance of the body.
Well, that's what I want to ask next.
You promised your mom that you would not write this book until she passed away.
That was a little weird to me.
I didn't know why.
My mother was incredibly private, and she did not want everyone to know what my father put her through.
She did not want to be alive when that happened.
I think so she asked me in two around, I think it was 2010, going into 2011.
She made me swear to her that I would never write this book as long as she was alive because she knew I would talk about my father.
I only have two minutes left, and I want I want to take this as an opportunity because I think this is such a powerful life story.
Um what do you say to young people that go through adversity?
There's a lot of people that look up to you that are growing up in either similar circumstances, maybe worse circumstances.
There's a lot of pain in this country.
A lot of a lot of there's a lot of violence.
I keep talking about we need law and order and safety and security if you want people to pursue happiness.
Right.
There's a lot of crap going on.
And but people look up to athletes.
They look up to people like you.
My son looks up to you.
I don't know why, but he looks up to you more than me.
And but you have a message for people.
What is it to those the younger people that are facing challenges and things we can't even imagine.
Stop thinking that the world is against you.
No matter what we're going through in this country, no matter what we're going through in this world, there's far more good than bad.
I wouldn't be where I am today if it were not for so many people who extended a helping hand.
One of the things that I bring up in the book is my time at the Winston Salem Journal.
The entire staff was white.
And I remember their names, Steve Steve Mann, Dan Loman, Terry Oberley, Phil Rishak and these guys, uh, you know, Lennox Rawlings and all these that's they could not have been more generous.
They could not have been more kind, they could not have been more giving of their time and their efforts.
If it were not for them, I wouldn't be here.
Um and the same goes for Kevin Whitmer, the former sports head of the New York Daily News and the Gary Howard and the Mike Brutes of the World, and so many other people that have helped me along the way.
I didn't get here just because of my skill set.
I had to develop those skills.
Somebody had to help me do it.
Somebody had to see something in me, believe in me, and then extend themselves in order to help facilitate me being where I am today.
That's everywhere.
I don't care who you are.
I don't care where you can go.
There is always someone willing to extend themselves to help you be your best self.
And that alone should be inspirational enough for you to want to be the best that you can be because you'll owe it not just to yourself, but to them.
And that's how you make the world a better place because it's not just about getting to that place, it's about having recall and remembering those folks helped you.
I gotta go.
I gotta wrap things up.
I love the book.
I want everybody to get a copy of it.
It's called Straight Shooter, a memoir of second chances and first takes.
The one and only Stephen A. Smith.
I appreciate you, man.
Thank you.
I can't believe we've been friends this long, and I didn't know a lot of this.
Amazon.com.
I know.
Hannity.com, bookstores everywhere as of next week.
All right, when we come back, we'll change gears back to politics and the other issues of the day.
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