On this episode of Actually Me, sports analyst Stephen A. Smith goes undercover online and replies to real comments from fans (trolls) on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube and more. What's his relationship with LeBron like now? How does he rank his top NBA teams of all time? Are his rants meticulously planned or completely off-the cuff? Cowboys fans... watch with caution.
Director: Chris Smith
Director of Photography: Brad Wickham
Editor: Paul Isakson
Producer: Camille Ramos
Line Producer: Jen Santos
Associate Producer: Chris Sechler
Production Manager: James Pipitone
Production Coordinator: Jamal Colvin
Camera Operator: Chloe Ramos
Audio: Gabe Quiroga
Production Assistant: Rowmel Findley
Post Production Supervisor: Rachael Knight
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Director: Chris Smith
Director of Photography: Brad Wickham
Editor: Paul Isakson
Producer: Camille Ramos
Line Producer: Jen Santos
Associate Producer: Chris Sechler
Production Manager: James Pipitone
Production Coordinator: Jamal Colvin
Camera Operator: Chloe Ramos
Audio: Gabe Quiroga
Production Assistant: Rowmel Findley
Post Production Supervisor: Rachael Knight
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 What's up GQ?
00:01 I'm Stephen A. Smith.
00:02 Today I'm going undercover on the internet.
00:05 It's actually me.
00:06 Cora.
00:09 What are the odds that Stephen A. Smith starts yelling
00:13 within 90 seconds of his show opening?
00:15 Well, damn it, that depends on my mood.
00:17 If somebody's getting on my damn nerves, yeah,
00:19 I might say something.
00:20 I might be sarcastic.
00:22 I might be a little hostile.
00:23 I might yell, or I might get mellow and calm,
00:27 or I might sound a bit aloof and dismissive
00:29 because you don't mean a damn thing to me.
00:32 It depends on what mood I'm in.
00:35 Post it.
00:36 Weeping hoodwink, bamboozled,
00:38 led astray, run amok, and flat out the seed.
00:42 What does Stephen A. Smith mean by this expression?
00:44 Obviously I stole that line from Denzel Washington
00:48 playing Malcolm X in the movie "Malcolm X."
00:50 One of the great movies,
00:52 but one of the greatest, if not the greatest actor
00:54 in American history.
00:55 Having said that, that's where I got the line from,
00:58 and usually when I use that line,
01:01 it's a theatrical way of saying somebody's full of shit.
01:06 What is Stephen A. Smith's relationship like
01:09 with LeBron now?
01:10 Virtually nonexistent, cordial when we see each other,
01:13 high and by, we keep in movement.
01:14 He plays, I talk about how he plays.
01:17 Obviously, sometimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn't,
01:21 and I don't lose sleep at night over either scenario.
01:23 Twitter.
01:26 Stephen A. Smith doing quiet and disappointed voice
01:30 is one of the funniest things on television.
01:32 When I'm quiet, it could be for a multitude of reasons.
01:36 Sometimes I'm quiet because I want you
01:39 to complete your train of thought,
01:41 because you've had enough rope to hang yourself,
01:44 and I know you're gonna continue to do that
01:45 the longer I let you speak,
01:47 so I'll let you dig your own grave.
01:49 Other times I'm quiet because I'm highly pissed,
01:53 and when that's the case, I get very quiet.
01:55 I submerge myself into the depths of my thoughts
01:59 because I know I'm gonna come out swinging.
02:02 @SupSup1978.
02:07 We'll talk about that Twitter handle another time.
02:09 Sup Sup, really?
02:10 What's the percentage of all of Stephen A. Smith's
02:12 predictions this past year?
02:14 Well, that depends what you're talking about.
02:15 If you're talking overall, I would tell you
02:17 I'm about at 93 to 95%.
02:21 I don't get too much wrong.
02:22 Now, there was a bad stretch.
02:24 There was like five or six consecutive years
02:26 where I was wrong calling the NBA Finals.
02:29 For the most part, dating back to my career in 1993,
02:33 go check the stats, baby.
02:35 I'm usually right, and when I was courtside
02:38 or in the press box, as opposed to being stuck in studio
02:42 doing all of these daggone TV shows,
02:44 I really knew everything, 'cause I could look
02:46 in dudes' eyes when they walked up to courtside,
02:48 and I said, "Aw, damn.
02:50 "He was hanging out too late last night.
02:52 "He been on too much weed.
02:53 "This dude right here is preoccupied.
02:55 "There's something wrong.
02:56 "Ain't no way they gonna win this guy."
02:58 I could call it, and I was always on the money.
03:00 But I had a bad stretch there,
03:01 but I've recovered over the last few years.
03:04 Next!
03:04 Stephen A. Smith is pretty good at several things,
03:06 covering MMA is not one of them.
03:08 He can talk really loud and fast, though.
03:10 With all due respect, could you shut the hell up, please?
03:12 How many times do I have to tell y'all
03:15 I am no MMA expert or analyst?
03:18 I go to the games as a fan.
03:20 Well, because Stephen A. is in the building,
03:22 Stephen A., what do you think?
03:24 You know how many people out here
03:25 making predictions about basketball
03:27 that don't know what the hell they're talking about?
03:29 I don't see y'all calling them out.
03:31 Post it.
03:32 Wikipedia.
03:33 On his radio program, Smith correctly predicted
03:38 that LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Roach
03:40 would all sign with the Miami Heat
03:41 during the 2010 free agency.
03:42 Yes, I did.
03:43 And I wasn't even at ESPN, I was at Fox Sports Radio.
03:46 And I got wind that this mega collaboration
03:49 was going to take place.
03:50 Biggest off-season move of the century, by the way.
03:54 And LeBron James was taking his talents to South Beach.
03:57 And what I remember most about that
03:59 is that everybody thought I was wrong.
04:02 Everyone was attacking me.
04:03 And although I had been let go by ESPN a year earlier,
04:07 and I had just gotten back into the business,
04:10 had I been wrong about that prediction,
04:13 who knows where my career would have been,
04:14 because it would have been an excuse for those critics
04:17 to further question my credibility,
04:20 and to keep me away from regaining my stature
04:24 as essentially who I am today.
04:27 So, thank you LeBron James for proving me right.
04:30 Much appreciated, bro.
04:31 Smith has been known to say many times
04:33 that he knows absolutely nothing about the sport of hockey,
04:35 such as by saying that tie games still exist in the sport,
04:37 despite the presence of three hockey teams
04:39 from within the New York metropolitan area
04:41 where he was brought up.
04:42 Well, first of all, you need to know
04:43 what the hell you were talking about.
04:45 I actually was talking about the NFL
04:47 when I made that mistake, not hockey.
04:50 There's nothing wrong with me being wrong
04:52 about the sport of hockey.
04:53 The only reason I've come to care about hockey
04:56 is because I'm friends with the commissioner, Gary Bettman.
04:58 If it wasn't for him and P.K. Supone,
05:00 who I'm also friends with,
05:01 I wouldn't give a damn about hockey.
05:03 I would still tell you the only thing I know about hockey
05:05 is that the puck is black, okay?
05:07 And damn it, it's cold in the arenas.
05:08 What black person you see rolling around playing hockey?
05:11 Moving on.
05:12 Let's transition to YouTube.
05:14 Oh my goodness, these are videos.
05:16 Their Hall of Fame is at everything but winning.
05:19 Yo, if the Cowboys win the next Super Bowl,
05:22 Stephen A. Smith has to go on national television
05:24 and apologize or something.
05:26 It's not the Cowboys I despise.
05:30 It's those disgusting, nauseating fans of theirs.
05:33 They make me sick.
05:35 I can't stand them.
05:36 I just can't.
05:37 They can come out of a gym smelling like skunks
05:41 and still think they got on perfume.
05:43 They can sit up there and finish the season
05:46 one and 15, the year ends at seven o'clock,
05:50 Eastern Standard Time, PM, on January 5th.
05:54 And by 7.15, they're like,
05:57 you know we're gonna win the Super Bowl next year, right?
05:59 You know we're gonna win the Super Bowl next year.
06:00 They make me sick, I can't stand them.
06:02 Next, Instagram.
06:04 New York, stand up!
06:07 New York, stand up!
06:09 Woo!
06:10 Told you.
06:11 Why New York fans always get so damn excited after a W?
06:14 Y'all literally the epitome of people
06:16 acting like they never won anything.
06:17 Y'all so embarrassing.
06:18 Oh, that's fair, that's fair.
06:20 We can be a bit embarrassing sometimes.
06:22 We can engage in hyperbole.
06:23 When you love a franchise like the New York Knicks
06:26 that haven't won since 1973, that will do it to you.
06:29 Yankees, 27 World Series titles,
06:31 but haven't won since 2009, that'll do it to you.
06:33 Mets haven't won a World Series championship since 1986,
06:36 that'll do it to you.
06:37 Okay, that'll do it to you.
06:38 It happens.
06:39 But at least we're not delusional.
06:42 We know we suck.
06:44 That's why we gravitate to the rare moments when we don't.
06:48 - Five minutes left and the Lakers are in trouble.
06:51 - Snoop Dogg!
06:52 Yes, we are clean, ya lins.
06:55 It's Snoop, what you want me to say?
06:56 It's my brother right there.
06:58 I don't know what the hell that meant.
06:59 I don't know what he's talking about.
07:00 It doesn't matter, he's Snoop Dogg, it don't.
07:03 You understand?
07:05 Anything he says works for me.
07:08 TikTok.
07:09 I think America is the land of second chances,
07:12 except for when it comes to this dude,
07:14 Mr. Job of the Hut, ya fat slob.
07:17 How much has ESPN changed from then till now?
07:20 This seems so unhinged.
07:22 Laugh my ass off.
07:23 It's not that ESPN has changed,
07:25 it's that society has changed.
07:27 Things that you could once say, you can't say anymore.
07:30 Our level of sensitivity has been heightened
07:33 to an alarming level.
07:34 The slightest offense could cost you your career,
07:37 not just your job.
07:39 I can't go to work every day, be on national television,
07:42 or be on the radio, or be on the airwaves of my podcast,
07:45 The Stephen A. Smith Show, telling you lies.
07:48 I'm gonna let you know where the hell I stand.
07:49 I don't give a damn what anybody says.
07:52 - Kevin Durant heading to the Golden State Warriors.
07:55 - That is the weakest move I've ever seen from a superstar.
07:57 Plain and simple, that's just.
07:58 Who wouldn't join a better team for a chance to win a ring?
08:02 Now, I think about Kevin Durant
08:04 going to the Golden State Warriors.
08:06 I still believe it was the weakest move
08:08 I ever saw for a superstar.
08:09 There was no competition.
08:11 That was the least amount of games I watched
08:13 in an NBA season in my career,
08:15 because I knew no one had a chance of beating Kevin Durant
08:19 and the Golden State Warriors,
08:20 because they were far too superior.
08:23 Posted.
08:25 Reddit.
08:26 I think Stephen A. Smith secretly loves the Cowboys.
08:28 Jerry couldn't say it any better.
08:29 And also, at least Stephen is entertaining
08:31 when he hates, laugh my ass off.
08:33 I don't love the Cowboys.
08:35 I love their cheerleaders.
08:37 I think they're very, very beautiful,
08:39 and I think they set the standard for other teams to follow.
08:42 But I do not love the Cowboys.
08:43 I don't love their uniforms.
08:45 I don't love their coach.
08:46 I don't love their players.
08:47 I don't love their playbook.
08:48 I don't love their resume.
08:50 I don't love a lot of things about the Cowboys.
08:52 I do love Jerry Joe's, though.
08:54 But all of this other stuff, nah, it's not true.
08:57 What are Stephen A. Smith's top NBA teams of all time?
09:01 I would think the '95, '96 Chicago Bulls,
09:06 Jordan, Pippen, Rodman, Steve Kerr and the crew.
09:09 I would put them there.
09:11 I would put the Showtime Lakers, '85, I believe.
09:14 Magic Johnson leading the fast break.
09:16 Kareem Abdujabar finishing it
09:18 with the Skyhook, Worthy on one wing,
09:20 Byron Scott on another, Michael Cooper trailing.
09:22 I would put them up there.
09:24 Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics up there
09:26 with McHale, Ainge.
09:28 Of course, I gotta put Golden State up there
09:29 with their 73-win season with Steph Curry and the crew.
09:32 So that's four, right?
09:33 I'm gonna say that 2013 Miami Heat team
09:36 led by LeBron James with Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade
09:39 and those guys.
09:40 That's what I'm gonna say.
09:41 Those are my five.
09:42 Really?
09:43 Your livelihood, millions of dollars,
09:46 and you can't stay off the weed?
09:49 Laugh out loud, I wonder how he prepares for these rants.
09:53 Is it pre-thought or he just goes off?
09:55 I just go off, man.
09:57 I'm not trying to imply that everything is extemporaneous
10:01 and off the cuff because I'm well-prepared.
10:04 I always do my homework before I speak publicly,
10:07 but I don't definitively know what I'm going to say
10:10 until it's time to speak.
10:12 Posted.
10:13 All right, I'm signing off.
10:14 Be happy, all right?
10:16 I don't usually give my time like this,
10:17 but I did it for you, I did it for you.
10:19 Much love to y'all.
10:21 Take care.
10:22 (upbeat music)