The Untold Truth Of Stephen A. Smith

April 2024 ยท 2 minute read

The NBA insider has a gift for gab, but does he have any game on the basketball court? According to The New Yorker, Stephen A. Smith spent a lot of his childhood "shooting hoops" at a playground in Queens that had "no working lights." His mom, a nurse, encouraged his love of the game because it kept him away from unsavory characters in the tough New York borough. "I was not to be touched," Smith said. "They knew I had a future." 

Smith earned a scholarship to play basketball at Winston-Salem State University under legendary head coach Clarence "Big House" Gaines, but his hoop dreams were cut short by injuries. "I tried to play for coach Gaines, I just couldn't after I got hurt," the 6'1" former guard told the Winston-Salem Journal. "I can't say enough about that school and what it did for me and especially the late coach Gaines and all of those professors of mine." 

Ironically, Smith's beloved coach also helped kick-start Smith's sports journalism career when the player/columnist served up his first hot take for the college newspaper, urging the aging basketball Hall-of-Famer to step down amid alleged concerns over his health. "I told him, 'Coach, I'm scared,"  Smith recalled to the The Undefeated. "I'm not going to let you drop dead on the sideline.'" The controversial op-ed had the school's chancellor calling for Smith to be expelled, but Smith claims that Gaines told them to "leave him [Smith] alone." 

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