When people meet Stephen A. Smith in public, rarely do they want an autograph. In a conversation with The New York Times, he says people want to play out their own First Take fantasies with him.
“I’ve told this to superstars that are at Lakers games or Knicks games — it could be Chris Rock or Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx,” he told writer David Marchese. “I said ‘People want your autographs and your pictures. Me, they want to debate.’ It’s much harder for me.”
Arguing about sports is what Stephen A. Smith does for a living. People are welcome to tell him their thoughts, but he isn’t going to engage for free.
“People try to generate a response from me, and a lot of times they think that I might be rude just because I’m silent. I’m silent because I’m saying ‘I do this for a living. I’m not going to do this in my off time’. Somebody walks up to me, they can get a picture. I’ll never say no. What I say no to is conversation. I won’t have time to live if I talk to everybody that wants to have a conversation with me.”
Smith said it can be exhausting to constantly be involved in debates. That is why he tries to disconnect as much as possible when he isn’t preparing for a show.
He said it is one of the things that made it hard to work with Max Kellerman. Smith described his style as “This is what I said. Deal with it.” He found that Kellerman needed debates to end with Smith telling him he was right. That isn’t what fans want from First Take or sports debate in general according to Smith.
“One time I said to him, ‘You’re a boxing aficionado, ain’t you?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’ I said, ‘You know boxing better than anybody, right?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Your friends that you grew up with, don’t they argue with you about boxing?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’ I said, ‘Why do you think that is?’ I said, ‘The sports fan cannot be taught.’ They don’t want to learn from you. They want to hear whether you do or do not agree with them and why.”
