Stephen A. Smith
What is Stephen A. Smith known for?
What was a significant controversy involving Stephen A. Smith?
What did Stephen A. Smith say about his potential political future?
Stephen A. Smith is one of America’s most recognizable, most controversial, and most highly paid sports commentators. A fixture on ESPN, Smith is known for his blunt, quick-witted, and highly opinionated takes on sports and societal and, increasingly, political issues. Smith has said he has been approached by some Democrats about a possible presidential bid in 2028.
Early life
- Birth date: October 14, 1967
- Birthplace: Bronx, New York
- Nicknames: Stephen A. and Screamin’ A
- Education: Winston-Salem State University, B.A. in mass communications, 1991
- Known for: Passionate, at times highly controversial, sports commentary
- Family: Smith has two daughters.
- Quotation: “The job is to be enough of a personality that they want to know what you think.”
Smith, the youngest of six children, was born to Ashley and Janet Smith, who married as teenagers after meeting in Saint Thomas. The family moved from the Bronx, a borough of New York City, to Hollis, Queens, when Stephen A. Smith was a baby. In his 2023 autobiography, Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes, Smith recalled how his father managed a hardware store but quit when Smith was six years old and “checked out” after that, watching TV most of the time. That forced his mother to become the family’s sole breadwinner, working her way up to assistant head nurse at Queens General Hospital and supplementing that with a job at a nursing home. Meanwhile, Smith struggled in school and had to repeat a grade twice in elementary school.
Smith describes his father as a motivational force in his life—but in a negative way. “Because of him, I’ve never taken more than three drinks in a week in my life,” he wrote in his memoir. “I’ve never smoked or done drugs.…And I’ve never married, partly because I’m usually on the road for well over half the year, but mainly because I’ve never wanted to dishonor my marital vows, as he did so flagrantly.”
After high school Smith enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York before transferring to Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina on a basketball scholarship. It was there that he got his start in journalism, as a sports columnist for the college newspaper.
From newspapers to TV star
Smith worked at several newspapers early in his career, including the Winston-Salem Journal, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the New York Daily News, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In Philadelphia he worked his way up to the coveted role of sports columnist, which led to TV appearances on CNN and later ESPN. Despite a growing television presence, Smith continued to write for the Inquirer but was demoted and subsequently fired in 2008. An arbiter determined that the firing was “unjust,” and Smith returned to writing columns but left the paper in 2010.
ESPN did not renew Smith’s contract in 2009, in part because of a sense at the top of ESPN that Smith’s persona did not fit with the network’s signature program, SportsCenter. Smith worked briefly at Fox Sports before a different ESPN management group lured him back. During his earlier tenure at the network, Smith hosted several shows, including The Stephen A. Smith Show on ESPN Radio from 2005 to 2008 and Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith from 2005 to 2007. He appeared on shows including NBA Shootaround (now NBA Countdown), SportsCenter, and Pardon the Interruption.
But since his return to the network, the show First Take has become Smith’s most recognized vehicle for sports talk-cum-debate programming. He originally cohosted the program with Skip Bayless, who proved a counterpoint to Smith’s in-your-face style. The combination of his high-decibel volume and distinctive Queens accent earned him the nickname “Screamin’ A” early in his career. He told The New Yorker in 2018 that his role as an opinionated host is a reflection of the times: “Back in the day, you watched to learn the news. Now you can get the news in five minutes. Between your smartphones and everything else—you’ve always got the news. So you’re interested in watching different perspectives, hearing what people have to say, what their opinions are, and why.”
It is hard to imagine a topic on which Stephen A. (as he is commonly called) does not have an opinion. During the 2018 interview with The New Yorker, he offered up opinions on Stormy Daniels, blood clots, almond milk, and Denzel Washington, to name just a few. But Smith, who in 2025 signed a five-year contract with ESPN worth more than $100 million, knows that having opinions on myriad topics is not enough, telling The New Yorker:
The job is to be enough of a personality that they want to know what you think.
Controversies
Although people may want to know what Smith thinks, that does not mean they always agree. And some of Smith’s positions have landed him in hot water. Perhaps the most famous incident was in 2014, when ESPN suspended him for a week following his comments on First Take about how the NFL had disciplined Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for beating his then fiancée in a casino elevator. “There is never an excuse to put your hands on a woman,” Smith said before adding, “But at the same time, we also have to make sure that we learn as much as we can about elements of provocation.” Smith apologized, saying he did not intend to say that a woman was to blame for domestic violence. In a statement to employees, ESPN president John Skipper said that Smith’s comments “did not reflect our company’s view, or our values. They certainly don’t reflect my personal beliefs.”
Smith also upset many—and arguably, that is what he is paid to do—when he compared Golden State Warriors’ star Steph Curry’s wife, Ayesha Curry, unfavorably to LeBron James’s wife, Savannah James. In 2021 he also riled the Asian American community by questioning baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani’s use of an interpreter, saying:
I don’t think it helps that the number one face is a dude that needs an interpreter, so you can understand what the hell he’s saying in this country.
The backlash from the Curry incident is said to have cost Smith the chance to host SportsCenter. In the wake of the Ohtani comments, Smith quickly apologized.
Political future
Much of the discussion about Smith’s potential political future is rooted in comments he made after Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 presidential election. Two days after the election, while appearing on The View, Smith said, “If you came to me and you told me I had a legitimate shot to win the presidency of the United States of America, I would definitely consider it.”
But Smith has made it clear that his interest in politics is far from a passing fad. In the 2018 profile in The New Yorker, he told journalist Vinson Cunningham that he began watching presidential debates as a teenager, comparing his passion for them to watching the Super Bowl. “When Al Gore was going up against [George W.] Bush, or when [John] Kerry was going up against Bush—and annihilated Bush in one of those debates—or [Bill] Clinton going up against [George] H.W. [Bush]…I mean, it’s crazy.”
By early 2025 some Democrats seemed energized at the prospect of a Smith candidacy, even as he said he would consider running only because the Democratic Party lacked leadership. Even some of Trump’s supporters said that Smith would be a formidable candidate. “Stephen A Smith brilliant choice,” Steve Bannon, a key MAGA figure, told The Washington Post. In an August 2025 appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, Smith said, “Life is good, man. I leave the door open. I can’t imagine myself doing it, but I haven’t ruled it out, because I’m disgusted with what I’m seeing on the left.”