Drink Champs - Episode 405 w/ Stephen A. Smith

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs in this episode the champs chop it up with the legendary, Stephen A. Smith! Media giant Stephen A. Smith joins us for a conversation you don’t want to miss! Stephen A. shares his journey and his professional evolution. Stephen A. Smith gives his take on Hip-Hop’s current battle between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. Stephen A. shares stories of working with ESPN, his support for Beyoncé and much more! Stephen A. Smith shares stories of Donald Trump, LeBron James, the challenges he’s faced in his career and much much more! Lots of great stories that you don’t want to miss! Make some noise for Stephen A. Smith!!! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆 🎉🎉🎉 Sign up for Underdog Fantasy HERE with promo code DRINK CHAMPS and get a $100 first deposit match: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-drink-champs *Subscribe to Patreon NOW for exclusive content, discount codes, M&G’s + more:  🏆* https://www.patreon.com/drinkchamps *Listen and subscribe at https://www.drinkchamps.com Follow Drink Champs: https://www.instagram.com/drinkchamps https://www.twitter.com/drinkchamps https://www.facebook.com/drinkchamps https://www.youtube.com/drinkchamps DJ EFN https://www.crazyhood.com https://www.instagram.com/whoscrazy https://www.twitter.com/djefn https://www.facebook.com/crazyhoodproductions N.O.R.E. https://www.instagram.com/therealnoreaga https://www.twitter.com/noreagaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is your boy N.O.R.E. What up? It's DJ E.F.N. And it's Drink Champs. Yappy, I will make some noise. Now, when we started this show, we wanted to give props to legends, to give flowers to the people where they can smell them, they drinks where they can inhale them, and they thoughts where they can think them.

When I'm talking about this brother here that I'll be about to introduce, I tell you, I watch this man religiously. I can hear him talk about anything. He could talk about pink, yellow nails, and I'll still be like, yep, I agree with him. He is a wordplay aficionado, a sports aficionado. And I've always had to ask this question because I don't know how the hell you watch all them goddamn games

and comments on them all. That's true. Some people call him a cowboy hater and some people say he's accurate about the cowboys and the cowboys are the haters. He's from my barrel, even though when I googled him they said he was born in Brooklyn so I gotta ask that but he's Hollis Queens one of the best if not the best sports people period I hate when hip-hop use this term goat but in this case, it's an understatement.

He's a mad man, and I was so excited, I've been sweating all day. So in case you don't know who I'm talking about, I'm talking about the one, only, legendary, impeccable,

Stevie A, motherfucker! How y'all doing? What's up, baby? Now look. I couldn't wait for this. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait either.

By the way, I want you to pick my drink. I'm going to drink champagne in between, but either Japanese whiskey or vodka. Slowly or lead. What you want me to have? Let's go with the Japanese whiskey. I knew it. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's go with the Japanese whiskey. So, that's something I always wanted to ask you. Yeah, man. You know, wake up every morning. We see you. But you're at the games. Yep.

But then you still know about the games that you're not at. Right. How do you do that? That's like some superhero shit. Well, I don't just, you know, do my job. I live it. So what I mean by that is that, like, if you walk into the basement of my house, and by the way, I was born in the Bronx, raised in Hollis, Queens, since I was one year old.

Oh, okay, okay. All right, so just to get that out the way. But when I go in the basement, if you see my basement, I've got a movie theater. I've got two television screens here. And then if you go to the side, and that's really my man cave, I got a bar, a TV over the bar. Right. And I got six TVs, three on top of the other, that I can turn into one or I can turn into six different games at a time. Wow. So let's say, for example, it's Sunday football.

If there's seven football games on, in that man cave, I got a game on each TV. The one on the wall over the bar plus the seven. I can say it now because I'm about to move in a little while. But what I'm saying is it's a minimum of seven games that I can watch at one time. And so I'm doing that. But when I say I live it, okay, we talk in sports. So when I'm driving, I'm listening to the sports channel. When I'm home, I'm watching the sports channel.

When I'm reading, I wake up, and the first thing that I do you know in terms of my work when I get up in the morning I go to ESPN.com right Yahoo Sports right you know I'm looking at all the competitors and seeing what the story is because you gotta remember I have a journalistic background I started from New York Daily News I went from there to the Philadelphia Inquirer right and then after that I did CNNSI while I was at the Philadelphia Inquirer then Right. And then after that, I did CNNSI while I was at the Philadelphia Inquirer, then Fox Sports, and then ultimately ESPN. Wow. This is all while I was doing newspaper from the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1994 to 2010. Right.

And so I have a journalistic career that spans 30 years. Right. And when you wake up as a journalist, you're thinking about what's the story that's percolating with the people today. Right. In my case now, because of television, podcasting, radio, et cetera. What are the multitude of stories that are percolating today? Y'all just finished talking about Drake, Kendrick, you know, and J. Cole and all of them, right? Why you talk about them?

Because they made the news. What you did that day, we have to do as journalists every day. Every day. So I'm trained automatically. And accurately. That's right. And i'm trained automatically that's right and i'm trained but i'm just talking about the storyline what are people talking about you literally are supposed to wake up every day thinking about what's percolating and that's how i approach every single day so let me ask you right by the way that's dedication let me ask you, coming from the inner city, we had sports like football, stickball,

used to play handball, all that. Hopscotch, all that shit. When you say you did that handball? Yeah, that's it with the sisters and all of that stuff when they playing hopscotch. Oh, hopscotch. Okay, double dutch. You tried to play that just to double dutch.

You tried to play it just because you wanted to be around it. Yeah. Oh, I've got, okay, double dutch. You tried to play that just to double dutch. You tried to play it just because you wanted to be around me. So, how is it? That's the sports that we know that the streets come from, right? But then you've got to cover golf. Right. You've got to cover soccer, which I'm finally coming around to liking soccer. I'm finally coming around because I like Christian Renardo's watch collection and Messi's watch collection.

That's what brought you home. But that's not like the sports that we know. And then later on in life, you got all these people playing golf. Right. But then a lot of them equated to being rich. Like this is a rich sport, right? Right. How do you cover that with the same emotions

and the same interests? You don't. You don't really. Wow. See, here's what happens. With basketball, I'm a specialist because I'm an insider. Right.

It's not that I know more, even though I kind of do. It's not really about you knowing more basketball than other people, because you never know more than the players. You never know more than the coaches. You never know more than them. Right. But it's about being so connected to the sport, because you've covered it intimately, that most things you read about, I already knew about. Okay. I didn't say anything about.

Okay. I picked up the phone and talked to sources directly involved in those stories and you got inside and telling all. So when I say

I'm a specialist in basketball, I'm telling you like, you know, you can see a controversy with a player and I ain't say a word. Right.

But I know everything about it. Right. You see what I'm saying? Right. That most folks wouldn't know. Just like y'all with the hip hop industry, you know shit that a lot of people wouldn't.

They got to, you got to read a whole bunch of magazines and hear people talking about it and all of this other stuff. But you already know, that's me on basketball. The other sports, until the last few years, you're just being a reporter. And what I mean by that is, you're recognizing what the story is like

I didn't have to cover golf we have golf writers to cover Tiger Soledad right but when his ass got in trouble oh and a wife attacked him in Orlando oh yeah and he was ending up with a police blot that's the story so all of a sudden it's the story and a journalist, you're trained to pursue the story. So you can find out about the story without having to be an insider on the sport of golf. You see what I'm saying? So that's what you're doing with most sports. You're covering it. You're in the press box.

You get access into the locker room. You go, you cover a game, et cetera, et cetera. The difference between that and basketball you know alan iverson and larry brown getting into it well y'all reading about it right right i'm the one they talk to right you know you know so something happened with shaq and kobe and you know y'all read about it weeks later but you know it was kobe that that mother you know he going off and shit you know on the phone weeks earlier shaq like hell with him, a dump with him, et cetera, et cetera. You get access that most folks don't get.

And that's what makes you a specialist at that particular sport because you have intel and inside info that most people don't have. Now, with that being said, with the inside info, I seen you the other day. Yep. You were talking about Michael Jordan. Yes, sir. And you said that Michael Jordan texted you and said that Magic Johnson was one of the greatest guards

of all time. Right. Because I think you said someone else. I didn't say he, I didn't say he texted me. Okay. I said he called me. Oh, okay, okay.

Listen, motherfucker, I'm tired of you not listening to me. You better listen to me. You heard what I said. You said, what the hell are you talking about? It's a different conversation. And I'm like, come on, man. You know what I'm saying? What the hell are you talking about You're a magic judge It's a different conversation And I'm like Come on man

You know what I'm saying Look It's kind of hard to argue With the goat You know what I'm saying Because he wouldn't know But we do argue I want to ask you this

How do you know Yeah it's super flex I'm not even going further To more of the flex Right How do you know Which conversations To make public

And which conversations You got to say Damn like you said, y'all argue a lot. They allow me to. Okay. Do they say that? This is off the record?

They say off the record, it's off the record. Okay. They say it's on the record, it's on the record. Or if they don't tell you, you're able to defer to their previous course. Like if I've seen you say something on the subject publicly already, then it's okay for me to say it because you've already spoke on it publicly and you're just echoing those sentiments to me directly. If the sentiments that you made to me that you didn't make to anybody, that's not a trust that you violate. That's the code of the streets. You know where we come from. And so you just don't do that. You don't do something like

that. And a lot of times when you got cats and they being ultra sensitive or whatever, I have no patience for it because my attitude is, okay, if you say it's off the record, it's off the record. You know that trust ain't going to be violated. So if you know that's not going to be violated and we just talking, be real and authentic with it. And if you don't, if you want to say something publicly, then that's cool. Then own it and be cool

with it. As long as I quote you accurately and I put it in this proper context and I didn't violate your trust, what are you bitching about? You got an opinion. I got opinion probably laced with more facts and we'll go from there. And I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to worry about feelings on that level because again, it's not personal. You know what I'm saying? When you, when you, I don't care who you are and it's not about fear. It's not about embarrassment. It's not about anything. It's a code where there's certain things that you're just supposed to know.

Right. You don't reveal. Right. You don't get personal. Right. But professionally, it's all open season. Especially if it's public information. If you step on a court, you shoot two for 20.

Don't bitch to me. You shot two for 20. In front of everybody. You did it in your backyard. You did. In front of everybody. You did it in your backyard. You did it in front of everybody. Everybody saw it. So that particular night, you stuck up the joint.

Own it. You don't get mad because somebody did their job and they highlighted, this was not a good night for you. You can't get mad at that, but you got some of these cats who will because of the age that we're living in

and it's unfortunate in that regard, but it is what it is. Like, i had to speak to dj envy one time because dj envy was was going back and forth with somebody um and i had to kind of like let them know like your voice is powerful it was playing around but they wasn't playing around your voice but i think your voice is powerful because when you do a show like a breakfast club yep it um it comes on in other markets at different times so if you did somebody at eight o'clock yeah you might have to see him again at 10 o'clock right see him again at 12 o'clock right have it has has it ever been like that for you because if you like you said you all the time you you you you critique the game, and some of these people are

your connects. Well, first of all, let's understand that about the connect. You cultivate relationships with people. Here's how I cultivate relationships. This is who the hell I am. Off top. Let's get that out the way.

This is my job. Your personal life is your business Right It is your story to tell Right Don't end up in the police blotters now Right That's a matter of public information

Right You're saying Privately Right What's going on in your life Is your business Right Your professional career

Is there for me to chronicle Right I'm going to call it like I see it Now I'm going to come to you now If I got access to you Right Like you know you'll see me career is there for me to chronicle right i'm gonna call it like i see it now i'm gonna come to you now if i got access to you like you know you'll see me and there's certain people that i'm straight and i could be hardcore with and then there's certain people you look at me and say damn i expected steven a to go harder they're not realizing it's not because of friendship

it's because you stood there and talked to me and gave me your perspective if this if the drink champs create headlines and it's for a negative reason right if i know you yeah what happened because you have the access so so you're giving me a perspective i've heard the perspective from you and at that time there's some things you might say to me it's cool to tell and then you might give me even more intel but say don't go there with that because i can't do that because if you do that that's going to burn somebody and i don't need that information isn't that the better way to go is to tell you right and some and most of them usually do i'm simply making the point that if i have a relationship with you and you talk to me i have a professional obligation before we even get to the human part

us knowing one another communicating with one another you talking to obligation before we even get to the human part. Us knowing one another, communicating with one another. You talking to me before we even get to that. I have a professional obligation to make sure that I honor what the conversation is. Meaning if you tell me it's off the record, it's off the record. If you if you if you've given me intel and you say this is the context I'm coming from. That's cool. You'll see me on TV and plenty of times I'll tell somebody I disagree with them. But I'll stop and say,

let me tell you where they are coming from. Because what I owe to you is to make sure that I project and disseminate the information to go to the masses in the context that you want it. Whether I agree or disagree. Now, I always tell them, I ain't under no obligation

to agree with your ass now. You understand that? I mean, I might agree with you. I might not agree with you. But before I do anything, I'm going to make sure that I'm fair. And I'm going to make sure that I project the information

in a fashion that you gave it to me. If you want to be one of those cats that's inaccessible, you want to hate on me, you want to avoid me, that's at your own damn peril. That ain't my problem. Because here's the thing about me. Please understand this. I've kept my number the same for 20 years. My number, my phone number has been the same for 20 years. I haven't changed it for one reason and one reason only. I want no excuses about you couldn't reach me.

Impossible. Impossible. Too many people know me for you to tell me you couldn't reach me. But you do have some people who believe they so big that they untouchable. And I don't know why people would think that way because in this industry, I can touch you any damn time I want want and it's just that simple and i'm gonna be as fair and as humane and as authentic as i can possibly be but please trust i'm gonna do my damn job we don't have to have christmas thanksgiving dinner together we don't

have to exchange christmas gifts i'm gonna do my job right because i answer to the public i don't have to exchange Christmas gifts. I'm going to do my job. Right. Because I answer to the public. I don't answer to the people I cover so long as I'm fair. As fair-minded as I can possibly be and I contextualize this stuff in the fashion that is accurate. That is what I owe folks. I don't owe them more than that.

But that goes without saying, but I feel like you said the landscape is different now. People might need you to explain those rules. They don't deserve it necessarily, but it seems like the landscape has changed. And I would say to you that you're putting it in a very, very nice way. Some people just soft as hell mentally.

We're going to call it like it is. There's a generation out here that's soft as hell mentally. You know, you got a lot of people And they'll be like Man you know Some people you know You cool with some people But some people can't stand your ass And I'm like

Who the hell told you I could stand them They don't like their asses either Some of them Not most Not all It's a lot of cats And professionals

Listen First take on ESPN Has been number one For 12 years Every week professional sports. Listen, first take on ESPN has been number one for 12 years. Every week, every week, every month, every year, 12 years and counting.

You know what I'd like people to do? How many athletes you see coming on there? How many former athletes you see got a job on there? How many cats you see being given shine? Who you think they come to i'm the executive producer first take you ain't coming on without my permission right i'm the one that puts them on now i'm blessed and fortunate enough to have accomplished what i have accomplished in my career at espn to be able to have that kind of time that kind of power and knock on wood that's

the day it could be going tomorrow i don't i don't trust corporate america anything could happen but what i'm saying is I have that now. And so when you look at it from that perspective, it's like, wait a minute. You're letting cats know you want to talk. You want your perspective heard. You want to make sure that you're going to have viewers listening, et cetera, et cetera. The platform is here available to you. You got a lot of cats don't want that because they got their own platforms.

They think they're doing you a favor by coming by by not recognize you was number one before they arrive you're gonna be number one when they're gone they ain't doing all that they think about they they're thinking about what you have to gain or more importantly what they may have to lose by being in an environment it's unedited and it's live all right ain't no tape delay. Ain't no live to tape and air it later. No, bro. When we on 10 o'clock, it's 10 o'clock. It's live.

It ain't taped. When you come on live and that's what I tell them, it's the live platform. You can go on SportsCenter. You can do an interview for three or four minutes. They could come and interview you and an interview for three or four minutes. They could come and interview you and they can air three or four minutes. You come on First Take. If I tell you you're coming on for 15

minutes, it's 15 minutes. If I tell you it's 13 minutes and 15 seconds, it's 13 minutes and 15 seconds. You have that. And if you want to pass up on that because you don't trust or you think you're too big or you're thinking that your influence because of your reach,

your followers and all of that stuff is going to stop me from doing what I do, well, good luck with that. Good luck with that. Recently, we had people come on here, right?

You know, have a good time, say something they don't want, they don't want to say and ask for us to edit it. Right. And us being good people, we don't want to say and ask for us to edit it. And us, being good people, we don't talk about Cal Chase, but then

these artists will ask us to edit and then go on another platform and say what they told us to say. That should piss you off. That should piss you off. You know what you should do? I'll be wanting to blow it up. You know what you should do?

I'm going to blow it up right now. I will tell you this. I want to hear his advice let me tell you let me listen eight years congratulations congratulations well deserved but let me get as a person that's been in media for 30 years let me give you a piece of advice please so you want me to cut this out you don't want me to air this? You know I better not see you saying this shit no way else, right? I didn't say that. You know that, right?

Right. Because if I see it anywhere else, I'm going to air it. Do you understand me? So long as you know. I ain't got no problems cutting this out. Right. Especially if it's something

that you think is going to compromise you, going to hurt your brand. Well, I ain't trying to hurt you. You understand? Mm-hmm. But I better not see it somewhere else. All right. Because if I see it somewhere else, oh, that just means you want to give that to somebody else other than me.

But I got it already. I'll hear that shit tomorrow. Right. You understand what I'm saying? Right. And put the date when you said it so everybody know I had it game. If you say you want it out, keep it out. Because, listen, there's certain things, you know, a code of the industry. It's like you don't give somebody else editorial power.

I've had politicians. I've had big-time executives, I've had various others wanting to sit down and do interviews with me, and I'd cancel the interview because they wanted editorial control. You're not getting editorial control of my content. Don't come on and give me the content. I came on here today. I told y'all

y'all could ask me anything y'all want. That don't mean I'm going to answer every damn thing. But let me assure you, what you won't hear from me is me saying please don't please edit that out no no no no i came here i showed up i know you got critics and people gonna say i'm gonna get asked of course i know how y'all roll you know what i'm saying i knew what i was showing up for and a lot of times you got these cats and they being run by their team but they want to act like they it and they being run by their team and their team didn't have any connection ain't create no kind of vibe they ain't talk to you man to man one-on-one or whatever the

case may be and then they walk around with their backup like somebody did them wrong instead of owning what the hell they did that That's my life. Right there. Where it's like I'm constantly the villain. And I cannot tell y'all how many times whether it's y'all, I don't give a damn what podcast,

what show it is. I'll see some people say some shit. It could be on YouTube. It could be anywhere. And my name come up. And they say something. And I'm like, how come nobody asked? Would they say that to my face?

Would they put their truth up against my truth? Because we all got receipts. But very, very few people got as many as me and so I'm like what when I see people I'm watching because if it's sports related especially when they talk about sports commentators and stuff like that my name coming up I'm like okay and I'm wondering whether that person's gonna to call me or, yo, Stephen A. Yo, man, they said something. You see what I'm saying? Because I'll have an answer.

I promise you that. But I really get that opportunity. And it's all right. But sometimes I say people say stuff because they know they can get away with it. They know they can get away with it. But your name is so big, I can see why certain people want to say your name. I can see why because it's a clickbait even if they're not trying

it for it to be clickbait. That's true. Because someone say, I'm talking about Stephen A., they're going to click on it. That's right. Your name is a hot commodity. So, is that something that bothers you when you don't get that call? When I don't get that call? Sometimes. Especially if it's personal. It depends on the shit they saying. Okay.

And how personal it get. Okay. Because I would, I would, listen, I know what codes I live by. Mm-hmm. I know

if you a player and you didn't get along with the coach, it was because y'all were, y'all were, y'all were doing the same woman. Right, right. You know, or you screwing around with a teammate's girl

or a teammate's wife. Or, you know, you got into this beef because, you know, you tried to choke a coach or something. You know, you got into that beef. Well, that's Latrell Spiegel. But, you know, depending on rumors, think about you hear about that stuff every year, right? So you got all types of the kind of stuff that I get access to, the kind of information that I get access to by virtue of what I do for a living. I promise you, I don't say 70 percent of the stuff that I know.

Wow. 70 percent. promise you I don't say 70% of the stuff that I know wow 70% and so what happens is when you see cats and and and you know they talking about your stuff like that I will remind you I've been in the business for 30 years right I know about dudes who were talking about me right and they were filming a commercial in the off season in Hollywood not realizing I knew the damn producers. Wow. You connected with cats in the hip hop industry.

You don't know. I know them. Right. It's your network. You understand what I'm saying? I mean, don't listen. I'm not the expert, the aficionado at that.

I like music. Of course I did. I grew up on a product of the hip hop generation growing up in Hollis, Queens. Jam Master Jay was best friends with my late brother, God rest his soul. I grew up and run DMC. That's why they see me. What do you say?

I hollis. 50 Cent was down the block. LL Cool J grew up five minutes from me on Farmers Boulevard. Farmers Boulevard. The rock. You know, Ja Rule, 50, all of these. I'm like, who you talking to? I've seen these people

yes I root for them all day every day I'm proud of them because I look at the road travel and I know where they came from to get to where they go they always going to have

my support I don't give a damn who it is my man Kaiser should have called too that's my man that's my man yes

yes you know I just got on with Snoop because I'm telling damn I said I had to prepare for the interview I was watching you with Drake champ

shit I can't I can't eclipse what you did. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it's like, these are my brothers. They know. You pick up the phone, Stephen A. It's, what?

What you need? Done. That's, you know, I'm incredibly grateful and humbled and thankful that I got relationships with such iconic figures. You can't have relationships with cats like that if you don't live by a code.

And you don't stand for shit. And you're going to betray people. And you're going to backstab. You can't do that. So when you got cats in the sports world. What's good, Drink Champs Army? If you like this show, you've got to check out the midnight miracle if you don't already know about the midnight miracle it's the legends dave chappelle talib

and yassin bey co-hosting this indescribable podcast it's music it's convo it's debate it's a million other things it's really dope It's so dope to hear these legends chop it up about everything from wild stories to debating what's going on in the world. I mean, it has it all. Season one was taped at The Shack. That's Dave's spot in Ohio, where we had the honor of filming our Dream Champs episode with them. They had guests like Questlove, Cat Williams, Michelle Wolfe, Q-Tip, Radio Raheem and a lot more. Season 2 though was taped on the road with Dave, Talib and Yassin

bringing the magic that rises up when they're live together. Check it out. That's the Midnight Miracle. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Trying to besmirch and sully my reputation. That gets me hot because you're trying to besmirch and sully my reputation,

that gets me hot. Because you're implying that I live by a code that anybody who knows me knows I do not live by. And so what happens is, then I'm watching everybody. Because I will watch whether it's y'all or somebody else. And I'll be like, you just going to let them say that?

You going to let them say that? You going to let that slide? What evidence do you have to say that shit about me? You know, and we got to remember, I know of athletes, they'll remain nameless, but I know of stars that spoke

to executives trying to keep me out of the business. Oh, wow. Trying to get me fired wow trying to trying to deny what I'm bringing and then come and they won't say anything I'm not going to accuse them of smiling in my face because they ain't that flagrant with it but they don't know that I know like I told you before you filming a commercial you hanging out with your boys you might be in a hotel you might be at a party or whatever. Yo, bro, you ain't been, I've been in this business for 30 years.

Right. I kind of know people. Right. So it could be a week later, it could be a month later, it could be that night. It's going to get back to me. Right. And it ain't going to get back to me from naysayers that's, you know, I barely know. I'm talking about people that I know whose words I know

I can trust yo Stephen A bro that ain't no friend this is what he's saying about you this is what they trying to do this is what happened and so I just sit back and I watch and I pray pray that they say something about me by name oh you don't don't know how I'd be praying for it. Because again, I can unleash at my discretion. At any moment, if, and I, and I'm mostly reserved, no doubt, because I'm in corporate America and I grew up in corporate America. The freedom that y'all have in this podcast world, that's something I just adopted. I never had the Stephen A. Smith show on world. That's something I just adopted.

I never had the Stephen A. Smith show on YouTube. That just started a year ago. I don't, you know, I wasn't doing that all of these years. I wasn't, I said what? Congrats on that. Thank you, I appreciate it, man. I don't, you know, I just started doing that. And I didn't, you know, you could call it a podcast

because I got to deal with iHeartRadio and they're going to push that on their platforms. But out of my own pocket, I built a television studio. Because my God, I can't cup a meal out of my own pocket. I built this television studio because, A, I want to show that I can produce television on my own. Whereas I'm not getting a check as an employee, I'm getting a check as a production company

because I'm producing content, and I'm getting that bag, too too on top of me being the talent. Oh, by the way, not only am I doing that, I own and operate it 100%. Oh, by the way, not only am I doing that, but I'm doing it with the purpose of not just myself, but looking for young talent on the come up

that I can produce years and years to come because I'm 56. I ain't 26. I don't want to do this shit in 30 years. You know what I'm saying? And I want my want to do this shit. 30. You know what I'm saying? I want, I want, and I want my legacy to be somebody that's reaching out to help those on the come up. So we can find,

we can find a way to, cause everybody can't be you. Everybody can't be you. Everybody can't be me, but they can be themselves in a fashion that's most profitable for them. Show them the way and show them there's an, I'm not, I'm in,

I'm corporate because I had to live in corporate America for 30 years. I know who I am. You understand? I know what I am when I take the suit off and I'm hanging in Hollis. You understand what I'm saying? I'm hanging with the fellas or something like that. But you can't roll up with Bob Iger, the CEO of Walt Disney and Jimmy Pataro,

the president of ESPN and Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, Adam Silver, the CEO of Walt Disney, and Jimmy Pataro, the president of ESPN, and Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner. You know, like you with the fellas, it calls for something different. Do you have the flexibility, the skill, the know-how, the professionalism to be able to dance in that world when you're not you or you or me. And I'm the kind of person that thinks that I could help in showing the way so that versatility kicks in and you can show yourself to be marketable to a whole bunch of people. People a lot of times don't see that.

We encouraging young cats, man, do what you want to do, what you want to do, how you want to do it, fuck everybody else, but you got your hand out for somebody else's money. And that pisses me off because I'm like, yo, you don't have to be a business owner.

Tell me, even if you were on the street hanging with your boys, if your boys came to you and said, yo, dog, I need some money. The American West

with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores and brought latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser-known histories of the West.

I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat eater founder Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here and I'll say it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about

what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And it's going to take us to heal us. It's Mental Health Awareness Month. And on a recent episode of Just Heal with Dr. J, the incomparable Taraji P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered

peace on her journey. So what I'm hearing you saying is healing is a part of us also reconnecting to our childhood in some sort. You said I look how youthful I look because I never let that little girl inside of me die. I go outside and run outside with the dogs. I still play like a kid. I laugh. You know, I love jokes. I love funny. I love laughing. I laugh at myself. I don't take myself too seriously. That's the stuff that keeps you young and stops you from being so hard. To hear this and more things on the journey of healing, you can listen to Just Heal with Dr. J from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T. Connecting changes everything.

You might give it to them the first time. Second time, you're going to be like, what the fuck you need it for? Third time, again? Again. Why? You understand what I'm saying? And you're going to want to know what they're doing with it. You see what I'm saying? But we act like we can encourage people to do what they want to do

When they want to do it How they want to do it When they got their hand out For somebody else's money You setting them up For a dead end ride They going to fall You can't operate that way

I'm the kind of person That says that And because I say that You got people That snub their nose up They get their back up They got an attitude All of this other stuff

And I don't have patience For that because I'm like Yo I'm trying to help cats What you trying to do when you leading them down a dead end road right like me right

I did love and hip hop right which is Viacom which is corporate America I did it because I enjoyed working for somebody right

I enjoyed it I already know I'm the boss of whatever, whatever, whatever, my world, but I wanted to go into somebody else's world

that I could be accountable for not being on time. I could be accountable for not showing up or things like that. And I enjoyed it. I fully enjoyed it. They didn't want to keep paying me

because I wanted more. So we agreed to disagree. But at times, I always say that. I'm good with doing what I got to do, and then if I have to work for somebody else, I'm okay with it. I know who I am in real life.

So is that how you feel when it comes to first take? I wouldn't say when it comes to first take, because my weakness is I hate getting up in the morning. Because once I'm up, I'm up. I don't take naps and I stay up real late. I don't go to sleep

before 2 a.m. And so because of that, I'm up constantly, you know, and I'm on my grind. I can't stand getting up early. That's the only hiccup

in my entire career. I'll turn down millions if you ask me to get up at 4 or 5 a.m. To hell with it. I got to figure out something else. You know,

that's how I am. And that's been my one weakness throughout my career, throughout my life. But I will tell you this. I've often said this about working for Disney. It ain't perfect. Damn, it can be hard sometimes because they got shareholders, stockholders,

all of that stuff. And you got to answer for that. And when you a major player, somebody that moves the needle, and you know, God has blessed me. I've been number one for them for like eight, nine years on that level

in terms of moving the needle. Here's the deal. I've often said this. I'd rather work for someone with standards than someone looking for them. I can always make the adjustment to being free and easy

and not having to answer to anybody. But if I had never had to answer to anybody, and then all of a sudden I got to work for somebody and work in corporate America, I'm a lost soul. I ain't going to know how to adjust. I'm not going to know how to live that life. It's going to drive me crazy. But the fact that I have worked for the New York Daily News, for the Philadelphia Inquirer, for CNN, Fox Sports, ultimately ESPN and Walt Disney. Right. Because of that, especially Walt Disney over the last 20 years, I'm in a position where I've seen so much corporate and how strict it can be and how paralyzing at times it can be. And how paralyzing at times it can be.

Right. That I can adjust to anything. Right. Because it ain't going to be much tougher than that. Right. In terms of the standard. Right. Everything's going to be a little looser.

Right. And as a result, I'm going to feel more free no matter where you put me. Right. And that gives me a decisive advantage moving forward because I played the long game. That makes sense. Do you, when you first take, but then when you do Steven A show. Yep. You're the boss boss. Yes, I'm the boss boss.

So, is it more hard to deal with employees? Hell yeah. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, my God. Let me tell you something, man. That was the record. Being an employer is not easy.

Look, man. Look, look, look. When people work for you, when you're working for somebody, you have a standard you're determined to meet. Now you got to- When you're the boss, you have a standard,

you're praying everyone else will meet. Right, right. And most people ain't you. Right, right. And so as a result, you know, and not only that, here's the thing.

On one hand, the priority has to be competence your ability you got your crew here they got to know what the hell they doing you know what i'm saying you see them you got smiles on their faces because they know how to do their damn job you see what i'm saying so they good because they know you believe they good and that's all right okay so the competence is number one. But right there is trust. Now, trust comes in a variety of ways. You don't want people telling your business, but then again, when you ain't got much to hide,

you don't care about that. But the other part of trusting is being able to close your eyes and turn your back and know that the standard that you've mandated is being met at all times because you got folks that are that committed. Right.

And when there's a question mark to that, that could be very, very stressful. I'm doing the Stephen A. Smith show on YouTube, right? I got 600,000 followers. I'll probably hit 600,000 subscribers tomorrow, right, in year one. That's not bad. It's pretty damn good. No, it's great. I'm picking up about 1,? In year one. That's not bad.

It's pretty damn good. No, that's great. I'm picking up about 1,500 subscribers a day. That's great. I ain't satisfied. Why? I think it should be better. Right.

But I got people around me. Man, we doing well. And I'm looking at them. You know why I'm looking at them? God damn it, you don't set the standard. I set the standard. I set the standard. I'm the one cutting this check. Tell me what we doing.

Now, if I'm unreasonable, that's different. But don't you dare tell me what we doing as if you're the one who's defining the standard. And let me give a sports analogy to you that i'm gonna give it to you because you'll love this i'm in it i'm a diehard knicks fan we all know that yes it's hard being a knicks fan i know it's not not not not not not not not it was so hard being a knick fan it was hard for me to look at that damn jim dolan you know i walked by him now he by him. Now he's a billionaire now. He's a billionaire now. And I walk by him. I think it's hard for him, too.

He sees me. He's like, hi, Steven. How you doing? You know what I'm saying? We all angry. Because Devin has missed since 1999. Since 1999, Devin. Can't get to the finals, please.

Ready, please. We should go on top. But this year, I think they had a chance, but they had too many damn injuries. Well, we'll see what happens since they got OG, number one defensive efficiency, all of this other stuff. We'll talk about that. We're doing better than the Heat. No, no, no.

I want the Heat again. I actually want the Heat again. We're doing better than the Heat. If they're healthy. If they're healthy. Amen. Listen, listen. No one thing.

As an aside, no one thing about me. I am never losing when the Heat are playing. Because that means I get to come to South Beach. You get to come to South Beach. That's right. That's right. That's right.

Yes. Yes. Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. The difference between Heat fans and Knicks fans. Heat fans don't even sit down in their seats.

They back there and club live, drinking. Knicks, I remember going to a LeBron game. Halftime came. LeBron was losing. The whole Heat left. The whole stadium left.

And I remember being a diehard Knicks fan saying that would never happen. That's true. We do not leave. That's true. But here's the flip side. Sorry. You could be at a Knicks game. I'm sorry.

You could be at a Heat game. And if you're not from Miami, and you know anything about Miami, you get there early just for the view. It is spectacular. It's a great stadium. Yeah. They got a real club in the back. I was there.

I was there. It's a real club. I was there. I was there the other night. I was there the other night. I don't know exactly what you're talking about. I went there like 8 o'clock. I was there. That's a club. That's a real club. I was there. I was there the other night. I was there the other night. I don't know exactly what you're talking about. I was there like 8 o'clock. It was 8 o'clock that night.

Full Flats Club. Listen, listen. Oh, shit. It's the only time. I told motherfuckers go in there just for the club. Miami is the only time in my life where I sound like Sammy Sosa. Miami has been very, very good to me. Very, very good to me. It's the only time I sound like Sammy Sosa. You know what I'm very good to me. It's been very, very good to me.

It's the only time I sound like Sammy Sosa. You know what I'm saying? I don't need no damn interpreter, okay? But it is what it is. But I say all of that to say, you know, using the whole Nix thing or anything like that as an example, okay? You've got a situation where they improved.

They doing their thing. And folks are salivating over what they seeing. Fair enough. We're just doing better. We're not doing great. We're doing better. And I'm going like this. Okay.

Do we have a chance to go to the finals or not? Because that's how I'm looking at it. Like, Mitchell Robinson, you going to get healthy? OG, I don't know, but you going to get healthy? You just ready to go get healthy? Jalen Brunson balling, somebody going to give him some help? Yep. Because I'm looking at the Boston Celtics,

and I'm saying that should be the only team standing in your way right now. Milwaukee with Dame, Dollar, and Giannis can't be ignored. We get all of that, but losing Drew Holiday and stuff like that, you compromise defensively, New York Dicks got a chance. Boston is the one roadblock standing in your face. To me, anything other than a trip to the conference finals, if you're healthy, against

Boston is a failure. Anything less than that is a failure. So when I see folks like, man, we doing all right. I'm like... Talk about Knicks. Yeah. I'm like this. And I'm going like this. Is your ass from New York?

Have you suffered since 1973? You understand what I'm saying? I'm like, because I want you out. I want you out of here. You ain't a part of this, coach. You ain't a part of this. Because they don't know. And then you got these young whippersnappers and stuff.

You in your 30s. Shut the hell up. You don't know what kind of suffering we have. I was five years old in 1973 when the New York Knicks went to the finals. I ain't seen them. Listen, they went to the finals. I'm sorry, when they won a championship. They've been to the finals ever since.

But damn it, even when they went to the finals in 1999, we knew they wasn't going to beat San Antonio. You knew Ewan with his old knees and Sp, we knew they wasn't going to beat San Antonio. You knew Ewan with his old knees and Sprewell and they wasn't going to beat. I'm sorry, Ewan was hurt. So you got Sprewell

and Camby and you wasn't beating Tim Duncan and David Robinson. That was like when LeBron went against San Antonio the first go around in 2007. We knew he wasn't

going to beat them. So congratulations getting there, but you ain't got a snowball's chance in hell of beating that team. That's the same thing with the New York Knicks. So I'm like, when I see people, I'm like, it's not just about getting there. It's about me firmly believing you got

a chance. The last time that happened was when you went against Olajuwon in Houston and John Stark shot one for 11 from three-point range, two for 18 for the game in and a game seven. You know, and Pat Riley, my man Pat Riley, I love this man. I love Riles.

But Pat Riley is the boss of the New York Knicks. I'm sorry. Yes, he's the boss of the New York Knicks, the head coach. You picked up Rolando Blackman In the season Who does nothing but shoot And there was nothing that said to you John Starks is suffering right now I need to get Rolando Blackman in there

Because John Starks tore it up in game six See, it's moments like this You can't be young Not even born Ignorant And come to me talking about Oh, to hell with you You ain't no real Nick Fenn You better shut the hell up You don't be young, not even born ignorant and come to me talking about, oh, the hell with you. You ain't no real Knicks fan. You better shut the hell up.

You don't know. You have no idea the frustration. Let me tell you how much I'm a Knicks fan. Yeah. Is every time the Knicks get on the street, I watch and then they lose. Don't watch. That's why I haven't been watching. Don't watch.

Don't watch. Don't watch. Don't watch. Because it keeps them winning. Exactly. Because everyone's Dixie. I hear about it. I think I'm the bad luck. It'll mess with your emotion. That's how bad it is being a Knicks fan. That's why I haven't been watching Don't watch Because it keep them winning Exactly Because that was Dixie I hear about it I think I'm the bad luck

It'll mess with your emotion That's how bad it is Being a Knicks fan That's right I think it's me That's right I'll ask Eric or something Anything

How did they do tonight That's right I won't physically watch Because every time I physically watch They physically lose That's right No question I'm not for you for that

At all I thought it was the bad luck I feel that way sometimes too And then I fool myself They've been winning I'm going to watch for that. I thought it was a bad luck. I feel that way sometimes, too. And then I fool myself. They've been waiting over here. I'm going to watch them. Damn. I shouldn't have watched.

Let me give you even one more. Let me tell you how crazy. I moved to Miami. I've been in Miami 15 years. By the way, how do you feel about living here? Oh, I love it. Oh, we'll get into that a little later, too. I'm thinking about that.

I'm thinking about that. Let me tell you how bad it was being a Knicks fan. It's a start for a lot. If you a Knicks fan and a Nets fan. Right. It's round upon if you a Jets fan and a Giants fan. When I move to my lane, I say, all that shit is out the window. I'm a fan of New York. I'm even a fan of the New York Islanders.

It's a hockey team, by the way. I was a fan of everything New York. There's this place out here called Duffy's, right? Duffy's is a great bar. Yeah, please. The Duffy's is a great bar. Shut up, the Duffy's. But every time the Knicks and the Heat play, everybody just get together.

It's a dope-ass bar. But it's a whole bunch of New Yorkers that have been living out here 20 years that we fucking got to be a deputy to Miami. We're not letting our New York Knicks go. No, no, you don't have to let it. You only came here for the weather, the taxes, and stuff that we don't need to mention. That's all you came here for. That's me like, let's have a lot of you in public right here. But I will tell you this.

I will tell you this. You don't have to let go of your New York fandom because New York is everywhere. We get all of that. We get all of that. But I got a better story for you. Go ahead. So Miami hardcore. Yes, they are.

Under Raleigh, they don't play. Yep. They don't communicate with nobody. They ain't returning text messages. You know, they ain't leaking information. And they don't do all that. They don't play that game. You know, they're real ones.

They, you know, if they got something to say, they say it publicly. You understand what I'm saying? I mean, I've known them for years. I'm very tight with the Heat organization. I go back, you know, close to 30 years with a lot of these cats,

the Raleys and the Tim Donovans, that the Communications got. Thank you so much. The Tim Donovans and Rob Wilson's and me in relation to the players, D. Wade, all of them. I mean, UD, all of them.

I go back, yeah, I've known a lot of them for years, man. Got a lot of love for them. And they real ones. But here's the thing that happened to me last year. Okay. Let me tell you how depressing this is. So I'm furious with the New York Knicks because they didn't get Donovan Mitchell.

And this is the inside. Right. Because everybody know Worldwide West. Right. You know, that's my everybody know Worldwide West. Right. You know, that's my man, I love him, but we had to stop

talking for a little while because they were- Because he was running the organization, wasn't he? He works under the president of the basketball operations,

Leon Rose. Okay. But they were pissing me off. Okay. And West would come to protect him and shit and I'd be like, look man,

we can't talk, I'm going to cut your ass out. I'm kind of tired of this shit. This is the Knicks. This ain't, this ain't, I'm not objective about the New Yorkers. I'm telling you right now. See, that's the key with media. So the journalism is out. I'm kind of tired. This is the Knicks. This ain't, this ain't objective. I'm not objective about the New Yorkers.

I'm telling you right now. See, that's the key with media. So the journalism is out of here. Out of here. Out of here. I'm not objective. Now we got to know.

Now I'm objective with what I report in terms of actual, factual information. Right. But I'm not hiding my emotion. Right, the emotional side.

I am rooting for the Knicks against anybody. And when they lose, I'm pissed. And I'm looking for who is going to incur my wrath because you done pissed me off because yet again you failed.

Okay? So he's calling me to be protective. Worldwide West. Yeah. Of Leon Rosen. Okay. Yo, Russ, man,

in the interest of our friendship, dog, we not going to talk. I'm about to cut your ass out. I'm tired of this shit, man. I'm tired of this. You know what I'm saying? And I love him, man. Yo Russ man In the interest of our friendship dog We not gonna talk Cause I'm about to cut your ass out I'm tired of this shit man I'm tired of this I'm tired of this You know what I'm saying

And I love him man I've known him for over 25 years But it was driving me crazy And so here's what happened You got an opportunity I'm watching the Knicks And I believe I believe

That if the Knicks had Donovan Mitchell last year They in the conference finals Miami does not beat them. Miami does not beat the New York. Conference finals, not the championship. Not the championship, conference finals. They do not beat, Miami does not beat the Knicks if Donovan Mitchell is with Brunson

the way Brunson was playing. You with me? Yeah. So, I'm saying this. Now, you got to remember, you got to rewind the clock. I'm doing radio in New York City for ESPN Radio back when Donovan Mitchell was coming out of Louisville. This damn dude, Phil Jackson. You know the 11-time champion?

Six championships in Chicago, five in L.A. You know the Zen master who all of a sudden don't want to coach when he get to New York and shit. That's what we need you for. But you don't want to coach. He was like Joe Biden when we had him. That's true. You know what? Here's the deal.

We don't know because he wouldn't show us. He didn't show up. And he's Biden trying to show up. He was tripping all the way, but he's trying to show up. The point that I'm trying to make is this. So Phil Jackson don't want to coach, right? And I'm going like this. I'm hearing all these names.

Malik Monk and all, you know, all these people. And I said, Donovan Mitchell, Louisville, the brother special. Get him. Phil Jackson drafted this dude, Frank Nilekina. Frank Nilekina. Never heard of him in my life. He was from overseas. He was from France.

Yeah, I just came from France. I just got back from France today. And I was like, I'm furious. Because I know you passed up, right? So now I bring that up. Why? Because Donovan Mitchell taking the league by storm, averaging 25 games, showing the skill set, Utah, blah, blah, blah. He, I know Utah.

He wants out. Utah's looking to move him. And he wants to go home from upstate New York. Want to come home? Want to come home? Want to come home? No question. Figure out how the hell I know that emphatically. He wants to come to New York.

You understand what I'm saying? Leon Rose has an opportunity to get this man. He is on the phone with Danny Ainge who departs from Boston. He's now running a Utah Jazz. And Danny Ainge is universally recognized as one of the elite executives

in the sport. He's not someone you bluff. He knows what he's doing. This is what he wants. He want about 4 or 5 picks want an R.J. Barrett you know want Grimes

I'm like get it off you got 11 picks over the next 7 years you got Giannis coming you got LeBron gonna leave LA who you got you got to get him not only does he not get him one you got? You got to get him.

Not only does he not get him, one of the reasons he doesn't get him, this brother, Leon Rose, has some dude named Gershon Rojas who had recently got fired in Minnesota on the phone negotiating for him. Now again, how do you know this?

I'm Stephen A., baby. This is what I do. This is basketball. I'm telling you what I know. And I'm livid because you don't get them. Right? So now we fast forward to last year's playoffs. And you the Knicks.

And you go and you take Cleveland out. You smoke them. They can't deal with y'all defensively. Their big boys don't respond. Jared Allen and Mobley and these brothers, they don't respond to the challenge. You take them out in six. I'm like, yes! Let's go.

The Heat are next. The Heat are next. We coming. Right? The Heat are next. Relax, relax. I'm like, yes! Let's go. The Heat are next. The Heat are next. We coming. Right? The Heat are next. Relax, relax. I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it.

All the Heat fans, they know what he's talking about. Hey, man, we ain't playing anything. They know what he's talking about. I'm feeling it, right? And then I watched Jimmy Butler put on a show. This was before he had the braids, too, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is Jimmy Butler last year.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Jimmy, my man, loved Jimmy to death. Jimmy used to be in Philadelphia. I felt Philadelphia was making a big mistake because him and B, they're like this. And B loved the ground this brother walked on. Jimmy Butler, holding cats accountable. All that soft shit you saw from Ben Simmons,

you know what I'm saying? I understand mental awareness, mental health, all that stuff. I'm not trying to disrespect, but damn it. Where's the mental health when it comes to cash and that check? He seemed to know how to get to the thing. So I want to hear that. You understand what I'm not trying to disrespect him, but damn it. Where's the mental health when it comes to cash and that check? He seemed to know how to get to the thing. I don't want to hear that.

You understand what I'm saying? I ain't trying to hear that shit, all right? So anyway, right? So Dominic, and then he on the sideline looking like Zoolander. You know, got in the shades and the fly outfit and all of this other stuff. I'm like, ain't no doubt the honeys want you, but what that doing for your game? What that doing for your team?

Don't get me started with that damn Ben Simmons. Anyway, I'm like, that don't happen with Jimmy Butler there. One way or another, something going to happen. He ain't having that, right? But he in Miami now, and he had dropped like over 50 on Milwaukee one game, right? And then they closed him out. So I'm like this, all right, you know, it's going to be tough, but we can take him.

We can take him. What am I bringing this up for? Because the Heat won. No. That's not why. That's not why. That's not why. I'm bringing it up because remember, the Heat don't talk to nobody.

Nobody. Right? During this time of year. They locked in. Eric Spolster, phenomenal coach, one of the best ever. They locked in. It's 1130 at night. I get a text message.

It's from Jimmy Butler. Y'all are next. And I went like this. My heart has never hurt so bad over a basketball game before the game than that. Because when he said that to me, in my heart, I knew they going to get us. But I couldn't admit it to myself. I'm like holding up. Come on on Jalen How long did it take you to answer that text message?

Immediately I said Aw damn I said aw damn And that's all I said That's all he said That's all he said He said y'all next

You know what I'm saying All my Knicks fandom and everything That's all he said. That's all he said. He said, y'all next. You know what I'm saying? And all my Knicks fandom and everything came down. And I went on first take the next day. And I said, he said, we next. You know what I'm saying? He said, we next. I said, come on, y'all.

Come on, y'all. And then I go to the game. And he just looked. And he said a word. Just shook his head. I said, that was the story. It was at one point, you just said one of your biggest disappointments. One of mine was, I felt like we had a chance to get LeBron at one point. 2010.

2010. Yeah. You had just got fired in 2009. That's right. So we had a chance to get LeBron at one point. 2010. 2010. Yeah. You had just got fired in 2009. That's right. So we had a chance to get LeBron. Yep. Why didn't James Dolan, why didn't the Knicks organization

go all out? They did. They just didn't have anything to offer. Like, James Dolan's pitch was, come to me and I'll make you a billionaire. That was his pitch. That's kind of like a cool pitch.

Right? I know that, unless you believe you're going to be a billionaire without him. Yeah. Which is what of like a cool pitch. Right? I know that, unless you believe you're going to be a billionaire without him. Yeah, yeah. Which is what LeBron believed. All right? So that was number one. So LeBron,

they in Cleveland, you know, you got Donnie Walsh rolled in in a wheelchair. You got James Dolan, who don't have the greatest reputation. You got Dan Toney and cats like that. Alright, that

had to compete with Pat Riley. Pat Riley, from what I was told, rolled up in there with the championship rings and put them on the table.

You want one of these? You want one of these? You want one of these? Now, if you remember, I'm the one that broke that story. I went on the air, and I said, This is a dope-ass story. I said, LeBron,

I said, LeBron, no, I'm talking about LeBron's taking, he's going to South Beach. And everybody was like, they were crucifying me for three weeks, because by this time I was gone. I was unemployed for damn near four, I was unemployed damn near near four. You didn't make that announcement.

I was unemployed damn near for a full year. I had started off resurrecting my career by going to Fox Sports Radio and I was doing morning radio. And on that morning radio show, I announced to the world, LeBron going to South Beach. I had sources tell me LeBron going to South Beach. This is three weeks in advance. He'd taken his talents to South Beach. What the hell does he know? No wonder he got fired from ESPN. He don't know shit.

You know, he ain't doing this, he ain't doing that, blah, blah, blah. And it was one of the hardest three weeks of my life because I knew I was right. I knew my source was reliable. But if he had changed his mind, you know, if he had said something different, you know what I'm saying?

So it was like, and you know the wolves were circling because you know cats wanted me to fall on my face. They wanted me to fail the whole nine. And so had he announced that he was going somewhere else, it would have made me look really, really bad at that particular moment in time in my career. Nobody's right all the time.

You only go by what your sources tell you. But at that time in my career, having been let all the time. You only go by what your sources tell you. But at that time in my career, having been let go by ESPN a year earlier, having started to resurrect myself on Fox Sports Radio in the morning time, with Fox Sports Radio not really getting that kind of shine, and now the eye of the sports

world was on Fox Sports Radio because of what I reported. That night that LeBron announced he was taking his talents to South Beach was one of the most stressful nights of my entire life. Because you got the props, though,

for that. Yeah, but I'm saying... But he said before that, he was worried. Because he could change his mind. He could change his mind, right. That's right, because he could change his mind or whatever.

So had he said he was taking his talents anywhere else, they would have said I was wrong. I didn't know what I was talking about. No wonder ESPN let his ass go. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So all of that was going on. Right?

And I knew my sources, and I knew my sources knew. So I had no doubt. But that didn't mean he wouldn't change his mind. And so that's what I was dealing with. That's what I was living with. And ultimately, when he decided to take his talents to South Beach, it's because, first of all, him and D-Wade were supposed to be there. Whether Mello wants to admit it or not, Mello was supposed to be there.

I'm the one that told you that. And hold on, I also thought that Mello was supposed to join him with the Knicks at one point. No, no, no, that wasn't it. They were supposed to join. They had made a pact. Yo, we going to negotiate our deals in 2007 to have an out after year three. So we have an option to opt out and become free agents to go wherever we want to go. Mello was like, yo, I'm from Baltimore.

I ain't passing up that guaranteed money. Denver offered me five years. I'm going to take the five years, which wouldn't make him a free agent until a couple of years later. It was supposed to be D-Wade, LeBron, and Melo. But Melo locked himself into the cash in Denver. And as a result, Bosh opted out. And because Bosh opted out, Bosh ended up going there with them. And Melo had to force his way out of Denver a year later, of Denver a year later to come to New York City.

But had Melo kept the option, he had an option to get out in 2010, it was going to be Melo, LeBron, and D-Wade. Now, I don't know. I've never heard them admit it. I don't give a shit what they say. I'm telling you what I know. Mello, LeBron, and D-Wade.

They can go on their shows. They can go on their shows. They can talk whatever they want. They can tell whatever story they want. I'm the one that reported it. I'm the one that broke the story. I'm telling you the intel that I received. It was Mello, D-Wade, LeBron.

And because Mello had opted out, had not opted out, and took the five full years for 80 mil from Denver at that time, that's why it didn't happen. And I got Mello on camera on my show, quite frankly, on ESPN2 at that time saying, yo, I wasn't walking away from the guaranteed dollars. Wow. Yeah. So it was never supposed to be Bosh. Wow.

It was supposed to be Melo. And now we sit here and looking at an illustrious career, a scoring machine, a future Hall of Famer, and Carmelo Anthony, who's never won a championship. And we all know if that brother was with D. Wayne and LeBron, he'd have had at least those two and probably three

of the four because you can't convince me when LeBron, and that's one of the reasons why, and I'm speculating in fairness to LeBron, me and LeBron and that's one of the reasons why and I'm speculating in fairness to LeBron me and LeBron are respectful to one another I got mad respect for him incredible role model incredible play I got him number two all-time behind MJ is the greatest play in the history of basketball all of that stuff major major props with him but that's the biggest reason we don't fuck with each other because it was a choke job against the Dallas Mavericks and I called it I said yo it's a choke job you understand you can't have

Jason Terry or J.J. Barea guarding you in the fourth quarter that's inexcusable isn't it you LeBron James and that's what happened because he hadn't learned how to win yet to the degree that he did. And see, when I think about measuring, just to shift a little bit if you don't mind, when I think about the GOAT, that is the ultimate reason why I have MJ over him. Statistically, that's fine. Hell with all of that. Jordan averaged over 30 about nine times.

Nine-time defensive, all defensive, NBA first team, 10-time scoring champion. We be talking about it. We ain't hear all that. And played in a different era that was far more physical than it is now. The issue is this. The road to prosperity matters.

Think about what you two have gone through in your life. We ain't talking about hip-hop. Talk about your life. The obstacles that you had to overcome to get to where you are. The greatness isn't measured by just your skill set and your success and where you landed. You Jay-Z, you LL, you others. It's not that. It's the road you traveled.

If you born with a silver spoon in your mouth thinking you hit a home run when you want when you started off on third base that's entirely different than starting off from nothing and getting to where you are and so what i'm saying is mj had to do that with lebron the difference is as MJ was climbing, you never looked at him and said he's the reason y'all didn't win. In that Dallas series, LeBron was the reason you didn't win the title.

The first year in Miami, you should have had three titles. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser-known histories of the West.

I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat-eater founder Stephen Rinella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here and I'll say it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And it's going to take us to heal us. It's Mental Health Awareness Month, and on a recent episode of Just Heal with Dr. J, the incomparable Taraji P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey. So what I'm hearing you saying is healing is a part of us also reconnecting to our childhood

in some sort. You said I look how youthful I look because I never let that little girl inside of me die. I go outside and run outside with the dogs. I still play like a kid. I laugh, you know, I love jokes. I love funny. I love laughing. I laugh funny. I love laughing.

I laugh at myself. I don't take myself too seriously. That's the stuff that keeps you young and stops you from being so hard. To hear this and more things on the journey of healing, you can listen to Just Heal with Dr. J from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. You should have had the title against OKC, the title against San Antonio, the first title against Dallas. You should have had that.

They had an aging Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, J.J. Barea. Okay. Dirk Nowitzki, of course, was a superstar at that particular moment in time. We get that. But it wasn't LeBron, D. Wade, and Bosh and those brothers. If LeBron shows up in that series and specifically in the fourth quarter, because first three quarters he was there. Right. Specifically in the fourth quarter, because first three quarters he was there. Specifically in the fourth quarter. We're talking about four consecutive fourth quarters of an NBA finals where there was an APB out for your ass.

Yo, yo, we just talking facts. LeBron, I still have him number two all time. I still think that he's a great player, a great person, one of the great people. I mean, he's phenomenal. But the fact of the matter is, that's on your resume. When we look at Jordan, well, you didn't beat the Pistons because Scottie Pippen had that damn migraine in game seven against the Pistons. You see what I'm saying? When you finally overcame the Pistons and you got to the finals, although it was an Asian magic and it was Vlade Divac instead of Kareem and all of those,

you still smoked them in five. Still smoked them in five. When Jordan switched hands in the midair and all that stuff in game two and all that stuff, we saw what the brother did to Drexler and Kersey and all of those brothers when he went against them in the second go-round. Third go-round, it was Barkley with Kevin Johnson. Dan Marley in those boots. We saw that. We saw him retire, come back, come back in the second year

with 17 games left, lose in the playoffs against Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott and Shaquille and Horace Grant. And we saw them carry Horace Grant, his former teammate, off the court and the shoulders. And that brother went out and gotace Grant. And we saw them carry Horace Grant, his former teammate, off the court and the shoulders. And that brother went out and got Rodman. And the next year, they took him out four straight, swept him, blew him out of the building. I mean, it was an annihilation because Jordan and Pippen had you scared to dribble the ball because they were pressing you full court.

It was unreal. We saw you beat GP and Sean Kemp. Remember Sean Kemp? I'm not talking about Sean Klump. I'm talking about Sean Kemp. You understand what I'm saying? I'm talking about that brother. You beat him.

We saw you beat Malone and Stockton not once but twice. This is what we saw. At what? We saw him against Portland, Jordan against Portland, and we saw him not look great in game six, and Phil Jackson pulled him to the bench,

and the reserves came back on like a 15-2 run or whatever it was, but we also saw Phil Jackson put his ass right back in that game to close. This is Jordan we talking about. You didn't see that LeBron in that series against Dallas. My point in saying all of that with the story is this. When we're measuring greatness, it's not about your resume. All of y'all got a resume. It's about moments.

And when those moments arrive, where you at? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Now, if it's an aberration and it's something that you've never done before and you're being asked to do it, that's different. But when you got a game that's Herculean and it's that way throughout the regular season, throughout the first, second, third round, and then you get to the finals, and all of a sudden, it evaporates. That's a problem. That's a problem. Because it's you not being able to do what you normally do when the moment arrives. This ain't Stephen A. choking with some damn first pitch at Yankee Stadium when I never

stepped on a mound in my damn life. You had them on the Louboutins on. I did. I did. I messed up. I made a business decision. I made a business decision. I'm going to try to get it over the plate.

But what I'm not going to do is bust my ass on national television on the mound. I'm not doing that. So I made a business decision. But I choked this devil over. But I've never been on a mound before. That's entirely different than me being on a mound all the time and I'm throwing strikes. And then all of a sudden, the moment arrives and I can't find the strike zone. There's a difference.

And I'm saying to you, we ain't never said that about MJ. And that is why MJ has goat status amongst those of us who know. Like, I watched Gilbert Arenas say that he thinks the NBA got soft because of Europeans, right? Okay.

I thought that was an interesting take. Gilbert knows basketball, and I respect the hell out of Gilbert Arenas. And I never looked at it like that until he said it. He said they don't play defense. Right. They just want to shoot jump shots. So that's what made it so. Well, I won't say that because Manu Ginobili played defense.

Yes. Manu Ginobili, Rudy Gobert is a three-time defensive player of the year. That brother ain't from the States. I mean, you got European players that play defense. Not all of them. Not all of them. Not all of them. But he's right for the most part in terms of how they change the complexion of the game.

But understand why they change the complexion of the game. If we're going to be, listen, man, we're here on Drink Champ. If we're on Drink Champ, let's go. Let's go. It's the brother's fault. It's the brother's fault. Let me tell you how. The NBA is a business they about making money you make money in sports when you make your product attractive to the masses

so you got the bad boy pistons right very physical game NBA wanted to take that out they thought they were successful then Raleigh went out and had Oakley Ewing Mason you see what I'm saying and even at the guard spot don't say no damn Charles Smith don't get me started

with his five minutes layups I don't want to hear that we ain't going that route but what I'm saying is but what I'm saying is, is that when you have that, right? So you got these rough riders, okay? And if you remember, you remember this, you're going to give me

a high five on this one. Before Mace, before Oakley, Ken Bannister. Yes. Remember that brother? We talking about the tough shit. Got that brother out the suit. He got that brother

straight off the streets. Straight off the streets Straight off the streets You know what I'm saying I mean he was like No one said you could entertain If it was doing Kings of Comedy And he was joking around And said you can't have

A black person in hockey They'll just be Just skating around What you do That was Bannister He was that kind of dude Right So Rouse was like

Anthony Mason was like that To me Yeah yeah But I'm saying Bannister preceded him Is my point Okay And then

Don't forget Xavier McDaniel Okay Don't forget him Okay Don't forget him Don't forget him Don't forget him Don't forget him

Don't forget him Don't scare nobody Rough riders right So what did Riley do Riley said We ain't got the talent to beat We ain't got the talent to beat Chicago

But if we get enough dudes That can snatch their heart We can get them And obviously Chicago. But if we get enough dudes that can snatch their heart, we can get them. And obviously you couldn't do that to MJ. But that's the only reason you couldn't do it to them. Because they were giving Scottie Pippen and the rest of

those cats nightmares. You see what I'm saying? So my point is, as the game evolved, the NBA, particularly with the Dream Team, the original Dream Team in Barcelona, you're seeing all of this. And as the game evolved, the NBA, particularly with the Dream Team, the original Dream Team in Barcelona, you're seeing all of this. And as the game evolved, you saw what attracted the global market to the sport. That wasn't going to do it. You want to see shooters.

You want to see a more up-tempo style. You wanted to see more finesse because it ensured the likelihood of those players being on the court more when it counted than if you allowed a level of physicality to dominate the game that could compromise catch. A perfect example is, let's look at Steph Curry. I think that Steph Curry is the greatest shooter God ever created.

I've had Hall of Famers... More than Ray Allen? Huh? More than Ray Allen? Easy. Okay. As great as Ray Allen was Continue Any shooter Okay That tells you That they were a better shooter

Than Steph Curry Bitch slap him And throw him off the shelf Just get rid of him Just get rid of him Just get rid of him They're not being honest There is no shooter

In the history of the game Better than Steph Curry Because you had spot spot up shooters. You had catch in shooters. You had shooters that had their favorite spot. Right wing, left wing, top of the key. Twenty one feet, twenty three feet, twenty five feet. Steph Curry, there is no spot, nor is there any range that he can't touch. Do you realize with Steph Curry, you literally have to keep your head on a swivel from the moment he steps past half court? He can pull up from 40.

He's that lethal. There has never been anything like him. But I've had Hall of Famers, Hall of Famers, tell me he wouldn't average 20 a game if he was playing in our era. And I said, what? I said, what? But they weren't disrespecting him. What they were saying was the game was so physical we could get away with

hitting his elbow. We could get away with tripping him. We could get away with when he's running through those picks, giving him some wood. We could do that. You can't do that now. And because you can't do that now, it would have compromised him. What is the one thing that has compromised Steph Curry, particularly earlier in his career? He had those ankle injuries.

And those ankle injuries, those ankle injuries, man, they would have stepped on his foot as he was walking through screens on purpose. Just stepped on his foot. How was walking through screens on purpose. Just stepped on his foot. How you going to catch him if you're the referee? It's an accident. You know what I'm saying? And listen, you had Lawrence Taylor in football.

Later on in life at Minton, man, he was sending prostitutes to the hotel room, to the night before the game for opponents. Crazy stuff like that. This is his book. This is his book. I'm just using that as an example. I'm using that as an example to highlight back in the day the extent they would go to to derail an opponent.

I know certain superstars. One of the things they love to do. See, this is what I say when I can't say everything. I know superstars. In fairness to them, they were single. They weren't married. They would literally go after your girl just to mess with you.

Before they played you. And then step out on the court and bust your living ass just to demoralize you and let you know you can't mess with me. And literally when they're doing that, you might go home thinking you ain't the man he is

in other departments after they get through with you. And they did it on purpose i'm just telling you these are the stories i'm i'm telling you they told me i'm like i'm like i ain't make it up yo this is what happened no and i would never tell who but i'm just saying to you those kind of things so when i'm covering the game i'm bringing all of this up here to the equation i sit up there and say stay off the weed right i'm not talking about brothers that he ain't costing you money hell i got family members been smoking weed all their life you understand i'm saying depending on whose relative's house i go to i might get a contact

i mean come on. Y'all, I'm like, I'm not talking about somebody not scoring a week. I'm talking about when it's compromising your dollars because you're going to get fines. You're going to get suspended. Don't let it mess with your money. Back in the day, when I was covering the sport, we sat courtside. We had the scorer's table. So when you're playing, you're checking in. You have the scorer's table. So when you're a player and you're checking in,

you have to walk right by us. I saw Larry Brown one day, and this was not Iverson. It was not Iverson. I saw Larry Brown one day, look at a player. Three down! Three down! The player was right in front of me.

He went like this. I threw up my paper and just walked away. I said, motherfucker, hi. The player was right in front of me. He went like this. Huh? I threw up my paper and just walked away. I said, motherfucker, hi. He ain't going to do nothing tonight. You know what I'm saying? And I'm sitting there. I'm sitting there, right?

Now, ladies and gentlemen, that was when weed wasn't legal in 26, 27, 20, 26, 20. Man, don't, don't, don't. I don't care. You know what I'm saying? But I mean, that was when weed wasn't legal in 26 to 27 states. Right. Without diamond anybody. Right.

How much weed you think is being smoked before games now? Oh, no, I think they go. I'm talking about in any sport you pick. And oh, by the way, and by the way, all you got to do is look at them. So I'm sitting there. I'm sitting there like you really mad when you see me on first take. And I'm like this. Stay off the weed. Or I'm like this.

I'm like this. Because I'm not saying stay off the weed to any specific person to dime them out. Because I wouldn't do that. But I'm sitting there looking at them. He had a problem last night. He didn't seem like himself. You know what I'm saying? And you mad.

You mad. But your ass walked up to the scorer's table wobbling. You know what I'm saying I'm like And that's why When I'm watching cats With their podcasts And all of this other stuff

See you got people In the media And other places Pissed off Because you looking at players And you like What they trying to do Is they trying to

Etch out the media You just relying on us You ain't got to talk to them Oh no no no no I say y'all looking at it all wrong. I want all of them to have their podcast. All of them to have their voice. Because they're going to talk.

And when they're going to talk, I'm going to have news to talk about. Because I'm watching. I'm watching. You can talk all you want to. You still got to play. I'm looking at you. You talk about stuff you want.

I'm looking at you. I saw what your ass you want. I'm looking at you. I saw what your ass did. I saw you roll up in the game. I saw you well enough, whether it's me in person or the camera angle zooming in on you. I saw how bloodshot your eyes was. I saw how you looked like you could barely open

that. I'm watching you move. I'm watching you move. I even went to the doctor the other day man and I asked him I said yo man because uh it's this cat that that I talked to for like 10x health Gary Breck I got him on my podcast now because I made a tremendous health change because I was really in bad shape a couple you know a year and a half ago and stuff like that really resurrected my health I'm feeling better than I felt like 30 30 years, right? So I go to him. Thank you. And I went to him, man. I said,

let me ask you a question. Scientifically, could you give the breakdown of weed and tell me what kind of effect it has on people and why? Go to the podcast Stephen A. Smith show

on YouTube and he'll break it down podcast Stephen A. Smith Show on YouTube. And he'll break it down to you. Right? You ain't going to have no problem. You ain't going to have no problem. None of y'all ain't going to have no problem. But when he says what he says, you're going to ask yourself, should them brothers be doing that if they got to play? They got to play.

Probably not. Because you got to remember, it calms your mood, mellows you out, helps you sleep, et cetera, et cetera. You know what it doesn't do? It doesn't elevate your level of urgency. So let's say, for example, you going against Kobe, who wasn't doing that. Or you going against Jordan or somebody like that who wasn't doing that? Or you going against Jordan or somebody like that who wasn't doing that, right? Right.

And you mellow. Mm-hmm. And they killers. Right. What chance do you have? You have no chance. Because there's a level of urgency that they feel.

You get the check. You get in the bag. And on top of it all you know everybody know you can ball so you ain't no scrub but did you win all right see that's where Stephen comes in because that's me like yeah dog I know why the hell you lost. I know what you didn't do. You see what I'm saying? And I might be talking about them, but I'm not talking to them. I'm talking about that audience out there to say, let them talk that shit they want to.

I'm telling you, you got to hold them more accountable than that. You can't always win, but you got to be able to look at any professional and go like this. Did you do all it took to win? Because as a Nick fan, if a Nick walked in here and looked you in your face, yeah, man, you know, shit. Yeah, you know, he tried to win, you know, but shit happened.

Ain't no big deal. You're going to be like this. No, no, edit, you know, he tried to win, you know, but shit happened. Ain't no big deal. You're going to be like this. No, no, edit. Get out of here. I don't like it. You're going to be like this. I don't like his ass. You're not a rapper.

I'm a rapper. Let me be the rapper. You're going to be like, I don't like his ass. You know what I'm saying? I don't like him. Because you're like, wait a minute. It ain't nonchalant. It ain't blasé.

What do you mean? Right, right. That's how you going to feel. That's me. That's me. Let me change the subject a little bit, but it's still on the same subject. Do you think LeBron is a victim of his circumstances? Because like you just said, the league has changed, right?

Yeah. So a lot of people accuse LeBron of not having killer instinct, right? But when I look at youngsters who only have, like me personally, Shabazz, I wish Shabazz was here, what I was about to say, wish he was here, he had a TNT shirt, jacket on. But to me, and I know you could debate me, I know there's plenty of people who could debate me what I'm about to say right now. Sure. Me, I think Floyd Mayweather's the best boxer of all

time, right? Because I've seen all of them. Clearly the best defensive boxer of all time. Okay, I agree to both, but I've seen all of his fights. So have I. I missed some of I missed all of Ali's. I came a little later. I missed even some of

Tyson's fights. Okay. But I've seen all of Floyd Mayweather. Ironically, the only fights I didn't see is his exhibitions. I can even some of Tyson's fights. Okay. But I see all of Floyd Mayweather. Ironically, the only fights I didn't see is his exhibitions. I can't stand it. I love him. I love him too much for his legacy on the line. Right. But is LeBron a victim of his circumstances?

Meaning, could you think LeBron could have survived in the Kobe Jordan era? Survive, yes. Prosper, I'm not so sure. Allow me to explain. I would like to. Allow me to explain. I would like to. And before I answer that question, let me say this.

Let's not forget Sugar Ray Leonard. That's right. Let's not forget Wilfredo Benitez. He's a bad brother. Let's not forget Salvador Sanchez who died in a bad brother. Let's not forget Salvador Sanchez who died in a plane crash. Let's not forget Hector Camacho. No, no, we can forget him.

Now, he wasn't on that level. Hector Camacho was nice, but he wasn't on that level. I'm giving you dudes that was on that level. I would say Aaron Pryor, but he took too many punches. He'd just take you out. Isn't Aaron Pryor the one that had the gloves? I don't think so, but he took too many punches. He'd just take you out. Isn't Aaron Pryor the one that had the gloves?

I don't think so, but I know that when he beat Alexis Aguero, they would talk about, give him the stuff, give him the stuff. I don't know what the hell the stuff was. I don't know what the hell the stuff was. I remember that. But let me tell you why I answered the LeBron James question that way, because this is a great question that you asked. And everybody needs to understand this.

Just like I talked about moments, you got to talk about competition. So when we talking about competition, right, then it has to be something along the lines of what would have happened had you gone against those people? Feel me? When LeBron was struggling to develop the killer instinct that ultimately was in him and he was able to conquer to ultimately beat a young OKC team after he had beaten Boston to get to the finals and all this other stuff, right?

Indiana, actually, too. What I'm saying to you is that while you were learning how to win, would Jordan have ever let you learn? See, here's what you have to understand. Michael Jordan is 6-0 in NBA Finals Series. MVP of every single NBA Finals Series. Who never allowed

the series to get to Game 7. Not one time. Not one time. And so when you say to me, LeBron playing in that Jordan era, a threat to MJ, then what we have to ask ourselves is, how would MJ have responded to a perceived threat? You don't get to dismiss that. You got to absorb that. You got to absorb.

I. They saying. Yo ass. Can take me out. There are people. Saying that to Michael Jordan. How would he have responded. And I'm telling you.

I believe. Because of what I saw from LeBron in the fourth quarters of that series against the Dallas Mavericks, that Michael Jordan would have never allowed him to find out what it was to win. That's what I'm saying. That's the difference. And so when people talk to me, yeah, LeBron's an ultra talent. And LeBron and MJ was a 6'9", 2'16". But my retort is, well, LeBron

is 6'9", 2'16". And still lost six NBA Finals. He didn't lose six. He better ten. But he lost six NBA finals. He didn't lose six. He's been to ten. But he lost six. You have Boston in his way when he was younger. MJ. You had

Detroit in his way when he got older. LeBron had Indiana with Paul George and Rick Smith. You know, it's shit like that. I'm not even saying Rick Smith, but Paul George and the crew. I'm sorry.

Roy Hibbert. That's right. Roy Hibbert. Okay? And I like Roy. But I'm saying this. You had that kind of stuff. You ain't have Boston with Bird, McHale, Parrish, Ainge.

You ain't have Isaiah, Dumars, Vinny the Microwave coming off the bench, Sally, Lambert. I mean, what? What? You ain't had that. You got me mad. You ain't had that. You had Indiana early, Toronto late with DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. Much respect to both.

Much respect to both. But that's what you had. You didn't have those obstacles. That is how I look at it. And that is why LeBron James will never be my GOAT. Right. Ever. It will always be Michael Jordan over him.

But mad respect to him. He's on the Mount Rushmore basketball. Incredible role model in this day and age, social media and beyond. He's incredible. He just ain't MJ. Is it possible, and I know this is going to sound Like a cliche type of question Is it possible that Michael Jordan

Kobe Bryant And LeBron Is all Some of the greatest of all time Sure But when you compare it to Each other then It's optional

And that's why I get pissed Okay Because of the sensitivity Like I've said to LeBron teams And Rich Paul And Maverick, Carter's And the world and others I remember I said to LeBron teams, to Rich Paul, the Maverick, Carter's of the world, and others. I remember I said to Rich Paul,

you act like it's an insult to call him the second greatest player of all time. Rich Paul said, it is an insult. I said, I can't talk to you. I can't talk to you. You know what I'm saying? I ain't talking to you. I'm not wasting my time with that. Above Kobe, which is very surprising.

But the reason why is because LeBron played the difference. See, Kobe is number two to MJ, playing the identical position with the identical style. And so my point is I'm looking at LeBron and thinking about the point forward that you are. You know, a Magic Johnson type who can still put up 27 a night in your career, rebounds, assists, playmaking ability, scoring ability, and at one time was an elite defender for at least one year. And so when I'm looking at all of those things, that is what I put over Kobe because he facilitated winning to an even greater degree individually as Kobe did

in terms of making your teammates better. Kobe was just an assassin. And so as a result, he emulated Michael, and he was the closest to Michael in that regard, but he was still number two at the same position. I'm going to give LeBron respect. What the hell? Fuck.

I have no idea. Yeah, me neither. Keep it going. I have no idea. That's Kobe or somebody. That's Kobe or somebody. That's Kobe Bryant. Kobe like Stephen A. He's making it together.

It's a TV. It's a TV. It's a TV. It's a TV. Look ahead. Look ahead. As long as it doesn't hit me, that's all. So anyway, it was like, that's the only difference.

That's the nugget That I'm picking apart That's it Okay That was That was a great fucking answer That was a great fucking answer You got the flowers Yes

Stephen A Our show Is about giving They flowers To the people I want to tell you how much Like I watch you so much

That There's been times I got busy. And I knew that it was okay not to watch the game because you're going to cover it in the morning. And I enjoy sometimes watching you covering the game more than watching the actual game. Thank you, bro. Appreciate that. You know what I mean? Because, like, you'll break it down

and you're very, very fair. You're like, but you're very firm. If a player has that two for 11 night... Right. I call it. You call it.

So we wanted to face-to-face, man-to-man, give you your flowers, man. To your face. To your face. Snoop Dogg said it's better than a Grammy

because it comes from his people and we want to give you your applause let you know how great you are I'm going to be honest I know you know this but in case you don't know you changed the way we watch sports we changed the way that

we articulate sports and we understand sports and in case anyone never told you, that's who you are. You are a goal. I said it in the intro. And I mean that. I appreciate it, man.

You know what I'm saying? I mean that. It means a lot. Thank you. And you're continuing to be great. You're out here losing weight, doing your thing, running around. We love, we respect you.

We want to give you your flowers, man, because you sincerely, one million percent, deserve your props every single day We love, we respect you. We want to give you your flowers, man, because you sincerely 1 million percent deserve your props every single day. Thanks a lot, bro. You know what I mean? When people talk about you, I know why they talk about you, because you're that guy, and we want to tell you how much we...

Appreciate y'all, man. Hell yeah. Thanks so much. Doing quick time? Oh, yes. Okay. All right, cool. You want to bring in Sonny D oh yes okay alright cool you wanna bring in Sonny D yeah yeah bring in Sonny D Sonny D Paul

and Diego Diego Diego come on this is the United Nations this is United Nations we got what type of race is here

I like it talk about whatever y'all want so alright but you wanna explain him the game yeah so now this is a drinking game

that we play. Oh, shit. And I ain't no drinker, you know. I'm drinking a little bit today. You can just sip. You can take a sip. Or you can have a designated drinker for the shots. So, we're going to give you two choices.

All right. If you pick one, no drinking. Okay. But if you say both or neither, the politically correct answer. Right. We all drink. Got it. All of us drink.

Yeah, we don't leave you out. Cool. All right, so I can't wait for this one. And then if you have any stories that go behind any of the names correct answer. Right. We all drink. All of us drink. Yeah, we don't leave you out. Cool. All right, so I can't wait for this one. And then if you have any stories that go behind any of the names or things that we bring up, please, please dive in. No problem, no problem.

By the way, I'm glad of this first question. She bringing my drink. I'm glad of this first question. Thank you so much. Get your shots, guys. You can do light shots. You don't have to go crazy.

Well, they said I can sip on this too. Yeah, you can sip. And you can have some of Destiny's Drums. Yeah, you can sip. Yeah, you can sip. And you can have some adjusted drums. Shots of that. All right, by the way. Stay on the gap. By the way, these people who are about to name is making hip hop so exciting right now.

Right. I don't necessarily or at all don't at all co-sign any any brother's beefing I don't co-sign that we shouldn't but I co-sign competition right I don't co-sign drama or wars

but if if me and you gonna go in a booth together and or go separately I'm gonna try to take your head off as you should listen

when Kendrick Drake J. Cole all of them got in that the other day all I said was yo yo, we grew up, the hip-hop industry was born from battle. That's the foundation of hip-hop.

That's the foundation of it, all right? So that's the first question I got to ask. All right, so go ahead. Is it Drake or Kendrick Lamar? Damn. First of all, major props to both of them. Yes, major props to both of them. And by the way, as an aside,

Kendrick Lamar did a hell of a job acting in power yeah oh yeah when he was 50 50 yes he was phenomenal he was phenomenal he was he was ill let me he was it was special i'm gonna go with drake because even though everybody knows kendrick Lamar and knows how gifted he is, you got too many people periodically trying to come at Drake and he's always standing. Like mainstream, globally. That's ill. I mean, he's one of those dudes. It could be the look. It could be how he communicates. It could be the look. It could be how he communicates. It could be his flavor.

It could be anything. But Drake damn near seems impenetrable. And what I take from Drake is I don't hear too many people coming at Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, no, nobody's really. I don't. Yeah. But everybody always trying to come at Drake. That's facts. Yeah. Yeah, that's really. I don't. Yeah. But everybody always trying to come at Drake. That's facts.

Yeah. Damn, that's facts. And obviously I can relate to that. Right. So I'm going to say Drake. Okay. What? Okay.

I'm going to say Drake. Okay. Does that mean I need to take a sip? No, no, no, no. If you didn't pick. If you pick, you don't got a drink. Yeah. Jordan or LeBron?

Jordan. I was going to switch it up. There's nothing to talk about. There's nothing. Don't even. What would have been the switch up? What would have been the switch up? No, I'm not going to say it because I'm going to switch it up somewhere else.

Okay. Okay. You in or Hakeem Olajuwon? Damn. I got to go with the dream. Hakeem Olajuwon. I mean, he did beat him in the finals. He did bust his ass while he beat him in the finals.

He was a league MVP. He was in the NBA finals. I mean, Hakeem, the dream, Olajuwon is He was a league MVP. He was in the NBA finals. I mean, Akeem the Dream, Olajuwon is something spectacular. I mean, the dream shake and the whole nine. You got to go with Akeem the Dream, Olajuwon. I respect you and appreciate him, love him. But he wasn't Akeem Olajuwon.

Olajuwon got Kenny Smith of your hood feeling good about himself. Damn right. That's my brother right there. They won the championship together, right? Yeah. Yeah, together. Him, Craig, Elo, Robert, Ori And all of those brothers here Pick your five

Nas or Jay-Z? Jay-Z Now let me say this about Be quick with his answers I'll be quick with it Because somebody asked me the other day And I picked Eminem over Nas I'm thinking about

I know Nas is special I'm not trying to dismiss him He's phenomenal But we appreciate him. I got to take into account how much you're appreciated the world over, regardless of communities, regardless of ethnicities, regardless of your heritage, where your locale is, whatever. I got to take all of those things into consideration. And obviously Eminem is something spectacular. Plus he's white.

And he's spectacular and you got brothers standing down against him because they know how spectacular he is now that doesn't mean Nas is doing it because Nas is phenomenal in his own right and we can't ignore that but in the flip side to it is that I got to acknowledge that when you talk about Jay-Z I mean we talking about somebody that I consider to be the greatest of all time. And when you when you talk about Jay-Z, do you know what you have to do sometimes? You got to bring up Tupac and Biggie, God rest their souls, and what they would have been if they were still alive to conquer Jay-Z. You don't have a living creature in a hip-hop game that you say definitively eclipses Jay-Z. You just don't have it.

But let me reiterate what you were saying earlier. I think Jay-Z's a victim to his circumstances as well because the rap game was really, really foul when Biggie and Pac was going at it. And after Biggie and Pac's loss, it's kind of like the LeBron. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the MeatEater Podcast

Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall Williams, and bestselling author and Meat Eater founder, Stephen Rinella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat eater founder Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here and I'll say it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th where we'll delve into stories of the West

and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to the American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

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and on a recent episode of Just Heal with Dr. J, the incomparable Taraji P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey. So what I'm hearing you saying is healing is a part of us also reconnecting to our childhood in some sort. You said I look how youthful I look because I never let that little girl inside of me die. I go outside and run outside with the dogs.

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Connecting changes everything. From the standpoint of what? from the standpoint of the emergence of Jay-Z from those ashes the game wasn't as as hardcore but what I'm saying is that's why

I brought up you gotta bring up Biggie or Tupac right right you right I said I said because when you asked me

that question I'm thinking about living rappers and all that other than that. If you asked me if Biggie or Tupac could have been Jay-Z, I'd say yeah. A lot of people wouldn't. I'd say yeah. They could have been.

They'd have to avoid it. Now, to me, Biggie would have been that dude to rival Jay-Z. Tupac, to me, as brilliant as he was as an artist, he was just as potent and profound as an activist. Yeah. So because of that, I mean, when you go back, he's multifaceted. I mean, when you go back, when I think about myself, some of the positions that I've taken, some of I mean, because, you know, you talk about me. I'm communicating sports, but I'm also talking politics. I'm talking I'm talking a lot of different things and when you if you really really paid attention to what I have to go up against and the platforms that I'm on having to know I got to deal with corporate America in the streets and I got to do all of that

I think about not comparing myself in any way but I think about Tupac not as a not as a comp, not as something to compare to. But I think about him as someone that I marveled at because when he stood before anybody and like literally spoke his mind, no matter what the subject was you was transfixed you had to stand at attention and really really listen even if you were disagreed and i've seen reporters and commentators and others disagree with him but you had to shut the hell up and listen because what the brother had to say was deep and a lot of times i'll get on cats you know i'll be like this you know one of the things is a pet peeve of mine from us in our community. When we're like, yeah, you know, you know what I mean? No, the fuck I don't.

You didn't speak yet. I don't know what you mean. Say it first. Now, follow that up by saying, you know what I mean? But you can't say that before. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it's like you in the business and you, you know, you out here trying to make paper. Trying to make some money.

You know, you talking business with somebody. You got to roll up on them and speak fluently. You got to know how to communicate in a fashion that will resonate with them to sell yourself on the opportunity you're trying to get them to embrace with you. How are you doing that? Yeah, man, you know what I'm saying. I'm just trying to, you know what I mean? No, I don't mean say shit yet. And that drives me crazy.

Say it first. And then if you followed it up with, you know what I mean, yeah, I do know what you mean. I got it. You know what I'm saying? That's why we don't interview young artists. We don't interview young artists. We don't want the one word answers.

We don't interview them. I mean, we do. We make exceptions at times. But Sleepy Joe or Crazy Trump? I mean, why do you have to give those words? I ain't going to lie to you, man. Listen, I've been on. You took a shot.

Hell yeah. We say both or neither. Neither. I say neither. I say neither. I say neither. But let me be totally honest, because we got both or neither. Neither. I say either. I say neither. I say neither. But let me be totally honest because we got the streets watching. Yes. I'm not a fan of Trump because I don't like the way he acts.

Right. I'm not in disagreement with all his policies. When I see cats out here acting up in the streets Y'all lucky I ain't president Oh this shit would be Armageddon We not gonna let you Get in the way of business Cause business messes with everybody's money We can't be in Cali

And they letting three people In the stores at a time Cause they scared We can't We can't have the National Guard in the subways of New York city. We can't, we can't have, we can't have cats assaulting people on the streets and getting out of jail the same day.

We can't listen. Listen, my bodyguard is Dominican. I got family. I got, I got, I got, I got family members.

My family is from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Antigua, St. Croix, stuff like that. West Indies. And I got relatives from Puerto Rico. I got Puerto Ricans

in my family. We all Caribbean. We all immigrants, basically. So I'm saying all of that to say I would never want anybody to say that I don't support immigrants because I do.

Right. But you got a whole bunch of immigrants that are in this country that are telling people like me, we have to stand in line. How the hell you don't have to stand in line? And how seven and a half million plus immigrants, illegal immigrants come in. Now, understand what we mean by illegal immigrants. That means you're coming into the country, you're undocumented, so they don't know where to find your ass

when it's time to pay taxes. But you're pooling some of our resources. And so as a result, what happens is is that the American taxpayer has to come out of pocket extra to pay for you who came over to the country illegally ain't got no problem with you coming here right but we gonna know where you at where you at with your address phone number all that so you're gonna pay the national security

exactly and so when you have that going on and you got a president like Joe Biden that's acting like it ain't a crisis, then I got to take history into consideration. And I was on a podcast, Patrick Bet David, just the other day. And he brought this up and he was absolutely right. So John F. Kennedy gets assassinated in 1963 and Lyndon B. Johnson takes over the presidency because JFK is dead. And you had a bipartisan group of Republican senators and Democrats, Dixiecrats, whatever, bringing legislation to the desk for civil rights legislation. When he signed it in the law,

he said, they uppity. These blacks are uppity. They feeling themselves blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He said, we got to do this. We got to give them a little. We can't give them too much, but we got to give them a little. Because if we give them a little, we'll have the we'll have the Negroes voting for us for the next 200 years. That was his quote. Right. So now fast forward to the year 2024. You can't tell me that this immigration quote unquote crisis isn't being utilized for one party or another to benefit from it. Politicians been using us forever. They've been manipulating us forever. I'm looking at the Democratic Party just letting cats in, understanding the mayhem that's in the streets, and basically facilitating it instead of addressing it with the fervor that it deserves.

Yo, bro, you remember this? Just a few weeks ago, $53 million in prepaid credit cards for illegal immigrants. You know how many times black people have been looking for prepaid credit cards? Reparations and everything. But you ain't have it for us. But you got $53 million in prepaid credit cards for cats that ain't even citizens in this country? Yo. I don't like that.

So again, exactly. It's billions. Billions. Billions. But the homelessness you can't address. Yeah, Obelaga's still fucked up right down the block. Israel, Hamas. I don't say Israel Palestinians because we know that the Palestinians, a lot of them are innocent in terms of what's transpiring.

But Hamas, the terrorist group, and of course are innocent in terms of what's transpiring but Hamas the terrorist group and of course Israel they going at it and all of this other stuff I don't get involved in all of that but what I'm saying is you funneling money to Israel you funneling money to the Ukraine you funneling prepaid credit cards to illegal immigrants but black people

are behind the eight ball so for me I'm no aficionado of politics but i'm practical i'm intelligent enough to know what i'm reading and i'm looking at certain things and i'm saying wait a minute i'm a black man in this in this country i understand what the hell you haven't done for us i know you've been talking shit for decades but the fact of the matter is our education system is still up in smoke welfare system is up in smoke you know what opposition to corporate america when white folks catch a cold black folks catch pneumonia everything that happens to white folks is worse for black folks

the unemployment rate is below four percent it's below it's it's damn near three and a half percent for white people what is it for black people is that 5.6 we brag we happy because it ain't higher but it's always worse for us so i look at all of those things and I say to myself, wait a minute, I'm not going to ignore what I'm seeing from the Democratic Party. My problem with Trump is this. Too damn petty. You're the president of the United States

of America. And this brother will go after Kathy Griffin or Stephen A. Smith or somebody rather than, you know, address the shit that really, really goes on. You looking at them and it's like, come on, man. You know, focus, focus, focus.

You know, I need to know that if you back in that office, you going to govern the country, not just cater to who got you in. Are you going to be the president to all Americans or is it just to the people who favor you i remember when john lewis died we know what a warrior he was on behalf of our community

the former rep out of maryland what happened we know you know we know what he meant for us okay he passes away you don't even want to pay homage to him because you're talking about he never supported me you see what i'm saying i know you gave more i know you gave money to hbcus i respect that i know the economy was looking good before covet i know that you you know proclaim to do certain things for black folks and unemployment rate in the black community was was was low i get all of that but the flip side to it i'm looking at your supreme court justices i'm looking at them rolling back certain things i'm looking at people who are fantasizing about a time that once was, meaning pre-70s, into the 60s, into the 50s, and you down with that.

And what do I take into account from that? I'm looking at the white population that was once in the high 80s. Then it went into the 70s. Now it's at 60 and sliding and they're looking at legal immigrants coming into the country and white folks are worried about themselves not being the majority any longer you catering though that fear you feeding into it which is why proud boys and all of these other folks come in and say so now it's hard for me to look at your politics when I'm worried about life and death situations for black folks throughout this country and for other minorities in this country because I'm not accusing you or fomenting it or anything like that. Like folks try to blame him for the insurrection.

Do I think he was provocative? Yes. Do I think he instigated shit? Yes. Do I believe that he called for the vice? You know, you sat up there and they were talking about Mike Pence and you didn't do anything about it? Yes. But I also don't believe you should be arrested

for it and stuff like that. Because I believe all them damn people out there were adults. They weren't children. They were grown ass adults who knew not to cross those barriers at the U.S. Capitol. And if they were stupid enough to do it, hell with them. OK. And that's true. But I'm looking at you and I'm wondering, I know people talk about policies. We want a better economy. We want this. We want we want safer streets. I'm down for that.

But if you were to kind of do that would foster and provoke divisiveness, we ain't got time to worry about all of that stuff when we worried about our lives. You see what I'm saying? And that's the message that I'm trying to do his politics. I would love for his politics to be debated against Biden's politics, who I think has been a prisoner to the progressive left. Oh, yeah. The extreme left. Because that woke stuff. Come on, y'all. You know what?

Listen. We brothers here. Brothers and sisters. Blacks, Latinos. All of us are in here. We know how we were raised. I said it to Patrick Bette David the other day. I said, my mother voted Democrat.

But she was a Republican home. I said she was a conservative home. I don't give a shit about the laws. This is the law. You will listen to what the hell I have to say. He ain't got no rights. He ain't negotiating. This is my house.

And this is what you will do or else. You understand what I'm saying? We understand that. Now everything's a negotiation. Everything's to be understood. Well, you know what? My daughter, I got two daughters. Oh, my daughter, you know, there's nothing wrong with your daughter being in the same bathroom with a person that identifies themselves as a woman, even though they were born a man.

Oh, yes, the hell it is. Yes, the hell it is. I'll give a damn what anybody says now again transgender whatever i support gay rights transgender right all that yo live and let live live and let live i don't support nobody bothering them violating their civil rights their civil liberties but here's our problem in our society that i think the progressive left has contributed greatly to. They want you to like it. Like, yo, y'all, no, I ain't going to no gay club. I'm not gay. But guess where else I'm not going? I'm not going to some porn shop either. I'm not trying to hang out with porn stars or prostitutes either who are heterosexual. I'm not trying to hang out with porn stars or prostitutes either who are heterosexual.

I'm not trying to do that. Everybody got a right to like what they like, have their own flavor, and for not to not to. And for you to try to impose that on other people, I can't accuse conservatives of doing that. It's the progressive left that's doing that. So again, Biden's safer because we do have an economy that is doing well, even though inflation is bad. But when I look at illegal immigration, when I look at the violence in the streets and me being from Hollis, Queens, taking the F train or the E train every day and all of this other shit and I'm seeing the National Guard in the subways? I can't definitively tell you. Now, I can't vote for Trump, damn it.

I just can't because I think that he's too divisive and if I saw him, I'd tell him to his face. And I can say that because remember, before Trump became president, I was the first person he called when he was trying to buy the Buffalo Bills.

I remember. He called me directly. Oh, wow. Called me directly and he said, I'm trying to, and I tell the story. I've told the story on First Take. I've told the story on my podcast, Stephen A. Smith Show, on YouTube.

I told it everywhere. Trump called me in 2014. He said, yo, Stephen A., I want to buy the Buffalo Bills. He said, these bastards look like they're going to get in my way. Quote, if them motherfuckers get in my way, his exact words, I'm not cussing, I'm quoting, them motherfuckers get in my way,

I'm going to get them all. I'm going to run for president. Those were his exact words. And sure enough, he did it. And won. And won. And so what I'm saying is, so what i'm saying is so what i'm saying is i remember all of these things i remember all of these things and i look at things a little

bit differently you got black folks looking at trump as racist i remember when i remember when trump i remember when trump was throwing sporting events, Tyson fights and other things at Trump Plaza. All of us were there. We didn't think he was that dead. We didn't think he was that when we watched The Apprentice. We didn't think he was that when he was when he was at sporting events. But suddenly we think this. Here's what I think about Trump. Trump is a win at all costs kind of dude. And if I got white supremacists to women, to black folks who are conservative

and everything in between, if that's what's going to get me to win, I'll deal with the consequences later. I'm trying to get an office. He's, I think he's that dude that it's no moral or principled compass. It's whatever it takes to win. And if that's where the most votes are going to come from, I'm willing to do that.

Now, other people said, well, damn it. If he's willing to allow all of that, doesn't that make him racist? Well, that depends on how you look at how important winning is to somebody. You know, so I don't look at it that way. I think Biden is safer for the country but I don't know if it's better because of what he has allowed to

transpire and I will say this I can well Biden let's go Biden's record on the street again I'm no official hold on hold on because I'm going where you're's a long time ago. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Because I'm going where you're going.

I ain't no aficionado. But I ain't stupid. And I'm kind of decently red. You know what I'm saying? Not well red, but decently red. I do remember Joe Biden with the crime bill in the 90s. I do remember how that led to mass incarceration. Now, I do remember the Congressional Black Caucus,

the one that was pushing people like him and others to push those bills through. But I also remember Biden bragging that it was his. And so when I look at that, along with various other things that he's done, I understand dealing with segregation. This was a different time, 70s, 80s. You know, you had to work with everybody and go across the aisle and all of that other stuff. But did you have to have those smiles on your face when you did it?

Did you have to look and seem so comfortable? Did you have to, you know, speak so vociferously on the behalf of them and others? When you talk about racism, I hate when our community, specifically the black community, calls out Republicans for being racist without calling out Dems. Last time I checked, there was a senator that died at the age of 97. His name was Robert Byrd out of West Virginia. He's a member and a leader in the Ku Klux Klan. He's a Democrat. He was a Democrat. They were the original.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're going back to the Jim Crow era. So when you see stuff like that, I understand times have changed. But you're still asking me when you identify the conservative right as racist to assume you're not. Who the hell are you to tell me you're not? Let me be the judge of that. What do you do? What do you foster?

What level of dependency? Now, we talk about black leaders throughout history in this country. You understand? From Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King and beyond, always preaching about economic empowerment. The Democratic Party preaches about government dependency. The government, the government, the government. Here we are. We'll look out for you.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'm mindful of that, and I. Here we are. We'll look out for you. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I'm mindful of that and I pay attention to that. And the challenge for me, and I explained this the other day on that podcast that I was on, the reason why you don't see me so definitive and finite

about those things is because I don't know. I could be in front of a Democrat and give him these facts and this is their position and give the same identical facts to somebody on the conservative side five minutes later. And they have two different spins and neither are wrong. That's very confusing to a sports guy that gets to look at a champion compared to a wannabe.

That chance to look at a champion compared to a contender. I have finite results to lean on. When I talk about LeBron against MJ, I got finite results. When I talk about D-Wade compared to Kobe or somebody, finite results. When I talk about Ray Allen versus Steph Curry and others, finite results.

Politics doesn't grant me that. So when I speak, I speak with caution because what I'm saying is, this is how it looks. But I could be wrong. I don't know, but let me tell my community what I think based on this evidence. When I see the attorney general, a sister, Letitia James in New York City going after Trump. Yeah, you're going after Trump. I got that. Yeah. He's a real estate agent that blo you know, bloated his earnings and his valuation.

You know, all of that stuff happens. Then I turn it on CNN and I see a real estate dude saying, we do that all the time. He said, I do it. Everyone does it. What is she talking about? I'm like, well, damn. Yeah, I don't know because I'm not a real estate guy. You know, I'm not a real estate mogul. You see what I'm like, well, damn. I don't know because I'm not a real estate guy. I'm not a real estate mogul. You see what I'm saying?

In other words, you find these nuggets and I'm one of those dudes. I read the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, New York Daily News, New York Times. I go online. I read Political and the Drudge Report. I watch Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, News Nation

with Cuomo. Hell, I had to, Cuomo News Nation want me tonight. CNN want me next week. Sean Hannity and I have known each other for 20 years. 20 years. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, I'm getting all of this. And sometimes people are looking at me and I'm looking at cats and they go on these podcasts and they got this shit to say. And I'm like this.

Yeah, you would think that about me. Your ass ain't talking to nobody. I talk to everybody. So I'm getting information from all sides. You know what I'm saying? Just today, there was news in the paper. Minnesota Timberwolves, A-Rod and ownership and the deal has fallen apart, right?

All of this other stuff. No, it hasn't. You reading reports. I'm on the phone with somebody reading me the contract. There's levels to this. I'm sitting there like, I'm sitting there like, well, wait a minute. They backed out.

New York Post writes, there's no deal. It's over. Mark Lurie has backed out and he doesn't want to work with A-Rod. But the fine language said, they signed on to acquire 60% of majority stake of the franchise for 1.5 million.

Billion. Billion. Billion. I'm sorry, billion. I apologize. Billion. They've already given 600 million. They don't get it back.

They owe another 300 million, which they had to give them Wednesday night. Right? Logically, you walking away after you gave up 600 million dollars that you can't get back when all you owe is another three and by the way you made the deal for 1.5 billion but the franchise is now worth 3 billion probably with Forbes next week when they come out with their list, it's going to be worth $3 billion, which makes your $900 billion investment worth

1.8 billion. You walking away from that, that report don't make no sense. Right? Well, it does make sense to them because they didn't have the contract. I have the contract. That's the difference. So. I have the contract. That's the difference. So when I'm watching cats talking,

I'm just sitting there and I'm like, you're like, they're just talking. Okay. I'm like, you know, keep talking, keep talking.

Because once again, it's gotta be about receipts. When we're talking about politics. All right. Well, fine. Did you get a call from the White House before? Did you get a call from former presidents and senators and congressmen, present senators and congressmen?

I did. I do. I think he got a follow. So all of this, I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm watching. Follow me on Twitter. I'm watching people. I'm watching people talk. And I'm like. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. Hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores and brought to you by Velvet Buck.

This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall Williams, and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways

in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad.

Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And it's going to take us to heal us. It's Mental Health Awareness Month. And on a recent episode of Just Heal with Dr. J, the incomparable Taraji P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey. So what I'm hearing you saying is healing is a part of us also reconnecting to our childhood in some sort. You said I look how youthful I look because I never let that little girl inside of me die. I go outside and run outside with the dogs.

I still play like a kid. I laugh. You know, I love jokes. I love funny. I love laughing. I laugh at myself. I don't take myself too seriously. That's the stuff that keeps you young and stops you from being so hard.

To hear this and more things on the journey of healing, you can listen to Just Heal with Dr. J from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. So that's what we're going to do now. We're going to ignore the fact that I've been around for 30 years. And I kind of know this shit. I'm not talking about, when we talk about the nuance of politics and stuff

like that, I'm talking about people. I'm talking about people who know where the information is, who have the information, who give you the information. Do they do that? I do. And that's the difference. I'm going to say one more thing and we're going to get back to QuickTime and Slime.

Sure. And I'm going to relate this to the most simplistic- I got about 15 minutes. Okay. Most simplistic form there is. I don't know politics. I'm asking you, that's why I don't know if you notice I'm like quiet

As you're talking Because I feel like I know you say You're not an expert But you have Expert breakdowns If we was to go to war With Kim Jong-un

What's that? North Korea, right? Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un Kim Jong-un Who is scary to me He should be scary Any dictator should be scary

He's scary to me And I got to pick Joe. Or Trump. I feel like Trump is going to be like, fuck that, let's go to war. I agree. Trump is coming outside. Trump is actually anti-war, actually.

But Joe Biden, I feel like he's staying home. He's like, we're doing it on Thursday. But here's the problem. When it comes to the presidency, you can't just look at the individual. You have to look at who they're surrounding themselves with. Yeah, the cabinet. And that cabinet is very, very important. Because when I think about Joe Biden, I think about people like Obama and others quietly behind the scenes impacting decisions.

So in that regard, I trust it a little bit more. Whereas Trump, I do believe he has the advantage with the fear factor. He's a wild card. And because you know he's a wild card, he scares you a bit more

if you're the opposition. I'll give him that. But does that mean he'll make the best decision? I don't know. You said petty. That's kind of why I like him, because he would go at Kim Jong-un and Rosie O'Donnell the same day. True.

But that's not very presidential. Hey, man, who cares about being president? On an international stage, that matters. I will tell you this. On an international stage, your rhetoric matters almost as much as your actions because rhetoric provokes action right okay and for example something you may not have known i remember when i saw um pierce morgan he was on the breakfast club with charlemagne and dj envy and DJ Envy, and he said, did you know that Barack Obama deported more immigrants than Trump?

Oh, I did not know that. He did. Mm-hmm. Did. By a significant margin. He just did advertising. He just did it. If Trump would have did it, he'd have been like, I'll send them back.

If Trump had done it, you would have had riots going on all over the place and what have you, because people would have leaned on him challenging his racial sensitivity or lack thereof because of the way he talks. And I'm saying to you, we can't sit idly by and ignore that from the president. That's why for me, character matters at the presidency. I'm the kind of person, I don't want one party to have any rule because I don't trust either side. That's why I'm a registered independent. But what I would do is whatever parties in the presidency, I would want a vast majority

in the House or the Senate. We got to have checks and balances. I don't want the Democrats having the White House, the Senate, and the Congress. I don't want Republicans having the White House, the Senate,

and the Congress. One of them, if not both of them, got to be able to stop your ass. That's me. If Trump could come back, can Obama come back? No.

I don't think he can. He did two terms. He did two terms. I will tell you this, though. I will tell you this, though. And I want to pause for a second because I'm going to use the bathroom. But Michelle Obama was smoked. Man.

Oh, I would. She should. We need her to run. But she would win, in my opinion, in my opinion, she would win hands down. Hands down. Hands down. But I'm at a point right now where I believe she's the only one who would win. And when I look at the Democratic Party, here's what and I've said this many times.

They are an absolute embarrassment. When you saw Joe Biden show up at the State of the Union address, ladies and gentlemen, he is 81 years old. And we had a bunch of people in there chanting four more years. They ain't chanting four more years to people in their 60s. But they chant four more years for a dude that's going to be 82 when we go to the polls in November.

Talking about four more years. That is disgraceful. I understand he could pass away ultimately and that Kamala Harris ultimately would be inserted into that. I is disgraceful. I understand he could pass away ultimately and that Kamala Harris ultimately would be inserted into that. I get that part. And stop giggling. And stop giggling when they ask you tough questions, Kamala. I respect

our vice president. I respect the education. Howard University grad, HBCU, much love to you. I know she's an intelligent woman. She's the former attorney general of the state of California and obviously San Francisco before that. Even though you were putting a bunch of brothers away. I get all of that. I understand it. But here's the point. Stop giggling all the damn time when they ask you a tough question, because it's an evasive tactic that turns people off because we think you're not sure of the answer you're trying to buy time. That is not attractive, period. But getting back to what my point was, when you talk about Biden or you talk about the Democratic Party,

by chanting four more years, all you've done is say, we have no one we believe can beat Trump. All this lawfare, all these lawsuits and everything, you don't have anybody that could beat him. You had since 2016. You had eight years.

And you still can't beat him. He had four indictments, 91 counts. He's been impeached twice, okay? He had a $454 million judgment leveled against him. You got more cases coming

down the pike. What are they doing? They going after him for paying hush money to a former porn star. So I got some ass. And I don't want to tell nobody. So I gave you hush money. That's why they going after the presumptive GOP nominee. This is what

we're talking about. And so when I look at stuff like that, I'm like, damn. What are you doing? Can you beat him or can't you? I want somebody who can beat him. I would love for Kamala Harris to be able to beat him. She can't beat Trump in an election. I would love

for Gavin Newsom to be able to beat him. The governor of California. You can't do it. How about Cory Booker? You know what? He doesn't resonate. I respect that man. I respect his knowledge. I respect everything about him,

but he cannot, he cannot beat Trump in an election. And so I'm looking at it from that standpoint, and I'm like, all this stuff you've been telling us, you got nobody to beat this man. What have you been doing for eight years? What have you been doing?

Think about it. I got people that are rolling up on me, asking me to run. You running 2028? I'm like, never. I like my life. Hell, I want to mess with this boy. I got no interest. I don't know why the hell they would come to never. I like my life. Hell, I want to mess with this war. I got no interest.

I don't know why the hell they would come to me. I ain't qualified for it. But then again, the other was he in a lot of people's eyes. But I have joined D.L. Hughley. I respect the hell out of D.L. Hughley, by the way. But I think that you got to know how to smile and laugh and have a good time. You got to bring that comedic side out of you if you D.L. Hughley. Because right now, he's become such an activist that that that that he you might have white folk going like this.

He'll get in the office and forget about us. You think about us? And that's the problem with D.L. But I respect him. He's very knowledgeable. Respect the hell out of him. But I would tell you, for me personally, I've joked that I would want to debate Trump. And the reason why I would want to debate Trump is because when he's debating you, he ain't talking about nothing substantive. He's too busy trying to throw insults. And I'd be ready for that. But you don't think that it's such a joke right now because both parties serve the same interests.

They're just making us all think. I don't think I don't think they serve the same. I think they have different lobbyists and different interests they are serving and we're all being utilized as pawns. That's the commonality. We're pawns. But here's where black folks,

this is where we have to hold ourselves accountable. Since Lyndon B. Johnson in 64, the Democratic Party has received over 90% of our vote. Understand what that means. On one side, you're saying you got us. We're going to support you no matter what. So they don't have to take care of us.

They just give us lip service every four years. On the other side, you got a Republican party who not only knows you're not going to support them, but resent you for it because they believe you're not giving them their just due in the role that they play to bring in civil rights legislation

to the desk of the Democratic incumbent. So as a result result they look at folks you're not well read you don't know your history you're supporting the wrong party this is just some ignorant stuff that you're doing and so when i've when i've spoken at speeches i've said it half jokingly but i said my dream is for one election maybe not this one but for one election for everybody every black person in america to vote republican and they said what what why would you say that i said because it'll send the message that i vote it's not you have it is for sale it's not you can't take it for granted flatter me what you're gonna do for me when i'm gonna buy a house

i ain't just buying. I want to be. Listen, I'm thinking about being in Miami, bro. No state income tax. I'm thinking about it, right? I am not buying a house without looking at the damn house multiple times. I'm not buying a car without test driving it. I'm not buying clothes without trying it on and seeing how it looks on me.

Inspect the merchandise before you commit. We do it every day except for when it comes to politics. We don't do it and as a result we've pigeonholed ourselves because we've ensured that we'll be a disenfranchised community

devoid of representation because one party's giving a list service and somebody's saying screw y'all because y'all should be more supportive of us and you're not. Therefore, nobody's fighting on our behalf. Do you realize that right now with the immigration crisis, the Hispanics in this country get more attention than us? Xenophobia is more popular than racism. Homophobia is more popular than racism homophobia is more popular than racism transphobia has become or is becoming more popular than racism black folks been here forever and we at the bottom of the freaking food chain getting treated the worst getting treated

getting disregarded basically because we haven't created an environment that insists upon representation because we've been too transparent i might know who i'm gonna vote for but i'll always leave open the possibility to change my mind just so you can give me the effort to get my vote before i decide which direction I'm going to go in just so I don't be transparent. Okay. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to take it there. Okay. Colin Kaepernick. Yes, sir. I always see you say that you, like we've been establishing this whole time that you have a lot of inside information. A lot of folks is not privy to that information. Right.

So is it true that it was a workout that was called and he went an hour away? Hour and 20 minutes. Why? Stupid. That's why. Why? And look, when I was, I showed up to a radio show. 105, I believe.

105.3 in New York City. And some cat rolled up on me. And I didn't even notice that there was a slew of them there wearing Cap'nick shirts, supporting them. And I'm not going to tell you the brother disrespected me

because I extended my hand to shake his hand and he shook my hand. He said, but I'm not feeling tell you the brother disrespected me because I was extending my hand to shake his hand and he shook my hand he said but I'm not feeling you dog he said we got a problem with you and your position on Kaepernick I said who got a problem with me and his fiancee was sitting right he was sitting right in that room it's like standing there kneeling over whatever he was like was like, so, you know, I mean, if you feel the way you feel, you willing to come

talk to her? I said, right now, let's go. And just so you know, for the record, that's who I am. You know what I'm saying? You got a problem with me,

tell me when and where, I'll show up. That's how I roll. If I'm wrong, I'll say I'm wrong. If I'm right, I ain't budging. It's just that simple.

So, we went in there, we were talking, and she had her position. And if I'm right, I ain't budging. It's just that simple. So we went in there. We were talking, and she had her position. And I said, yeah, that's what you say. But the league says something else. She said, but we know the facts. It's us. I said, well, it's about them, too.

And they got their own facts. And we covered the league, and all I see is Kaepernick hiding behind you. You here. Where he at? He didn't talk. Where he at? The whole time he didn't talk. I said, his woman speaking for him? I said, I'm sorry.

Where I'm from, it don't work like that. I said, but I'll tell you what I'll do. From this day forward, you have my number. That's real. You can text me. Anything that you text to me that you want me to say, I will say verbatim over national television. Even if I had to read the damn quote myself. You have my word.

You have my word so over time we were talking communicating and they wanted me my help and helping him get back into the league I had been on the record he had been blackballed it's unfair it ain't right but in the same breath you got to know who you dealing with the NFL there's 32 different owners of the billionaires and they're gonna let you mess with their paper so one of the smartest thing in the world i'm not saying you were wrong it just wasn't smart if you really really wanted to be in the league because they're gonna do what they can to get you out of there so i go on the air because we find out about that workout that the NFL had conducted. And the NFL conducted the workout

because no individual team wanted to because they were scared if he worked out for them. And then it didn't work out, he would accuse them of being racist. So the league, at the behest of Jay-Z and others, took the position, we will conduct the workout. Which they don't do. Which they don't do. Which they don't do.

The league never conducts an individual workout for a player. Right. And at that time, I was told by sources directly related to the negotiations, he'll have to throw the ball into the stands

to not have a job in two weeks. Wow. And his lady and him, remember, had been asking me to help him get a tryout with one team. I said, they reporting initially

as three teams and stuff like that. I said, no. I'm being told 22 to 24 teams going to show up. And it ended up being 26. I'm being told that most of the dudes showing up are in the player personnel departments for NFL teams and they African-Americans.

So you're going to have brothers looking at you, at least 18 to 19 of them. And they hemmed and hawed, and then all of a sudden I wasn't getting no return texts. He switched the of a sudden, I wasn't getting no return text. He switched the workout two hours? I wasn't getting any return text. Oh. Suddenly.

Wow. And they, you know, I was on the air with one of my, the opposite of me was Max Kellerman at the time. And, you know, he getting a text message from them showing a waiver that the NFL had drawn up. I said, I don't blame them for one bit for not doing this, blah, blah, blah. I said, well, damn it, I do. Because you ain't the only one that got the waiver. I got it too. And oh, by the way, were you on the phone

with general counsel for the NFL 30 minutes ago? Because I am. I was. And they said, quote us. It wasn't no off-the-record shit. They quote us. Yeah, we changed the language in the waiver. Because we've never done an individual workout for a player before.

And he had just sued us. Okay, and we just settled the case. So why would we not protect ourselves? Of course we did to change the language. To make sure he can't sue us if he doesn't get back in because nobody wants him. But we're willing to give him the workout at an NFL professional

facility, which was that of the Atlanta Falcons. And on top of it all, we'll give him the tape so he can circulate the tape to other teams anytime he wants. This brother didn't show up and a couple of hours before the workout,

moved the damn workout an hour and 20 minutes away to a high school football stadium outside of Atlanta. I said, I'm done. I'm done with y'all. I said, you don't want to play. You want to be a martyr. You want to be a martyr. If you want to play football, you at that workout.

26 NFL teams, 18 of them African-American, showing up with all the technological equipment that an NFL team has to dissect and pick apart what you bring to the table, and you don't show up, I'm done with you. You don't want to play. You want to be a martyr. Fine, be a martyr. We appreciate you taking the knee.

We appreciate you fighting on behalf of African-American black and brown people everywhere because release brutality was, it is a real thing. Brutality on the part of some police officers. What I call it was got brothers and sisters on the police force that are black and brown that ain't doing that. So I'm not going to say all police officers, but some of them are.

So I'm looking at all that. I'm like, I appreciate that, but this ain't about that. So I'm not going to say all police officers, but some of them are. So I'm looking at all that and I'm like, I appreciate that. But this ain't about that. This is about you saying you wanted to play and galvanizing folks to support you playing. You ain't playing

years. They want to see you work out. And you didn't show up. I'm done. And I've been done with that story ever since. So I'm not going to ask you about Russell Westbrook and y'all little backer. Russell Westbrook? I ain't no backer for Russell Westbrook. I told this motherfucker about it. No, no, Russell Westbrook.

No, not Russell Westbrook. You told me it was Rosman Cinematheque. Kyrie, but it wasn't Russell Westbrook. Yo, Rosman. You know he's on the Lakers and you say you downplayed his game? Did I downplay his game? Did I downplayed his game?

Oh, okay, okay. Well, that to me is not, you know, I get that. And the back and forth, look. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall

Williams and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And it's going to take us to heal us. It's Mental Health Awareness Month. And on a recent episode of Just Heal with Dr. J, the incomparable Taraji P. Henson stopped by to discuss how she's discovered peace on her journey. So what I'm hearing you saying is healing is a part of us also reconnecting to our childhood in some sort. You said I look how youthful I look because I never let that little girl inside of me die.

I go outside and run outside with the dogs. I still play like a kid. I laugh. You know, I love jokes. I love funny. I love laughing. I laugh at myself. I don't take myself too seriously.

That's the stuff that keeps you young and stops you from being so hard. To hear this and more things on the journey of healing, you can listen to Just Heal with Dr. J from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T, connecting changes everything. Russell Westbrook is a real one. My brother's a real one. And what I mean by that is he is a brother to the core. Loves his people, does so much great work in the community, the whole nine. I got mad love and respect.

He's a real, he ain't no fake cat. My fucking don't like you. You don't know. You know what I'm saying? He real like that. I respect the hell out of him. He's one of my favorite people. But he can't shoot. And damn it, that. L.A. dude. I respect the hell out of him. He's one of my favorite people. Right.

But he can't shoot. And damn it, that's what I said. That's the secret. I said it then. I'm telling you now. He don't got a ring. I want him taking it to the rack.

I don't want him shooting 25 feet jump jump. No. Is that a crime? No. That's not a crime. Now me and Kyrie were different Kyrie

That was some personal shit That's between he and I Where I looked out And he forgot And that's why when he went on Twitter last year And he was talking his shit I was like How about me and you meet one on one

For the public to spot Your truth against my truth and see how that works out for you. I'll never tell, but pump your brakes. But he was right. Went too far. Because I got mad respect and love for the brother. And it got to a point where me and his father was getting into it. And his father jumped in, tweets, well, not tweet, but text messages to my private phone, all this other stuff. And it was my fault because I took it a little too far with Pops. Not on public, but I took it a bit too personal with Pops.

And so Kyrie rolled up and was like, it ain't even about me at this point. It's about you and Pops. And I said, you know what? You're right. I immediately picked you know what? You right. I immediately picked up the phone with his father. His father and I met in New York City. Made amends. We cool to this day.

I apologize. He apologized. We grown ass men. We good. But in terms of Kyrie, marvelous magician. The brother's just all world. All I ever wanted fromairi is to be on

the damn court because he's spectacular yeah he's spectacular you know what i'm saying one of the greatest talents this game has ever seen it's not about taking the vaccine it was about every time there was always a damn excuse for something there's an injury this one there's something with your religion this way it It's the vaccine here. Damn it, get on the court. You too great for us to be hearing about. Listen, I appreciate the fact that you supplied the Palestinians with a bunch of water. Okay, this is before all of this stuff that's been going on lately.

I appreciate the stuff that you've done for the WNBA. He's very philanthropic. He's very charitable. Kyrie's a good brother. I even went on the air when we were butting heads, and I said, yo, y'all, that's between me and him. That doesn't mean he's not a good brother. He is a good brother. We just don't like each other right now.

That's all right. That happens. But please understand, I know he's a good brother. Russell Westbrook don't F with the media. You understand what I'm saying? But if he honest, I've always's a good brother. Russell Westbrook don't F with the media. You understand what I'm saying? But if he honest, I've always been fair to Russ. You understand? We ain't friends.

We ain't going to be friends. Because you don't like the media that way. LeBron going to feel the way he going to feel. Plenty of other players. But most players in all professional sports, I'm very cool with. The ones that have a problem with me are the ones that don't talk to me. Because if you talk to me, you ain't going to have no problem. Because guess what? I'm either going to be right or I'm going to be wrong.

And if I'm wrong, I'm going to admit it. Not privately, publicly. I'm not going to say something about you publicly and I'm wrong and then privately I'm going to apologize. Nah, y'all see me do it. I'll go on the air. My bad. I was wrong. You see what I'm saying but if I'm right I ain't budging this is where I stand and so if you one of those cats you got a lot of brothers

they chirp they talk and it's real real easy to talk shit about me when you talking to somebody else. But when you talking in front of my face and I get a chance to respond with my truth, I ask one simple question. Have you encountered any of them that have said they're willing to do that?

You ain't seen nary one of them because they know. They know I think that's the reason Why you and Michael Jordan Get along Is because Y'all both don't

Accept betrayal Like as soon as someone Kind of like I feel like I feel like I feel like y'all the same Right Like when it comes to that

That's the reason why I don't think so I don't think so I don't think I don't think I don't think that's it I think that Again

It's like Yo brother I'm not a black man. I'm a brother. I love my people. And when I think about, listen, I'm not anti-anything. I'm not anti-white. But when I think about immigrants, when I think about Latinos, Hispanics in this country, and black folks, to me, we all the same. We brothers.

We in the same plight. And I'm always look out. But sometimes looking out ain't telling you what you want to hear, it's telling you what you need to hear. And you got cats that because of that, they try to paint a picture and create this imagery about you

so others will see you in a certain way. And I'm like, that's jacked up. That's really messed up. But it's okay. Keep doing what you're doing because as sooner or as later, you're going to have to deal with me. Because I'm not going away. And that's how I roll with it. It's like

you're not going to, I remember everything. And like I told you at the beginning, you got cats in the league. Yo, bro, they talking about me. I'm talking about corporate America. I'm talking about Hollywood. I'm talking about Madison Avenue. Oh, they talking a lot of shit. And they don't know

who I know and how it gets back to me. But it all gets back to me. I'm waiting for the Stephen A movie and the documentary, but let me just, because it's still Quick Time of Sly. Rihanna or Beyonce?ce all day listen navy of blue navy first of all i ain't know what the hell blue navy was until last year okay let me get that straight secondly i want to emphasize this i love me some

really i love rihanna i buy her music i paid for it i ain't get shit for free but i paid for it the whole bit she's phenomenal okay i love her right i appreciate her the whole bit and when i compared her to beyonce on the sherry shepherd show that pissed a few people off oh no you would think was pissed what happened was is that i was promoting my book okay and sherry shepherd said we need you to come on here we want to create a first take atmosphere. So we want to create a debate. And I know that you are a supporter of Beyonce. So feel free to bring that up. And then they talked about Riri performing at the Super Bowl.

And I'm like, yo, you saw what Beyonce did. You got to measure up. Because this is Beyonce. Now, let me be very, very clear. I went to the Taylor Swift concert. She was off the chain. $2,000 a ticket. Your daughter made you.

Both my daughters made me and promised their 10 friends that's my $20,000. I need a drink. I need a drink. But you enjoyed yourself. Yo, bro. I could not believe how much fun I had.

I said, Taylor Swift off the chain. She did that thing. Yeah, Taylor Swift the shit. I mean, she got what she got. That don't mean she Beyonce. I'm like, can we calm down, pump the brakes? There's only one Beyonce. You understand? Nobody in the planet of Stephen A. Smith,

there is no female artist ever that has, and I love to meet some Janet Jackson. Control and rhythm nation. Come on, dog. Control and rhythm nation. I mean, please. I love Penny. You know what I'm saying

Aretha Franklin I mean listen The queen of soul Mary J Queen Latifah I mean come on Nobody Nobody

Yes her too Not even Whitney Not even Whitney Lisa Keys Whitney Whitney's phenomenal I mean come on Nobody

To me I'm talking about to me Right Nobody Right That's fair Comes before Beyonce Nobody to me. I'm talking about to me. Right. Nobody. Right. That's fair. Comes before Beyonce. So it's just an example of what I'm talking about.

So you're the beehive. You're the beehive. You're the beehive. Because I don't act like that. You ain't join that? I don't act like that. You ain't want to join the gang? I don't act like that.

He got a different Twitter account. He got a different Twitter account. I don't act like that. But let me tell you this. But let me tell you this. You understand? I ain't a quote unquote member of the Beehive. But if I was going to be a member of a hive,

it would be the Beehive. Steven A.B. Listen, Beyonce is so bad, as in great. I wouldn't mind them calling me Steven B. Smith. I mean that shit.'t nobody beyond me ain't nobody beyond me ain't nobody beyonce yo yo steve let me just say thank you so much um we gotta do everything that i thought you would be and more you You superseded my expectations. You are exactly who you are. And like I said, I could speak to you all day.

This might have been a 17-hour podcast. Let me give you a props. I wanted to stay on you. You know why? Because this should be promoted more. Like, you know, us is bigging up each other. You great. Whether you came and did drink caps or not, you great.

You are one of the greatest out there. I wanted to thank you. I was so impressed, so happy that when we finally booked you, I was like, what? Stephen Hayes coming? We honored to have you here. I couldn't sleep last night. I was just like, I was...

Because I always want to give you your props. I always want to tell you how dope you are, how ill it is. And I'll end it with this one story. You gave me one of the most humblest pies ever. We was in Complex Con. I walked through and I watched you so much that I thought I'd met you before and I had never met you.

And I walked over to Stephen A and I was like, and Stephen A was like, calm down. We was in an environment, I don't even want to say there's people that was there. You know, it was a lot

of big big dogs there and I you made my fans make sense now let me make that make sense right for years

I've been famous 25 years 23 of them which has been great right but fans would come up to me and they'll talk to me right

and what I realized is they thought they knew me yeah talk to you like they knew you right and they'll talk to me. Right. And what I realized is they thought they knew me. Yeah, talk to you like they knew you. And I did that to you. And you almost was looking out for me. You was like,

you're a little too groupie to out, Norby. You didn't say that. Your eyes did. You was like, calm down, calm down. But I will never take that moment back

because I meant it. I meant it then and I mean it now. I appreciate that. It takes nothing away from me as a man to tell you how great you are to your motherfucking face and meant it. I meant it then and I mean it now. I appreciate that. It takes nothing away from me as a man to tell you how great you are to your motherfucking face and mean it.

It does not take away from me as a fan. I want you to continue to do what you do. If you ever need us on any show you got because I know you got 15,000 shows. I'm going to get y'all on no doubt. You're producing shows. You're being an executive producer

And producing shows That shit is so dope man We appreciate you This is super seedy Well listen man Let me say this man First of all I'm honored to be on the show

I think y'all do a great job I love the fact that y'all Been celebrating You've been doing this for 8 years You've been very very successful at it You know you set the stage You set the stage for a lot of people And you've given a lot of people an opportunity

to really, really do their thing, making them feel comfortable asking the right questions and doing all of that stuff. And the biggest thing that y'all preaching about is togetherness, man. Listen, when I heard Kendrick and Drake and J. Cole, I went on my podcast and I was like, yo, as long as it's nonviolent, go

ahead with the lyrics. That's part of the business the whole bit, but as long as it's nonviolent. Go ahead with the lyrics. That's part of the business, the whole bit. But as long as it's not, just keep it safe and the whole bit. There's money to be made out here for all of us. Some going to make more than others, but that ain't the point. The point is we can all live well. We could always make it happen. And for me personally, you know, one of the things that I do religiously is I go on a lot of these podcasts because me being in the position that I'm in, I know when people

invite me, a lot of times they think because me being in the position that I'm in, I know when people invite me, a lot of times they think I won't show up. But guess what? Cats did it for me. When I brought up Isaiah and others, and they did it for me. And the least I can do is do my part to help and to let the world know.

You see these brothers out here doing this stuff? I support them. You know, my style is different from other people. I'm a product of corporate America who's venturing out on my own. But one of the things y'all got to remember to give yourselves credit for, and I'm not talking about just y'all, but so many others who are doing this. See, the athletes are different. You had your money and then you did it. I'm different because I had ESPN and my career at Fox and newspaper business, all this stuff before I did it. You got a whole bunch of cats that bet on themselves

and go out there and did it. And what I'm saying is there's a level of courage that you show this belief in yourself that you could do what you're supposed to be doing. And as a result of that, never forget that because there's a lot of people who got a lot of ability but don't have courage. And you are looking at one of them who spent years not having courage.

I was raised by a mom that punched the clock as a registered nurse and believed in putting your head down and going to work, coming home and all that other stuff. It wasn't until later on in my life in my mid 40s and stuff like that that I had an entrepreneurial spirit but it still took me a while to get to that point because I was an employee and they got you under contract and they can restrict your rights and all this other stuff because of y'all people like y'all people like me even in my 50s are gaining more courage than I ever had in my life. And so it ain't resent. It's gratefulness. It's gratitude that I feel for y'all, that I feel for so many people in this space

that's doing so much of what y'all doing. I'm going to get mine. I'm going to strive to get mine. But I'll be damned if I'm not going to help at every opportunity to help others along the way get theirs. And y'all are two of those people. This team are definitely so. Anytime y'all want two of those people. This team are definitely so.

Anytime y'all want me on, I'm happy to come back. I appreciate it. It's not a question. You said something that was one of the most prolific things I ever heard. You said sometimes all of us don't got to be equal.

We are only promised. We are only for opportunity. Deserving we are only for opportunity deserving of equal opportunity deserving of equal opportunity yes that shit blew my mind it's the truth and most of us do have the same equal opportunities we don't capitalize off we don't deserve the same equal results right you you all of us work with, work for people or have people under us who either work better and produce more or work worse and produce less. Right. People who produce less and don't work as hard as me don't deserve what I deserve. OK, you know, everybody that's poor don't deserve to be poor, but some of them do. Everybody that's rich don't deserve to be rich, but some people don't deserve to be rich.

You see what I'm saying? It's like that's the way it is. And when you accept that, what you do is attach a level of accountability to those that are trying to make things happen. Are you really trying to make it happen? Are you really exhausting yourself Doing all that you need to do In order to achieve what you have to? If you're doing all of that God bless you More power to you What help do you need?

If you a lazy ass person Don't come in my direction I got no use for you I got family members Who lazy as hell They ain't employed by me The people who are employed by me Are people that I know are going to work

And by the way If I see them And they being lazy They going to work. And by the way, if I see them and they're being lazy, they're going to get fired. Period. It's about production. It's about getting the job done. Because if they don't get the job done, they inhibit your ability to get the job done. And you're the one that's going to suffer.

You do not let somebody bring you down. You can't bring everybody with you. Some people, you got to lead their ass home. Look at them. Thank you. Supplement them. All right, I'm going to look out for you a little bit,

try to give you an edge up. Here you go. And inspire them as much as you can. But you can't roll with me because if I believe I'm here and I believe this is what is required, I can't have you here. You're going to bring me down.

I got to go Felton Drink Champs is a Drink Champs LLC production Host and executive producers N-O-R-E and DJ E-F-N Listen to Drink Champs on Apple Podcasts Amazon Music, Spotify Or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Drink Champs, hosted by yours truly, DJ

EFN and NORE. Please make sure to follow us on all our socials. That's at Drink Champs across all platforms, at TheRealNoriega on IG, at Noriega on Twitter. Mine is at Who's Crazy on IG, at DJ EFN on Twitter. Mine is at who's crazy on IG at DJ EFN on Twitter. And most importantly, stay up to date with the latest releases, news and merch by going to drinkchamps.com. This season of Revisionist History, we're investigating everything from the secret behind the perfect nooks and crannies in Thomas's English muffins

to the merits of Paw Patrol against its critics. There's some things that really piss me off when it comes to Paw Patrol. It's pretty simple. It sucks. My son watches Paw Patrol.

I hate it. Everyone hates it, except for me. Listen to Revisionist History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun?

Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why is a soap opera western like Yellowstone so wildly successful. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways

in which we experience the region today. Listen to the American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.