Mar 29

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Friends,

ESPN is the most powerful player in sports. The company started as a cable network in 1979 and has 8,000 global employees today. Their headquarters consists of 18 buildings and 1.2 million square feet of space on 123 acres in Bristol, Connecticut.

Disney owns 80% of the business, bringing in more than $10 billion in annual revenue. ESPN has eight cable networks in the United States alone and an additional 26 abroad. They host nearly 25,000 live events annually and pay billions of dollars for broadcasting rights across the NFL, NBA, MLB, College Football, UFC, and SEC.

But one stat might surprise you more than the rest. ESPN’s highest-paid media member isn’t a former professional athlete. He didn’t go to Columbia, UCLA, or Northwestern, and he damn sure didn’t follow the traditional journalist path.

I’m talking about Stephen A. Smith — the hardest-working man in sports media.

Stephen A. Smith has worked in the sports business for over 30 years. He has been a news clerk, journalist, radio host, and TV personality, and he currently makes an estimated $15 million annually from ESPN, his podcast, and his book deal.

That’s higher than the median NFL, NBA, and MLB salary….combined.

Stephen A’s story is one of resilience and passion. He has overcome obstacles by developing a tireless work ethic and is now the most powerful man in sports media.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith wants to be late-night television host — (Photo: ESPN Press Room)

Stephen A. Smith’s Humble Beginnings

Stephen A. Smith was born in the Bronx but grew up in Queens, New York. He is the youngest of six children, and his parents are immigrants from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“My mother and father never divorced. They were married 58, 59 years. And even though they never divorced, my father might as well have been an absentee dad, He just wasn’t that guy,” Stephen A. Smith told Jay Williams on The Limits Podcast.

“And my mother, who worked two jobs, she grew to be an assistant head nurse at Queens General Hospital right there in Queens. And she would work 16 hours a day. She’d be there, and then she’d go right down the block to the – till 11 o’clock at night – six, seven days a week, 16 straight years, one week’s vacation, nonstop.”

This lack of attention at home led to struggles in school. Stephen A. Smith was held back twice in 3rd and 4th grade and later diagnosed with dyslexia. But then he channeled his passion for sports in the 7th grade — and it was game over.

“I struggled and struggled and struggled. And I definitely struggled with confidence until the seventh grade when my professor told my mother he’s pretty damn smart,” Stephen A. Smith said on the Nelk Boys Podcast.

“His issue is that he drifts. If he’s bored and he’s disinterested, he doesn’t hear anything you’re saying. It goes in one ear and out the other. He doesn’t even have recall. But if he’s passionate about it, you’ve got somebody special on your hand because he’s pretty brilliant. And so I started thinking about what was I passionate about. And sports was it because of the sports that I used to watch with my dad. And so, because of that, it just took off from there.”

Stephen A. Smith then spent a year at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City before transferring to Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. And he was awarded an athletic scholarship to the Division II school after making 17 straight three-pointers in an open gym workout.

“I went out on the basketball court, and I was passing the ball just running rotation offense, stuff like that,” Smith said on Pardon My Take. “Running around, passing the ball, passing the ball. I hadn’t shot. I was just trying to get warmed up. [The coach] said, ‘Didn’t Funny say that you were a shooter?’ I said, ‘yes.’ He said, ‘Well shoot the fucking ball, dammit! I went out there, and I hit 17 straight three-pointers. I couldn’t miss. And when I did that, he signed me to a scholarship on the spot.”

But Stephen A. Smith’s basketball career didn’t go as planned. He broke his kneecap in half during his first season in Winston-Salem and ended his career shooting just 5-for-25 from the field, averaging 1.5 points per game and only assisting on one basket.

And that injury ended up kick-starting his 30+ year career in journalism.

From Hoop Dreams To Journalism Stardom

Stephen A. Smith started writing for the Winston-Salem State University school newspaper as a way to stay connected to sports after his career-ending injury.

He initially focused on game recaps, but his infamous hot takes began when he wrote that his own hall-of-fame basketball coach Clarence Gaines should be fired.

“I was writing for the school newspaper (at Winston-Salem State University) and I wrote about (coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines) and how he needed to retire — while I was playing for him. Everybody’s like, “Stephen A.’s crazy,” but they don’t realize what was going on. … I finally said to (Gaines), “I’m an aspiring reporter, and I have to call it like I see it. I’m telling you right now — it’s not like I’m divulging any secret — everybody knows that your health isn’t the greatest. You’re over 70 years of age. You need to step away from this. And if you don’t, I’m going to write about it.” He said, “F you, man. Go ahead and do it.” And I did it. And then you had the chancellor of the school, he wanted me expelled. Then you had a bunch of people there that was like, “How could you do this to him?” Nobody picked up on the biggest part of the story — Coach Gaines was the one that stepped up and said, “Leave that boy alone. I told him it was OK for him to write.”

Smith’s career took off from there. Well, kind of. He was hired as a clerk in the sports department at the Winston-Salem Journal after graduation, and he was later given the opportunity to be the beat writer for the Wake Forest University soccer team.

This wasn’t a glamorous job by any means. But Stephen A. knew that sports journalism was a tough industry to crack, so he worked for minimum wage and committed to building a portfolio of 250 pieces before exploring other opportunities.

“I was eating tuna fish and Kool-Aid while working in Archdale, North Carolina, making $15,300 a year, working for free, my own time, just to accumulate clips to build a portfolio and a resume,” Smith told Vanity Fair.

This helped Stephen A. — an HBCU student with a degree in mass communication — compete with journalism students from schools like Columbia, Northwestern, and UCLA, eventually earning him a sports reporter job at the New York Daily News.

Stephen A. Smith spent two years at the New York Daily News covering high school sports around New York City. He then accepted a job with The Philadelphia Inquirer as a beat writer for Temple University, moved to the Philadelphia 76ers beat three years later, and eventually became a full-time columnist for the paper in 2003.

“The word ‘columnist’ meant everything because those were the only people allowed and licensed to give their opinion,” Smith said on the Flagrant podcast. “That’s the era I came up in. So I had to work through layers, get promoted damn near ten times over the course of my career before I was granted a columnist position. And in 2003 when the Philadelphia Inquirer named me a columnist, there were 20 people, there were 20 black people in American history given that title before me. I was the 21st.”

This newfound ability to give his opinion on a national stage put Stephen A. Smith’s career into overdrive. He became known for his pro-player stance during the NBA Lockout and quickly started rising the ranks as an outspoken media member.

Smith then started working for CNN and Fox Sports as a sports specialist in the early 2000s. He joined ESPN as an analyst for NBA Shootaround in 2003, and just two years later, he was hosting The Stephen A. Smith Show on ESPN Radio.

Stephen A. Smith Early Career Timeline

1991-2002: Clerk & beat writer at the Winston-Salem Journal
1992-1993: Sports reporter for the Greensboro News and Record
1993-1994: Sports reporter for the New York Daily News
1994-2010: Beat writer and columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer
1999-2003: Worked for Fox Sports & CNN as a Sports Specialist
2003: Joined ESPN as an analyst for NBA Shootaround
2005-2008: Hosted The Stephen A. Smith Show on ESPN Radio

Stephen A. Smith’s career was taking off in the early 2000s. He had gone from a clerk at the Winston-Salem Journal to hosting his own show on ESPN Radio, and he looked well on his way to becoming one of the next big stars in sports media.

But then everything changed. Smith started to butt heads with the higher-ups at ESPN, and the network decided they wouldn’t renew his contract in 2009. So Stephen A. left to work for Fox Sports — and the split left a sour taste in his mouth.

“The biggest thing that I remember doing is that I always came to the bosses with problems. I never came to them with solutions,” Stephen A. said in 2020. “And I learned when I sat back and reflected on the mistakes that I had made in my career at the time, I learned that no boss wants to talk to anybody that doesn’t have solutions.”

This forced Stephen A. to change his entire approach. He started to think about what popularity really meant and began to focus on ratings and revenue rather than fame.

“Popularity wasn’t your name in the streets, somebody saying ‘Stephen A.’ Popularity wasn’t myself on billboards. Popularity was the ratings and the revenue I brought in,” says Stephen A. Smith. “This information about ESPN changed my whole thinking. My approach suddenly became, number one, how do I make my bosses more money? And number two, how do I get some of that for myself?”

But this realization wasn’t enough — Stephen A. had to make amends with everyone at ESPN. So he sat in his room and wrote down the names of everyone he might have offended at the network. He included a section about why he did what he did and even wrote out exactly how he planned to make it up to them.

“I said ‘I’m going to correct the error of my ways and I’m going to come back better than ever and I’m going to be number one,” Smith said on Good Morning America.

And become number one is precisely what Stephen A. Smith did.

Stephen A. Smith on ESPN, his future and his time on 'The View'

A Second Chance At Sports Media Stardom

Stephen A. Smith officially returned to ESPN in 2011. He started by hosting a daily radio show on ESPN LA and eventually hosted a 2-hour weekly show in New York.

But his big break came in 2012 when ESPN asked him to join Skip Bayless on First Take. The debate show was a huge hit, averaging 500,000 viewers per episode by 2015, and it quickly became ESPN’s most popular daytime TV show.

“There is no Stephen A with First Take if it were not for Skip Bayless,” Smith told PMT. “He’s the one that went to [the bosses] and fought for me to be on First Take with him. I owe him an incredible debt of gratitude. And I will never forget that.”

Of course, Skip Bayless left ESPN in 2016 to sign an 8-figure deal with Fox Sports. But First Take didn’t skip a beat. Stephen A. Smith continued the show for five years with Max Kellerman, eventually replacing him with a rotating cast of sports media pundits.

First Take has now been the #1 morning sports show for 11 straight years. They average more than 500,000 viewers per episode, 2x more than Skip Bayless’s show on Fox. And this success has drastically increased Stephen A’s power at ESPN.

Stephen A. Smith’s Power Continues To Grow At ESPN

Stephen A. Smith Battled Dyslexia, Became Passionate Voice in Sports – Rolling Stone

Stephen A. Smith has expanded his empire at ESPN over the last few years.

You’ll see him on everything from First Take and SportsCenter to NBA Countdown and Stephen A’s world. He has more than 10 million followers on social media and owns his own production company. He recently released his first book and even started a new podcast called “Know Mercy.”

His most recent contract with ESPN is reportedly worth $12 million annually. And when you add in his podcast and book deal, Stephen A. Smith reportedly makes more than $15 million per year, more than any other personality at ESPN.

This level of commitment from ESPN has provided Smith with unparalleled access at the network. For example, Stephen A. is one of the only ESPN employees to have an open line of communication with chairman Jimmy Pitaro. He works closely with ESPN’s head of production and calls Pitaro directly if there are any issues.

Still, this doesn’t mean Stephen A. will be at ESPN forever. He has openly talked about his desire to eventually take over ABC’s late-night talk show from Jimmy Kimmel and has even hinted that he might want to run for President one day.

But all of that is up for discussion. The fact is that sports media has changed a lot over the last few decades — from reporting and analysis to debate and showmanship. And whether you like it or not, no one has benefitted more than Stephen A. Smith.

If you enjoyed this breakdown, please consider sharing it with your friends. My team and I work hard to create high-quality content, and every new subscriber helps.

I hope everyone has a great day. We’ll talk on Friday.

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Extra Credit: Shohei Ohtani is MLB’s Highest-Paid Player

Shohei Ohtani will make $70 million this year, according to Sportico. That’s more than any MLB player in history has earned in a single year, and it’s clear that the 2-way Japanese star is officially the face of baseball. Next up, a $500M+ contract.