Stephen A. Smith
Stephen Anthony Smith (born 1967/1968)[2][3] is an American sports television personality, sports radio host, and sports journalist. He is a commentator on ESPN's First Take, where he appears with Molly Qerim. He also makes frequent appearances as an NBA analyst on SportsCenter. Smith also is an NBA analyst for ESPN on NBA Countdown and NBA broadcasts on ESPN. He also hosted The Stephen A. Smith Show on ESPN Radio. Smith is a featured columnist for ESPNNY.com, ESPN.com, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Stephen Anthony Smith was born in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. He was raised in the Hollis section of Queens.[4] Smith is the fifth of six children.[2][5] He has four older sisters and had a younger brother, Basil, who died in a car accident in 1992. He also has a half-brother on his father's side. Smith's parents were originally from Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. His father managed a hardware store. Smith's maternal grandmother was white, the rest of his grandparents black.[6] He graduated in 1986 from Thomas Edison High School in Queens.[7]
After attending the Fashion Institute of Technology for one year, Smith received a basketball scholarship to attend Winston-Salem State University, a historically black university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In college, he played basketball under Hall of Fame coach Clarence Gaines. While still on the team, Smith wrote a column for the university newspaper, The News Argust, arguing Gaines should retire due to health issues.[8] He is a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. Smith graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mass communication.[9]
Smith began his print media career with the Winston-Salem Journal, the Greensboro News and Record, and the New York Daily News.
Beginning in 1994, Smith had a position as a writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He began reporting on the Philadelphia 76ers as their NBA columnist, and eventually, as a general sports columnist. On August 23, 2007, the Inquirer announced that Smith would no longer be writing columns and would instead be demoted back to the position of general assignment reporter. In 2008, the Inquirer ended its relationship with Smith, which coincided with Smith starting his own blog, stephena.com. In February 2010, Smith returned to The Philadelphia Inquirer after winning an arbitrator's ruling that he was to be reinstated but having to agree to remove all of his political views from his website and from cable news shows.[10]
On April 11, 2005, Smith became the host of a weekday noon to 2 p.m. radio show on WEPN in New York City with his "right-hand man B.T. (Brandon Tierney)". On September 20, 2007, the show was shifted to the 2–4 p.m. slot, with the second hour being broadcast nationally on ESPN Radio, replacing the third hour of The Dan Patrick Show (Mike Tirico took over the first two hours). Smith's show came to an end in April 2008 as he sought to expand his career in television, and beginning May 1, Scott Van Pelt began hosting in the 3–4 p.m. hour that was previously Smith's.
