BRISTOL, CT—Reflecting on the life experiences that made him the person he is today, ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith recalled Wednesday a tough childhood in which he had to debate gang members. “It was hell, man—I remember these thugs cornering me outside my high school, shoving me against the wall, and challenging me to debate who were the top-five best point guards of all time,” Smith said on SportsCenter, adding that the area of Queens he grew up in was filled with gang members who would brutally try to debate anyone who stepped on their turf, and that he often took long routes home from school so he wouldn’t get stuck in an argument about whether John Havlicek was overrated. “One time, an entire debate team ganged up on me, and it was all I could do to fend off their diatribes with a quick riposte of my own. Then one time, I outdebated them all about which all-time great player I would’ve paid the most to see in his prime, and I said Dolph Schayes and they pretty much left me alone after that. It was rough at the time, but it helped me get really quick and strong with my rejoinders, and I taught myself to rant, and it made me into the man you see before you.” Smith added that his childhood had also instilled in him the conviction that a man isn’t supposed to debate girls.
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