Stephen A. Smith has claimed some athletes have tried to get various sports journalists fired over questions they didn't want to answer.
During his visit to Paul George's Podcast P show, the legendary sports journalist reflected on his career while addressing the static between himself and actor Jackie Long who criticized him in an earlier episode. At one point in the podcast, Paul George spoke about wanting to do a podcast so journalists wouldn't twist up anything he said.
Smith agreed with George and stated he had the right idea by going with that approach and taking matters into his own hands. However, he explained that a journalist's job is in jeopardy if the burning questions aren't asked. According to Smith, an athlete can say they're worth a lot of money but struggle during play, making people question whether the athlete is worth the money.
On the journalistic side, Smith claimed if a reporter doesn't ask a question regarding the athlete's play relating to the money they think they're worth, their editor will pull the plug and send the reporter home.
"You got to understand that everybody has a job to do," Smith said. "The last thing they want to do is come up to you and ask you that question. They have no choice because their job is on the line, and no matter how bad your game was that day, your contract guaranteed, and it's for a gazillion times more than that journalist made."
Stephen A. Smith then dropped the bombshell tidbit that some "superstar players" have actively tried to get a sports journalist fired for asking hot questions.
"You know, you got cats that, and they're gonna remain nameless as players because I'm not going to do that to them," Smith said. "But when I went hard on a couple of superstar players, I happen to know for a fact they tried to get a couple of journalists fired, and it's because the journalists asked them about something that they were hearing."
Smith said this only happens to Black reporters, but when it comes to Adrian Wojnarowski or Shams Charania, athletes "ain't say shit," which is why he gets on these athletes the way he does.
"You see cats, and it's like 'yo you making tens of millions per'," Smith added. "You getting mad and trying to end the careers of cats because if they get...how many brothers gonna get fired? You working at Yahoo Sports, you working at ESPN, you working at some other network, and you get bounced out. How many brothers you can look at and say 'Yo you gonna have another job tomorrow.' It ain't like that."
