Stephen A. Smith's White House Visit, Nick Wright-Clay Travis Feud Prove Sports Media Hate Sports | Ep 1282

Jason Whitlock (0:00)

So, I woke up this morning, and as we do every day, we're looking for topics. Hey, what are we going to discuss today on Fearless?

And everything seemed like, and I'm like, why is everything like, why is the top story in sports video of Stephen A. Smith walking into the White House, doing the Stephen A. Smith walk, acting like he's the most important man in the world.

And I'm sitting there and I know many of you will think what I'm about to say is out of some sort of jealousy or spite, but it's just really out of the facts. I'm looking at a man that flunked the fourth grade.

Teacher laughed at him, at the thought of him going to college in 11th grade. And this is by Stephen A. Smith's own admission. A guy that went to Winston-Salem State, had to travel thousands of miles away from New York to find a school that would even let him in, and was one of the poorest writing sports journalists of my era and was a laughing stock for most of his career as a sports writer. Everybody talked openly about how unqualified and how untalented Stephen A. Smith was and how editors had to rewrite his work because Stephen A. Smith was a dummy.

And he has not become some brilliant person. He's still that same guy. He's still someone that talks unintelligently about sports. But he's walking into the White House in early November, at the heart of football season, at the beginning of basketball season, plenty of things to talk about in the sports world. But he's walking into the White House to meet with Donald Trump. And I know there are some of you that are rigged to think like, Whitlock, you're just saying this because you're jealous. You wish you were walking into the White House and you won't believe me or hear me when I say, no, I could be that guy if I wanted to be that guy. I was offered that opportunity to be that guy.

I interviewed Trump, what, in 2020 or whenever it was, 2019, I can't remember. And I'm like, no, I'm good. And that doesn't mean when I said I'm good, I was like, no, I'm good. That's not an indictment of Trump. I didn't vote for Trump until 2024 But it's just like, this is as close as I want to get to politics. I don't want to be an insider in politics. I don't want to be vacationing at Mar-a-Lago every other weekend. I just, and that's not an indictment. I like President Trump for the most part. I certainly like Melania Trump. And look, there's a lot of beautiful women that go to Mar-a-Lago and all that. But just like, politics aren't my passion. And I can see how corrupt politics are. But I'm just like, Stephen A. Smith getting paid $20 million a year, and ESPN is allowing him to talk, discuss politics, presidential politics, launch a presidential campaign. And I just, is everybody just bored with sports? Does everybody just hate sports?

Because that's, there's something worse than hate. There's indifference. Is there an indifference to sports? And so everybody's looking for something to talk about, something to be interested in beyond sports, because they're indifferent about sports. And then I looked over and I saw like, well, the other thing everybody's been talking about this week, is Nick Wright and Clay Travis arguing over Clay Travis's political views. And I was like, Nick Wright and Clay Travis, I know them both or knew them both. Nick Wright was a kid in Kansas City when I was at the height of my success in Kansas City as a sports columnist, working for the Kansas City Star and working for ESPN and Fox Sports. Nick Wright, when I was the radio station that they launched because of me, 610 Sports, eventually when I left, he was the nighttime host and I recognize the identity confusion in Nick Wright and used to troll him and make fun of him because Nick Wright is one of these guys from the tribe that really wants to be black.

And so, I've, and then Nick Wright got hired at FS1 around the same time or shortly after, I can't remember the timing, that I got hired at FS1. I've known Nick Wright for a while. I've followed the rise of his career, know how it all transpired. And obviously, everybody knows that Clay Travis and I used to work together and we partnered on Couch Kick for a brief time. So, know both of these guys. And they're arguing about Clay Travis's political views over the internet. Nick Wright put out a video talking about why he has no respect for Clay Travis and it's about his political views. Let's play SOT3, let's play that clip.