Over the last few days I’ve been sharing lessons from Stephen A. Smith’s book “Straight Shooter”
And here’s one from when he was fired by ESPN in 2009 …
After that he bumped into Pat Riley, the legendary coach and executive in the hallway near the Miami Heat’s locker room, and he extended his hand as a final goodbye. He wrote:
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“Riley just left me hanging. He refused to shake my hand. I stood there frozen, vulnerable as hell, feeling like this was yet another in a series of slaps in my face over the previous months by several people.
Riley sighed. Then he looked me straight in the eye, like he might look at one of his players in the locker room after a tough defeat, and snapped, ‘Put your damn hand down. I’m not shaking your hand. You’re acting like this is over, like you’re finished. Well you’re not finished. Lift your head up and save the handshakes for when you come back. Because you will come back.”
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Stephen A. did come back – in 2025 he’s arguably the top sports commentator in the world …
After Pat Riley’s pep talk, Stephen A. took a different approach when dealing with setbacks:
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“Driving in my white Cadillac Escalade up and down the New Jersey Turnpike, flipping from one channel to another, I’d periodically hear someone on talk radio going on about my fall from grace. Hosts portrayed me as the standard of what not to be, attacking my character, even implying the industry was better without me. I had become a punching bag, a gag line. Their vitriol was accentuated by laughter, and their utter satisfaction with my demise oozed through their microphones. Now, all that did was motivate me.”
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