The notoriously outspoken TV and radio personality of ESPN, Stephen A. Smith, covered more than just sports during his visit to Syracuse University on Thursday night.

The lecture, held in Goldstein Auditorium, was presented by the National Panhellenic Council and the Office of Multicultural Affairs as one of their Black History Month events held throughout February.

From the start, Smith had the audience erupting in laughter as he strutted back and forth on the stage, talking in his trademark loud and riled up tone. ‘I’m glad to be here,’ he said, ‘you know, sometimes I get tired of beating up on (fellow sports journalist) Skip Bayless.’

Smith was asked to speak about the African-American athlete, but only a small portion of his lecture was on the topic. Instead, his main focus was on career advice for students and what the ‘real world’ is like.

Smith asked everyone in the crowd to raise their hands if the person sitting next to them was their friend.

‘No they ain’t,’ he said. ‘Are they going to pay your bills?’

He went on to say that money plays a huge role in our everyday relationships, not only in sports, which he emphasized was a business. ‘Just follow the dollars,’ he repeated several times.

Smith, who attended the historically black college of Winston-Salem State University, spoke about his work at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He spoke about how reporting at the Inquirer eventually led him to being recognized and hired by ESPN. He now hosts 1050 ESPN Radio New York and writes for ESPN.com. He is also regularly featured on ESPN’s First Take.

Cedric Bolton, the coordinator of student engagement at the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said he was pleased with the career advice Smith had to offer students.

‘Mr. Smith is without a doubt a dynamic speaker,’ he said. ‘His personal success story is certainly inspiring and is relevant to students who are still in the process of exploring their own career paths. He clearly paid his dues as a journalist and worked hard to get to where he is today — a great example for students to see.’

Smith did touch on race and racism, but said racism isn’t very prevalent anymore. It hurts the African-American community as a whole when one of their own brings race somewhere it doesn’t belong, he said.

‘No one wants to hear that anymore,’ he said, ‘Everyone is hurting nowadays, it doesn’t matter who you are.’

After giving his speech, Smith took questions from the audience, which varied in topic from journalism to a wide range of sports stories going on today.

Smith’s most passionate answer came when a student asked, ‘Why do you hate Lebron James so much when he is the best player in the NBA?’

As one of James’ most outspoken critics, he said he does not hate James and spoke about how Lebron is not a champion, but insists that he be treated like one. Smith made it a point to say he was not upset that James went to Miami, however.

‘I can’t blame a brother for going to South Beach,’ he said, ‘I love South Beach. I’m going there next week.’

SU alumnus Richard Block, who attended the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications as a television, radio and film major, said he remembers reading Smith’s work during his early years at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Block said he agreed with Smith’s point that journalism students should develop their skills in smaller markets before branching out to platforms like ESPN, but he especially appreciated Smith’s willingness to just tell it like it is and that he doesn’t care what people think.

‘He was just so unabashedly himself,’ he said, ‘and there aren’t many people like that.’

nxsmith@syr.edu

Published on February 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Nick: nxsmith@syr.edu