It’s not often we see Stephen A. Smith shaken up, but that wasn’t the case Sunday.
Smith, as well as a slew of other athletes, coaches and teams, paid tribute to Kobe Bryant after the Los Angeles Lakers star was killed in a helicopter crash in California. His 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other victims also were killed.
Fans watched Jay Williams deliver a gut-wrenching testimony to the fallen five-time NBA champion before Smith followed suit. The “First Take” co-host touched on Bryant’s work ethic and his mentality toward the game of basketball.
“It’s not just about being a basketball player. It’s about being a champion. It’s not just about being an artist. It’s about being an Academy Award winner. These are all things he had visions of and it was consistent with who he was from the time that you knew him,” Smith said. “Because coming into the NBA, one of the things that had turned others off about him, initially, he came into the league talking about how he was going to be as great, if not greater, than Michael Jordan one day. And people used to look at him and say ‘This dude is off of his rocker, his chest is sticking out a little bit too much. He needs perspective.’
“Sure enough when you watched him work and saw the commitment he put in, you knew he wasn’t playing. He would win championships, take a week or two off and show up a week or two later and start working. In the summertime. At 5:30 in the morning. This is what he did. Religiously. When other people were talking vacations, he was studying. When other people were talking breaks, he was working out. That was his entire mentality about anything and everything.”
You can watch the emotional speech below:
.@stephenasmith speaks on the Mamba Mentality. It was more than just basketball. pic.twitter.com/yILfBIUshd
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 26, 2020
