Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith gets his own talk show on ESPN 2. It is expected to take the shape of an issue-driven opinion show mixed with interviews that will be paired with the entertainment news/gossip show ESPN Hollywood.

One word of warning: please adjust the volume on your tv before watching.

Uh-oh thanks for the warning. Also, the show should of been called However, or The Rasho Nesterovich (Don't know the spelling) show.

In honor of this show, the TWOP FAQ should be partially suspended so we can TYPE IN ALL CAPS WITH LOTS OF EXPLANATION POINTS JUST LIKE STEPHEN A.!!!!!!!!!!

So, which Euro stiff is next to make Stephen A. Smith's List of Disdain? If the Warriors or Bucks were good enough to warrant regular coverage on ESPN, I'd say Zarko Cabarkapa (ZARRRRko CAAbarrrKAAApa) or Zaza Pachulia. There's Anderson Varejao on the Cavs, but he's from Brazil.

Hot SWAG:


The Stephen A Smith Quite Frankly "Mug"

It should be a headshot of Stephen A, arched eyebrow but sullen expression.

Although I cannot stand Stephen A's vascillation between sullen smugness and righteous indignation, at least he has never uttered the phrase, "Hugs & Handpounds."

I can't wait for this show....

The first time I saw a preview for this, I really expected him to say, "I don't give a damn," after they showed his mug.

Who would want to watch this guy? He'll be terrible in the monologue format, since no one will be able to shut him up, and he can just yell freely.

Agreed eggroll, I can only take Stephen A's rantings and ravings in small doses. I've barely made it through those halftime shows sometimes. Seriously, what the hell was ESPN thinking? I suppose Dick Vitale's schedule was too busy.

I wonder if Greg Anthony is going to watch . . .

Some promo for the show. 30 seconds on how the Patriots are good? Wow, there's a scoop.

Tuesday on Quite Frankly: The Lakers aren't the same without Shaq.

Did he have that sneer botoxed into his face?

Must've been a slow news week in the sports world -- I see Sports Illustrated has devoted an entire story (not just a blurb) on our Quite Frankly host.

Man, you guys are viscious. The premier episode hasn't even aired yet!!

I think you at least have to wait until 5 minutes into the first show before you start shredding as you guys are doing.

Mean Mr. Mustard,

Have to disagree with you about Smith and Dick Vitale. They have nothing in common besides both working for ESPN.

Vitale is alwys upbeat and always has a positive comment to say about everyone. I do get annoyed about his constant apologies for the likes of Jim Harrick (who along with his son is a true scumbag), but he is always upbeat and excited and you can tell that he truly loves what he does and is excited about doing it.

Smith always comes across like he'd rather be doing anything else, including fellating a rancid procupine, then opining/reporting.

For some crazy reason I like Stephen A., maybe because he bucks the status quo. I'll give his show a chance.

The New York Times had an article today about Smith and his new show:

ESPN's New Master of the Offensive Foul (NYTimes.com registration required)

Except for NBA draftees from outside the US.

Smith just comes across as another devote of the contrarian asshole school of sports journalism. Like Skip Bayless and Jason Whitlock screw insight just take the most contraversal opinion regardless of the credibilty and run with it. It's just lazy in my book.

Mr Mustard, bad news. The show's actually an hour long.

Sheesh!

They're already thinking about another show for Stephen A?!

Thanks for the article link, coastcat.

I'll probably give this a shot. I'll actually be at home and I can only watch The Simpsons episodes so many times...

I love A.I. He cracks me up. Philly fans are damn lucky that he puts up them because anyone else would be out there at the first opportunity. I like Stephen A., but he is tough to take for 1 hour. They need to make this show 30 minutes.

As a long time Philly fan, I would turn that around. Remember "Practice? We talkin' about practice?".

I'll never get how that "practice" riff was turned into a reason to revile A.I. That guy is 6ft, 165lbs and he dragged that team into the finals. Philly deserves Stephon Marbury, not A.I.

Word, SimoneS. For a long time I hated Philadelphia fans because I thought they were jerks, and while I doubt the whole town is like that, the fans....well, I'll give an example. They once booed Santa Claus, They applauded when Michael Irvin of the Cowboys lay lifeless on the field. Applauding! That pissed me off so much, I was only like 12 or something at the time, and it incensed me to no end that those "fans" would applaud a life-threatening, career-ending injury. Disgusting. That being said, A.I. was completely right in his assesment. Some of their fans are extreme jerks, and they really don't deserve A.I. That guy literally has carried his team throughout his whole career. The 76ers are nothing better than a bottom feeder, but A.I. makes that team go, man. I seen ABC games where he has about 10 different injuries, he's wincing as he comes up court, then does some ridiculous ass crossover and scores. He scores at will, passes when he can't score, and will get up in there and rebound. And this is a guy who is 6''0. They might not even deserve Stephon Marbury. They deserve like, Sam Cassell, or something. Say what you will about about Shaq, Kobe, Lebron, being the best players, but if you say Kevin Garnett, you gotta say A.I. cuz both of them are the only reasons their teams haven't packed up and moved to Alaska.

Re: Allen Iverson and the whole "Practice" fiasco.

What boggles my mind and pisses me off is how so many people still don't get it.

Iverson's point was vaild in the extreme, but all anyone ever says is that he bitched about practice.

Not at all true.

Reporters were getting on him for missing practice as if by doing so he had doomed the 76ers to Lottery status, and since none of them ever watch NBA practices, they have no idea how much of a waste of time they usually are. For Iverson, it's just more wear and tear on his body that he doesn't need.

Hell both the Larry Bird and Micahel Jordan became famous for getting practics canclelled by making semi-outrageous shots:

KC Jones said he would cancel practice if Bird made better then 4 of 10 from halfcourt.

Bird made 10 out of 10.

Jackson said he'd cancel Bulls practice if Jordan could make 3 out of 5 from halfcourt.

Jordan made 5 out of 5.

I will get to the actual show in a second. As for Iverson, that was all a show. He has rehearsed that for 2 months. Can you not see that? The shivering of the lip??? Give me a break. Good actor, I would say so myself. As for practice... everyone has to be at practice, even you Allen Iverson. Quite Frankly, this was a decent hour... should be shortened to a half an hour though. But, if you can book famous people like Iverson to sit there and banter for 3/4 of the show... an hour is nice.

ESPN 2 must like overly long shows. Like Cold Pizza, Quite Frankly is twice as long as it should be. At some point they're going to be reaching waaaay down the interviewee list. It'll be a tough sit to watch SAS interview Anquan Boldin's uncle-in-law for an hour.

You people make me laugh about how Philadelphia doesn't deserve Allen Iverson. Like your city would have treated him any better. Iverson's a non-conformist. Non-conformists, no matter how good they are, get hammered when they don't conform. Look at what's happening to Manny Ramirez in Boston. Iverson's "domestic dispute" with his wife would have been run into the ground in every other NBA city, too. Probably worse in New York and L.A.

Iverson had campaigned to be named captain for a while but no coach thought he was responsible enough to be captain. And he wasn't. Larry Brown finally made him captain but AI would still blow off practice. Did *he* need practice? Probably not. Did the *team* need practice? Yes. Did the *team* need AI to be there for practice? Yes. The *team* needed to learn how to play with Iverson in various game situations but he'd be home sleeping off a hangover after having his agent or his third cousin from the left call the assistant towel boy with news that he wasn't coming in. AI admired Michael, Magic and Bird but those guys were the first people in the gym and the last to leave. It's not just basketball skills, it's also leadership skills that count. That's why Larry Brown was so hard on him. That's why the "Practice? We talking about practice?" thing was so big. It still hadn't sunk in with him what being *the* leader was all about.

I admire AI for his skills, his toughness and his willingness to overlook and forgive the slings and arrows some media people in Philadelphia have hurled his way. He's mellowed and matured a lot lately. I just wish he'd dress like an adult someday.

And that whole "booing Santa Claus" crap is over forty years old. Let it go. Our grandfathers did that.

I had no idea the whole hour was pretty much going to be an Iverson interview. It was nice to see AI's side on a lot of issues so it worked in this case, but i'm guessing he'll need to have 3 or 4 people on most days if it stays at 60 min.
I thought the same thing when he first came out. He didn't have to necessarily come out in a suit, but I did expect him to take off his hat.

Hee! Who except Michael Irvin thought that he, Christ-like, was once lifeless and was then revivified? Well, maybe Deion thought he was once lifeless, too, and then came back to life, but that's not what the Baltimore Ravens think. Maybe they applauded because they were wise enough to know Michael's resurrection was coming and we could all watch him ramble his nonsense every Sunday while Boomer tries to control him. (BTW, that Santa shit really IS old. Jeebus.)

Anyhow, I love AI but I know if he lived here in LA he'd be treated just as badly as he is in Philadelphia. If he lived in Chicago he'd be treated worse. And if he lived in Indiana? If lunatic fans can torch Reggie Miller's house after they didn't win the title, what do you think they'd do to AI?

Steven A is hoot. I kept watching him preeening for the camera saying, "Quelle Hoot, mon cher!" as he encouraged his audience to applaud the applause lines and winked knowingly at the "hot button" issues. How infelicitous for him that Palmeiro's steroid use was exposed Monday, though, and everyone would have rather heard Steven A talk about that instead of how much AI really does play defense.

Ever since LB left Philly, AI has had nothing but love for him. LB helped show him how to be a leader, helped him grow as a person and a player. I couldn't see anything fake about that at all, but YMMV.

As for the show, it did seem a half hour too long. I did enjoy it though and I sort of like the fact it is an hour. A lot of ESPN's interviews (mostly on S/C) are often short and lacking depth. Typically, players don't really get enough time to go deep into various questions or topics. I like that Quite Frankly changes this and really explores topics and questions in depth. I look forward to watching more episodes to see how the show progresses.

You make a damn good point about being a non-conformist, but Manny's just a jerk. I'm sure if he had a hangnail he wouldn't play. But my city would have treated him better. This here's the Lone Star State and we don't be unless we have too. Seriously though, I've seen Dennis Rodman make a mockery of Mark Cuban, the Shawn Bradley debacle -- no one will ever feel the pain we felt --, suffering through the 10 years of Mavericks obscurity, not knowing what hockey was, watching Michael Irvin not know what a 'roach' was, seeing Jimmy Johnson leave, seeing Chan Gailey and Barry Switzer come in, watch D. McNabb run wild last season for 14 secs... oh we've seen some fucked up things. But, for the most part, we don't boo unless they deserve it. I just think when Philly got the nickname 'City of Brotherly Love' somebody was stoned. That being said, I do like a lot of Philly's big name stars: A.I., J-Roll, Abreu, D. McNabb (who's jersey I wear every week, TYVM), T.O. (I have his 49ers jersey because I didn't want to upgrade), Brian Dawkins, etc., etc.. Literally though, A.I. has run himself into the ground for Philly. He didn't want to practice, whoop de damn do. Why should the fans care, they aren't paying his contract. At least you can count on A.I. going out playing every game like it's his last, and scoring 20 points. Tell me who in Dallas is that reliable? Dirk? Hell no, did you see the playoffs? Fin is good as gone and Howard is sporadic. Geez, I wish we could convince Philly to take Fin in a trade for A.I.. That'd be so sweet.

An hour talking about Larry Brown and the Knicks. That should be interesting to watch.

And so did your fathers and so did you as the said booing occured not over forty years ago as you claim but in the 1970's and again in the 1980's.

Hardly ancient history.

And who can forget when the scum Eagles fans jumped the Redskin fan "Redskin Ray, who wore a headdress to games and broke 6 six of his ribs, his left arm and wrist and his right leg in three places.

Philly has the absolute worst fans in the United States.

Period.

Sorry about the hijack.

Tru Dat, the comparison to Dicky V comes from Stephen A's proclivity to use that loud and obnoxious cadence whenever he opens his trap. And trust me, I know Vitale always has a positive comment to say . . . about Duke and Coach K.

By the way, right on cheesesteak. Jordan always took it to another level in practice. Remember when he punched Steve Kerr? I mean, Steve Kerr!! I could see him decking Rodman, but how can you not like the pasty-white three-point specialist off the bench? But that is exactly what he did to make guys mentally stronger. Phil would have them scrimmage 5-on-5 up to 21 and Jordan's team would dominate, until Phil made him switch teams after MJ's side was almost at 21. Then his Airness would take the underdog group and bring them back, winning the game. I like AI's heart, but I've never heard stories like that about him in practice.

My favorite Philly story -- booing the Kobester after he won the All-Star MVP there. And then that little bitch was crying about it afterwards.

Oh, I still haven't had a chance to see the show yet, but with all this discussion, I very much want to.

Tru Dat, hey guess what? Santa Claus is make-believe.

There's asshole fans everywhere.

Yeah they moved there from Philly.

Santa Claus was booed by Eagles fans at Franklin Field in 1968. Please document for us another instance of this happening in Philadelphia. You have the whole internet at your disposal.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nf...snowballs_x.htm

It was a shame what happened to Redskin Ray and a lot of other people abused by drunk ass Eagles fans. One thing I have absolutely no remorse for is our treatment of Michael Irving. Fuck him. If he were a better person, he wouldn't have been treated that way.

(A couple of weeks ago, on another forum, a guy from Detroit was blasting the fans of Philadelphia. Detroit. Where the fans recently had a riot in the stands. Short memories.)

WTF? This is the hateful attitude I see whenever I see a Philly fan on tv. Surely, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I never understood why you would be resentful of a man. This is the Philly attitude. You hate a sports star based on his persona. Well, I got news for you. Irvin was an athlete second and a person first. That might sound corny to you, but it's true. And the fact that you would wish ill upon a person you don't know shows what kind of fans there are in Philly. Gimme Stitches is right though, there are asshole fans everywhere, but Philly takes the (cheese)cake. Sure you could say Boston, New York, Los Angeles have notoriously bad fans, hell probably Oakland too, considering some of the Raiders fans, but Philly fans are by far the most obnoxious. And you gave us Will Smith and I will NEVER forgive you for that. But I digress. From what I remember, the last asshole fan we had in North Texas was some jerk at a baseball game because he squashed a little kid to get a foul ball. Despicable, I grant you, but only occurence in my time I can remember. I'm not trying to typecast all of the fans from Philly, so if I offended anyone, I'm sorry it wasn't my intention, but I'm just saying from my perspective that's how I see a lot of those fans. Another example, T.O. was booed like hell come Tuesday and yet, when his ass pulled up lame, everyone was nervous. Someone on ESPN described Philly very aptly, and said that they just want to know if you're a player on one of their teams, you're there for them and giving a 110%. It's funny to me you could have wished he spend his whole life paralyzed just so the Cowboys wouldn't haunt the Eagles. But, I actually want to know what you consider to be a better person, since obviously you know what that is.

I'm not condeming the people of Philadelphia. Do I think the Philly people are like this? Not at all. But these fanatics, these people who sit at games and think they can coach a game better than the coach, these people who think just because they paid X amount of dollars and spent Y amount of time trying to get to the stadium should be entitled to more than the average is ridiculous. Enjoy the sports, but sports are not a way of life, and some of those people there, here, and everywhere are extremists. And that annoys me, doesn't it annoy you? You go to a game to relax and you have some jackalope spewing profanities on the field at the athletes not even realizing there's a little kid three or four seats down that shouldn't be hearing that. And that same person thinks they're entitled to do it because they get paid a million dollars to get heckled. Obviously talent doesn't matter. Hope that explains my statements not just tocheesesteak but to any fan who was offended.

I always heard Mike Schmit got a rough ride there.I live in Denver, Detroiters have done some stone casting at our percieved holliganism too.

So is Screamin A following the Rome patern of being confrontational and in your face until you're a guest on his show then he kisses your ass?

I cringed at "He said he loves his mama, give him some applausse."

Philly fans are not the topic here. Please steer the discussion back where it belongs.

That was a bit much.

Thank you Wing Chun as I was slowing getting incensed with the Philly fan bashing and I don't need to get banned arguing with the great people here. I'm not the biggest fan of Screaming A Smith, but I have been pleasantly surprised with Quite Frankly. He can do a very good interview, although he is a little too buttkissy. Plus I like letting the audience ask questions to the guests. Overall it doesn't suck, which I didn't expect considering the source.

Duly noted Wing Chun. As I was the person who basically started it, I apologize to anybody who I offended. But I'm not sorry I said it. It is sort of amusing how sometimes how far off topic you can get when that's not your intention. I don't think of Steven A as being an asskisser, but it does sort of fit. However, I'd rather him kiss ass than to just piss people off for the hell of it. Also, I did like how when Hines Ward was on his show and the sports attorney was saying people who hold out shouldn't. Hines put him in his place, and Steven A did too. I usually wouldn't see a holdout as anything but being greedy, but he did have a point about athletes only having a limited scale in which they could earn money. Hell, at least football is not baseball where the All Star caliber people making over $10 and $15 mil.

No problem, let's just get back on ye olde topic(e).

George Solomon weighs in on Quite Frankly.

Gary Sheffield is a jackass and a stupid one at that. This "leader" who doesn't go looking for trouble sure does have a very negative attitude. He seems to think he's better than everyone else and smarter too. Those damn columnists writing about him. Can you imagine! It's fine to want to show them up, which is exactly what he said, but don't say that you don't care. You're like the jealous ex girlfriend seeing the ex with another girl, folding your arms defensively saying, "I don't care, whatever." Also, I still don't understand why he's such a hero for the Fenway right field incident. I don't care what he says, that dude didn't look like he was trying to hit him (but I can't prove that so I won't stand behind that one). And then he says he got beer spilt on him. Yeah, when he pushed the guy a woman's beer spilt. You didn't see that part of the replay a million times? Go ahead, deny with that cocky smirk and jerky shake of the head you do when a call doesn't go your way, Juicy.
Quite frankly, I can do without him. I can also do without SAS telling his audience when to clap. WTF was that? Screw.

Also, I'd like to add, I'd find SASs "boldness" more entertaining if I didn't find it so gimmicky and unbalanced.

What bothers me the most about this show is the live audience. The last thing SAS needs is for dozens of people to applaud his every "opinionated outburst." As if his ego wasn't big enough.

Way to rehab your image Artest. Saying you wanted to throw the woman that threw a drink on you down to the ground. I don't think it's right that anyone threw drinks on him but the dude can't even pretend to be above all the crazyness. And how many times did he blame the Pistons for things that happened BEFORE he went into the stands. It's like he wasn't listening. He doesn't seem very bright. And Rick Carlisle did his best job to whitewash the whole thing. "Nobody got seriously hurt, you never hear about that." Oh yeah, it was totally a Good Thing this whole melee happened, right? Rick, Larry Bird got ejected from games and had drinks poured on him, I've seen it, and he kept walking. Because the man has pride and respect.
SAS scolding his audience for applauding Artest was amusing. Dude doesn't pander to the audience, I'll give him that much.

So when is TO and his ubiquitous agent/speaking coach going to come on? Matter of time. Too bad Palmeiro's too much of a pussy, because that's one person I'd like to see SAS tear a new one.

You mean when he says "go on and give it up for him"? Yeah that's annoying!
You'd think after all this time, he could at least pretend to take responsibility for his part. At least it was pretty obvious he wasn't coached on what to say.

I read in Friday's USA Today that SAS's new show is drawing a rating of 0.2. That's down from the 0.3 earned by the mishmash of shows that used to air on the Deuce during that time slot. I checked the show out a few times, but have decided that life is too short for me to give SAS an hour of my life five days a week.

ETA: On Monday, August 15, SAS's show will be cut to 30 minutes. ESPN Hollywood will air in the 5-5:30 Central slot and QF will follow in the 5:30-6 Central slot. I lay odds QF will quitely disappear from ESPN by year's end.

I tried watching this the other day (off of Tivo). I just couldn't deal with the studio audience, obviously applauding based on signs. That's like putting a laugh track on PTI.

Thanks SAS for pointing out the lunacy of Rev. Jesse Jackson inserting himself into the T.O. fray. The man who was once the most respected civil rights leader of the 70's & 80's has become nothing more than a camera chasing, media whore. As Steven A. pointed out, there are a lot more important injustices in America than Terrel Owens getting suspended for four football games. The Rev. Jackson has become the Drew Rosenhaus of civil rights leaders - a clown.

How has the show been doing in the ratings, compared to past ESPN efforts in that timeslot?