Alright, let’s talk about something I looked into recently. I got curious about Stephen A. Smith and his actual basketball playing days. You hear him talk so much smack, so passionately, I started wondering, “Okay, what’s his own story on the court?”
So, the first thing I did was just hop online. Fired up my usual search engine, you know the routine. I typed in something simple like “stephen a smith basketball career”. Naturally, tons of stuff popped up immediately, but it was almost all about his TV career, ESPN, First Take, his opinions, all that jazz. Not really what I was looking for.
I realized I needed to be more specific. I tried refining my search. Added terms like “player”, “college basketball”, “playing stats”. That helped filter out some of the noise about his broadcasting stuff. It took a few tries, playing around with the keywords.
Pretty quickly, I started seeing mentions of Winston-Salem State University. That seemed like a solid lead. So, I focused my search there: “Stephen A Smith Winston-Salem State basketball”.
Okay, now we were getting somewhere. Multiple sources confirmed he did play college ball there. Apparently, he was a guard. That felt like progress, finally getting past the pundit stuff and into his actual playing time.
Then I stumbled onto a pretty interesting detail. He played under a really famous coach, Clarence “Big House” Gaines. Now, if you know your college basketball history, especially HBCU basketball, that’s a legendary name. So, playing for him, that adds a layer to it. It means he was part of a serious program.
But here’s where it got a bit tougher. I wanted to find specifics, like his stats, how many years he played varsity, was he a starter? That kind of stuff. Honestly, finding detailed statistics was hard. Most articles or bios just mention he played there, sometimes mention the coach, and then quickly move on to his journalism career starting shortly after college. It seems his playing career itself isn’t heavily documented, or at least, not easily accessible online.
I did see several mentions of him suffering a knee injury. Some sources suggest it might have impacted his playing career significantly, perhaps limiting his time or effectiveness on the court. That makes sense, injuries can definitely change the trajectory for athletes.
So, did he go pro? Based on everything I found, the answer seems to be a clear no. The timeline shows him moving into journalism pretty directly after his college years.
What I Pieced Together
So after digging around for a bit, here’s the gist of what I confirmed about his actual playing days:
- He definitely played college basketball.
- His school was Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), an HBCU.
- He played the guard position.
- He was coached by the legendary Clarence “Big House” Gaines.
- Information suggests a knee injury may have played a role in his career path.
- He did not play professional basketball.
It was an interesting little dive. You see the personality now, and it makes sense he was involved in the game at a competitive level back in the day. Just finding those concrete details beyond “he played college ball” took a little more sifting than I initially thought it would. His media career definitely overshadows his time on the court in terms of available information.
