Love him or hate him, Stephen A. Smith is a superstar in the world of the media industry. He also provides viral-ish moments off the cuff like few others in history.

No, this isn’t the DARE representative who would show up to your school and tell the class that after week after trying marijuana you’d living under a bridge.

That man was Stephen A Smith, a man who grew up in poverty, nearly became an electrician, hosted a late night R&B radio show, all en route to becoming arguably the most recognizable voice in sports.

Smith’s rise to fame was not meteoric, or a linear path. In fact, the opposite is true.

The commentator once known as “Screamin’ A.” by his coworkers had to grind for years before becoming a celebrity personality and taking the internet by storm.

Smith was born in Queens, New York, the second youngest of 6 children.

His father was a former baseball star from the Virgin Islands who had gone on to manage a hardware store, and his mother was a nurse.

As a kid, Stephen A. expressed little interest in school. His passion was basketball, and he would spend his nights knocking down jumpers at the local park, even though there were no working lights.

Stephen A Smith recounts his mother worrying about his safety while practicing after school, but even at a young age, he had formed enough connections to protect him from any unpleasant encounters. He claims the gangsters of the area knew he was to be left alone because of his promising future.

But that promising future came close to never occurring. Stephen A was not heavily inclined to attend college, his mother signed him up for a vocational school that would teach him to become an electrician.

The idea of Stephen A Smith going into homes to install lights is laughable now, and could make for a viral video skit, but it was almost a reality.

There could’ve been a Stephen A Smith in your house with shoe covers fixing electric sockets and grounding wires.

Thankfully, he was offered a basketball scholarship from Winston-Salem State University, giving us this gem of a photo.

While playing guard for the D2 program, Smith found time to write sports articles for the school newspaper and host a show called “Tender Moments”.

Unfortunately, there is no record of the R&B show on the internet. Stephen A. if you’re watching, please…we all need it.

Anyway, it’s not a shock that Stephen A. Smith moved on to focus on his sports writing career. From the start, we saw the energy and bold statements, which are still today his defining traits.

For example, while still playing on the basketball team, Smith penned an article that called for his head coach, Clarence Gaines, to retire.

And it’s not like Gaines was some scrub. The man won an NCAA Championship and was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame for his excellent career. This didn’t spare him from Stephen A’s pen.

For real, please let that sink in for a minute. Stephen A, while playing for the man, called for his retirement.

That’s like every Knicks player ever and James Dolan!

After college, Stephen A. began his long, winding path to ESPN and fame. The list of newspapers he worked for seems to stretch a mile long. Winston-Salem Chronicle, Winston-Salem Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution  Greensboro News and Record, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Winston-Salem Journal (again) and the New York Daily News.

And sports wasn’t the only thing he covered. When the sports department went on strike for the Daily News, Smith took it in stride and transferred to covering homicide.

He would end up covering the high profile murder of Karlton Hines, a high-school prospect who seemed destined for greatness.

Stephen A Smith would get his break during the 1998 NBA lockout. As the public eagerly awaited any news on the return of professional basketball, Smith would break countless updates on the debates between the NBPA and the team owners.

CNN took notice of the young writer who was beating veteran reporters to the punch. Soon, Stephen A. Smith was a sports analyst for CNN, which led to a job at Fox Sports, which led to a job at ESPN.

But as anyone familiar with Stephen A. Smith knows, his personality and comments aren’t exactly dull. They are loud, they are incendiary, and they landed Smith in some trouble early in his career.

He was fired from the Inquirer in 2007. ESPN refused to renew his contract in 2009. Things were looking down for our heroic friend, But Smith kept trucking. Instead of shifting his approach, he would double down.

And audiences ate it up. Ratings are on the rise for ‘First Take’, the show Smith hosts with his counterpart Max Kellerman.

In 2019, it was reported that Smith was in line for a 10 million dollar contract, which would make him the highest paid ESPN analyst to date.

All this for a man who decided it would be a good idea to scream his opinions through any platform he could find, no matter how much it riled people up.

Love him or hate him, Stephen A. Smith is one of the greatest entertainers in sports history. You might think his takes are ridiculous, or perhaps he’s little more than an overpaid loudmouth.

But you can bet you’re tuning in to watch him.