Greg Rosenthal (8:05)
It's going to be a very hard thing to do, business like this. Shortly afterwards, Zelensky left the White House without signing a deal for the US to receive revenue from Ukraine's mineral supply in exchange for military assistance. President Trump said he's, quote, determined that President Zelensky is not ready for peace if America is involved, end quote. I'm pro America. Let me get that out the way first. I'm an American citizen, and I'm going to try to give us the benefit of the doubt, knowing that we have an abundance of flaws as a nation in terms of our historical involvement in foreign affairs. There is no doubt about that. On one hand, there are two sides to this story. On one hand, if you're President Zelensky for Ukraine, who did campaign, I shouldn't say campaign, but was very supportive, as Vice President Vance pointed out, very supportive of the Biden administration because they did give you over $350 million. They did give you nearly 500 million worth of weapons, or they committed to that, knowing the level of support that the Biden administration had given to Ukraine, how vociferous Biden was in his support for Ukraine, and by the way, that's going across to y'all, because you got Senator Lindsey Graham on the Republican side that has also been an avid supporter of Ukraine and their mission to ward off Russia taking over their sovereign territory. I would look at Zelensky and I would say, not very smart to be butting heads with this administration and this White House at that particular moment in time. Trump is not wrong when he said, you don't have all the cards. You don't have the cards. He's absolutely right about that, because Zelinsky does not, Ukraine does not. It's projected that over a million lives have been lost, vast majority of them being from Ukraine. And when you're in a war torn, a war torn country and you don't have the muscle and the mighty and Russia has already been gaining ground, it might behoove you to come across as a bit more cordial with the present President of the United States. Fair enough. That does not negate the fact that Trump advance came across as bullies. It does not negate the fact that, that Vance brought up something as trivial, talking about, you should say thank you and accusing him of being disrespectful when Vance was the one that was talking. And then Zelinsky, they said, it's your turn to speak. And Zelinsky said, hey, have you been to Ukraine? Do you know how many people. We're in a war, we're experiencing it. And when he asked Vice President Vance had he been there, he stumbled before acknowledging he hadn't been there. He had read and saw footage of what's happening in Ukraine. It's safe to say that's not the same as being there. And for me personally, I didn't look at Zelensky as disrespectful. I looked at him trying to get in a word because I looked at the Vice President chastising him for not being grateful and the President piggybacking off of that to pounce on him some more about not understanding his plight and being thankful for the ceasefire that America has intervened to try and negotiate so this war between Russia and Ukraine can come to an end. Now, is it wrong for President Trump to finagle his way into the proceedings to get some of their minerals in exchange for US Support or in an effort to recoup something for what they've given out to Ukraine? Not at all. As the United States of America, we're giving and giving and giving those attacks payer dollars. We have a right to get something in return if we can pull it off. I get that part. I'm not disagreeing with President Trump about that. See, this is where the centrist in me comes in. I'm not siding with Trump just because I got conservative views and I'm not siding with Zelensky just because I have liberal views. I'm siding with common sense. Zelensky, knowing how much you need America's support, you need to be a bit more cordial and play a little nicer than that. The flip side to it is that he's at war. He has to depart from the United States of America, go back to Ukraine in a war torn country with bombs being dropped on his people, on his territory, and he's saying, wait a minute, y'all are talking to me like I should have no sensitivity to my plight or to my people and should just throw up my arms and surrender and capitulate to what Trump has negotiated. Let's hold on for a second here. During the Biden. I'm sorry, during the Obama administration in 2014, Russia did take over Crimea. If I remember correctly, that did happen. And when they took over Crimea, that was a part of Ukraine. Now it's establishes Russian territory. And for Russia to start this war with Ukraine, to take over parts of mainland Ukraine, they're right there to do it. And Zelensky was interrupted when he was making the point that when we negotiated back then, the negotiation that involved France, England and others said it was going to be a ceasefire. Putin disavowed that, ignored it, and ultimately restarted war in 2022. So what he's saying is a ceasefire isn't enough. Now we need security that we don't have to concern ourselves with Putin ultimately invading more of our territory, moving forward to just stop the fighting for the time being. He can't be trusted. And what Trump and them is saying is, well, you better trust them by trusting us, because this is the best that you're going to get. Well, the Ukrainians are saying, we at war now. We on death door. We on death's door. We might as well go down swinging. Ladies and gentlemen, who are we to argue with that position? Who are we to argue with that position? This man is the leader of Ukraine, despite the fact that, quote, unquote, according to Trump, they are losing the war. There is no doubt that they have fought valiantly. Even Trump admitted their soldiers have fought valiantly, albeit with US Weapons. I don't want to hear that they fought valiantly. That's what they did. Put is considered a dictator, has been labeled a murderer and all of this other stuff, and the only person that speaks glowingly about him is Trump. I'm talking about what he says, I'm not talking about what he does, because I don't have all the intel about what he's done with or for Russia. But come on, this man, Zelensky, is at war, defending the very survival of his nation, and he's telling you that a ceasefire ain't gonna cut the mustard, because this man, Putin, has ignored ceasefire agreement. Ceasefire agreement before, and what he needs is security that the war will come to an end. And it won't be a ceasefire. It won't. It will be protection by the involvement of the United States or anybody else to ensure that he no longer attacks, not that he just stops for the time being. And he's saying that this agreement doesn't provide that. And we're going to engage in condemnation about this man and be petty and talk about how you come into the Oval Office in the United States of America. Well, sir, how did he do that? President Trump? How did he do that? Vice President Vance? He didn't come into the Oval Office on his own, by the way. He didn't have his interpreter either. He came in there by himself, and y'all are interrupting him. Listen, that's like me speaking Spanish or French. If I know the language a little bit, could you at least be quiet and let me speak? Because it's a challenge for me to speak your language. It's a challenge for him to speak fluent English. It's a challenge for him to make sure that he cogently and fluidly gets his thoughts across. Could you have let him finish speaking? Vance didn't do that. Trump didn't do that. So, no, Zelensky didn't handle it right. And, no, he should not have been as cantankerous as a politician. As a leader, you have to be a bit more composed than that. Guilty as charged. But that ain't his Oval Office. That's ours. The person residing in it is. Donald Trump is the President of the United States. With Vance there, Zelinsky ain't there without their invite. Those cameras are not there without Trump and his administration's invite. They allowed that environment to exist. This isn't Zelensky and Ukraine facilitating all of this. This was them. And we gonna just look at him like he's the villain. Can we at least acknowledge that there must be a level of understanding to the fact that the man is fighting for Ukraine's very survival as a sovereign, and that the circumstances upon which he's living, in which he's scheduled to go back to, is not the same as President Trump and Vice President Vance and what they have to deal with here in the United States of America. They may have been right in some of the things that they were saying, but they were also bull. And this man who's literally on the battlefield responded, whether it's a soldier or general or whatever, that's how he responded. Because they ain't the ones that got bombs being dropped on them. He does. On their hospitals, on their schools, on child care facilities, everywhere. I'm sorry, I'm not saying that President Trump and Vice President Vance was totally wrong in the things that they were saying. Once again, the art of decorum and decency play a role in all of this. You could actually do both and be right. You didn't have to do that. For all we know, Zelensky might be dead in a month for a bomb being dropped on someplace where he's at. We ain't worried about that with President Trump and Vice President Vance. America hasn't lost nearly a million lives in this war over the last two years. I mean, damn. That's all I'm saying. We ain't talking politics conservative, liberal. We're talking about leadership from our statesman, the President of the United States, and how that was handled. It looked elementary, it was embarrassing, and Zelensky didn't handle it right. But if your country was being bombed into oblivion and you needed assistance and the president of the United States was speaking more favorably about Putin than he was about you, and then you were getting lectured by the vice president who's never been to Ukraine, who hasn't seen the war torn territory, and he's getting on you for not being grateful, how would you have reacted? I don't know an answer to that question, but I know it's a legitimate damn question. LeBron James, Jeannie Buss and more up next right here on the Stephen A. Smith show in a minute. All right, folks, I need you all to stop what you're doing to listen up. You know I love this time of year, right? The NBA season is in full swing and with all this action going on, the Stephen A. Smith show wants to make sure you take advantage of it all. That's why we've partnered with Prize Picks. The best place to win cash while watching sports. The app is easy to use. Just pick more or less on a few player stats and you can win up to 1000 times your cash on a single lineup. Best of all, Prize Picks will give you $50 when you play your first $5 lineup. Win or lose, you'll get 50 bucks for playing. Use promo code SAS and download the app now. Again, download the app and use code SAS to get $50 instantly after your first $5 lineup. Prize picks yo, run your game today. I'll give you my picks on three fights taking place Saturday night at the Barclays center in New York City between Javante Tank Davis and Lamont Roach, Gary Russell versus Jose Valenzuela and Sandor Martin versus Alberto Puelo. So let's get to it. First up, would Javonte Tank Davis have more or less than 86 and a half total punches landed. I'm going with more. The only way it's going to be less is if Javante Davis uses 80, you know, knocks somebody out inside of 85 pitches because he's clearly capable of that. But I just see this as being a kind of fight where he's going to have to run him down, he's going to have to walk him down rather, and he's going to have to throw some punches before he ultimately catches him. And that's how I view it. So I'm going to go with more on this particular one. Next up, will Gary Russell have more or less than 125 and a half total punches? I'm going with less on this one. Russell, I mean he's a fighter, he's going to throw some punches, but he knows how to be cautious, he knows how to be defensive mind. He's not going to just go in there swinging and what have you. And I think this is going to be one of those fights where he actually ends up throwing less than 125 and a half total punches. I don't think it's going to take that much for him to win this fight. Assuming he does win. Last but not least, Sandor Martin will have more or less than 110 and a half total punches landed. For some reason, I suspect that he'll throw a lot more punches. I'm not saying they'll be effective, I'm not saying they'll get him a win, but I do suspect that he'll Throw more than 110 and a half total punches. So to recap, Javante Davis, more Gary Russell, less. More for Sandor Martin. I love the word more when it comes to prize picks because when I think about prize picks, I think about more money in all our pockets. Welcome back. Look, couple of things before I go to commercial break. All right? I don't know if y'all saw it last night, but you should have seen it. And if you didn't see a shame on you. Damn it. You see that brother? Steph Curry. His name is Steph Curry, AKA the baby faced Assassin, AKA the four time champion, two time league MVP and the greatest shooter God has ever created. This brother showed up in Orlando last night and dropped 5056 points, 12 three pointers along the way. It was the ninth 50th point, 59th 50 point game since turning 30, which is the most in NBA history. Train that 56 foot heave. You just sure outscored the Atlanta magic by himself 22, 21 in the third quarter. Made six or eight shots in the third, including four three pointers. Finished with 12 or like 16 or 17 from three point range. Shot like 63% from three point range. The Golden State warriors have a chance. Jimmy Butler scored five points last night, one of seven shooting. Worst offensive game since he arrived in Golden State, but still has seven assists. Ladies and gentlemen, playoff. Jimmy is still scheduled to show up for the Golden State Warriors. And I'm here to tell you something right now. If Steph Curry plays like that and Jimmy Butler gives you what he's been giving you before he showed up in Orlando the other night, Draymond Green. I'm not saying he's right, that they're gonna win the chip, but I am here to assure you that Golden State's gonna knock off somebody. Steph Curry is simply spectacular. He is something special. The greatest shooter ever known to man. Last but not least, I want to transition to boxing because Javante Davis is about to have a fight this weekend. I don't know why he's fighting this guy. I don't get it. I really don't. Okay? I interviewed him yesterday on my show, first take on espn. Okay. And in speaking to him, I want you to take a listen to this real quick. Tank, good to see you. Why this fight? Lamont Roach, what has he done to deserve to be in the ring against you? He's a world champion himself. He coming up and waiting there to be great. So we fought before, you know, so it's history. It's history in that there's two guys that's trying to be great. Here's my problem. I'm a huge fan of Javonta Davis. I think he is top five pound for pound in the world, probably higher. He's got 13 victories, zero defeats, zero ties, 28 knockouts. And I loved, even though I like Frank Martin as well, when, when. When Javante Davis put him out, he was so ticked off that Frank Martin was bragging about having rocked him during sparring and all of this other stuff. And Javante was like, ooh, like it never happens. A lie. And then I remember he told me, I'm gonna get you. And then he looked at him and he was like this, you really, really should have waited. Frank Martin was like 18 and 0, something like that. He said, you really is you. You took this fight a little bit too early. You really should have waited. I never forget he said that. And sure enough, the experience came in. Frank Martin kabox. Frank Martin could fight, but you got to be Careful. Who you messing with? Tanks on special and a power puncher and took him out. And what bothers me about this fight against Lamont Roach? Lamont Roach been around long enough. 25 1. 1 is 251 and 1. You know what number I'm looking at? 10 kosher. That tells me you can fight, you can box, but can you punch? See, when I think about Javante Davis, I'm thinking the best way to take him, the best chance against him is when you could punch. If you remember when Ryan Garcia went after him, Ryan Garcia was wild. Tank dropped him in the second round, caught him coming in and then caught him with a body shot. Think it was to the liver. And that was that. In the sixth round, Ryan Garcia was on one knee, got up at the town at 10. He was fine, but couldn't take that liver shot. Here's my point. Why is Tank Davis fighting smaller fighters? Lamont Roach is moving up. They call him Tank for a reason. He's the miniature Mike Tyson from his heyday. This brother will take you out. They talk about how middleweights and light heavyweights. This brother could get in a ring and knock those cats out if he catches them right. That's the kind of power Tank Davis has. So why fight somebody undersized? I expect them to beat Lamont Roach. No disrespect to Lamont Roach, who I haven't seen much of. I know he's a skilled fighter. If you're gonna fight somebody in your weight class. Tank Davis, I wanted to see him against Lomachenko. I believe Tank Davis would beat Devin Haney. I just do. I don't think Devin Haney is on that level. And I respect him. I think Tank Davis would beat him, even though he just moved up to 140 when he lost that fight to Garcia. I want to see Tank fight Teofimo Lopez. I should want to see him fight Shakur Stevenson. I know his best buddy is Terence Crawford. I think Stevenson is a masterful boxer, a defensive wizard who can beat anybody. He's special, but he's so special he can make a fight boring. And you got to worry about that. I just think that when you look at Tank Davis, I want to see him in the ring with somebody with knockout power like a Ryan Garcia, where he has to be concerned about that. So we can see his boxing ability and his punching power, as opposed to him stalking cats because they don't have the power to keep him off them when he's the bigger fighter. I don't like that. So I don't expect him to have much of a problem with Lamont Roach simply because Roach is smaller. I just don't expect them to have much of a problem with that. I want to see Tank Davis against one of those three fighters. I want the rematch against Ryan Garcia or I want Teofimo Lopez to get a shot with Tank moving up to 140. And I want to see Shakur Stevenson, I should say four fighters or, or Lomachenko Stevenson or Lomanchenko I would love to see against Tank Davis, but I really want to see him against Teofimo Lopez too. Tfimo Lopez is somebody that deserves our respect, ladies and gentlemen. He's somebody that deserves a big fight. That's just me. Coming up, another accuser files a suit against Diddy while Jay Z is taking the attorney that he accused him to court. I'll get into all of that with our legal analysts. But first, she's the owner and the face of the Los Angeles Lakers franchise and the inspiration behind a new Netflix series, the one and only Jeannie Buss. Up next. Oh, by the way, on the back end, I'll have something to say about LeBron James too. Don't touch that. Dial back with more in a minute. All right everybody, listen up. With all the big time sports action that's happening each and every day, the Stephen A. Smith show wants to make sure you are taking advantage of it all. 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