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Stephen A. Smith (1:07)
Void where prohibited by law 21/ terms and conditions apply all right folks, I need you all to stop what you're doing and listen up. You know I love this time of year, right? The NBA players are in full effect and with all this action jumping off, the Stephen A. Smith show wants to make sure you take advantage of it all. That's why we 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 2000 times your cash on a single lineup. Best of all, prospects will give you $50 when you play your first $5 lineup. Win or lose, you'll get $50 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. Prospects. Hey, hey, run your game. Madison Square Garden is going to be on fire tonight. It's going to be lit. My New York Knicks are back in the building and lead the series 32 against the reigning defending NBA champion Boston Celtics. Can it close out tonight? That's the question. All right, well, guess what? They better. I'm giving you my picks for tonight's game, so let's get right to it. First up, will Jalen Brunson score more or less than 29 and a half points? Why the hell would I say less? It's got to be more. The brothers averaging over 36 a game after loss. I got to go with that. It's definitely Got to be more. Next up, will Mitchell Robinson score more or less than four and a half points? It's a damn shame I gotta even ask that question for a seven footer, you know. But I'm gonna say it anyway. I think the brothers gonna score more than four and a half points. Cause I think he's gonna hit a free. Free throws and he's definitely gonna get fouled a lot because Missoula's gonna try to take him out of the game by following him intentionally. So I'm gonna go with more on that one as well. Next up with Jaylen Brown score more or less than 25 and a half points. He's the $304 million man. He showed up and dropped 26 points and 12 assists, the career high in the postseason. 12 assists. By the way, Jaylen Brown is going to show up at the Garden tonight. It ain't going to be about those assists. It's going to be about points. He's going to need to score points in bunches in order for the Boston Celtics to have a chance. I do believe he's going to score more than 25 and a half in this particular game, although I expect him to lose anyway. And finally, will Derrick White score more or less than 20 and a half points? The brother just hit seven three pointers. I'm not going to think he's going to go from hitting 70 three pointers and dropping 34 points and not scoring the damn. It's not scoring 20 damn points. I got to believe he's going to do that as well. It ain't going to be enough. But for the moment, I'll look at him and I'll give him that opportunity. I think everybody else will probably be shut down, but I think Derrick White and Jaylen Brown will answer the call from a points production standpoint. So that's more for Jalen Brunson, more for Mitchell Robson, more for Jaylen Brown and more for Derrick White. We're talking about prize picks. We're all about more people. We're all about more. So go to Prize Picks app and check out the Stephen A. Smith show community play. It's boosted at 25%. Just so you know. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the latest edition of the Stephen A. Smith show. Coming at you as I love to do at the very least three times a week over the digital airwaves of YouTube and of course iHeartRadio. As always, I like to pause and before I get into anything to take a moment to thank my listeners. My followers, my subscribers. The show's popularity continues to grow and it wouldn't be the case if it were not for you. So I sincerely thank you for your contribution to the show courtesy of millions of downloads over iheartradio over the last several months, not to mention a subscriber base on YouTube that has now eclipsed 1.22 million. Again, the love and support is deeply appreciated. I thank you and my team thanks you from the bottom of my heart. To continue to like and follow the show and you want to get notified for our newest content, just click the bell in the right hand corner and you too shall consider yourself the latest member of the Stephen A. Smith show family. And while you're doing that, please make sure to pick up a copy of my New York Times best selling book, Straight Shooter, a memoir of Second Chances and First Takes now in paperback. Just go to straightshooterbook.com to get yourself a copy. Once again, that's straightshooterbook.com to get yourself a copy. This is a special kind of show. It's a little bit different today because I'm gonna have some of my boys in the house. Sort of like a Freedom Friday kind of thing going on. Just a bunch of fellas with yours truly freelancing about whatever topics are on their mind. These are dudes that I grew up with. I want to be very, very clear. I'm not responsible for the things that come out of their mouth and the things that they say because I'll be damned if I know what they gonna say from topic to topic. These are my boys from Queens, New York. So they gonna be in the house hanging with me today. We'll get into all of that a little bit later. First order of business is to get started in New York, however, in a federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial against Sean Diddy Combs. Defense attorneys Foot combs picked back up with their cross examination of Cassie Ventura, the ex girlfriend the judge determined today would be her last day on the stand as Cassie is nine months pregnant and could go into labor at any moment. She's considered a key witness in the trial who so far testified about physical abuse, Diddy's temper and her participation in freak offs, the drug fueled sex performances he orchestrated as well. Cassie's testimony is laying a critical foundation for both the prosecution and the defense. I'll get into that in a second. Today she was asked about text messages exchanged between her and Combs in the days after the infamous Intercontinental hotel beating in 2016 that we all saw on Video a few months ago. In the messages, Combs expressed desire to engage sexually with Ventura. On the cross examination, Ventura confirmed she thought it was strange he would suggest something sexual. And after what happened at the hotel, here's a portion of that text exchange. Combs wrote, quote, I felt that way from Friday, the day of the altercation, end quote. Cassie responded, quote, what are you doing? Not a good vibe. We need a different vibe than Friday, end quote. Diddy responded, quote, Friday, laugh out loud. I don't even want to do that again, end quote. Cassie, quote, laugh out loud. True. And in the following messages, Combs referenced the card and told Ventura that he loved her. Cassie responded, quote, love you, end quote. Look, y' all, these things can get complicated, yet can be very, very simple. So let me try to simplify it as best as I possibly can. Number one, if you are Diddy, your number one priority is to make sure you're not spending 15 to the rest of your natural life in jail. 15 years to the rest of your natural life in jail for sex trafficking and racketeering. So what you're trying to do is show there's a significant level of consensual behavior taking place here to eradicate the notion that you're some sex trafficker or racketeering. That's basically what you're trying to do. But in the process of doing that, he's further incriminating himself, his defense team, that is because they're fully acknowledging that what we've seen on video already and what she's elaborated on extensively was a history of physical violence against her that included black eyes and urination and all of this other stuff. They're essentially acknowledging that that's true. So life as Diddy once knew is over. The commercials, the Chiroc commercials and the parties and all. Nah, that's. That's over. That's over. Being accepted by the status quo, being a major player and influencer in the world of Hollywood and hip hop and beyond, over. But again, the case is a federal one. It involves sex trafficking and racketeering as opposed to domestic violence, which is a state crime. And so because of it, you sort of understand what, where his defense team is coming from. And in that regard, as incriminating as it may be to be considered what he is at this particular moment in time, I mean, women, everywhere I've looked, you have one woman after another using the word repulsive and repugnant and a lot of other things that I'm not going to say. This is how they're feeling about him, he can't be overly concerned about that when he's trying to avoid being behind bars for the rest of his life. The other side is Cassie. And that's where it gets tricky, because purportedly being raped, you were still in his life for a significant period of time thereafter. And those text messages that were just shown after he beat you, after he assaulted you, Laugh out loud. Let's have a different vibe than Friday. That's not something you expect to hear in the immediate aftermath of being thrown to the ground, kicked, hit, having a glass vase thrown at you, at your head. That's not something that you're expecting to read. That's not a level of communication you're expecting to witness, to hear about. It's just the truth. And so now we're going to find ourselves as a society addressing several issues. And I think that it's dangerous to do this. I wouldn't advise people to do it, but people are already doing it. If you listen to what people are saying in their comments and beyond about this trial, they're saying, okay, she's bringing this up now. You know, he's under arrest and, you know, hell hath no fury. I want to hear that, anybody trying to hear that. But you got people talking that stuff. They're going to look at her and they're going to question the legitimacy of her victimhood, because that's what the defense is doing. And they're going to look for her level of culpability in the consensual element of their relationship to offset, if not completely debunk accusations and allegations that she was somehow assaulted or beyond. These are all details we don't need to get into, but they're unavoidable from the standpoint of recognizing what the case is, what one argument is being made compared to what the other argument is being made. And to the, to the prosecution, she's a key witness. They came out swinging with her. I got that part, too. But the fact that she's pregnant and she's detailed what she has detailed, and still they've been able to gather text message exchanges between her and Diddy in the aftermath of these physical encounters and ordeals she was forced to endure. They're saying, were you really forced? Did you not invite this? Was this not par for the course? I don't know how to. I don't know where to go beyond that. But I'm going to say this as a man, because I think it's important to say this. You can look at it two ways when it comes to a husband. Because we got to say this, ladies. Because I got ladies in the studio, we got to say this. It's important you do. All I'm going to do is personalize it. If it were me, although in no way would I question whether or not I believed my wife. If she said she was raped and assaulted, I would definitely believe her, and I would be in the courtroom to support her. I would say, at the very least, can we all concede that stuff is pretty hard to listen to? I'm talking about the consensual stuff. I'm talking about the consensual stuff involving multiple men. I'm talking the consensual stuff involving acts that included those men. And that's recognizing that there's a believability factor in terms of her being assaulted. It would be really hard to listen to all of that. And I think that's why when we see some of these comments and people commenting on the case and stuff like that, you have certain people who feel one way and certain people who feel another way, because they're taking all of this evidence into consideration and they're asking themselves, it was them that was sitting in the courtroom. What if it were them that was sitting on that stand? What if it were them that were detailing some of these things that transpired? What if it were them that had that experience against P. Diddy? P. Diddy, no matter what way you slice it, he looks horrible. Horrible. But for the purposes of the trial, the question is, does he look like a sex trafficker or racketeer? If the answer to those two questions are no, you know what the bottom line is? You can't get convicted, at least in this case, of being an absolutely horrible, repulsive human being. Are you a sex trafficker and racketeer or are you not? That's the bottom line. That's the bottom line. Coming up, the WNBA season tips off this week, and I've got a preview of what we can expect to see this season. But first, there's the conference semifinals. That's about to come to an end this weekend in the NBA. Will the Knicks finally put away the Celtics? And will the Thunder put away the Nuggets? I'll break it all down, and you'll never, ever guess who it's with. You probably won't know them, but I assure you, once you finish listening, none of them. You will. They're my boys. And when you got boys, ladies and gentlemen, you love them to death, no matter how crazy their asses are, you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about in a minute. This is Stephen A. Smith Show Free Flowing on this Friday. Don't go away, although I'm scared to stay 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. That's why we've partnered with Prize Picks the best Place to Win Cash While Watching Sports the app is really easy to use to make a lineup. All you have to do is pick more or less on a few player stats. Pick choose from any of your favorite players. Luka Doncic, Jimmy Butler and Zach lavine all in the same entry. Then sit back and watch. The list is absolutely endless. You can play Prize picks in over 40 states, including California and Texas. Best of all, Prize Picks will give you $50 when you play your first five dollar lineup. Win or lose, you'll get 50 bucks. Just use promo code SAS and download Prize Picks right now. Again, download the app and use code SAS to get $50 instantly after your first five dollar lineup. Prize picks. Run your game. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big Wireless Way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway, give it a.