Presented without comment - other than SAS's reaction not being surprising - here's what Whitlock wrote.
He (or his ghostwriter) claims he received a full basketball scholarship from Winston-Salem State after a one-day tryout in February 1988. A former Winston-Salem State basketball player allegedly drove Smith from New York to North Carolina for the tryout after Smith impressed the former player during a one-on-one matchup on a playground court. According to his book, Smith arrived on campus on a Saturday, checked into a hotel, and woke up Sunday morning to participate in a scrimmage.
Before I go farther, let me add that Smith played one year of high school basketball. He rode the bench for the 1985-86 Thomas Edison High team as a senior. In the book, he says his one season of prep basketball ended abruptly when he failed a single assignment in a single class. He didn't fail the class. He failed an assignment and was removed from the team.
After his abbreviated high school career, Smith matriculated to Fashion Institute of Technology College of New York. It's a school for women and men interested in joining the fashion industry. Smith enrolled so he could play on FIT's junior college basketball team.
He rode the bench at FIT, too. In his book, Smith described a work, school, basketball, and commute schedule that sounded humanly impossible.
So, after riding the bench in high school for a year, riding the bench at a junior college for a year, and impressing an old player on a New York playground, Smith earned a tryout in front of Winston-Salem State's legendary coach Clarence "Big House" Gaines. And this tryout happened on a Sunday, at the end of the regular season.
Not many college teams hold scrimmages on a Sunday, one day after playing an important regular season game on a Saturday. But that's how important it was for Big House to get a glimpse of a 6-foot-1, 150-pound guard with no high school or junior college accomplishments.
According to Smith's account, he knocked down 17 straight shots in the scrimmage, and Big House offered him a full scholarship immediately after the practice.
This is laughable. In Big House's own memoir, he frequently complained about his limited budget at WSSU. The historically black Division II program was not flush with cash and a dozen scholarships to toss around. We're supposed to believe that Gaines gave one to a frail kid he saw play for an hour?
I cannot appropriately do justice to the far-fetched story Smith painted in "Straight Shooter." Smith has struggled to explain it on national TV. In November 2022, on the set of "NBA Countdown" with Malia Andrews, Jalen Rose, and J.J. Redick, ESPN ran a graphic of Smith, Rose, and Redick's senior year stats. Smith allegedly averaged 1.5 points per game. He said he scored so few points because he played in just one game after a knee injury.
You can't average 1.5 points in one game. It's impossible.
In August 2023, on his podcast show, Smith backtracked and said he never played a single game at WSSU. It's a bizarre contention, especially considering Smith is listed on a 1991 WSSU stat sheet as having played nine games.
Is that a different Stephen Smith?
