Stephen A. Smith
Overview
 
Smith was raised in the Hollis
Hollis
-Family name:* Albert Hollis II, American football player for the University of Georgia* Andy Hollis, American game designer* Charles Hollis, British architect* Francis Septimus Hollis , British clergyman and Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak 1938-1948....

 neighborhood of the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 borough
Borough (New York City)
New York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...

 of Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

. He lived with his parents and four older sisters.

He attended Winston-Salem State University
Winston-Salem State University
Winston-Salem State University , a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina, is a historically black public research university located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund.Winston-Salem State has been...

, a historically black university
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....

 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...

. While in college, he played some basketball under Hall of Fame coach Clarence Gaines
Clarence Gaines
Clarence Edward "Big House" Gaines, Sr. was a college men's basketball coach with a 47-year coaching career at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.-Early years:...

, however he later wrote an article for the university newspaper suggesting that Gaines retire due to health issues.
In 1993, Smith was a sportswriter for the Daily News in New York City.

Since 1994, Smith has had a position as a writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...

.
 
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