Stephen A. Smith has never been afraid to speak his mind, regardless of who he offends in the process. And it seems as if the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree when it comes to his daughter, Samantha Smith.
Despite the fact that Smith didn’t appear to be all that eager to let Samantha talk on camera, Smith reluctantly motioned her over to say hello to fans watching the SportsCenter ahead of Game 6 of the 2025 NBA Finals on Thursday night after being convinced into it by Elle Duncan.
Samantha introduced herself and more, letting fans at home know just how excited she was to be in attendance of the event.
Stephen A. Smith’s daughter Samantha got some screen time on SportsCenter ahead of Game 6 of the NBA Finals. pic.twitter.com/vAtlmuH8ET
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 19, 2025
It seems like the on-camera appearance went so well that Smith didn’t have any issues having Samantha back on Friday’s edition of his podcast, the Stephen A. Smith Show, responding to a question in a Q&A from fans on social media.
Hilariously, the question that Smith chose to respond to was asking for advice about “balding at a hilariously fast rate” for an admin of the Sleeper HQ X account, a Daily Fantasy Sports platform.
While this may not have been a direct shot pointed at Smith, Samantha used this question as an opportunity to highlight her father’s receding hairline.
“Okay, y’all, wait can I?” said Samantha as she put her fingers to her father’s forehead. “One, two, three, four… God dang! I ran out of fingers. Chat, it’s not his fault. If you look at pictures of him when he was younger, it wasn’t like this. Dad, give advice for an admin that is going bald at a hilariously fast rate.”
To Smith’s credit, he took his daughter’s comments on the chin, proclaiming that despite his receding hairline, he is still “pretty fly”.
“When are you going to admit that your dad is pretty fly,” said Smith, as an old picture of him displayed on the screen. “I mean, when you look at me. Your dad looked pretty good. If I went up to your school and some of your teachers saw me, they would feel a certain way about me. But I ain’t gonna go there.”
Samantha then brought up the possibility of a hairline transplant surgery for her dad, which she pleaded with him to get.
“Guys, there is this surgery that you can get, like this plastic surgery, where you can move your hairline down,” said Samantha. And my theory is that if my dad gets paid for making these podcasts, eventually he can save up the money to be able to afford a surgery like that. And then you guys will all stop bullying him. But he can’t help it. He’s still beautiful. Tell him he is beautiful in the comments.”
https://t.co/ZrNzPQNtpr pic.twitter.com/8L52Cd6znh
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) June 20, 2025
Given the fact that Smith just agreed to a five-year, $100 million contract extension to stay at ESPN back in March, money certainly isn’t a factor in his not having gotten a hairline transplant surgery…
What is more likely the case is that Smith is simply comfortable in who he is and how he looks, which is quite evident based on how much confidently he carries himself day in and day out on ESPN programming.