Ashley and Janet Smith left Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 1950s and moved to the Bronx. Their firstborn child, Basil, was born on Nov. 11, 1958. Four girls followed. On Oct. 14, 1967 Stephen Anthony was born to complete their family.
Janet was a registered nurse at Queens General Hospital, while Ashley worked in a hardware store. By 1975 they had bought a four-bedroom house at 111-22 203 St. in St. Albans. Stephen struggled in school due to undiagnosed dyslexia and his father claimed he was unfixable. Eventually the father abandoned the family and his mother carried the house. Stephen’s sister and others taught him how to read and write.
Stephen got a basketball scholarship at Winston-Salem State University and graduated in 1991. The next year, in October 1992, firstborn son Basil was killed in a car crash. In 1994, Smith went to The Philadelphia Inquirer as a reporter and became an NBA writer and columnist. In 2003, he joined ESPN as a basketball analyst, and his stock rose quickly due to his penchant for being very outspoken. In 2014, Smith started his own show. His unfiltered frankness made him a star with fans. His mother passed in 2017 and his father in 2018. He reportedly is worth at least $25 million today and makes $20 million a year from ESPN…