Cam’ron tried to be on his best behavior during a recent episode of First Take, but Stephen A. Smith made it very difficult for him.
While discussing how the New York Knicks’ victory in the NBA Finals might impact the career of former head coach Tom Thibodeau, who was fired at the end of the 2024-2025 season, Smith made comments that had Cam grimacing.
“What has been his Achilles heel in Chicago, in Minnesota, and then ultimately New York? His stubbornness,” said Smith. “Kenny ‘the Jet’ Smith had the line of the 2024-2025 season when he said Tom Thibodeau wouldn’t want to play nine dudes in a baseball game. It’s exactly what he said, and he’s absolutely right.”
The camera then cut to show Cam’ron and Kendrick Perkins reacting to what Smith was saying, almost as if the producers knew exactly what they were doing.
“Tibs wants to ride you and ride you and ride you till the wheels come off,” said Smith, as Cam started to pull a face. “Top six, top seven, no more than that. Guys go down, they’re hobbled, they’re strained. What does he do last year in the playoffs… He didn’t want to listen.”
To his credit, Cam was able to restrain himself, but even Perkins let out a chuckle as he saw Cam struggling to keep a straight face.
Cam earned a reputation early in his career for saying “no homo,” which he ultimately substituted for the less egregious, but still criticized, “pause.” His usage of the term, which is used after someone makes a comment that could be misconstrued as homoerotic, has garnered criticism in the past, and he even took responsibility for LaMelo Ball saying “no homo” during a postgame interview, for which he was fined $100,000.
"I blame myself. I really do, man," he said on an episode of It Is What It Is in 2024. "I blame the east side of Harlem. You got this in Jefferson Projects probably in 1996 when we were saying this. And before that—what the fuck? God damn, we did this a long time. … To be honest with you, this is why we started saying 'pause.' We used to say what Melo said, but we were like, 'The people are sensitive, you get fined.' And that's why we don't say it anymore.”
