Stephen A. Smith has revealed his dramatic weight loss after nearly becoming a diabetic in the wake of his battle with COVID-19.
As the 58-year-old New Yorker told his ESPN audience on Thursday, he found himself with around 30 percent body fat shortly after recovering from coronavirus.
‘I’m now at 9 percent body fat,’ Smith said during a taping outside the Alamo in San Antonio, where the Spurs are currently hosting the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.
The revelation came about because Smith made another in a series of appearances on his favorite soap opera, General Hospital.
‘I was asked for the first time in my life to do a shirtless scene,’ said Smith, who has appeared in 44 episodes of the long-running series. ‘I want to show how I looked four years ago when COVID almost killed me.’
Smith shared a shirtless photo of himself with a paunchy midsection before a more recent shot of a shirtless Smith appeared, showing his newly chiseled abs.
Stephen A. Smith is pictured before Game 1 of the NBA Finals in San Antonio on Wednesday
Stephen A. Smith watched his weight soar after his 2021 battle with coronavirus
General Hospital fans can look forward to a shirtless scene involving Stephen A. Smith
‘That is me now,’ he said as fans offstage could be heard cheering during the live broadcast.
‘I just wanted to let everybody know,’ he said. ‘It’s been a long journey. I’m just getting started.
‘There’s so many people I have to thank,’ Smith said. ‘My friend JJ Smith with nutrition and green smoothie drinks. To Gary Brecka, for 10x Health and now the ultimate human… he saved my life. To my trainer, Obi Obadike, I train like five or six days a week…’
Smith has also made appearances on NBC’s Law & Order, but has seen more work with General Hospital, where he plays a surveillance contractor for the mafia.
Smith, who signed a $100million contract with ESPN in 2025, has no plans to move into acting full time.
‘It would have to be the right opportunity, of course,’ Smith told Variety about the possibility of future acting roles.
‘I mean, I have a day job that pays me pretty well, so I don’t really need the work.
‘If I’m gonna do it, it has to be the kind of [role] that I want. I want to be in the movies. I want to be on primetime television. I want to be on epic shows like ‘Law & Order’.
‘I want to work with great actors and great directors and stuff like that. It’s certainly something that I aspire to do. There’s no doubt about that.’
