​SOUTH BEND — Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman, skilled deployer of motivational tactics, trotted out Michael Jordan and Stephen A. Smith as Week One of fall camp wound down.Smith, the high-volume bloviator of ESPN and beyond, spent more than an hour on Tuesday, Aug. 11 speaking to the Irish at their new facility, Shields Family Hall. Freeman recently was a guest on Smith’s TV show when Notre Dame made its annual July media swing through New York City.“I appreciate him coming in,” Notre Dame junior defensive end Bryce Young said. “He spoke to the team and gave us wisdom. We were very honored to have him come and speak. The pedigree he has in his field of work is really cool to learn from.”Young’s favorite bit of SAS wisdom: “Just take advantage of every opportunity you have.”Right tackle Guerby Lambert, also in his third year, enjoyed Smith’s talk as well.“It’s always good to gain wisdom from somebody that’s in that position,” Lambert said. “He was telling us about a lot of the people that he knows. We tried to ask him questions like, ‘How did you get here? Out of all the people that do what you do, why you?’“  Smith arrived with some shock value, it seems.“It was just a surprise to see him come into our team meeting room,” center Ashton Craig said. “It was cool to see somebody else outside the program come and talk to the team, but we’re just going to keep the message internal for the most part.”Did Smith, who claimed last winter the Irish were last relevant in 1988, apologize to the nation’s fifth-ranked team?“We’re just going to keep that in house,” Craig said.Senior defensive end Boubacar Traore also used the “W” word to describe Smith’s talk, which included a photo session after the Q&A portion.“There was a lot of wisdom he was talking to us about, just about what his journey was like and stuff like that,” Traore said. “It kind of motivated me to do what I do: Go to work every day, keep my head down and continue to work.”Calling Smith a “huge personality,” Traore noted the former Winston-Salem State basketball benchwarmer’s rags-to-riches story resonated with the group.Grateful to Stephen A. Smith for talking to the team tonight!#GoIrish☘️ | @stephenasmithpic.twitter.com/F39vabf8U7— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) August 12, 2026“Before he was where he’s at now, he had to start at the bottom to get to the top,” Traore said. “He was talking about that. I kind of reflected it to my journey, still being at the bottom and trying to climb every day and continue to do my best.”Nolan James Jr.: How youth wrestling shaped sophomore’s run style for Notre Dame Even LeBron fans had to appreciate Jordan highlight reelJordan, meanwhile, was present only via the highlights package that played on a loop in the Irish Athletics Center on Wednesday morning. As the team went through its daily stretch before practice, the six-time NBA champion graced the hug