"I almost cried"- Stephen A. Smith gets honest about his drug addiction while paying homage to late Matthew Perry

The passing of Matthew Perry sent shockwaves through the entertainment world. Perry was known for his role as "Chandler Bing" in the famous TV sitcom "Friends," which lasted for 10 seasons.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith reacted to Perry's passing on "The Stephen A. Smith Show" where he talked about the time the comedic actor mentioned his addiction to Vicodin.

Smith recalled Perry's interview with Diane Sawyer and mentioned that following his knee surgery, he had to "get off" Vicodin as advised by his doctor.

"I remember watching an interview that he did with Diane Sawyer," Smith said. "He's talking about how he once took 55 doses of Vicodin, 55 in one day.

"I took one, I felt like heaven. I've never felt that at ease and comfortable in my life. When my doctor told me after my knee surgery, I had to get off of that, I almost cried."

He continued:

"I say all of that to say that some addictions you can understand," Smith added. "We're not excusing it. We're not condoning it. We're not saying it's okay. I'm just talking about a level of compassion and understanding for the Matthew Perrys of the world and others. And all I can say is that my heart goes out to him and his loved ones and his family."

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Stephen A. Smith on showing compassion to people like Matthew Perry

Smith added to his comment about showing compassion by mentioning how Perry seemed like the kind of person who kept his pain to himself.

"When you see people talking about him or whatever, it's one of those things where he went through a hard life," Smith said. "It seems like the pain that he inflicted was on himself, not on anybody else. And that he had his own demons that he was battling, and somebody like that always warrants our compassion."