Stephen A. Smith is attempting to set the record straight about the news that broke about him earlier this week.
ESPN announced on Monday that they will have a new-look crew for “NBA Countdown,” their long-running pregame and halftime show for NBA games, beginning on Nov. 19. Notably, Smith is no longer part of the crew despite having constantly appeared on that program (or its precursor “NBA Shootaround”) ever since he joined the network in 2003.
On the latest episode of his self-titled show for SiriusXM, Smith attempted to clarify matters. He stated that he himself decided to no longer appear on “NBA Countdown” due to his workload and added that those terms were negotiated during contract talks with ESPN over the span of the last year-and-a-half or so.
“I had a contract negotiation [with ESPN] last year that started in June and ended in March, going into April,” said Smith, per Awful Announcing. “It was decided at that particular moment in time that I wouldn’t be doing ‘NBA Countdown’ anymore because I didn’t want to. I loved doing the show. But after the show is over, I got a whole bunch of other stuff that I gotta do and I didn’t want to be stuck in studio until midnight. No shade against ESPN, no shade against my wonderful colleagues.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I got other things on my plate,” Smith added. “I’m a busy man. Just to be clear, I’m always available because once you’re working for ESPN, you’re part of the family. If they need me for anything, of course I’ll show back up on ‘NBA Countdown.’ … But it was always my intent to come off. It’s something I negotiated. So, just so we’re clear, this story is a non-story. This is not some epiphany that everybody is getting attached to that, ‘Oh my God, this just happened, and he’s being yanked off the show!’ No, it didn’t happen like that, I’m available when needed. And when I’m not needed, I got other stuff to do on my own. This was negotiated last year.”
While only Smith and ESPN executives know exactly what transpired during their negotiations, Smith is adamant that he himself was holding the cards in the decision about whether he would continue on “NBA Countdown.” But the fact remains that this is set to be the first time throughout Smith’s entire run at ESPN that he will no longer be a part of that program (at least on a regular basis).
The 58-year-old Smith has indeed taken on some new duties over the past year (particularly with ESPN’s NFL pregame show “Monday Night Countdown”) pursuant to his new contract with the network, which is reportedly worth nine figures. Now Smith, whether voluntarily or otherwise, is getting his NBA workload reduced as a result.