Stephen A. Smith has become one of the most prominent and high-profile personalities in the sports world since joining ESPN in 2003.
While his roots have always been in basketball, he began branching out into other sports after debuting on “First Take.” However, he is best known for his NBA coverage. On Tuesday, ESPN made a somewhat shocking decision regarding Smith.
After serving for several season as one of the faces of “NBA Countdown” — a pregame show airing before televised games on ESPN that also features in-person sets for the NBA playoffs and Finals — the network has decided to remove Smith from the upcoming crew for their first show on Wednesday.
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In a report clarifying that it wasn’t a demotion, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand wrote: “Smith will not be a regular on ESPN’s premier NBA pregame show anymore, though he could still make occasional appearances on top basketball studio programs, as well as the Monday Night Football pregame or during other big-time events.”
The 58-year-old signed a massive long-term deal worth roughly $108 million with ESPN earlier this year and has taken on a much larger role with the network. Whether it’s his own “Stephen A. Smith Show,” appearances on
“Monday Night Countdown,” or his frequent Sirius XM gigs, all of these coexist alongside his five-day-a-week commitment to First Take.
It appears that as part of his five-year contract, Smith would be taking on lesser roles in some of the other shows he has appeared on in the past.
While he may still make cameo-type appearances on “NBA Countdown” from time to time, it will certainly be a new look to see him not alongside the crew set to include Malika Andrews, Mike Malone, Kendrick Perkins, Brian Windhorst, and Shams Charania.
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