As ESPN continues to cut costs where it can and transition toward a digital-first future, Stephen A. Smith is up for a new contract.
The longtime First Take host and contributor to ESPN’s NBA coverage reportedly wants a deal that brings him back into the top tier of salaries at the worldwide leader, despite the network’s apparent desire to create a more efficient cost structure into the future.
That hasn’t stopped ESPN from inking big, new deals with the likes of Mike Breen or Scott Van Pelt in recent years, and Smith expects to be the next in line when his contract expires in the summer of 2025. However at the same time, high-profile layoffs including Sam Ponder, Robert Griffin III and Zach Lowe generated negative publicity for the company.
Smith sees all this, and the optics of his demands in parallel to these cuts, and doesn’t bat an eye.
“I can see why (it could look bad), I don’t give a s***,” Smith said at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference this week.
“That is a question that I’m not going to take from anybody, and I’m going to tell you why. I can’t count the amount of examples where I saw somebody getting laid off, and then I see somebody come up right behind and get a contract. Business does business.
“You never know what’s behind a goal of some business, per se. What you do know is the work that you put in, if you’re smart enough what value comes with that work. And then at the same time, you also pride yourself on being very, very reasonable.”
Smith broke down his approach to the hierarchy at ESPN and in the media business overall, emphasizing that he has never demanded a new contract early or tried to leverage his employer in an extreme way. Smith tries to adapt and evolve to the changing nature of media to be as valuable as he can as a “content provider” so that when the time comes for a payday, he has earned it.
Yet Smith doesn’t understand why some expect it to go differently.
“Then when it’s your time, you’re supposed to act oblivious and ignorant to all of that and say, ‘let me think of everybody else but myself,’ when I’ve been working all of these years and didn’t ask for it?” Smith said. “My contract wasn’t up. I didn’t ask for a contract extension. I didn’t ask somebody to rip it up or whatever. My deal was there, just locked in until June 2025. I’ve honored my word. I showed up, I performed, I did what I needed to do. And so now, a negotiation takes place and hopefully the two sides can come to an accord.”
Since Smith last signed a contract at ESPN, he has seen Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Pat McAfee reel in record salaries. Elsewhere in the sports content space, podcasters like the Kelce brothers or Dale Earnhardt Jr. have cashed in on partnerships (like Smith’s with iHeartMedia). As one of the most popular and recognizable personalities in sports, Smith believes he has earned the right to push hard for a big deal, no matter what else is going on around him.
“All I ask for anybody out there that’s looking at me is to understand, just like a business has a right to look out for it’s business, Stephen A. has a right to look out for Stephen A.’s business,” he said.
Contract talks are ongoing, Smith said. The two sides have eight months to hash out a new deal.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.