Stephen A. Smith sets record straight that he wasn’t ‘yanked’ off ‘NBA Countdown’

Stephen A. Smith opted to give up NBA Countdown when he agreed to his current contract with ESPN, and somehow the aggregate news cycle turned that into him being fired.

Smith will not be a regular contributor to ESPN’s NBA Countdown this season. But the decision did not come as a surprise removal or firing. It was a move that was negotiated by Smith before signing his $100 million deal with ESPN last spring. But after waking up to headlines claiming ESPN pulled him from the show, Smith decided to address his status with Countdown.

“I’m trying to figure out what the news is here,” Smith said on the latest edition of Straight Shooter for SiriusXM. “I had a contract negotiation last year that started in June and ended in March, going into April. 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.”

Smith went on to cite an increased workload away from ESPN, having a coinciding deal with SiriusXM that has him hosting a daily afternoon show for Mad Dog Sports Radio and a weekly political show on POTUS Radio. Additionally, Smith says he’s working on more shows, projects and scripted content for his production company than last year.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I got other things on my plate,” Smith continued. “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. And if they need me for anything, of course I’ll show back up on NBA Countdown. If they need me a few dates a year, sure. If they need me to be with the crew with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith and Shaq and Ernie, fine.

“But it was always my intent to come off, it’s something I negotiated,” Smith insisted. “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.”

Since the official press release announcing the cast of NBA Countdown for the 2025-26 season was dropped earlier this week with no mention of Smith’s name, many outlets ran with the omission as if this was an ESPN decision to remove him from the show. But that would be a misrepresentation of Smith’s departure.

In March, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported Smith would no longer be a regular part of NBA Countdown as part of his new contract. And Smith similarly confirmed he wasn’t going to be a regular on Countdown on his radio show at the start of this NBA season. There might be skeptics because Smith hasn’t historically opted out of any shows or additional airtime, but this wasn’t breaking news, and it wasn’t ESPN deciding to remove the face of its network from their NBA coverage.