Stephen A. 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.”

Awful Announcing

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