Stephen A. Smith Says It Was His Call to Leave 'NBA Countdown' This Year

If you've been tuning in to ESPN's coverage of the NBA this November, you might have noticed that Stephen A. Smith is no longer a part of the NBA Countdown crew. Stephen, who is one of the most prominent personalities on ESPN's roster, has been absent from the show, which has led many to wonder whether he made that decision or not.

Given how high-profile Stephen is and how much ESPN has come to rely on his analysis on a variety of sports, his departure from Countdown has been a surprise to some. Here's what we know about why he's no longer on the show.

On Stephen's SiriusXM show on Nov. 18, he explained exactly why he was now absent from Countdown. “I had a contract negotiation [with ESPN] last year that started in June and ended in March, going into April,” he explained. “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," he explained. "No shade against ESPN, no shade against my wonderful colleagues.”

Essentially, then, it seems like Stephen himself made the decision to leave the show because of the schedule that came with filming it, which is fair enough.

Countdown is usually responsible for covering two games, one on the East Coast and another on the West Coast, which means staying up quite late to provide half-time and post-game analysis for both games. The show's new lineup includes Malika Andrews, Kendrick Perkins, Michael Malone, and Brian Windhorst. Although none of those names are as big as Stephen's, the real draw for Countdown has always been the games themselves anyway.

As Stephen himself made clear in his explanation, this was a decision he made, and ESPN ultimately signed off on it. He's still part of the network in a variety of other ways, and ESPN isn't likely to let him go unless something terrible and unforeseeable happens.

At this point, Stephen is the network's biggest star, and they seem largely focused on prioritizing him being as prominent on the network as he wants to be.

Of course, Stephen is also aware of his position inside ESPN, which might be part of the reason he was able to negotiate his way out of doing Countdown moving forward. He'll still be providing takes on the NBA, but he won't be doing the same kind of instant analysis of particular games and matchups that he was doing for Countdown.

Instead, he'll be a regular part of ESPN's daytime lineup, and will keep ESPN viewers hooked with takes that are both outrageous and sometimes, totally logical. You never know what you're going to get, which is part of the Stephen A. Smith experience.