Within the last month, a source says that ESPN and Smith went to the negotiating table and couldn’t reach an agreement. Apparently, ESPN’s offer was considerably lower than Smith’s previous contracts – which were multi-media faceted – and Smith passed. He was then offered the decision to work through the remainder of his contract, or walk away and still get paid, and a source says Smith decided to work.
“Stephen A. Smith moves the needle on ratings,” says Mark Shapiro, executive vice president of programming and production at ESPN. “Is he more liked or disliked? Who knows? Who cares? He leaves an imprint. People might come back because they hate him. The bottom line is, they come back.”
That’s a quote from this 2005 profile in Sports Illustrated. He was also profiled by the New York Times at the height of his stardom, when he was so busy across so many mediums that he once famously filed a column to the Inquirer via Blackberry.
As the blogosphere emerged in 2006, Smith’s screaming antics were well-chronicled – this heckling at the NBA draft was a popular one – and his downward spiral picked up as the year progressed. In 2007 it began to unravel – his TV show was cancelled – and that accelerated in 2008 when he lost his column and his radio show. Though Smith’s screaming has been dialed back significantly in the last six months – Skip Bayless remains as loud and annoying as possible – one wonders if it was too little, too late.
This season, Smith hasn’t been out front on ESPN for the sport he knows best, basketball – replaced by guys like Avery Johnson, Tim Legler and JA Adande – but his front-of-the-book column in ESPN the Magazine seems to be well-received.
What’s up next for Smith? Writing gigs in this down economy are difficult to come by, but perhaps if he were only writing and not pontificating across multiple mediums, he could find work at a newspaper or magazine. And he seems to enjoy the political/social commentary.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
He was actually good back in the day when CNN used to cover sports, before he started playing a character.
Stephen A. Smith has been slowly losing responsibility over the last year at ESPN, and many have questioned whether his time with the "Leader" was up. Well according to The Big Lead, that time is upon us, and Smith’s contract won’t be renewed this May….
<a href="http://malecafe.net/video/index.php?q=Stephen-A.-Smith"><strong>Stephen A. Smith-going-bye-bye/</strong></a>
While this is obviously still a rumor, it seems to make sense. SAS has been phased out of NBA work for the most part, and really only appears on First Take from time to time. So where does he go next? My first thought is that he will expand on his CNN appearances, but SI and Fanhouse are still out there. It’s not like he doesn’t have options.
so long cheese doodle!
i like him, he wanted too much $ now and thinks he is still very important, too bad, i dont always agree with him, but he can bring up interesting points at times, kinda like Skip, who everybody seems to hate aswell.
What’s with the video? Despite the fact that it was 3 years ago, obviously the morons speaking are not at the event but have added their ignorance to the clip.
Personally, I felt the comments and the “accent” were very insulting.
As for the mostly negative comments I have read across the ‘Net, white ‘america’, your fear is showing again! Why is an outspoken Black man always perceived as arrogant?
F . u . c . k that N . i . g . g . e . r