Stephen A. Smith couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the New York Post splashing the word “surprise” across its headline about him being taken off ESPN’s NBA Countdown. In fact, Stephen A. sounded more amused than rattled. He practically shrugged at the whole situation, stressing that this move was set in stone months ago and shouldn’t be treated like some big shocker. He hasn’t been on the show all preseason or regular season anyway. So the New York Post framing it as a sudden twist? Yeah, that’s a reach.

Smith even hopped online to drop his own “reaction” to the NBA Countdown chatter , saying, “I negotiated a new deal with the ESPN New Five Year Deal. That deal was negotiated between June of 2024 and March into April of 2025. I didn’t want to be on the show, I negotiated coming o

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