No, Stephen A. Smith Was Not Fired From ESPN’s ‘NBA Countdown’

1. I will never stop being surprised about how 1) people don’t care about facts anymore and 2) people are constantly being fed wrong information.

I told you in Monday’s Traina Thoughts that ESPN announced the new cast for NBA Countdown, which includes Malika Andrews, Brian Windhorst, Kendrick Perkins, Michael Malone and Shams Charania.

Stephen A. Smith had been part of the show for years, but it’s been known for months, ever since he signed his new $105 million contract with ESPN, that he would no longer be part of NBA Countdown. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported this all the way back in March.

Smith has made it known he wants to continue to branch out from sports and be involved in politics. He has two new SiriusXM shows. And ESPN now has Inside the NBA in the mix, so Smith was not going to part of the network’s “A” studio show. Inside the NBA is expected to be on the air every night during the NBA playoffs. In addition, Smith was slated to make some appearances on ESPN’s Monday Night Football pregame show. Maybe I’m the idiot, but I assumed everyone knew Smith was no longer part of NBA Countdown.

Yet, when ESPN announced the new cast on Monday, tons of outlets spun it as Smith getting demoted, fired, cut and more.

Just look at these ridiculous headlines.

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And that’s just a small sampling.

I get that Stephen A. Smith is one of the biggest lightning rods in sports media, and that many people would love to see him taken down a peg, but these headlines are just irresponsible and unfair.

2. The biggest outcome of the YouTubeTV-Disney deal is that YouTubeTV will now carry all the programming from the ESPN Unlimited App.

Simply put, this means YouTubeTV subscribers don’t need to futz around with ESPN’s app and can just watch the ESPN offerings on the YouTubeTV service. This also means flipping around from game to game just became a lot easier for sports fans who use YouTubeTV.

Lightshed’s Rich Greenfield, who is an expert in this field, said the YouTubeTV-ESPN deal is a “sports fan’s dream.”

“This is becoming the platform of a sports fan’s dream."

"@YouTubeTV has all those rights within its own environment. “This is an absolute win for sports fans,”

thanks for the shoutouts @Ourand_Puck @PuckNews https://t.co/D75d5TcwiF

— Rich Greenfield, LightShed 🔦 (@RichLightShed) November 18, 2025

3. Three weeks ago, Giants rookie running back Cam Skattebo dislocated his ankle and suffered a fractured fibula and ruptured deltoid ligament.

Monday night, Skattebo gave the New York media, hot take artists and Giants fans something to go crazy about by showing up to Monday Night Raw and getting a little physical as part of the show.

One thing you should know Dom...

DON'T MESS WITH CAM SKATTEBO!!! 😤@Giants pic.twitter.com/4tFeiwnS5k

— WWE (@WWE) November 18, 2025

4. Netflix has once again hired a billion people to work its two Christmas Day NFL games.

The most important thing to know is this:

Ian Eagle, Nate Burleson and Matt Ryan will call the Cowboys-Commanders game at 1 p.m.

Noah Eagle and Drew Brees will call the Lions-Vikings game at 4:30 p.m.

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5. “White Whale” ManningCast guests

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast features a conversation with Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt.

Brandt opens the podcast by venting about people sharing their sports-viewing “setups” and talks about what he goes through to watch games and explains why he likes his simple setup.

Then the interview transitions to sports media talk with Brandt explaining what it’s like to interview the top quarterbacks from around the NFL each week, revealing how he feels about seeing his former Good Morning Football colleague, Peter Schrager, on ESPN and sharing his thoughts on ESPN purchasing the NFL Network.

Brandt also talks about having an MVP vote this season, whether he’d ever want to call games, working with Scott Van Pelt and why he loves the chaos of a wide-open NFL season.

Other topics discussed with Brandt include Amazon Prime’s documentary on John Candy, the best Leonardo DiCaprio movies and The Ali G Show.

Following Brandt, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment.

This week’s topics include USC pulling off a truly bush league movie, Aaron Glenn starting fights with the New York media, show recommendations and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 72nd birthday to one of Saturday Night Live’s most underrated cast members, Kevin Nealon.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

This article was originally published on www.si.com as No, Stephen A. Smith Was Not Fired From ESPN’s ‘NBA Countdown’.

Peyton Manning’s list of all seem very gettable, except for the Pope, but as someone who has tried for years to get Larry David as a podcast guest, I’m glad Peyton and Eli cant get him, either.