We’re only one month into the 2025-26 NBA Season, and we’ve already gotten major news regarding ESPN’s coverage of the league. In a statement released on Monday, ESPN announced significant changes to its “new-look ESPN NBA Countdown team.” Most notably, the crew will no longer feature long-time star Stephen A. Smith.
Why Isn’t Stephen A. Smith on NBA Countdown?
Stephen A. Smith has been a staple of ESPN’s NBA coverage for over 20 years. Any time there’s been NBA talk on the World Wide Leader, it was fair to assume Smith’s face and voice would be featured heavily. Now, for the first time, he won’t be a part of the network’s flagship NBA game-day program.
Per ESPN, for the third consecutive season, Malika Andrews will continue her hosting duties. Michael Malone (former Denver Nuggets head coach) and Kendrick Perkins (former NBA Champion) will join the panel as analysts, while Senior Writer Brian Windhorst will also join the cast. Windhorst recently agreed on a multi-year extension with ESPN. Senior NBA Insider Shams Charania will also make frequent appearances on the show.
The “new-look ESPN NBA Countdown team” will make its debut on Wednesday, November 19, at 6:30 p.m. ET.
ESPN has removed Stephen A. Smith from NBA Countdown, per @awfulannouncing pic.twitter.com/hCnO0dT0Mx
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) November 18, 2025
It’s unclear exactly why Smith is no longer part of ‘NBA Countdown’, although it’s not entirely unexpected. Smith has long been considered one of the busiest personalities in sports media. He hosts ‘First Take’, one of the most popular talk shows in the country, and ‘The Stephen A. Smith Show’ on SiriusXM.
He also makes regular appearances across all ESPN programming, including SportsCenter.
It’s entirely possible that both sides agreed to scale back Smith’s workload. NBA Countdown alone is a full-time grind with pregame, halftime, postgame, the whole national slate before you even factor in the rest of Smith’s on-air universe. Given how many shows he anchors or appears on, something eventually had to give.
Some fans were surprised to hear he’s stepping away, but the move was expected after his five-year extension. As Andrew Marchand reported via The Athletic, Smith will remain the face of First Take but appear less across the network, and he will no longer be a regular on ESPN’s main NBA pregame show, though occasional appearances remain possible.
This isn’t a firing or demotion; his new deal reportedly pays $20 million annually. It’s simply a reallocation of his time, especially with ESPN now syndicating Inside the NBA and having more studio depth.
It may also reflect ESPN’s push to bring fresh voices into its revamped NBA coverage. Either way, for longtime viewers, seeing NBA Countdown without Smith’s signature energy and analysis will take some getting used to.
