It seems like Stephen A. Smith is on TV all the time at ESPN. Add his podcast to his regular television schedule and it is easy to understand why he told Bill Simmons that he started to experience some burnout this year.
Smith was a guest this week on The Bill Simmons Podcast and said that he is making an effort to spend more time on vacation because, especially during the NBA season, it seems like he is working all the time. Being a part of NBA Countdown was a particular drain on Smith. On the days ESPN aired NBA games, Smith would be on television from 10 am until well after midnight sometimes.
That isn’t an easy schedule, but Smith said that he thinks he actually would have had an easier time with it if the postgame edition of NBA Countdown were a little longer.
“If we had the time at ESPN to have a post-game show like TNT does, I would have been hyped and wired for that.,” he said.
According to Smith, once the pregame edition of NBA Countdown ends, he is often in studio for another four to five hours. In that long time span though, he says he is lucky to get eight minutes of TV time.
“This is the television real estate that you have available to you. It’s nobody’s fault,” he said. “I’m just simply saying that when you are a guy that comes on TV as much as I do, I’m a person that when the lights come on, I’m ready. I don’t know how to explain it. I don’t know what happens to me. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life, but when those lights come on, it doesn’t matter how tired I am or how sick I am. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, I’m ready to perform. And so for me, when you have to step back and you’re so limited, you’ve got to remember I’m kind of spoiled because First Take is two hours and it’s basically my show.”
Smith admitted that it wasn’t just the long wait. His daughters also encouraged him to carve out time to spend with them. That helped him make the decision to scale back and actually use his vacation time.
Still, Stephen A. Smith knows he is driven and he loves to be on television. If ESPN gave him more time at the end of a night of NBA coverage, it would be hard to turn down.
“My attitude about it would have been totally different if there was a post-game show like the television real estate TNT has with their postgame. If that happened, man, I would have had a totally different energy about it. I still think that it would have been a lot to take because of the obligations to First Take in the mornings, but nevertheless, I still would have been incentivized to be even more pumped up instead of dying down because the evening is coming to an end, you know?”
