Stephen A. Smith On ESPN Layoffs: “This Ain’t The End. More Is Coming. I Could Be Next”

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Stephen A. Smith is opening up about the ESPN layoffs that saw about 20 on-air personalities become redundant at the sports network. “ESPN laid off about 20 members of its on-air talent … friends of mine, actually, definitely respected colleagues who’d done a phenomenal job and deserved better,” the sports analyst said on The Stephen A.

Smith Show. “It’s not Disney or ESPN that they deserved better from, they deserved better than the times we’re living in.” Smith, who co-hosts First Take con ESPN, gave a shoutout to Jalen Rose saying that he had been doing an “outstanding job for us covering the NBA for years.” RELATED: Pat McAfee Addresses Backlash Over ESPN “Mass Exits” & Says He’s “Pumped To Be Joining” Network “Got a lot of love for that brother,” he added. “A lot of the great work he’s done over the years, what he’s represented for the company… I’m going to miss him.

Jalen Rose has always been good to me and I loved working with him on NBA Countdown. He is a brilliant basketball mind, he is somebody that worked his ass off all the time.

There was never an assignment he backed away from, there was never a time he didn’t want to work.” Smith also name-dropped former NBA coach and ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy saying, “Jeff was an outstanding, brilliant basketball analyst for ESPN for years.