Stephen A Smith Now Wants Skip Bayless Money ( 5 million annually)

[MrBaynes]

I'd rather get a lobotomy than listen to Stephen A. Smith ramble, but that doesn't mean he isn't worth the money to ESPN. There are a lot of fools who find him entertaining, and if he can leverage that into a bigger payday more power to him.

[DickGrayson]

No, he does not. He's become a television personality and that's what you're seeing there. He has done more than embarrass himself, come on.. This is what I mean. When people like someone it's their the greatest and when they don't it's he's embarrassing himself. We don't have to go into the realm of hyperbole to articulate this. For every clip you could post of him making a mistake, and he's made a few, you could also show a few dozen of him being an articulate and thoughtful analyst. He's had two pretty huge gaffes and yet the frigging Disney Corporation, one of the largest and most successful media outlets in the world, still finds reason to employ him.

Again, based strictly from a market perspective, he's probably worth more than 3 million. His Q rating has been one of best net positives in his field for close to a decade.

Kim Kardisian is a TV personality too, you think she deserves all the praise she gets? A lot of these personalities are put on TV to water down the content. The same thing happens in music and television.

SAS is just for the masses of people who fall for his bait, say outrageous comments about any topic and expect a reaction from the masses. When it comes to being right about basketball, SAS has gotten it wrong so many times. He's bottom tier at his job.

Hell yeah I think Kim Kardashian deserves the money she gets!! I've never seen an episode of their show, sans the times my girl is watching it, but you can't deny that there is a HUGE population that loves them and loves to follow them and their lives. That makes them marketable, and this is still America right? Still a capitalistic nation, right?

Journalism is multifaceted. There are times when you have to run with the rumor, especially on television and social media, even if you may not be right. There isn't a single sports reporter who hasn't posted a rumor that later on turned out to be false. People swear by Woj and he's been wrong a bunch too. It's the current nature of the business. They are fed lies and disinformation many times. It doesn't make him a bad reporter or journalist. Skip has been wrong a bunch and no one blinked at his price. And he's just as obnoxious Stephen A!!!

I don't think he deserves it....this economy has gone to **** and money is going to unnecessary places...theres no way you can logically and whole-heartley believe SAS deserves that kind of cash when we have so many homeless and starving folks. I understand entertainers get paid tons of cash, I'm not against their profession, but my argument here is "Is SAS the best at what he does?"

I consider Max Kellerman elite. He comes with facts and askes critical questions.
SAS just brings drama with no substance i grew tired of him in 2005. I just think SAS is below par with the elites.

[simon24]

I don't think he's worth it. ESPN already losing money because of people cutting cable.

[zimpy27]

Skip is actually entertaining as an old uncle troll, which is a good foil for someone with good opinions on basketball. I actually like Shannon, the guy he plays off now on FOX. Couldn't stand SAS, his ramblings are moronic and he seems to think he has a good opinion.

[NBAfan3024]

Woj should be on triple those two

[hoophabit]

If it's conditioned on mitigating the arrogance and stopping the yelling, I say pay the man!

[jerep_path]

I wish I can have a job where I can get 5mill for speaking stupidity.

[DLaren]

I hope he gets it...he's the only entertaining person left on that network.

[BodieB]

I'm curious to hear what journalists do posters think can do what SAS does and bring in the viewers that First Take does (even with lower numbers lately).

[ChiCityHoops34]

I'm curious to hear what journalists do posters think can do what SAS does and bring in the viewers that First Take does (even with lower numbers lately).

Neither First Take or Skips new show will ever come close to what First Take was at it's peak. That isn't because either of them are good (I can't watch either of those bafoons) but at one time it was absolutely perfect because somehow all of Skip's schticks were firing off all at the time time.

He was famous for his Lebron hate, Lebron loses in the finals to the Mavs. He was famous for his Tebow backing, the guy somehow wins a playoff game on a game winning throw. He was saying for years that Manny would beat Floyd, the fight miraculously happens. Says Johnny Football will be bigger than Lebron ever was in Cleveland, Lebron returns to Cleveland while Johnny self destructs. Says Derek Fisher will be a way better coach than Steve Kerr, Steve Kerr wins a championship in his first year.

It isn't about being right or knowledgable but Skip somehow was in early on "hot takes" that ended up being relevant for months on end where people wanted to see what this guy had to say about them. Gotta respect Skip's hustle because he is playing a made up character n people take it as gospel, SAS on the other hand brings absolutely nothing to the table.

[thelead]

ESPN needs to make serious changes to their programming and should start by not paying SAS. They need to lower expenses and start selling online subscriptions to millennials. I know they still need their 'dumb/loud/entertaining' shows but they should really diversify their offerings.

[Spens1]

Tell SAS that they'll match it, if he co-hosts with KWAME BROWN (bonuses offered if he hosts with Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury)

[sacking123]

Absolutely he deserves it, if he can get it! Can't believe people on here think it's right to say he doesn't deserve x amount of money while the same people will defend athletes getting paid ridiculous amounts of money.

[papidulo]

Of course he deserves it...
What else would ppl watch at 10am at work while pretending to do real work?

If ESPN doesnt give it to him, do you think Fox will hesitate to reunite him with Skip on their network?

I dont get why ppl get mad at him saying outlandish things.. The show is called "First Take", as in a "hot take", or a first impulse thought on an issue. Its supposed to sound dramatic lol, if it wasn't then any journalist could do it.

Also, he doesnt just get paid to talk nonsense. He was an NBA beat writer for decades and has solid relationships with alot of athletes that he leverages for his show. Relationships are an invaluable commodity.

[MagicMadness]

If it's true that ratings are down, then I don't see why he deserves a raise. He's obviously using Skip's departure as leverage, so it'll be interesting to see what ESPN does. With that said, I haven't really watched ESPN's shows in years, but I always thought Pardon the Interruption was good, fun, and fairly smart.

First Take with SAS and Skip just seemed like a loud, dumbed-down version of PTI. But in a TV world where Kardashians are king, I get it that dumb sells.

[Emtokay]

Let him go; he's not worth Skip Bayless money. In fact, neither is Skip Bayless. ESPN needs less of SAS and his ilk (Skip, Cowherd, etc) and more serious sports journalism.

it's not supposed to be serious sports journalism . this is not the right format for it. the whole point of lining up these personalities is to get just the kind of reaction that it does. this is entertainment. serious sports journalism is like 30 for 30 or espn60, something one might want to sink his teeth into. programs like this, his/hers(ugh), sports nation, ath, or pti serves up the day's sports news in bite sized portions.

now if you ask me both skip and sas are less without the other. skip's show is on fox and who watches fox or wants to hear sharp's lisp. first take now has TWO sas's cuz kellerman is a mirror of smith and all the subs they were trying out all tried to "outloud" sas.

[Emtokay]

I'm curious to hear what journalists do posters think can do what SAS does and bring in the viewers that First Take does (even with lower numbers lately).

Neither First Take or Skips new show will ever come close to what First Take was at it's peak. That isn't because either of them are good (I can't watch either of those bafoons) but at one time it was absolutely perfect because somehow all of Skip's schticks were firing off all at the time time.

He was famous for his Lebron hate, Lebron loses in the finals to the Mavs. He was famous for his Tebow backing, the guy somehow wins a playoff game on a game winning throw. He was saying for years that Manny would beat Floyd, the fight miraculously happens. Says Johnny Football will be bigger than Lebron ever was in Cleveland, Lebron returns to Cleveland while Johnny self destructs. Says Derek Fisher will be a way better coach than Steve Kerr, Steve Kerr wins a championship in his first year.

It isn't about being right or knowledgable but Skip somehow was in early on "hot takes" that ended up being relevant for months on end where people wanted to see what this guy had to say about them. Gotta respect Skip's hustle because he is playing a made up character n people take it as gospel, SAS on the other hand brings absolutely nothing to the table.

people hate skip and that's okay...he's taking it to the bank. skip is underrated because he has a delivery that no one can imitate - it's all skip. whether one agrees or disagrees, whether he's right or wrong,,,,who cares. between sas and bayless, the expendable of the two is sas because he's just loud and even kellerman can copy that. no one can copy bayless, like him or not

[Hello Brooklyn]

All you people who say hes "not worth the money" clearly dont understand how capitalism works .

Stephen A generates a lot of ratings and money for ESPN. Of course he is worth the money.

[bakesale]

All these guys are overpaid.
But Smith is the least quality of them all.

I always wonder why people say things like this. You may not like him, but to say he's the least qualified implies he's not a great writer and/or doesn't have excellent sources within the sports world. Just say you don't like him and leave it at that. But he's being paid a fair wage given his audience and platform.

yeah because his knee jerk reactions and oversimplified analysis is full of quality

[MagicMadness]

All you people who say hes "not worth the money" clearly dont understand how capitalism works .

Stephen A generates a lot of ratings and money for ESPN. Of course he is worth the money.

Apparently ratings are down, so maybe he's not worth the (extra) money.

I'm interested in what Skip's ratings are. I doubt they're anywhere near SAS's on ESPN, but I'm guessing his FS1 show is doing a lot better than whatever FS1 used to have in that time slot.