Stephen A. Smith: ‘I Don’t Work Less Than 330 Days a Year’

In an interview with Cam'ron on his podcast Talk With Flee, Stephen A. Smith suggested that he works 330 days a year at minimum.

When asked about his relationship with Kevin Durant, with whom he has a feud, at the 6:30 point of the episode, the First Take host swerved to talk about his work ethic. "I got a lot of love for Kevin Durant," he said while noting he thinks he can be "a bit too sensitive" sometimes. "He bitches up too much to be quite honest with you. I'm just going to say it how it is... So we talking about me not being in the locker room? Do you understand that in my line of work that's a compliment, 'cause that means I'm doing something else."

Last month, Durant called Smith a "clown" and said he's never seen in "at a practice, or a film session, or a shoot-around."

"When you look at the success that I've been blessed by God to enjoy, a lot of people in our industry wish they had that kind of success," Smith continued. "I don't have to be in the locker room anymore, I graduated from that. That's not to disrespect any of the beat writers or the people in the locker rooms or anything like that, but everybody knows that the reason why you don't see me at as many games or in the locker room as much is because I'm working on TV. I don't know if people notice, I don't work less than 330 days a year. Check ESPN, they will tell you."

He clarified that he does a minimum of 240 days on First Take, but that doesn't count his other work for ESPN's SportsCenter and NBA Countdown. "I work a minimum of 330 days out of the year," he added. "The reason why I'm not in locker rooms is because somebody usually has me somewhere else on the airwaves. Prior to that, I was in the locker rooms an average of 120 games a year."

He said that Durant only criticized him because he questioned his leadership at the Phoenix Suns, but he doesn't understand how a job like his in media works. He also stressed that he thinks Durant is "one of the greatest ever" and a "Hall of Fame first ballot, easily."

Later in the interview, at around the 20:30 point, Cam'ron asked Smith if his work schedule of 330 days in a year has ever made him feel like he's sacrificed time with his two children.

"I did it for my family, not just for myself," he said. "I got two beautiful daughters, teenagers now, who are all over me because I don't get to spend as much time with them as I would like or as they would like. But I think about all the things they need, I think about all the things they want, and I think about all the things that they need to have to better position them for success down the line. The sacrifice is that it's going to cost time with Daddy."

He added that he has to travel a lot for his work and still works on holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving. "I know that it's hard, I know that it's worn on some people as well," he said. "It is the reason why I've never been married, because I was on the road 200 days out of the year and the fact of the matter is at that time it was no way in hell I was going to be faithful. I knew that, so why the hell am I going to sit up there and violate my marital vows knowing ahead of time I ain't going to honor them?"

Watch the full interview with Cam'ron above.