The Denver Nuggets closed out the 2023 NBA Finals on June 12. The subsequent day, former NFL turned sports activities TV star Shannon Sharpe co-hosted his ultimate episode of Fox Sports activities’ “Undisputed.”
Unc Shannon sharpe bought emotional thanking Skip bayless 🥺😭❤️💯 pic.twitter.com/RhkOpX353L
— Shannonnn sharpes Burner (PARODY Account) (@shannonsharpeee) June 13, 2023
Stephen A. Smith, who presently works alongside Sharpe two days every week on ESPN’s “First Take,” has touched on the circumstances surrounding the FS1 departure up to now, suggesting his exit was lower than amicable.
“I didn’t have a look at it that approach. I’d’ve checked out it that approach if Shannon left of his personal volition. I’m telling you he was pushed out,” Smith stated on “The Joe Budden Podcast” in September 2023.
Because the one-year anniversary of his “Undisputed” exit approaches, Sharpe sat down with the “Black Cash Tree” podcast to replicate on his previous.
In keeping with Sharpe, a 12 months in the past, he didn’t assume he’d be the place he’s at this time.
“See, individuals are like, ‘Properly, Shannon, why’d you get so emotional?’ As a result of in the event you knew what I put into that job, you’d perceive it.” Sharpe advised host Jerome D. Love on the 2024 Texas Black Expo in a clip posted on Might 27. “You see, the higher the expectation, the higher the damage when it doesn’t work out. And I poured a lot into that.”
Sharpe, choking up a bit, stated his dedication to the job got here on the expense of his private life.
“I gave up every little thing. I misplaced relationships as a result of I couldn’t exit to dinner. I couldn’t go on trip. I couldn’t do it as a result of I needed to watch all of the sporting occasions. I had to have the ability to discuss them on tv and discuss them expertly, so it price me so much.”
“Though I used to be damage, I knew the previous saying, ‘Sunshine follows rain,’ so in my lowest, I all the time say this: ‘God, I do know you didn’t carry me this far simply to carry me this far.’”
The gang cheered listening to Sharpe’s testimony as he started talking about highly effective recommendation given to him by his sister, whom he additionally considers his finest good friend.
Sharpe as soon as once more introduced the dialog again to the sacrifices he made for “Undisputed” and all of the work he put in. Simply the considered his sacrifices almost introduced him to tears once more.
“To say that it didn’t damage to depart as a result of it did.. due to what I put into that, and that’s why it hurts,” stated an emotional Sharpe. “That’s why mother and father get upset when your child doesn’t fulfill what you’ve gotten anticipated of them. It damage you extra. It damage me to lose as a result of I had put a lot into that job. And so now I have a look at it, I say now I’m now not expertise. You’ll be able to’t hearth me from Shay Shay media as a result of I personal it. You’ll be able to’t hearth me from ‘Nightcap.’ You’ll be able to’t hearth me from ‘Membership Shay Shay,’ I personal it. And in order that’s the way in which I have a look at my enterprise now. You’re going to be my accomplice. You’re now not simply going to chop me a examine to do one thing. We’re in partnership.”
Although he didn’t explicitly state it, this seemingly hints as the primary time Sharpe has indicated he was really fired from “Undisputed.” When the previous FS1 co-host initially parted methods with the present, he remained tight-lipped concerning the scenario not instantly making it clear what led to his departure.
“Girls and gents, that is formally my final day at work. After seven years, the prepare stops with Shannon Sharpe and ‘Undisputed’ proper right here,” Sharpe stated on his ultimate episode.
On a Sept. 2023 episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Present,” Sharpe opened up concerning the December 2022 on-air incident during which he felt Skip Bayless didn’t present respect for him.
“There have been occasions that led as much as that that I felt pictures had been taken, and I let it go,” Sharpe advised Smith. “I ought to’ve stated one thing then, however I didn’t. And I’d carry it to individuals’s consideration, they usually brushed it up underneath the rug. In order that was my fault that it bought to that time and he felt that he might go excessive in that scenario. I believe in any relationship the place there’s a number or co-host… as soon as one accomplice has no respect for the opposite, the opposite accomplice then, in flip, loses respect for stated accomplice. Then, I believe it’s solely a matter of time. As a result of in that second, I had felt he had misplaced all respect for me. He had no respect for me.”
He went on to say that he knew his time was coming, so he rode out his contract.
” I knew in that second in time, it was solely a matter of time. They had been going to need to separate that. I knew that. I knew that. I used to be prepared to play out the contract, however I knew it was going to finish as a result of he had began coming with higher, higher regularity, the disrespect,” stated Sharpe.
It seems that for the primary time ever, Sharpe is lastly confirming he was fired. Nonetheless, being fired is one thing he now not has to fret about. Now that he owns his personal platform, Sharpe is doing higher than ever. He lately bragged about making more cash from his one Kat Williams interview on “Membership Shay” than he did in a single 12 months within the NFL.
“I simply bought the examine. So no matter you assume I made, three X it. So in the event you assume I made 500,000, three X it. When you assume I made one million, three X it. When you assume I made two million, three X it,” he stated.
Sharpe and former NFL broad receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson additionally co-host the “Nightcap” present.
