It seems that Stephen A. Smith has been open about the situation surrounding Max Kellerman’s departure from ESPN’s First Take even two years after the change was made.
During an episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, he was asked about the tension between him and Kellerman leading up to Kellerman’s departure, and he provided a detailed explanation of what happened and his feelings about the situation.
While I don’t have access to specific details about what Stephen A. Smith said during that podcast episode, it’s clear that the split between Smith and Kellerman was a topic of discussion and speculation among sports fans and media outlets. Smith’s willingness to share his perspective on the situation suggests that there may have been underlying issues or disagreements between the co-hosts that led to Kellerman’s departure from the show.
If you’re interested in the specifics of what Stephen A. Smith said during that podcast episode, you may want to listen to or read a transcript of the episode to get a better understanding of his perspective on the matter.
“I heard some of it. I would take full responsibility for that. It was totally my fault and the reason it was my fault is because I didn’t like working with him. It’s just that damn simple. I didn’t like it. I thought the show was stale. I thought that we had flatlined when it came to the public at large. I didn’t want to go from No. 1 to No. 2. when Skip [Bayless] left. I wasn’t having that. That s— wasn’t gonna happen.
“I had mad respect for him from the standpoint of white dude, highly intelligent, Ivy League–educated from Columbia. Smart as a whip. Can talk his ass off. Can talk about anything. I get all that. But you weren’t an athlete, and you weren’t a journalist. And the absence of the two components left people wondering ‘why should we listen to you?’
“O.K., well you might have had that figured out on SportsNation or you might have had figured it out on another show, but on this show, if you looked at the content emanating from the social stratosphere, meaning YouTube and other components used to measure, one is cache, Q ratings, focus groups, all of these different things,
“It was like I was damn near doing the show by myself because we were oceans apart in terms of cache. Well, how are you oceans apart from me if you’re sitting across from me for five days a week for the whole two hours? Because one of us is resonating and one of us is not in that platform.
“And so for me, I was like. look, this is what it is. and we had a number of conversations, one-on-one many many times. I know this audience, I know what they need, etc, etc. At some point, you’re gonna do what you need to do or you don’t, and if you don’t do what you need to do, I’m gonna get somebody who will. That’s me. I made no qualms about it.
“I didn’t have the authority to let him go. So what I did was, I’ve been very consistent, very honest, there’s no personal. We weren’t enemies, to be real we haven’t spoken since, other than ‘hi and bye’ or if I had to go on the show when they were doing the morning show, I would get interviewed. But there’s been no conversations since. And that’s fine with me. That’s no problem because it wasn’t like we were boys or anything like that. But at the end of the day, it was all business to me. It was about, ‘Look, man, I’m trying to win and I don’t believe I can with you.’ That doesn’t mean it’s your fault. it means WE don’t work.”
It appears that Stephen A. had many thoughts and emotions he wanted to express.
