“Smart as a whip ... but you weren’t an athlete” – Stephen A. Smith dishes backhanded compliment to Max Kellerman, explains not working with him

ESPN's First Take has emerged as one of the best sports analysis shows, thanks to the consisten efforts of Stephen A. Smith for being consistent. One of the biggest mysteries of the show, however, was the not-so-subtle beef between Smith and former co-host Max Kellerman, which led to the latter's departure.

Smith and Kellerman were co-hosts from 2016 until 2021, and there were much-discussed reports about their chemistry issues on the show throughout. Issues weren't revealed until Stephen A. opened up about it recently when he was a guest on Joe Budden's podcast. According to him, he didn't like working with the former boxing commentator.

​

"I didn't like working with him." Smith admitted. "I thought the show was stale, I thought that we had flat lined when we came to the public at large, and I'm trying to win. I didn't want to go from number 1 to number 2 when Skip [Bayless] left. I wasn't having that, that s*** was not 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 *** 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?'

He added:

"You might have had that figured out on Sports Nation or you might have had that figured out on another show. But on this show, if you look at the content, emanating in the social stratosphere... it was like d*** near well doing the show by myself because we were oceans apart in terms of cachet."

Smith is currently looking to dominate the ratings with his new co-host, Shannon Sharpe.

You might also be interested in reading this: Stephen A. Smith announces a $2899, one-week-long summer basketball camp at Michael Beasley's former school

---

Max Kellerman's choice of who should take the last shot had Stephen A. Smith speechless

The concept of First Take is quite simple, debate intelligently with your co-hosts and stand your ground. That's what Kellerman did in front of Stephen A. Smith and Isiah Thomas in 2019.

The question was, "Who do you want taking the last shot: Iggy or Steph?" Without hesitation, Kellerman confidently chose Andre Iguodala, which had Smith and Thomas speechless. Watch the video below to reminisce on the iconic moment of Max's stint at First Take.

​

That moment has turned into a meme among basketball communities and it's often used as a form of trolling. Now that Steph Curry has his first Finals MVP, maybe Kellerman's opinion on the matter has changed.

​