After Alleging LeBron James Influenced Her Exit, Former ESPN Host Criticizes Stephen A. Smith’s Handling of Max Kellerman

In the world of sports news, ESPN’s First Take show has always covered sporting news eloquently. For over a decade and a half, the show has served as a platform to cover American sports and athletes. The host of The First Take, Stephen A. Smith, joined in the year 2012. Since then, the talk show has witnessed several high rankings and various changes. Smith has worked with many co-hosts on the show. One of whom was fired from the show in 2021 was Max Kellerman.

However, two years later, it looks like the news about Kellerman’s departure has resurfaced. This time someone who has formerly worked at ESPN sided with Kellerman. Michelle Beadle, the former ESPN host, has recently opened up about the Smith-Kellerman drama. Beadle, who in the past had said how LeBron James had influenced her exit from the show, has now shared her views on Smith. This time, offering a different perspective, Beadle says how ‘for some any kind of attention is the oxygen.’

Stephen A. Smith was wrong?

There is no denying that fights in courts between teams are normal. But when it extends to reporting rooms, a lot can be unveiled. This time, the same can be seen. With Sharpe giving details on why Kellerman was fired, Michelle Beadle has opened up about it. Beadle recently shared her input on a podcast named ‘Awful Announcing’ with the host, Brandon Contes.

Brandon asked her, “Are you surprised by Stephen A’s… willingness to continue continuously preach that he didn’t like working with Max on the first take? Like it’s been two years since they kind of parted ways…honestly… we haven’t heard one rebuttal from Max in those two years.” Beadle responded as to how she loved that Kellerman just “ignored” the subject completely. She said, ‘l’ook, everyone could say the same thing here. I am talking about things that happened two years ago…Um…but it’s like weird personal attacks…”

She also added, “A lot of things happen behind the scenes on those types of shows…all of us know so much and we could all just…spew the garbage out… I know that if I just picked up Twitter…decided to say a bunch of stuff… it would be a lot of attention gained. But I don’t want that kind of attention. But I do think some people do and I think for some any kind of attention is the oxygen that they crave and I think in this particular case that’s what we’re looking at. I think he’s wrong. I think Max was a good sparring partner… that’s just not what was being craved for an opponent, probably is closer to the truth than anything.”

But what had Stephen A. Smith said about Kellerman’s firing in the first place?

Stephen A. Smith agrees to the fault

It all started on ‘The Joe Budden Podcast.’ Smith talked with Joe Budden about Max Kellerman’s departure from the show. Budden had asked Smith about the tension between the two hosts and if that had to do anything with Kellerman’s departure. Stephen said, “…It’s totally my fault. The reason why it was my fault was because I didn’t like working with him. It’s just damn simple. I thought the show was stale. I thought that we had flatlined.”

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He even pointed out how Kellerman lacked field expertise, something which made fans point, “Why should we listen to you?”As Smith and many other hosts have given their take, fans have still not heard a thing from Kellerman’s side. Do you think it was reasonable to fire him? Or would you rather wish to know Kellerman’s side too?

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