It’s no secret that Stephen A. Smith orchestrated the removal of Max Kellerman from First Take. The ESPN star has not been shy about saying that he did not think the pairing worked.
Making an appearance on the The Joe Budden Show earlier this week, Smith acknowledged that it is his fault that viewers may have been able to pick up on that tension.
“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.”
Smith has said before that he respects Kellerman. It isn’t that he didn’t like Kellerman as a person. He just wasn’t the right partner to keep First Take on top.
“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 left. I wasn’t having that. That shit wasn’t gonna happen.”
Smith reiterated his respect for Kellerman, saying that his former co-host is “Smart as a whip. Can talk his ass off. Can talk about anything,” but noted that he knew the First Take audience well and knew they were not satisfied with the direction of the show.
Smith told Budden that in one-on-one conversations with Kellerman, he made it clear that if Kellerman could not deliver, the show would have to make a decision.
“I didn’t have the authority to let him go,” Smith said. “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.”
