Sports media talking head Stephen A. Smith of ESPN is opening up about the time he dismissed cohost Max Kellerman from the popular sports debate program First Take. Kellerman debated Smith on a daily basis on First Take from 2016 until his exit in 2021.

It was long rumored that Smith was the culprit behind Kellerman's dismissal, and Smith recently stopped by the Joe Budden podcast to discuss the exit and the problems he had with Kellerman.

“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,” said Smith. “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?'”

It is true that Smith and Kellerman were by and large unable to produce the kind of entertaining banter that Smith had with former cohost Skip Bayless, who left for FS1 in 2016, opening the door for Kellerman's arrival.

Stephen A. Smith himself does indeed have a journalistic background, having spent years with the Philadelphia Inquirer in the 1990s; however, it's safe to assume that most of First Take‘s audience isn't tuning in for expert sports analysis but rather for the kind of fireworks and shock value that debate shows are emblematic of in the present day.

Max Kellerman was let go from ESPN as part of a series of company-wide layoffs that took place this summer.