I loved Max and Marcellus radio show when they were on 710 in LA. the show was real and uncut
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Stephen A. Smith on Max Kellerman's 'First Take' Exit: The Audience Told Us We Flatlined
Stephen A. Smith appears on the latest Sports Illustrated Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina and he shared some extremely honest insight into what happened with Mawww.thebiglead.com
Drive time wfan bound?
Smith said he invited Sharpe to ESPN to “prove to the industry that Shannon Sharpe did nothing wrong.”“Listen, I got a lot of friends over there, alright, we all know that,” Smith said. “I know a lot of people but that doesn’t mean what happened to you is fair. Plain and simple. That ain’t the end of the world but it is what it is. To me, it was just important for us in this industry to stand up and say yo, he’s one of us, you can’t let him go out like this. And that was it for me. You can go wherever you want, you can come to First Take, fine. You want to go somewhere else, fine.”
“I told you this and I’ll tell the audience that I told you this. I said you might be at First Take for one year, you might be at First Take for years to come. It’s my responsibility — and I’m dead serious as a heart attack — to make sure that you are more successful with me than you were before you arrived. I’m going to make sure it happens, come hell or high water. We ain’t going down, brother, we only going up.”
Stephen A. Smith thinks Bayless treated Sharpe poorly and left him without a job. Such a statement would have Max Kellerman cackling — if he weren’t unemployed.“I didn’t want you to be in the situation where the sports world looked at you and said ‘what did he do? He must have done something.’ I said if he ends up here, he ends up here. The honchos know I want him. More importantly than that, this is a brother that I think has done a lot of good work on television that has helped our community. As a result, it’s incumbent upon me because of the perch I sit on to let them know he’s wanted,” Smith told Sharpe.
The ratings for First Take are up. In fact, the show has posted 13 consecutive months of year-over-year growth.Stephen A, I hope all is well.
You said on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast, “I know a lot of people but that doesn’t mean what happened to you is fair. Plain and simple. That ain’t the end of the world but it is what it is. To me, it was just important for us in this industry to stand up and say yo, he’s one of us, you can’t let him go out like this.”
This seems to suggest you think Skip did Shannon wrong. But I wanted to reach out because from everything reported, and confirmed, Shannon left Skip’s show while you pushed for ESPN to remove Max. Essentially, Shannon and Max had the same roles after Skip left ESPN in 2016.
Is it not fair to say you hurt Max’s career more than Skip hurt Shannon’s? To be clear, it’s not your responsibility to save Max’s career or Skip’s to save Shannon. And the ratings for FT have been up since Max left. So, it wasn’t a bad decision for you.
But, unless I am reading what you said wrong, you seem to suggest Skip wronged Shannon. And if you are saying that, did you not wrong Max?
I wanted to reach out before I covered this.
Thank you.
Shannon accidentally called Stephen A Skip lol
He just called him Skip again... Lol I get it though, he was with Skip for like almost 7 yearsI expected SAS to say do I look like a 70 year old white man to you