Stephen A. Smith, Who Ruined Max Kellerman's Career, Suggests Skip Bayless Wronged Shannon Sharpe

Skip Bayless left First Take and ESPN in 2016 to create Undisputed on FS1. The show was of an identical format, except Bayless now debated Shannon Sharpe instead of Stephen A. Smith. ESPN replaced Bayless on First Take with Max Kellerman.

Sharpe and Kellerman were tasked with the same role: a foe of the opposite race to their more television-famous counterpart.

Bayless and Smith were equals. Sharpe and Kellerman were sidekicks.

On Monday, seven years after joining Bayless, Sharpe will join Stephen A. as a new contributor to First Take.

Smith and Sharpe previewed their new-found partnership on the latter's podcast Friday. Smith gave his perspective on Sharpe leaving Undisputed after two on-air blowups with Bayless, during which he suggested Bayless wronged Sharpe:

"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."

Smith said he invited Sharpe to ESPN to "prove to the industry that Shannon Sharpe did nothing wrong."

“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.

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.

Smith treated Kellerman worse than Bayless treated Sharpe. Shannon says he and Skip had tensions for "six months" out of "six and a half good years" together.

Smith and Kellerman had tensions for at least three of the five years they were together. How do we know?

First, Smith would often roll his eyes, ignore, and insult Kellerman on-set. He frequently complained about Kellerman to other ESPN talents, per talents he complained to.

Two, Smith admitted so. He told Hot 97 in September 2021 that he asked his bosses to remove Max from the show for three straight years. He said the show was no longer good with Kellerman on it.

"For the last three years after the NBA Finals, I told the bosses . I also told Max that. He disagreed with me. He disagreed with me two years ago. He disagreed with me this time."

Smith had Kellerman removed from the show a month before those statements. ESPN eventually demoted Kellerman to morning radio. The company laid him off in June.

In February 2021, Smith explained on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Unleashed that he wanted Kellerman off the program so badly he threatened to leave the show if Kellerman remained.

Shannon Sharpe chose to leave Undisputed because of his issues with Skip Bayless. Stephen A. Smith kicked Max Kellerman off First Take.

Sharpe now works for ESPN and The Volume. Kellerman is without a job.

Smith says Sharpe deserved a job to prove to the industry he did nothing wrong. He obviously had no such grace for Kellerman.

Moreover, Bayless praised and thanked Sharpe during their final episode together:

Smith didn't bother to make into to work for Kellerman's final day on First Take:

Yet, according to Stephen A., it was Skip who wronged Sharpe.

OutKick wanted to give Stephen A. a chance to explain his position. How he can frame Sharpe as a victim but have no remorse for how he treated Kellerman?

Unfortunately, he did not respond. We sent him the following request for comment:

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. 

The ratings for First Take are up. In fact, the show has posted 13 consecutive months of year-over-year growth.

The viewers do not miss Kellerman. Smith is justified in wanting the change.

Multiple statements are true at once: First Take is better without Kellerman, Smith treated him poorly, and Smith ruined Kellerman's career.

The criticism here is that Smith accuses Bayless of doing to Sharpe what he did to Kellerman.

We hope Stephen A. eventually explains how Skip screwed Shannon but he didn't screw Max.