Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman were the follow-up daily debate opponents to the Smith and Skip Bayless duo for "First Take" on ESPN. Today, the Smith-Kellerman and Bayless-Smith duos are no more. Both have taken different avenues to different ventures since then, but Smith has remained on the flagship ESPN show.Kellerman has remained quiet about his exit from the show in September 2021 until now. He opened up about the falling out and his updated opinion of the show. In his comments, he pulled back the curtain on how things operated, prompting a response from Jason Whitlock. Here's what Kellerman stated on a Tuesday edition of the Bill Simmons Podcast via Dov Kleiman on X"Stephen A. has no hot takes," Kellerman stated. "I can’t think of counterintuitive conclusions he reaches. That’s not his job on the air. His job is to be the big reactor to a counterintuitive take. ... He’s there to hear the crazy conclusion that his partner has come to and be the everyman with a loud voice. ‘You are crazy’ and do it theatrically.""Let me translate Max: 'Stephen A Smith isn't smart enough to think of a clever take,' Whitlock posted in response. 'I was required to use my brain to come up with a clever take that Stephen A could react bombastically to. I did all the work. Stephen A just had to react. Skip previously played this role.'Max is also saying: 'Forcing me to carry the entire intellectual burden and come up with all the unique takes meant I took all the risks and that's why some of my hottest takes are laughable (Brady cliff fall).' SAS flunked 4th grade and is a pathological liar. Never forget," Whitlock added in a follow-up post.The "Brady cliff fail" take was the viral claim that Tom Brady was guaranteed to fall off a cliff in terms of productivity with the New England Patriots.Of course, Max Kellerman's cliff theory never came to fruition. Rather, Brady's career ended after a gradual decline in interest and productivity with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Years after the theory hit its peak, Brady stepped away to work for FOX after a gap year.Max Kellerman drops theory on why Stephen A. Smith pushed him away from "First Take"Max Kellerman at Netflix's Canelo vs Crawford - Weigh In - Source: GettyIn the interview with Bill Simmons, Max Kellerman also expounded on why he believed he was not on "First Take" anymore, claiming that he was too difficult to debate with. As Kellerman saw things, after a certain amount of time, Stephen A. Smith gave up and pursued an easier debate partner to argue about topics like Patrick Mahomes."If you are on a competitive debate show and you are a competitive person, why would you want me as a partner? That's bad. You wanna go 15 every day with Mohamed Kellerman. It's embarrassing. ... Eventually, you're gonna say I don't want to do that anymore."Since moving on from Max Kellerman, Smith has seen a revolving door of personalities join him on set, including Shannon Sharpe, Cam Newton and others. Kellerman has delivered his shot, and now fans can only wait to see if Smith takes the bait.