Former co-host makes shocking Max Kellerman claim

If there’s a list of people qualified to talk about Max Kellerman’s whereabouts, Marcellus Wiley would be near the top. In the early 2010s, Kellerman was the midday host at ESPN Radio’s Los Angeles Station KSPN, and Wiley was his co-host.

While Kellerman has been out of the public eye since ESPN let him go last summer, Wiley isn’t on linear television either. As Wiley pursues a solo digital podcast venture, that’s partly because he’s searching for another cohost with whom he connects as profoundly as he did with Kellerman, with whom he hosted Max and Marcellus for ESPN Los Angeles from 2010-16.

He even teased a reunion with Kellerman last year. But that’s not what he’s doing here.

Awful Announcing’s podcast with Brian Kenny put Kellerman’s name back at the forefront, as the MLB Network host hinted that Kellerman would emerge from the shadows later this year . That led to Dan Le Batard lamenting Kellerman’s treatment by the Worldwide Leader on his way out the door and explaining why he’s essentially “vanished.”

And after Le Batard weighed in, Wiley threw his hat into the ring.

“Simply, two things are happening. As reported, Max Kellerman is getting paid like he’s on television to live his life,” Wiley explained. “They’re paying him to game plan his next move. They’re paying him to stay away but also use this time for yourself. And I think is a great time for Max Kellerman, not only in persona, but who he is as a person — not just his sports personality — but to heal itself. Because, as Dan said, they tried to play him.”

According to Wiley, that’s Part 1. The other part of the equation is that those who know Kellerman know he’s a very private person.

“Even when Max was on air on all those shows, think about it, was Max anything of tabloid?” asked Wiley. “Was Max doing anything outside of that to give you greater perspective of who he was? Was he doing a ton of interviews on other shows, podcasts, etc.? That ain’t Max. One of our dynamics that worked so well when we did our show together was I’m very open and jolly…Max is about life. He’s about living his life and doing his job — not much in between.

“So, we shouldn’t talk hyperbolic about where’s Max because he got paid to do what he was doing at home; you could just do whatever. So, you get paid to do nothing or whatever you want to call it. And he ain’t trying to do anything anyway. That’s it; he’s just life and work.

“Now, Max as a talent? Insane. The reason why we’re still like, ‘What’s up with Max?’ You hear Max’s name all the time because the dude is insanely talented. The dude is a brain. And we all know where our brains are and know it’s limited in its capacity compared to when you talk to Max Kellerman. Sensibilities are different — you like what he says, don’t like what he says. That’s a different conversation. But knowing what to say? Oh, come on, man. Y’all better leave that boy alone. Stop playing.”

Wiley understands to a degree what Kellerman has gone through, asserting that both he and Le Batard experienced similar things on their respective ways out the door.

“When he left First Take , he was doing a morning radio show and an afternoon TV show,” Wiley said. “…That’s not trying to kill you, but they know that’s not you at your peak powers. That’s not you at peak leverage. You just taking what they give you because that’s how it goes. What else you gonna do? What are your options? So, that’s a tougher living than ‘Hey, I got my dedicated show. I got what I want.’ As Charles Barkley always say, ‘They gonna work you like a dog.’ So they tried to do that with Max, and Dan Le Batard talks about how they tried to do that with him…

“Now, why would ESPN want to give away money like that? Why don’t they say, ‘Hey, you can do what you want to do, just give us some money back.’ Why? I’ll tell you why. It starts with Keith Olbermann…Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick used to run SportsCenter, obviously, with Stuart Scott. Those were the big dogs in the 90s. When contract negotiations occur, they weren’t properly rewarded based on their popularity. That’s how they felt — they weren’t being valued.

“…And there was an internal message that everyone said that was sent which was, ‘Never again will some person, some analyst, some broadcaster, some host on this network be bigger than the brand.'”

And Kellerman wasn’t bigger than the four letters.

[ Marcellus Wiley ]

The post Marcellus Wiley explains why Max Kellerman has ‘disappeared’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .