On Tuesday morning, ESPN’s First Take drew headlines with a viral segment featuring Stephen A. Smith, J.J. Redick, and CJ McCollum. At the center of the fracas was an opinion from Smith about Russell Westbrook’s presence at Darvin Ham’s introductory press conference with the Lakers, and both Redick and McCollum were having none of it in amusing and pointed fashion.
If nothing else, Smith certainly met his match during this particular portion of the program. On Tuesday evening, longtime Smith critic Kevin Durant weighed in to express that he is now “locked in” on First Take because of how it has guys like Redick and McCollum as Smith’s foils.
Steve can’t beat up on max Kellerman the boxing guy and the new baseball guy “mad dog” or whatever his name is? I’m locked in now https://t.co/06sVFRJv1s
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) June 7, 2022
Durant takes a bit of a shot at both Max Kellerman and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo in the process, and it wouldn’t be Durant if he wasn’t having a bit of fun on Twitter. Still, this is both funny and notable in that this is not a segment that you would always see on First Take, particularly with Smith as the clear dominant voice on that program.
It has to be said that Durant very clearly is not alone in appreciating what happened here, and perhaps ESPN will take solace in that when it comes to future programming choices. It will also be interesting to see if Durant is truly dialed in moving forward, if for no reason other than KD live-tweeting First Take would be extremely entertaining.