This First Take Segment Is Really Something

A fun game to play with this bar fight of a is to pause it at any point during its seven-minute runtime and giggle to yourself at the marvelous facial expressions of hosts Stephen A. Smith, Will Cain, and Max Kellerman. The three dudes are never not incredulous, aghast, or enraged, spewing fire and brimstone at each other.

At issue is Kevin Durant’s announcement that he’ll skip a White House visit if invited by Donald Trump. Smith is in favor. Cain is not ( longtime readers will not be surprised), on the grounds that Durant choosing not to meet with a braying moron who can’t even denounce Nazis is “divisive.” This is the word that shitheels like Cain will always push, as if cohesiveness in support of terrible policies and disgusting actions is somehow preferable to having beliefs and acting on them. “I wish that a White House celebration of your athletic achievements could be free from politics,” he said, which is a statement that contradicts itself.

Anyway, their initial disagreement started out civilly enough then devolved into this intractable shouting match that was more about whether or not Smith and Cain had done an adequate job respecting each other’s arguments.

It’s hard to suss out the particularities of really anyone’s take here, but the largest identifiable disagreement is that Cain is steamed that Kellerman and Smith would look down on or belittle anyone who would take a different tack than Durant. If this all sounds confusing, well, it is. Rather than get too deep into this pile of shit, here, check out these screencaps.

Cain later did some tweets:

Here is the only reasonable take on the matter: