The hosts of First Take are no fans of Milwaukee, and it seems the feeling is mutual. On Wednesday morning, Stephen A. Smith answered “hell no!” when asked if he was looking forward to go to the Cream City for the NBA Finals. By the afternoon, a petition had been launched to ban the show from the city.
Host Molly Qerim then piled on. She said that the last time she did not go to the Super Bowl was the year it was played in Minneapolis. Now she doesn’t believe she and Max Kellerman are headed to the NBA Finals and declared that both events she missed were in “terrible cities”.
“I don’t believe either of them will win their series, but I have never been rooting harder for Atlanta and the Los Angeles Clippers in my life,” Smith said.
Clearly Querim and Smith have never seen Wayne’s World. Otherwise they would know that Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The natives called it “mee-lee-wah-kay,” which is of course Algonquin for “The Good Land.” It’s not a nickname a city earns by accident.
Jen, Gabe and Chewy welcomed one of the offending parties to their show on ESPN Milwaukee on Wednesday morning. Stephen A. Smith didn’t change his mind over being excited to see the city, but he did note that he expects Bucks fans to be very happy.
“I think there’s a better than 60% possibility that the Milwaukee Bucks will win the championship at this stage and point,” he said before adding “I don’t believe there’s anyway in hell you win that series if Kyrie Irving hadn’t twisted his ankle.”
Also dropping by for a conversation was Smith’s partner Max Kellerman. Unlike Qerim and Smith, Kellerman said he had no issues with the city. When Lada asked if there was a reluctance from the national media to embrace the Bucks, Kellerman said yes but not because Milwaukee isn’t a Cosmopolitan city. It’s more due to the team’s ownership group, which features a couple of New York City hedge fund guys, becoming cheap after they acquired the franchise. Kellerman added that the team’s ability to win a championship depends more on other teams having star players injured and catching them at the right time, rather than the Bucks being the best team.
With Bucks fever sweeping across the city, ESPN Milwaukee has increased playoff programming to capture the excitement. The station announced today the launch of ‘Bucks at 6’, a show featuring former Bucks player Tony Smith and former Wisconsin basketball player and ESPN Madison host Ben Brust.
