Max Kellerman Compares James Harden Trade to Electing Donald Trump

Former ESPN host Max Kellerman said the Cleveland Cavaliers made the same mistake trading for James Harden as Americans did in electing Donald Trump president.

"Bringing in James Harden to win a championship is like electing Donald Trump to fix your country," Kellerman said Wednesday on his "Game Over" podcast.

The comparison came after the Cavaliers blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead Tuesday night against the New York Knicks. Following the collapse, Knicks coach Mike Brown said his team attacked Harden's defense.

"There is no secret: We were attacking Harden," Brown told reporters. "Sometimes you’ve got to do what the game dictates, and they were trying to do the same thing with Jalen (Brunson), so we said, ‘OK, we feel like we can play that game.’ We try not to play that game much, but we feel like we have a guy that we can play that game with in Jalen."

Kellerman was among ESPN’s most openly liberal commentators during his time at the network. One reason Stephen A. Smith pushed to remove him from "First Take" was that Kellerman positioned himself further to the left than Smith on certain racial and political issues. Former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens once told Smith on air that "Max was blacker" than he was. Sources say Smith and Kellerman’s relationship never recovered from the segment.

Kellerman’s criticism of Trump was clear during the former president’s first term. In 2020, Kellerman said on air that Trump voters in the South "seem to be susceptible to very low-quality information, easy to propagandize, and almost immune to facts."

Now working independently on platforms such as Spotify and Netflix, Kellerman has more freedom to mix politics and sports commentary. The Trump-Harden comparison still drew notice because opposing teams have built game plans around Harden’s defense, as Brown noted after the loss.