VIDEO: Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman Got Emotional About NBA China Story

Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman discussed the ongoing Daryl Morey/Rockets/NBA/China story on First Take today, and it got emotional towards the finish.

Smith maintained a lot of what he said yesterday, which is essentially that he believes Morey is a talented general manager who works at the behest of an organization that was supremely inconvenienced by his tweet, and that this should have been a circumstance where Morey bit his tongue. Kellerman responded that if you take this argument to its absurd extreme it means unrelenting obedience to companies and repressive regimes.

At the 11:55-mark, Kellerman said that in this argument Smith was standing up for the behavior of a Communist regime that is using economic pressure to silence freedom of speech. To that, Smith responded, "That's a misrepresentation. You should be ashamed of yourself for saying that."

Smith later said, "I would remind you that throughout this world one of the things that exists is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I don't see folks outside of the Jewish community talking about that too often. Why? Because when you open your mouth, you have to be careful."

Suffice to say this was a segment fraught with emotions, and when First Take returned from break, they discussed Zion Williamson.