John Ireland & Max Kellerman beef on air re: Interview w/MDA

So heres a little background about this thing happened on air yesterday afternoon on the Lakers flagship radio station

-John Ireland works for the Lakers obviously and hes a shameless Laker apologist. He and his partner Mason (not the black guy you hear in the clip) credited D'Antoni during his interview asking him what was the reason for the Lakers winning 6 out of 7 games and what are some misconceptions about MDA blah blah blah.

- Max Kellerman is a New York guy who did NY Radio during D'Antoni's tenure as coach in New York. Started a radio gig in ESPN 710 LA in late 2010. Max hates him and calls him Antoni and slanders him at every opportunity he can get. Kellerman is a frontrunner, last yr to begin the 2011 season after lockout he hopped on the Clippers bandwagon and proclaimed them as legitimate long term threats for Lakers and its a Clipper town but once we won the division he changed his tune and was back on the Lakers bandwagon again. Lets just say he either exaggerates proclaiming how wonderful we are or exaggerates negatively saying we're screwed and he and his partner Marcellus Wiley put out a Clippers > Lakers agenda. IT draws in callers or what not but they over do it and it gets annoying (annoying enough I stopped listening to their show about 1 year ago, I only tune in when they interview)

-So this segment called crosstalk where one show ends (Irelands) and the other guy's begins (Max's) and heres how the exchange went in the topic of Ireland interview D'Antoni earlier in the day. You usually dont hear Ireland lose his cool like that and sound real mad and take personal shots.

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/losangeles/play?id=8923282

Check it from 30 min mark

I listen to 710 daily here in So Cal and this is actually normal. They always take shots at each other, especially on crosstalk. The other day Max was talking crap about Ireland hair, sames goes with Marcelus weight. It's a comedy show, no biggie.

yea that was very much ado about nothing.

i like kellerman. i don't think he's a clipper homer at all as you've said...marcellus is though for sure. that's just max's personality. the plucky, sarcastic humor guy...and i actually think he's got good points a lot of the time, and there's some validity in what he's saying about MDA. the players have said as much themselves, in that they were going away from MDA's coaching style.

i like ireland, but sometimes he sells the company line way too hard. like before we rejected phil and it was phil-mania, ireland (probably with inside information) was like "D'ANTONI WOULD BE GREAT. WE SHOULD HIRE D'ANTONI." it was overly obvious, and from that point on, i always take what he says with a grain of salt.

Love M&I, M&M on the other hand...meh, but Crosstalk is hilarious. M&I carry M&M and it makes for some hilarious banter between the four of them.

I'm amazed though that the set of host of mase/ireland and max/marcellus are all ballers........I only thought Marcellus was since he was a former football player but dam I Mase is pretty rich, Ireland always ragging on him that he lives in Bel-Air and own movie theatres.

Normally you hear Ireland follow up with another joke or some laughter but this time he was quiet. He did sound pretty angry.

lakersyunowin wrote:yea that was very much ado about nothing.

i like kellerman. i don't think he's a clipper homer at all as you've said...marcellus is though for sure. that's just max's personality. the plucky, sarcastic humor guy...and i actually think he's got good points a lot of the time, and there's some validity in what he's saying about MDA. the players have said as much themselves, in that they were going away from MDA's coaching style.

i like ireland, but sometimes he sells the company line way too hard. like before we rejected phil and it was phil-mania, ireland (probably with inside information) was like "D'ANTONI WOULD BE GREAT. WE SHOULD HIRE D'ANTONI." it was overly obvious, and from that point on, i always take what he says with a grain of salt.

^^ I agree. At first I couldn't stand Kellerman but he at least is articulate and presents decent analysis and critique. Not a fan of Marcellus at all and I don't care much for the show.

I've heard them debate before with Ireland getting blue in the face trying to defend D' Antoni, which is pretty funny to hear him so put out of place. But to me it's like shooting fish in a barrel to an extent. Kellerman wins the argument because there really isn't much winning to do defending D' Antoni when they've deliberately shelved his offensive system because it didn't work for this team (surprise, surprise). It was either that or fire him, so . . .

But yeah, ever since that day that Brown got fired and Ireland and Mason came on the radio without missing a beat and started to try and sell the fan base on D' Antoni I've understood that he's just the mouthpiece for the FO. If you're an LOTR fan, he's kind of like the Mouthpiece of Sauron in the Return of the King. I mean he's not as disgusting and he's not evil, but he's clearly on the payroll and defends their interest. I just can't stand listening to that crap being in the guise of a real sports talk show. Don't pretend to be objective or that the idea of D' Antoni isn't being fed to you by the Lakers FO.

Kellerman and Wiley are idiots. Their show is garbage. The only thing that sucks is that their in the same time slot as that dude with the horrid voice and their show is somehow worse.

Whatever Ireland said he's right. I don't care what it was.

Kellerman is a coward and an idiot. He was quickly on the Clippers bandwagon as soon as they got Paul. Then the Lakers got Howard/Nash and he was quickly on our bandwagon again. Now they milk the "Marcellus is a Clipper homer" all day long and all they do is find ways to bash LA. Not that we don't deserve it, but there's very little critical thought on that show and even less important information. Mason and Ireland know what they're doing and are professionals. Kellerman and Wiley are clowns.

therealdeal wrote:Kellerman and Wiley are idiots. Their show is garbage. The only thing that sucks is that their in the same time slot as that dude with the horrid voice and their show is somehow worse.

Whatever Ireland said he's right. I don't care what it was.

Kellerman is a coward and an idiot. He was quickly on the Clippers bandwagon as soon as they got Paul. Then the Lakers got Howard/Nash and he was quickly on our bandwagon again. Now they milk the "Marcellus is a Clipper homer" all day long and all they do is find ways to bash LA. Not that we don't deserve it, but there's very little critical thought on that show and even less important information. Mason and Ireland know what they're doing and are professionals. Kellerman and Wiley are clowns.

Ireland is not right in this case. He's been trying to sell us on D' Antoni on the behest of the Lakers FO since the Friday morning Brown's firing was announced. It's fairly transparent, but he also acts like he's coming up with it himself which is disingenuous. He's just a mouthpiece pure and simple. But I don't like that he's on the radio as a "journalist" pretending to be objective.

Kellerman can be annoying, but his analysis about D' Antoni is spot on.

I didn't listen to the cross talk, so I have no idea what he said about D'Antoni then. But I heard his actual interview with D'Antoni and I heard what he had to say just before cross talk.

In that interview all he did was give D'Antoni the credit that he deserved saying that Mike isn't exactly inflexible. If he was as inflexible as we (as fans/media) think of him, then what we're seeing now wouldn't be happening. The only inflexible things D'Antoni has in his system are ball movement, man movement, and taking open shots. Now obviously it took D'Antoni a while to come to this, but Ireland is right in giving him a little credit for being open to the offense we're running now.

Obivously Ireland is a Laker homer, but I'd rather have a Laker homer (or any team homer honestly) than a bandwagon fan. Kellerman is a bandwagon fan and he has only so much analysis that I can ever agree with. In this case if he's not giving D'Antoni ANY credit then he's wrong. D'Antoni doesn't deserve credit for MAKING this offense, but he's assisting in running it now and that's commendable whether we like him or not.


Something Shelbourne came up with yesterday was the confirmation bias against D'Antoni right now. Peoplet hate him and will continue to do so for no reason whatsoever just because a) he's not Phil and b) his past transgressions. Now does he deserve some hate? Absolutely, but that doesn't mean he's completely free of credit as well.

I did hear that beef yesterday, LIVE, and I was thinking they're playing but did kind of tilt my head sideways at the radio like "really?"

But it was more of beef between MASON and Kellerman, not Ireland.

therealdeal wrote:Mason and Ireland know what they're doing and are professionals. Kellerman and Wiley are clowns.

Well, I disagree. Mason and Ireland are complete mouthpieces for the Lakers FO, especially Ireland. And they have these boring topics of discussion and ask the audience poll questions to call in and answer. ZZzz. Kellerman and Wiley are hilarious, funny, comical, entertaining, never boring, and in general have a great show. My opinion.

Lakeshow24 wrote:

therealdeal wrote:Mason and Ireland know what they're doing and are professionals. Kellerman and Wiley are clowns.

Well, I disagree. Mason and Ireland are complete mouthpieces for the Lakers FO, especially Ireland. And they have these boring topics of discussion and ask the audience poll questions to call in and answer. ZZzz. Kellerman and Wiley are hilarious, funny, comical, entertaining, never boring, and in general have a great show. My opinion.

Which you're entitled to. Obviously Ireland is a mouthpiece, but I'm a Laker fan so he's got information I want to hear.

Kellerman talks about nothing for 5-7 minutes, Wiley speaks incoherently about nothing in the background for 5-7 minutes then the go to commercial for 5-7 minutes. When they come back, Kellerman bull****s his way through another 5-7 minutes. He rarely makes coherent thoughts even though he's clearly intelligent. He gives Wiley way too much speaking time since Wiley is, to put it plainly, an idiot. Wiley loves to be the "devil's advocate" and he does it in the most annoying ways possible, he's a hater, and he's annoying as all hell.

My opinion.

Max and Marcellus, what the hell is better about them than Ireland? So what if Ireland works for the Lakers at least he and Mason give you ALL the information you need to know about the team and take a stance on where they stand. Max and Marcellus just have an agenda the whole time and twist everything to fit what they want to say which is mostly subliminally bash Kobe and Lakers every chance they can get. Ridiculous

I didn't think Mason and Ireland gave a "softball interview" to D'Antoni as Max calls it. Both Mason and Ireland had to ask the "What's the biggest misconception question about you?" question twice to get D'Antoni to answer it. Mason asked it the first time, and D'Antoni tried to weasel out of it. It was "Laker shill" John Ireland who came back to D'Antoni and asked the question again in a very pointed and direct terms, D'Antoni finally did answer the question and admitted that this current team "doesn't have a system", since the system he ran in Phoenix doesn't work for this squad. He also admitted that he would like to eventually run the system he ran in Phoenix sometime in the future if he can get the appropriate players. I'd hardly call that a "softball interview".

I enjoy M&M way more than M&I. When I listen, I want to be entertained and those two are hilarious. Though M&I aren't too bad either. Petros & Money, now those two are idiots.

Who is better at the games? Ireland or Spero?

^ Well rewind to their inteview with Kobe when Max wouldn't ask a serious question without saying "some people say" or "it's been thrown out that" before hand.

Kellerman is a piece of ****.

scissors wrote:Who is better at the games? Ireland or Spero?

Spero. His voice is perfect for radio, Ireland's is just adequate.

Although Ireland and Thompson to me is a great duo. They don't hesitate to call out the Lakers on the radio.

I don't care for Wiley at all but Kellerman is infinitely better than Mason and Ireland.

Then the Lakers got Howard/Nash and he was quickly on our bandwagon again.

Uh no. He called our acquisitions of them WAY before we even got them. People were calling him crazy but he maintained his belief we were going to get them. He didn't bandwagon at all.

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:I don't care for Wiley at all but Kellerman is infinitely better than Mason and Ireland.

Then the Lakers got Howard/Nash and he was quickly on our bandwagon again.

Uh no. He called our acquisitions of them WAY before we even got them. People were calling him crazy but he maintained his belief we were going to get them. He didn't bandwagon at all.

ok he called for them, that doesnt mean he was supporting our team the whole time. I dont have any problems with him questioning our team but its clear as day what his agenda is.

Saying we should go after Nash doesn't mean he called it, he can make that claim all he wants but it's not true.

And just because he said we should make those moves doesn't mean he was or wasn't on our bandwagon. They're mutually exclusive. I can predict that the Celtics will trade for Bledsoe, but that doesn't mean I'm rooting for that team.

He openly stated that the Clippers would be the team in LA for the future, stating this would be a Clipper town. Then we made our moves and then he said this will always be a Laker town. That's what a bandwagon fan is.

Just because you like him, doesn't mean he's not a bandwagon fan.

He calls out the team when they suck which is what everyone here does. How is he any different? He also praises Laker ownership alot, including Jimbo which is something very few people are willing to do.

Also Kellerman has never had an agenda to bash Kobe. That's total non sense.

Kellerman praises Jim Buss? Since when? He's been calling out Jim Buss since he got to LA. What Kellerman are you listening to?

Ireland calls out the team when they suck. What's the difference? The difference is that Ireland is as invested in the Lakers as any of us are, in fact obviously moreso since he's employed by them. Kellerman doesn't give two ****s about the Lakers in comparison.

As a Laker fan listening to Laker radio, I want to hear someone of like mind. That's exactly why I'm on here EVERY DAY. I don't want to hear the ridiculous crap out of Kellerman's ridiculous mouth.

JoelMyersScrotalSack wrote:He calls out the team when they suck which is what everyone here does. How is he any different? He also praises Laker ownership alot, including Jimbo which is something very few people are willing to do.

Also Kellerman has never had an agenda to bash Kobe. That's total non sense.

Hes pretty much like Magic. Praises them like crazy when we win, trashes them at every opportunity we lose. Theres no consistency whatsoever. And the way he talks is pretty annoying. Talking loud, fast, interrupting other people. Very annoying. I only tune in when theres an interview like the Kobe/Earl Clark interview in the last week. Other than that intolerable.