Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals didn’t go as planned for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They blew a 22-point lead and watched the New York Knicks take over in a 115-104 win. Amidst the loss, James Harden’s 15 points in 42 minutes didn’t sit right with many. After Wednesday’s game, ex-ESPN personality Max Kellerman said on the Game Over podcast, “Bringing in James Harden to win a championship is like electing Donald Trump to fix your country.” However, two days later, he apologized to Harden.

On the same podcast, Kellerman admitted his mistake. He said, “You know, it went viral, and I realized after, because I guess it married politics and sports. And I just have to say right now, I shouldn’t have said that because it’s not fair to James Harden. I did not mean to insult him publicly in a way that was going to go viral, and it was too severe. I don’t think it’s as bad as all that, but I do think I was just using.”

Max Kellerman shared that his comparison was never meant to be taken literally. People often use “hyperbole” to emphasize a point during debates or commentary. In this case, he believed the analogy was simply a rhetorical device meant to strengthen his argument, not a direct one-to-one comparison.

“So I don’t think it’s as bad as electing Trump to fix your country, obviously, but that’s the idea. It’s like that’s the opposite of what you would do if you’re trying to get a certain result,” the 52-year-old added. Now, let’s understand what triggered Kellerman to compare James Harden with the President of the United States.

Right after Wednesday’s loss, the New York Knicks’ head coach Mike Brown told the media that they intended to attack the 36-year-old veteran guard’s weak defense. “There is no secret: We were attacking Harden,” Brown said. “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.”

Yet, Kellerman’s comparison came as a hard surprise for everyone across the league and beyond. And well, there might be some history behind it as well.

Maybe Max Kellerman’s James Harden-Donald Trump comparison wasn’t coincidence

During his ESPN run, Max Kellerman built a reputation as one of the network’s strongest liberal voices. And that reportedly created serious friction behind the scenes with Stephen A. Smith. According to OutKick, Smith grew increasingly frustrated as Kellerman took even firmer stances during racial and political debates. At the same time, the 52-year-old made his criticism of Donald Trump unmistakably clear during Trump’s first presidential term.

In 2020, he said 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 with platforms like Spotify and Netflix, Kellerman has far more freedom to mix politics with sports commentary. Even then, the Trump-James Harden comparison still comes across as a stretch.

In Game 1, James Harden received most of the blame for the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ loss. And the blame simmply fell on his poor defense. According to stats, Jalen Brunson torched them whenever James Harden picked him up defensively, shooting 7 of 11 in those matchups. Meanwhile, Harden struggled badly on the other end. He finished just 5 of 16 from the field and coughed up the ball six times.

Therefore, the pressure is now crashing down on Cleveland. Because the Knicks carry a ruthless 2-0 advantage into the Eastern Conference Finals trip to Ohio. However, James Harden’s numbers have only fueled the panic. He has hit just 11-of-31 shots across the last two games, and playoff patience is wearing thin again. Meanwhile, Donald Trump managed to win the presidency twice. Harden, on the other hand, continues to battle the reputation of fading when the lights burn brightest.