Skip Bayless’ lengthy tenure at ESPN is coming to an end this week, as the studio host is taking his future hot takes to Fox Sports. Bayless said goodbye to his First Take counterpart Stephen A. Smith in an emotional sendoff Tuesday. You can check that out above, if you’re into that kind of thing. (It’s worth watching just for the awkward Stephen A. & Skip handshake/hug at the end.)
It’s a sad time for sports fans who love watching the inflammatory duo of Bayless and Smith scream terrible opinions loudly at each other’s faces every day. However, it may not be such a bummer for Bayless’ ESPN colleagues, who don’t exactly seem to be in mourning over his network departure.
Following Game 7 of the NBA Finals, Scott Van Pelt took what may have been a subtle shot at Bayless over his continuous denouncement of LeBron James, even after James finally delivered on his promise of bringing a title to Cleveland.
Then, ESPN Radio’s Ryan Russillo and Danny Kanell took on Bayless more directly. On Monday’s Rusillo & Kanell, the duo discussed what it was like to work with Bayless, and — shocker — they weren’t crazy about him.
Here’s a transcript of the discussion, courtesy of Awful Announcing:
Russillo: “Here’s my thing, If I had a position where I kept saying Tom Brady was the worst all the time and there’s really a lot of evidence that tells you he’s not the worst – or if I say Brady’s Super Bowl, you know, he could have done it without David Patten, that kind of stuff. If [Dan] LeBatard went out and said “I can’t believe Russillo said this, or Mike & Mike can’t believe Russillo said this, I would be OK with this, but I may disagree with them, but I would be OK with it. The problem is when you disagree with Skip, you’re not allowed to. Then he gets mad at you about it. So like, nobody wants to deal with it. And that’s why when the LeBron stuff comes up, if you’re going to be so clearly doctoring the results to keep pushing that you don’t like LeBron or you don’t think he’s any good, then go ahead and keep doing it because it’s clearly great for business, but you can’t get mad at other opinion people for being like ‘Well, that’s just insane and I don’t even know if you believe it.’ That’s always been my point with any of that stuff.”
Kanell: “Isn’t there a time, where you have to go ‘I was wrong’. Isn’t there a time? It’s probably not after the NBA Finals when LeBron was just so dominant.
Russillo: But that’s not good for business. It’s not good for business. You’re right, Danny, but it’s not good for business. And do you know what? Business is good, so I respect that part of it, but we’re all big boys, we all say stuff, and all of us, since we’re opinion guys, disagree with each other all the time. But when you disagree with Skip, it’s handled a different way and a lot of us are just like, whatever. So that’s why we never bring it up.
Kanell: Well, we don’t have to worry about it anymore.
The good news for those of you clowns who do value Bayless’ often-asinine opinions, they’re not going away … they’re just changing channels.
