You may remember yesterday we told you about Skip Bayless and First Take ducking an appearance by Miami native Luther Campbell.  Included in that piece was this tweet from Skip Bayless lobbed at Mark Cuban to come debate him on television with some nonsense added about being a real man or whatever…

Today, Mark Cuban did indeed appear on First Take and it didn’t turn out so well for ESPN’s resident town crier.  And, much to the glee of those of us that are fans of sanity and reason, Cuban obliterated Bayless.  The only thing Cuban didn’t do was kick Skip’s dog off a bridge.  Not only did the Mavericks owner call out Bayless for his generalizations and lack of facts, but also his lack of basketball knowledge and ridiculous need to put himself at the center of the story.  (I guess Cuban hasn’t heard about Skip’s all-star basketball career.)  Generally, Cuban exposed Bayless and First Take what it aspires to be.  Below is the video of Cuban’s appearance as well as some of the relevant quotes….

https://youtube.com/watch?v=hv2jqFd2-qI
 

“You guys like to talk in complete generalities where no one can question you, you don’t ever use facts, you don’t ever use substance.” 

“You have the presumption that people care what you say, they don’t… when guys get ready to play they’re not thinking, ‘ok what’s going to be written, what’s being said’ right?  They’re getting prepared.”

“Miami wanted it more or less, that is just such horse you know what… it’s not that Oklahoma City don’t want it more, I think Miami was better prepared to play the game than Oklahoma City in terms of adjustment and changes.”

“That is the most ridiculous thing any sportswriter has ever said.”

“That’s exactly right Skip, that’s all you saw, you didn’t look.” 

“This is a Skip Bayless special: LeBron lost last year because he was paying attention to Skip Bayless.  LeBron won this year because he wasn’t paying attention to Skip Bayless.”

Here’s the sad part to all of this – ESPN uploaded the video themselves to YouTube.  They’ll be glad to promote this clash and give whatever attention they can to Bayless and Smith as they leech off this Miami Heat championship and squeeze as much blood out of it as they can.  Then they’ll move onto another pantomime debate topic soon enough and we’ll repeat this meaningless cycle all over again.  ESPN can be content with the “buzz” and “talk” surrounding this madness, but one day they will realize the long-term damage done to their brand is far greater than whatever short-term thrill they receive from seeing “Skip Bayless” trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons.  Hopefully that day comes sooner rather than later.