Dissing Skip Bayless is a game for most sports media members, and Draymond Green took his turn this week on The Big Podcast with Shaq.
In quintessential Shaquille O’Neal fashion, he closed out his interview with Green on the latest episode by asking the Golden State Warriors star to name the biggest haters inside and outside the NBA. After a long thought, Green set his sights on Bayless.
“Dude just sits up there and spews hate,” Green said. “I hope I give him a soundbite for his show because it’s dying.”
Green took issue, in particular, with Bayless attacking Green’s agency-mate LeBron James so relentlessly throughout James’ career.
“When you’re hating on LeBron James every single day for instance,” Green said, “there’s no way this man gives you something to hate on every single day.”
Whether it’s Stephen A. Smith twisting the knife as First Take continues to dominate Bayless’ Undisputed in the ratings, Charles Barkley continuing his yearslong beef with Bayless, or Shannon Sharpe’s guests on Club Shay Shay taking turns dissing Bayless on nearly every episode, the former Dallas Morning News columnist has become a punching bag.
At the same time, Bayless has seemingly become more desperate after running Sharpe off Undisputed last year. And when it comes to Green, who plays the sport Bayless is seemingly least equipped to cover, the frustration is justified.
Unless Bayless is criticizing James or talking about the Lakers, he relies on panelists like Paul Pierce and Rachel Nichols to pick up the slack of any NBA conversation. All he really has is his James shtick, and it’s pretty tired at this point.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.