Charles Barkley loves to talk basketball, politics, and football, but all of it pales in comparison to talking about how much he hates Skip Bayless.
Barkley joined The Dan Patrick Show Friday morning to talk about the NBA ahead of their All-Star weekend, but not before he took time to slay some hot takes.
“We got so many idiots fools and jackasses on television now, everybody has to have a hot take,” Barkley ranted before urging everyone to stop measuring Patrick Mahomes with Tom Brady or Andy Reid with Bill Belichick.
“Let me tell you how stupid some of these guys are on television,” Barkley said as he transitioned to talking about his favorite fool. “You know how much I hate Skip Bayless. I hate him with every fiber. Sometimes he makes me want to gain weight back so I can hate him with even more weight.”
Wipe the “It’s been this many days since Barkley torched Skip Bayless” bored clean. We officially have our first Barkley-Bayless feud of 2024.
Barkley proceeded to cite a recent hot take from Bayless, where the FS1 host claimed Tom Brady deserves 75 percent of the credit for the New England Patriots dynasty and labeled Bill Belichick a “glorified defensive coordinator.” While most of the world believes Belichick is a top-three head coach in NFL history, Bayless predictably offered a contrarian opinion and it irked Barkley.
“Why do you keep watching these shows?” Patrick asked Barkley as the Basketball Hall of Famer was getting all riled up over Bayless for the umpteenth time.
“I don’t watch these shows,” Barkley insisted. “People send me these hot takes and I love going hard at people. Because to sit there and say, ‘Bill only won championships because of Tom Brady,’ that’s stupid and asinine. Andy Reid’s a great person, he’s a great coach. But how many championships has he won without Patrick Mahomes? So stop trying to hate on Bill Belichick.”
“For some reason, people want to take shots at Bill,” Barkley continued. “It ain’t right. When you get on television, our job is to be fair and objective. And we got some clowns on television now who are like, ‘Belichick is overrated.’ Dude went to nine Super Bowls. There’s nobody who went to nine Super Bowls who’s overrated.”
Barkley might claim he doesn’t watch these debate shows like Skip’s Undisputed or Stephen A. Smith’s First Take, but it sounds like he might enjoy being a contributor to them. It’s clear that he regularly consumes hot takes, he gets fired up by those hot takes, loves “going hard at people,” and calling out the “fools” on TV. If Barkley thinks he can beat them, then join them.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com