Yesterday, ESPN announced that Skip Baylesswill be leaving The Worldwide Leader in Sports—presumably to take a job at Fox Sports 1—this summer. He will be stepping away from his ESPN First Take duties on the day after the 2016 NBA Finals end, and while his current contract doesn’t expire until the end of August, we don’t imagine we’ll see him on ESPN much after that.
On today’s episode of First Take, Skip, Stephen A. Smith, and Molly Qerim opened the show by addressing the elephant in the room. Skip acknowledged that he will be leaving the show and spoke about the reactions he has received to the news.
“I want to thank the many people who responded via social media. Much love, even to the haters,” he said, before turning his attention to Stephen A. “But most of all, I want to thank this man sitting across from me for all he has done for me. I’m going to shake his hand and I’m going to tell him what I told him off the air last Friday. I love you, man. That is from the bottom of my heart.”
Check out the clip above to see what Stephen A. had to say about Skip’s departure.
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