Skip Bayless made a surprising admission about Charles Barkley.
In the latest episode of The Skip Bayless Show, the polarizing sports commentator took some time address his longstanding feud with Barkley. Bayless pointed to Barkley’s recent appearance on the All the Smoke podcast, in which he blasted Bayless’ criticism of LeBron James.
“I don’t like the guy,” Barkley said about Bayless. “Skip, to me, these guys are real people. And I don’t mind you criticizing guys, it can never be personal. One thing I hate about the media, you can tell guys they like and dislike. You can’t talk about people on television like that. You have to be fair and honest with people. You can tell who he likes, you can tell who he dislikes, because he makes it personal. Like, you can’t say bad stuff about LeBron James … Skip’s disrespect toward [LeBron], I do not like it.”
Bayless pushed back on the comments on his eponymous podcast, saying Barkley has also been critical of the NBA star. He did, however, credit Barkley for keeping his comments much more civil and free of physical threats. Bayless previously called out Barkley for threatening his life, and asked him to cut it out for the sake of his wife, Ernestine.
“Charles has been taking shots at me for, I don’t know, 20 years? On various platforms including his own on TNT’s Inside the NBA,” Bayless said, as pointed out by Awful Announcing. “But at least this time, for the first time ever, Charles didn’t go ‘k-word’ on me. This time, for the first time ever, he did not say that he would like to ‘kill me,’ as he so often has.”
He continued: “To his credit, this time he did refrain. I greatly appreciate that. That is progress. Thank God for small favors. Thank you, Charles Barkley.”
Bayless also thanked Barkley for watching Undisputed, a sports debate show where he frequently shares his criticism of LeBron. He went on to say he was also a “big fan of Charles Barkley the commentator,” and envied his ability to navigate the media with little to no backlash.
“And I must admit, I do love Charles on TV,” Bayless said. “… As you know, it has come to the point, he can get away with saying just about anything that pops into his head and out of his mouth. That’s just Charles being Charles … I envy that.
“I’m the polar opposite of that. I can say the smallest thing, the most innocent thing, I can tweet it or say it on Undisputed, something that is completely in bounds, completely OK, and all of a sudden one person on Twitter says, ‘can you believe Skip Bayless said that?’… All of a sudden, once again, I’m being cancelled by that internet lynch mob … That’s my life and I’m happy to live my life, but I do envy Charles’ life.”
You can watch the latest episode of The Skip Bayless Show below. He addresses Barkley’s comments at the top of the video.
