Jalen Rose vs Skip Bayless

[Milla4Prez63 678]

Has anyone seen or heard about this? Jalen Rose called out Skip for talking about his high school basketball career when talking about Russell Westbrook, but it turns out he was a benchwarmer who scored 1.4 ppg in varsity. Then it got into a big discussion between them (and Stephen A. Smith) about integrity and whether some columnists/analysts/reporters go too far when calling out players.

 

Here is the video:

 

 

What do you think? Do some members of the media go too far?

 

I personally think as long as it doesn't get too personal, things should be open game as they are paid to give opinions on players. I can see where Rose is coming from, but as long as it stays professional, the games of professional athletes should be called out when necessary. Though, I believe Skip Bayless is just a real life troll.

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

I agree with Jalen 150%.

 

First Take is designed for Skip Bayless to publicly muck up the reputations of other players. He drags them through the mud and is encouraged to do so because it brings in the ratings, and ratings is money for ESPN.

 

It's gotten worse as First Take has become more popular, but ESPN basically pays Jay Crawford to sit behind that desk and pound Skips chest for him. He comes to his defense WHENEVER a viable athlete or otherwise sits across from Skip and comes up with a good point.

 

Jay is there to make sure Skip doesn't get his ego hurt. Fortunately for us (the viewer), nobody saw Jalen Rose coming.

 

Jalen (while being 100% accurate, mind you) DESTROYED Skip Bayless and has numerous times in these types of debates. Rose is one of the best analysts (IMO) out there. He can articulate his opinion in an intelligent fashion and rarely resorts to petty Skipisms (dragging a persons reputation through the mud).

 

In this particular instance, Jalen gave Skip a dose of his own medicine. It left EVERYONE shocked. They had no idea what to do, and for once.... Skip Bayless was left speechless.

 

What does ESPN do?

 

Instead of continuing it right there and not dragging it out, they postpone v2 of this argument for the next day.

 

This allows Skip to gather his thoughts and actually respond. This gives time to Jay Crawford to practice some pre-written drivel defending Skip and talking about how credible and amazing he is.

 

In this extra day, they were also able to set up a video call from Stephen A who looks and sounds like he was paid to pump up Skip and publicly chastise and degrade Jalen Rose.

 

This can't be proven, obviously. But I would be willing to bet they set that entire thing up with Stephen. I do personally believe skin color had something to do with it here...

 

It is my thought that they didn't want to appear like they had two white guys (Skip and Jay) going after Jalen, so they brought in another black guy to do the same and try to erase any kind of racial pretense viewers may have had.

 

ESPN and First Take set up a god damn witch hunt and did what they do best... Degrade, insult, and question the motivations of the person sitting opposite Skip Bayless.

 

Fuck Off.

[vikesfan1 11]

It's about time Bayless gets put in his place, he's an ignorant old man

[Milla4Prez63 678]

First Take is designed for Skip Bayless to publicly muck up the reputations of other players. He drags them through the mud and is encouraged to do so because it brings in the ratings, and ratings is money for ESPN.

 

Agreed. Skip's purpose is troll people to get attention and ratings for ESPN. He does it at the expense of a lot of players to do so.

 

It's gotten worse as First Take has become more popular, but ESPN basically pays Jay Crawford to sit behind that desk and pound Skips chest for him. He comes to his defense WHENEVER a viable athlete or otherwise sits across from Skip and comes up with a good point.

 

Agreed on this as well. He even came to his defense in this one early on when Skip talked about exagerating how good he was and Jay came in "OMG WE ALL GUILTY OF DAT SKIP." I used to like First Take when it was a legit show with all kinds of analysts and discussion and not Skip rehashing the same controversial arguments over and over.

 

Jalen (while being 100% accurate, mind you) DESTROYED Skip Bayless and has numerous times in these types of debates. Rose is one of the best analysts (IMO) out there. He can articulate his opinion in an intelligent fashion and rarely resorts to petty Skipisms (dragging a persons reputation through the mud).

 

In this particular instance, Jalen gave Skip a dose of his own medicine. It left EVERYONE shocked. They had no idea what to do, and for once.... Skip Bayless was left speechless.

 

Agreed as well. I found it funny when it was discovered that Skip overexagerated his high school basketball career. When talking about Westbrook, he constantly talked about how his coach told him to not be a shoot first PG blah blah blah, and now he is playing it off like that is the reason why he didn't play. But again, Skip is just Phil except more professional and isn't a FAG.

 

set up a god damn witch hunt and did what they do best... Degrade, insult, and question the motivations of the person sitting opposite Skip Bayless.

 

Possibly. We all know that ESPN doesn't want Skip's credibility shot, he is a ratings cow for them. I'm honestly suprised they haven't given him some dumb afternoon show like Dan LeBatard, Colin Cowherd and formerly Jim Rome. I'm not siding with Skip at all in this argument, but I thought Jalen was being a little oversensitive in this one. I see his point, but I think things will get personal when discussing these kinds of things and as long as they don't go too far, it isn't a big deal. I don't have a problem with Stephen A. calling Kwame Brown a scrub, because he is. I find it funny as hell honestly, that YouTube video of Stephen ranting on Kwame busts my gut every time. Skip is closer to crossing that line and I think he does with his whole Bosh Spice nickname. He tries to act like it isn't a big deal because Bosh went on the show one time, but like Jalen says, that only justifies Skip and not Chris himself.

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

I agree that Jalen got a little sensitive, that's why he made his comments and why this happened to begin with.

 

But look at the response of First Take / Espn.

 

They OBVIOUSLY got offended that Skip Bayless got tore down. They set up a 15-20 minute slaughter of Jalen Rose... Bringing in Stephen A Smith (who is a dick in his own right) to throw the knockout blow.

 

Skip Bayless claims he was offended, and then continues on with this sob story of a life / sports career he had looking for redemption.

 

Sorry, he isn't getting any from me. He does this to people and athletes (whomever is sitting across from him and otherwise) EVERY single day.

 

Someone gets the better of him ONE DAY, and now Skip is taking the moral high ground and looking for my sympathy?

 

I don't think so. lol

[Milla4Prez63 678]

I don't think anyone really feels bad for Skip. I find it funny he blamed Twitter's 140 character limit for not getting out the whole story of his high school basketball career. He exagerated something in his own life to make a point about Russell Westbrook, bottom line. He is there to exagerate things. People won't take time out of their busy days to watch people say things that aren't unusual like this. I agree this was ESPN sending dogs after Jalen to protect their cash cow, but I also think they realized how this topic blew up online and how much more attention they could get from it. It obviously worked, it got me to make a thread on it lol. It just made me think about the professionalism of journalism today and how many reporters/columnists cross the line.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Milla4Prez63

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Turned my response into an article for Bleacher Report... 1,800 reads so far

 

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1142456-nba-analyst-jalen-rose-brings-integrity-back-to-an-espn-set

[Milla4Prez63 678]

Most of the people commentating on your article seem to be defending Skip, maybe they are just mini Jay Crawfords.

[BwareDWare94 723]

First of all, I don't hate Skip Bayless nearly as much as I hate ESPN for using him like they are. He's getting paid to act, and that's that. He used to be just fine, and often quite accurate, if a tad bit obnoxious. I've never really liked Stephen A when he gets obnoxious, but as an analyst he's actually one of the more accurate people at ESPN, especially when it comes to the NBA. Jalen Rose was fine until he insinuated that anybody could be a journalist, that it took no talent whatsoever, and that was his only real mistake.

 

One thing Rose does tend to do, though, is forget that he and most other athletes that have played at the professional level are incredibly gifted individuals from a physical standpoint. Jalen Rose is 6'8. Most of us could only dream to get somewhere between 6'1 to 6'3, and lots of us hover between the 5'8 and 6'0 mark (I myself am only 6 feet and a half inch tall). My point is that when Jalen was bitching about how the media criticizes athletes and how it isn't fair, I disagreed with him entirely. Criticism is part of whatever your occupation is, fair or not, so I didn't think he had any credence when he said the media shouldn't be so harsh on athletes.

 

Fuck that. Seriously, these incredibly gifted people who have more blessings than most of us will have in a lifetime can deal with a little criticism, even if it is on the national level. It comes with the territory.

[KiLaSix9+ 398]

First of all, I don't hate Skip Bayless nearly as much as I hate ESPN for using him like they are. He's getting paid to act, and that's that. He used to be just fine, and often quite accurate, if a tad bit obnoxious. I've never really liked Stephen A when he gets obnoxious, but as an analyst he's actually one of the more accurate people at ESPN, especially when it comes to the NBA. Jalen Rose was fine until he insinuated that anybody could be a journalist, that it took no talent whatsoever, and that was his only real mistake.

 

One thing Rose does tend to do, though, is forget that he and most other athletes that have played at the professional level are incredibly gifted individuals from a physical standpoint. Jalen Rose is 6'8. Most of us could only dream to get somewhere between 6'1 to 6'3, and lots of us hover between the 5'8 and 6'0 mark (I myself am only 6 feet and a half inch tall). My point is that when Jalen was bitching about how the media criticizes athletes and how it isn't fair, I disagreed with him entirely. Criticism is part of whatever your occupation is, fair or not, so I didn't think he had any credence when he said the media shouldn't be so harsh on athletes.

 

Fuck that. Seriously, these incredibly gifted people who have more blessings than most of us will have in a lifetime can deal with a little criticism, even if it is on the national level. It comes with the territory.

His point wasn't so much that the media is too harsh on athletes but rather that some people cross the line and get personal.

 

BTW, I know this was a trending topic just recently but they had a very similar discussion about 2 years ago and Jalen ripped Skip then.

[Milla4Prez63 678]

His point wasn't so much that the media is too harsh on athletes but rather that some people cross the line and get personal.

 

BTW, I know this was a trending topic just recently but they had a very similar discussion about 2 years ago and Jalen ripped Skip then.

 

I was about to say the same thing. His point wasn't about criticism, it was about going over the line and insulting athletes because of their play against other professionals. Like Skip give Chris Bosh the nickname "Bosh Spice" because he is soft. Or constantly going with the "LeBrick" nickname. He is pretty much calling him out for being disrespectful to athletes and then crying when Jalen called him out for exagerating his high school basketball career.

[seanbrock 1,684]

Oh my god Steven A. Smith needs to shut the fuck up. Jalen said he should have been in the studio....so he could knock him the fuck out. lol

[BwareDWare94 723]

I was about to say the same thing. His point wasn't about criticism, it was about going over the line and insulting athletes because of their play against other professionals. Like Skip give Chris Bosh the nickname "Bosh Spice" because he is soft. Or constantly going with the "LeBrick" nickname. He is pretty much calling him out for being disrespectful to athletes and then crying when Jalen called him out for exagerating his high school basketball career.

 

Well...Bosh is soft, and LeBron throws up bricks at crucial points in ballgames. And they expect nobody to point that out? It's not like he's giving them racial nicknames or anything of the sort.

[rzb+ 367]

Well...Bosh is soft, and LeBron throws up bricks at crucial points in ballgames. And they expect nobody to point that out? It's not like he's giving them racial nicknames or anything of the sort.

But just like the athletes are professionals, so are the media at ESPN and they should act that way. How does giving out nicknames for sorry play better their coverage? It doesn't, so why do it? It's uncalled for and they should be able to get their points across without bashing the athletes and ruining their reputation.

Edited April 15, 2012 by rzb

[BwareDWare94 723]

But just like the athletes are professionals, so are the media at ESPN and they should act that way. How does giving out nicknames for sorry play better their coverage? It doesn't, so why do it? It's uncalled for and they should be able to get their points across without bashing the athletes and ruining their reputation.

 

I'm not sure how to "nicely" word such things, really. Bosh is as soft as Pau, and LeBron throws up more bricks than Russell Westbrook on one of his cold nights (which are getting scarcer; Westbrook is making serious progress).

[Barracuda 629]

...and about a week ago Skip Bayless said the Thunder would be a better team without Westbrook on it.

[KiLaSix9+ 398]

Man, this has really taken a life of its own. Today, Ryan Clarke was on discussing the issue of athletes vs media which all began with Skip's comments on Westbrook.

 

I must say, Clarke is a very well spoken man.

[funnygunny 521]

Bayless is a pretentious douche. I haven't seen all that many segments of the show but I've seen a few, and remember one where he tried to rip Terrell Suggs and Suggs played it off so cooly.

 

<3 the sob story. He got put in his place, rofl.

[WindyCitySports 407]

I have no problem with it. Bayless, to me, represents everything that I hate about ESPN. The Tebow glorification, the Lebron-humping, the mockery of any team that doesn't sit on a coast, the slamming of Derrick Rose's MVP trophy. He makes controversial statements for the sake of his own satisfaction and he mocks quality players like Aaron Rodgers and Derrick Rose for no other reason than because they don't play for the teams that are "supposed to win" like the Lakers or Patriots.

 

Not to mention that the guy doing it is one of my favorite NBA analysts. Jalen is a classy guy who doesn't say things like this often. Trust me, if he says something like this, you KNOW the guys he's talking about is an asshole who needs to be put in his place.

[Mathias 394]

The bigger story that day was Jalen Rose refusing to classify Kwame Brown as utter dog shit just because he plays in the NBA.

[Mathias 394]

The bigger story that day was Jalen Rose refusing to classify Kwame Brown as utter dog shit just because he plays in the NBA.

[KiLaSix9+ 398]

The bigger story that day was Jalen Rose refusing to classify Kwame Brown as utter dog shit just because he plays in the NBA.

He had a point. Compared to the average person or the thousands of guys who play college ball and amateur leagues, Kwame still played in the NBA for 10 or so years. He made it to the highest level of his profession. Now, I think a lot of that had to do with his sheer size and athletic potential.

 

Of course, like Skip pointed out (I think) if you compare him to an NBA player, then yes, hes a fucking scrub.