…of George O’Leary and Tim Johnson. After boasting of his teenage point guard-prowess on Twitter, ESPN’s ultra-mouthy Skip Bayless found himself exposed by Sports By Brooks as a fantasist of the lowest sort. Tuesday’s edition of “First Take” featured Bayless being taken to task by Jalen Rose for the former’s dubious claims of athletic achievement, with this morning’s followup telecast deemed by Midwest Sports Fans’ Jerod Morris, “the most sad, pathetic day in ESPN history”. For those of us who saw the debut of ESPN2 featuring Olbermann’s porn-stache, that’s really saying something.
The gist is that Skip Bayless made it sound like he was Rick Mount in high school when he actually averaged 1.4 points per game. Jalen Rose called him out for it. Then sports fans who are sick of Bayless’ schtick rejoiced by proclaiming Rose “kind of the diamond” and bringing him all the finest meats and cheeses from across the land.
This led to intense debate yesterday between esteemed media commenters like Dan Levy, Jimmy Traina, and Richard Deitsch, all of whose opinions I respect and none of whom should have their insight wasted on this most trivial and insignificant of “stories”.
And the debate apparently continues today, all thanks to the Worldwide Leader in Sports, which forces Skip Bayless down our throats, creates conversation about him by virtue of its massive reach, and then justifies more Bayless airtime by saying we want it.
No, you fools, we don’t.