Nick Wright might think Skip Bayless is on the wrong side of the LeBron James debate, but he thinks the former FS1 host was on the right side of things that matter.
Bayless ended a near eight-year tenure on FS1 and Undisputed last Friday, allowing people to dance on the presumable grave of the self-described most hated man in sports media. But Wright wasn’t about to do the same of his now former colleague, and he certainly wasn’t going to celebrate Bayless’s departure as an act of spite because they disagree on LeBron James.
Bayless planted his flag as LeBron’s biggest critic years ago, while Wright is undoubtedly one of the NBA star’s biggest supporters. Don’t mistake their disagreement over LeBron as any sign of disrespect.
“On the things that actually matter, in my opinion, when race and sports crossed over and there were real discussions about real things, I felt Skip was consistently on the right side of things,” Wright said on his podcast . “Now I understand he and Shannon got sideways at the end and there were famous blowups and there were moments that really rubbed people the wrong way about how their interactions went. And I know some people ascribed some of that to malice or a racial component.
“I’m here to tell you that through whatever flaws you felt or things you liked or disliked about Skip Bayless on TV, that on the actual human personal things, I think he consistently was on the right side, not on the wrong side. If he was out there doing what I think is trolling on real non-sports important issues for clicks and likes and views the way we have seen a lot of people, some of which used to prominently be in sports and then crossed over to carnival barker political stuff, I wouldn’t respect him. But that’s not how I ever felt.”
Bayless’ sports takes were performative, polarizing and stubborn, which garnered an audience often filled with more critics than fans. It’s easy for those critics to pile on Bayless’s untimely Damar Hamlin tweet, or what he wrote about Troy Aikman in his book, even though he was parroting a rumor floated by Barry Switzer, not attempting to ignite a rumor of his own.
But Bayless, particularly with Sharpe, never shied away from discussing social issues that intersected with sports. There is a difference between fishing for engagement on sports debates and fishing for engagement on things that matter. And on discussions about race, Colin Kaepernick, George Floyd, COVID, and #MeToo, Bayless was inviting of different perspectives and uncharacteristically open-minded.
[ What’s Right? with Nick Wright ]
The post Nick Wright: Skip Bayless was ‘consistently on the right side of things.’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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