Kevin Durant called out resident ESPN antagonist Skip Bayless for his lack of basketball knowledge Monday. Responding to the clown’s apparent comments that Russell Westbrook shoots too much for the Thunder (don’t ask me, I don’t pay any attention to anything he says), Durant said “That guy doesn’t know a thing about basketball.”
The criticism of Russell Westbrook has been persistent since the playoffs last year when many media members/wanna-be critics watched the Thunder play for the first time. They were horrified by what they saw — that Westbrook is a playmaking point guard who tries to score rather than distribute — and began hammering him mercilessly. Apparently the complaints have continued for brainless Bayless, who gets paid big money to play the role of the outrageous antagonist for ESPN, even though the Thunder have the best record in the conference and second-best record in the league.
Oklahoma City is 20-4 when Westbrook takes more shots than Durant and they’ve won those games by 12.4 points on average.
“We’re worse when I take more shots,” Durant said. “Like I said, that guy doesn’t know a thing. I don’t think he watches us. I think he just looks at the stats. And traditionally, a point guard is not supposed to take more shots than everybody else on the team. But we’re better when he does do that and he’s aggressive. And I’m better when I’m out there facilitating, rebounding, defending and being more efficient on my shots with less shots.”
I hate to even give publicity to Bayless, but he’s such a controversial personality it’s impossible to avoid him. The only thing I can do is repeat what Durant said and remind you that this guy is an actor who is not a real sports analyst. He is paid to say the most outrageous things possible just to irritate you. His opinion does not matter. He is disingenuous. He does not know sports. He is a professional button-pusher. Just keep all that in mind and ignore him. As long as athletes and fans continue to watch clowns like him and respond, he wins, and ESPN will continue to promote and employ him. If he is ignored and nobody repeats/debates what he says and nobody watches his show, then ESPN will take him off their programming. Only you have the power to get him off the tube, so exercise some restraint and help make it happen.
