I’ve said many times before that I don’t waste my time watching “First Take.” I never have, and I never will. I have no interest in being agitated by someone whose job is to say the most outrageous things possible in order to upset his audience and get a reaction, especially when everything he says is horse manure.
But I realize many of you love to hate him, so with that in mind, you’ll enjoy the above video of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban destroying Skip Bayless on “First Take” Friday morning, the day after the Heat won the NBA title.
Even though Cuban accuses Skip Bayless of speaking in generalities and terms that can’t be proven (and he’s right about that), Cuban himself speaks in generalities when he accuses all sports writers of doing the same thing. But Mark did bring some excellent points to the table that silenced Bayless.
He called out Skip for saying that LeBron played harder than Kevin Durant, which is absolute nonsense. If the Thunder lost to the Heat, I can assure you it’s not because Kevin Durant didn’t play hard enough.
He also pointed out the nonsense Bayless spewed about LeBron not driving and attacking last year in the Finals against the Mavs. Bayless accuses LeBron of just sitting on the perimeter — and his lemmings parrot his criticisms — but he was speechless when Cuban said something about the Mavericks’ defense being a big reason why LeBron didn’t attack the basket last year.
As I said during the playoffs last seasons, there is one big reason James didn’t produce much in the Finals: Tyson Chandler. When you have a Defensive Player of the Year in the middle of the paint, it tends to discourage even the most aggressive players from driving the lane.
But ESPN and Skip Bayless don’t care about facts or points or logic or reasoning. All they care about is whether you’re tuning in to watch. What Bayless says doesn’t matter. As soon as you stop watching, they will take him and his annoying shtick off the air.
