NBA fans can be a ruthless bunch. As some of the most passionate spectators in all sports, things can get pretty intense when someone manages to piss off the community of an entire basketball team.
For FOX Sports’ Skip Bayless, personal experience has taught him just how bad things can get.
As a frequent critic of Russell Westbrook, Bayless admits to being caught on the wrong end of death threats and cyberbullying when he used to work for ESPN. On his new show, he even told of the time ESPN had to hire a personal bodyguard for him after reading some messages from angry Thunder fans.
“I poured over responses day and night. And guess what I started to see as we rolled towards those Finals? Death threats. From Thunder fans in my hometown of Oklahoma City. Real, live, hardcore death threats. I thought legitimate death threats but I passed them on to ESPN security who came back to me ‘yep, legit. Need to be taken seriously.’ So as we were about to venture to Oklahoma City, my hometown, they had to hire me a bodyguard who wound up being an LA cop whose primary duty was to serve and protect the Chief of police when he went out in public. And he protected and served me in Oklahoma City, almost to a fault. But I’ll admit it, I was a little creeped out. A little anxious.
I am going to my hometown where I grew up in Oklahoma City, ‘hail the conquering hero!’ and they want to kill me. I got messages like ‘if you dare step foot in this town it will be the last step you take.'”
Before Westbrook’s exit from the Thunder, he was wildly beloved by the fanbase for his talent, energy, and loyalty to the small-market team. To this day, many Oklahomans still harbor love and support for the 9x All-Star.
In this case, however, they definitely took their fandom too far. Basketball is never serious enough to issue death threats to an analyst who is just doing his job. The fact that ESPN literally hired a bodyguard for Skip in his hometown kind of says it all.
Naturally, Bayless did not change his tune on Russ and remains one of his biggest critics today. Hopefully, the fans over in OKC have stopped their assault on the veteran sports journalist.
