Charles Barkley has made it clear in no uncertain terms over the years that he hates controversial talking head Skip Bayless. So, when Bayless appeared on Pardon My Take recently, he was asked about Barkley’s hatred towards him and recounted an interaction they had decades ago.
“This is the closest I got, but I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the genesis of all this,” Bayless said. “… Spud Webb — then big NBA star, won the Slam Dunk Contest, good friend of mine — players honored him and respected him so much that he would put on a big All-Star Game every summer in Dallas and everybody would come.
“Magic (Johnson) would come, (Larry) Bird would come, Charles Barkley would come,” Bayless continued. “And occasionally I was asked to be a celebrity coach of a team but I would actually have to make substitutions with the players. So one year, Charles was on my team. I tried to introduce myself to Charles before the game and he was uninterested in whoever the hell I was and yet I did have to take him in and out of the game.
“So true story, near the end of the game,” Bayless continued. “I leaned over and said, ‘Charles, you want to go back in? I’d like to try to win the game.’ And he said, ‘Brother, I want to win the game too, but my s*** hurts.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, fine’. And I put… Rex Chapman in place of Charles, and Rex Chapman hit the game-winner.”
Co-host Eric Sollenberger aka “PFT Commenter” brought up the infamous Scottie Pippen-Toni Kukoc incident and Bayless felt that was an apt comparison.
“So, that was as close as I ever got to Charles,” Bayless stated. “And then as soon as I started doing this and that for ESPN in the early 2000s, he started on his tirades against me on, back in the day Leno and Letterman and Dan Patrick and I have no idea.
“But it got so bad that my wife Ernestine and her mother — god rest her soul — when she was alive, started to take it very personally,” Bayless added. “Because their point to me was, there might be one psycho out there who listens to Charles and idolizes Charles and decides to do Charles’ bidding and take you out. So you’ve got to figure some way to get him to stop using the ‘K’ word.”
Bayless was referring to comments made by Barkley on The Dan Patrick Show in 2017. The Hall of Famer had stated that if knew for sure he was going to die due to some illness, he’d kill the talking head on live television. In 2022, Bayless took to his podcast to beseech Barkley to stop using the “kill” word and it appears he listened.
“I have no idea, I don’t get what his issue is with me,” Bayless stated.
While Bayless claims to have no idea, Barkley has spoken about why he dislikes him so much. He most recently spoke about it during an appearance on the All The Smoke podcast in 2023.
“I don’t like the guy because television is a very powerful weapon,” Barkley said. “… I don’t mind you criticizing guys, but it can never be too personal. And one thing I hate about the media, you can tell guys they like and dislike. You can’t talk about people on television like that. You have to be fair and honest with people.
“You can tell whom he likes, you can tell whom he dislikes because he makes it personal,” Barkley continued. “You can’t say bad stuff about LeBron James… Skip’s disrespect towards him, I do not like it… He’s been rewarded so much. The way he’s made his money and made his living I have a problem with it.”
PFT Commenter had stated that maybe one day they’ll bury the hatchet, but based on those comments made by Barkley, I doubt it. He has no interest in being on good terms with a man like Bayless, whom he appears to have little to no respect for.
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