On Tuesday, Doug Gottlieb played a clip on his FOX Sports Radio show of Russell Westbrook explaining why he has started going back at fans that call him names. In the clip, Westbrook talked about his son’s teacher telling him how much his son enjoyed writing their last name. Westbrook said it was the first time he really understood that the name meant something and it made him less likely to blowoff personal shots from fans.
Gottlieb said that name calling from the media is nothing new. He pointed out Jim Rome famously calling Jim Everett Chris and referring to tennis star Arancha Sanchez Vicario as “A raunchy chick from the barrio”. Gottlieb also noted that as Rome has gotten older, he has given up the nicknames.
The same cannot be said for FS1’s Skip Bayless. Doug Gottlieb singled him out as a major factor in influencing fans to mistreat players.
“Let’s just say it,” Gottlieb said. “I understand he works for FOX Sports. I understand he makes a ton of money. I think it’s disgraceful what Skip Bayless has done. He made feminine references to Chris Bosh, which is reprehensible and so is this. You can’t normalize this behavior.”
Bayless’s behavior is a lot like former President Donald Trump according to Gottlieb. He said that both have plenty of fans, but those fans cannot justify the way each guy talks about and treats people he does not like.
“What are you doing? You’re 70-years-old. You’ve been covering sports your entire life. You don’t call people names.”
Skip Bayless has taken to calling Russell Westbrook “Westbrick”. Gottlieb said that criticism is fair. This is one of the worst seasons he can remember a former MVP having and Westbrook is absolutely struggling with shooting and turnovers.
According to Gottlieb, it is another example of Bayless, who he says has “made a career out of being a LeBron hater” for the last 12 years, going for low-hanging fruit. It is something that he says players notice and talk about with other members of the media.
“If you ask people in the NBA, they will say like ‘Why would you call people names? You’re 70-years-old.’”
Doug Gottlieb noted that he realized both men were on the FOX payroll. He doesn’t expect his comments to lead to any drama though. He said that anyone looking to run to Bayless for comments are wasting their time. There won’t be a confrontation between the two.
“Don’t worry. I won’t be on that show. He doesn’t let people that want to comeback at things like that on his show.”
This coming from a guy that called his colleague a dick last week. Typical liberal hypocrite.