Skip Bayless has defended his actions after a tweet he sent during the Damar Hamlin situation Monday evening created tremendous pushback. On Wednesday, FOX Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb had strong pushback to Bayless “doubling down” on his tweet during the opening of Undisputed with Shannon Sharpe.
Bayless made the claim no one at FOX Sports had a problem with his tweet, which Gottlieb found preposterous.
“In what world does he think no one had a problem with it?,” Gottlieb said during his In The Bonus podcast. “The person sitting across the desk from him had a problem with it…I’ve reached the ‘I don’t give a f— moment’ of my time here at FOX Sports Radio.”
Gottlieb then brought up an example of a time he disagreed with Bayless and his opinion that the Golden State Warriors were better without Kevin Durant.
“I just said ‘The idiocy of this has to stop’. We played Skip’s sound of him saying it, but I did not direct any of my commentary personally at Skip, it was the idea that we hear this narrative that we hear on radio and see on TV…all I said was something after a clip of Skip. We have a guy — I won’t name him — his job is taking the clips from radio, packaging them, and putting them on social media. And what he put on social media was just that. But he had a picture of Skip.
“So people (at FOX Sports) search Twitter for Skip and they see ‘Gottlieb’s talking shit about Skip. You need to take this down’…so I asked ‘Why are we so protective of Skip Bayless?’ He’s made this portion of his career about strong opinions, and I vehemently disagree with his opinion, but I didn’t even say his name. I said the idiocy of this narrative. So this is me calling bullshit on the ‘no one had a problem…’, are you f—ing kidding me? Yesterday, you went on TV and did a 180 on Lebron James and act like no one was effected? Get the f— out of here.
“But it’s equally bullshit for Shannon to not to the show yesterday. You are the voice. That’s your job. To go ‘No Skip, you’re wrong. No matter what you put in the last sentence, the first three sentences lack empathy. Kid’s laying there, fighting for his life. And you’re concerned about playoff seedings? Get the f— out of here! Have a heart!’ That’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s the beauty of that show!”
Gottlieb mentioned he has no relationship with either of his FOX Sports colleagues, noting “we’re not friends, we’re not enemies, I just don’t have any relationship” with either of the Undisputed hosts. He also added he believes Bayless’ reputation played a role in the reaction to his tweet, and believes the longtime pundit frankly lacks empathy.
“This is how Skip’s brain works. He’s very matter of fact. It’s almost Asperger’s-like. He lacks empathy..I think one of the hard parts about being somebody with strong opinions is you do have to cut through the emotions and get to what’s really going on.”
