Baker Mayfield is NOT Johnny Manziel & LeBron climbs scoring list
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Here we go. This is the Skip Bayless Show. This is episode 11, as in 11 from heaven, my man Micah Parsons, as in Jordan 11s, my favorite Jays. Here we go. This is the undisputed, everything I cannot share with you,

on the two and a half hour debate show versus Shannon Sharpe that is undisputed. In this episode, I'm about to go deep on Baker Mayfield and on LeBron's scoring salvos and on all of my jinxes and all of my good luck charms when it comes to picking games. I'll finally go deep and tell you the story of how I got caught stealing some shoes.

some sneakers. I'm going to come clean on that. But before we get started, a quick update. If you happen to catch my last two shows, I challenged Charles Barkley to join me here on this show. And please explain to me and go back and forth with me about why you, Charles, want to kill me. We did reach out to Charles's representatives. As yet, no response.

and no surprise. So first up today, as always, it's not to be skipped. Let me start this topic with one of your questions. Just to get my blood boiling, this is from Lou from Destin, Florida. Is Baker Mayfield now destined to be just another Johnny Manziel? Boom, perfect, bingo. That's it

in a nutshell, so to speak. Not saying that Lou is a nut, but for me, that is a nutty point of view shared by right now about 99.99999% of the sports world when it comes to Baker Mayfield. Is he on path to become just another Johnny Manziel?

I cannot tell you from the bottom of my heart how wrong I think that question is. But I'm here to tell you right off the bat, I'm the last man standing. I believe I'm the last man on earth still defending Baker Mayfield. But I have from the start. I dug in before that draft. I said he should go number one in the draft. And I haven't wavered.

And just to give you a little backstory, this is where I live. This is what I do. This is what Undisputed is. It boils down to the courage of your convictions. It boils down to having an authentic opinion that you believe in with all your heart and soul. Standing by that opinion through thick and thin. With Baker, last year was mostly real thin. He was hurt.

Game two shattered his shoulder and tore his labrum, and he just kept on sucking it up and playing, much to my detriment on Undisputed. My partner, Shannon Sharp, went so far as to call him a bust. Baker Mayfield is a bust. You'd think this has become a nightmare for me, a disaster for me, but it's not at all. I still believe in Baker Mayfield exactly the way I did from the start.

In my career, I first covered pro football right out of college. I covered Don Shula's Miami Dolphins at the Miami Herald. That was 1974. That's how long I've been doing this. And in my career, I have never experienced anything like the canceling of Baker Mayfield. He has been canceled by all of social media.

He is over. He is out. He is defunct. He is a bust, according to everything I read and hear, now starting to seep into all the media coverage of Baker Mayfield. Johnny Manziel? Yeah, I liked Johnny before the draft, but on ESPN, on my old show, I went on the record. They didn't like it. Powers that be did not like it at ESPN. I went on the record. I said, if Johnny Manziel...

has any alcohol or drug problem once he gets to Cleveland as the Browns' first-round pick, as you recall, middle first round, mid to little bit later. I said they took a shot. I love the kid's ability. He has rare quickness and elusivity and playmaking flair. Never seen anything quite like Johnny Manziel. But I said,

If he's got off the field, if he's got alcohol, if he's got drugs, I'm out. I disqualified my opinion up front. Very clear about that. Made people at ESPN very uncomfortable. Well, you know what happened? Those things happen. Johnny Manziel played little bits of two years at Cleveland. He prioritized partying over playing football. I can't believe it's the biggest waste of talent I've ever seen. I know Johnny. I like Johnny. I pity Johnny.

Played parts of two years. He started a grand total of eight games. Eight games. He went two and six as a starter. He threw seven touchdown passes versus seven interceptions, and he was done. Defunct over and out. And you're comparing that to Baker Mayfield? What am I missing here? Help me out. And before I really launch on this, allow me to disqualify one other take on my take.

And that's something Shannon Sharpe hit me with on air the other day. And I will admit, I lost my temper. Doesn't happen all that often on Undisputed, but I did. Live, national TV, I lost it for a couple of minutes. I got seriously angry with Shannon's contention that they say, translation, three people on Twitter, they say that this is just an Oklahoma thing. You're supporting Baker because he played at Oklahoma.

As you probably know, I was born and raised an Oklahoma fan in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I can't help it. It's in my blood. My grandfather took me to my first game when I was five years old. And yet, I am an objective Oklahoma fan. An Oklahoma thing? Ask Jason White and Sam Bradford about Oklahoma things.

Jason White, Heisman Trophy winner. Sam Bradford, Heisman Trophy winner. Jason White, I said, can't play in the NFL. I just went right on the record. I was back in the days of cold pizza on ESPN2. Can't play. We had poor Jason on live in an interview with our moderator, Jay Crawford, and he blurts out on live national TV, Jason, Skip Bayless says you can't play in the NFL. How do you respond to that? Come on, Jay, give the kid a break.

Jay then puts me on TV. Let's get Skip's side of this. Well, Jay, what are you doing? And I got to go on and talk to, you know, by remote television. I got to talk to poor Jason White. No, I don't think you can play, but I think you had a great career. I'm happy for you, but I don't think you can play in the league. And he couldn't. Kansas City gave him a camp tryout and he didn't last through training camp. And that was it for Jason White. Sam Bradford, I said from the start,

He's too brittle. He's like a scarecrow in the pocket. He gets hurt if you breathe on him. And he was always hurt. St. Louis gave him $50 million first pick in the draft. And I said, that's just wrong. And it was. He bounced around. He had his moments here and there. But in the end, can't go bust, but for sure didn't live up to $50 million guaranteed right out of the box, first pick in the draft.

So, yeah, I loved Kyler Murray at Oklahoma. He's made back-to-back Pro Bowls. And I really like Jalen Hurts, and I said he's sort of Tebow-esque. He can win games his way. Not the best arm, not the most accurate arm, but he can run it, and he can lead a football team, and he led Philly to the playoffs. Right again. Baker Mayfield. What have we seen?

He was drafted number one overall, as I said he should be, over Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen. Do you remember those days? Shannon fought me on Undisputed. I got Sam Darnold. Really? I don't. I got Baker Mayfield. Others on Fox Sports 1 had Josh Rosen as the number one overall pick. I said, that's just silly. That's just wrong. Can't play, couldn't play. Right.

Baker Mayfield is drafted number one overall. We had Charlie Weiss, Tom Brady's first quarterback coach, as you might recall, in New England. We had him on the show just before the draft after I was already on record. I'm taking Baker. Charlie Weiss said on live national TV, I want that guy, Baker. Charlie said, I can't coach. I can't teach what's inside that guy. It's that spit and vinegar. It's that chip on shoulder.

It's that rare leadership gene that Baker has had at Oklahoma. They followed him like the Pied Piper. They loved him. Just it's rare leadership intangibles that he has. Can he be a little bit of a jerk? Yeah, he can, but it translates into his play. He was two-time walk-on Texas Tech and then at Oklahoma. Won the Heisman Trophy because like Manziel, he's just a rare playmaker. Nice arm, above average, above average accuracy.

body whip thrower, about 6'1", not the tallest guy, not the fastest guy, but elusive, can move, very accurate on the run outside the pocket. I loved all that about Baker. And what happened? He gets drafted by a team that had gone 0-16. Hugh Jackson wouldn't even start him in the first game. I was outraged over that off hard knocks that year, which was the Cleveland Browns.

when Hugh called him into the office and said, "Congratulations, you're our backup quarterback." Backup quarter, what? I go on Undisputed the next day, "That's just wrong. Watch what happens." Tyrod Taylor got hurt, unfortunately for him, against the Jets. Remember that game? Baker came in and lit up the sky, lit up the night.

He won that game. We can't give him that as a starter, but he started and won six other games that year. He won six games for a team that went 0-16. Let's give him seven victories because he beat the Jets as a relief pitcher. He beat the Jets. It was the talk of the town the next day, not only in Cleveland, but in New York and LA. Baker was the talk of pro football. My man Shannon Sharp leaped aboard the bandwagon going into year two and

Love Baker, Shake and Bake Baby, stealing from Talladega Nights. I'm not sure Shannon's even seen the movie, but he stole Shake and Bake Baby. He's driving my bandwagon. And then right on cue, here comes Odell. Worst thing that ever happened to Baker Mayfield. Odell. I've never seen anything like Odell Beckham Jr. I've talked about him on previous podcasts and shows. I'm not going to belabor the point on Odell, but...

Given his stature on social media, he's the most beloved internet influencer in all sports. Given how beloved he is, how protected, how defended, how idolized he is on social media for reasons I can't quite fathom or grasp, he's just overrated and overhyped. He's never that great. He puts on a better pregame show than an in-game show.

He's just not special to me. He's not a difference maker because he's not made of that potent stuff that a Jerry Rice or a Michael Irvin or even a Devontae Adams has inside them. Heck, I'll even go Tyreek Hill. They just have that thing inside them, that burning desire to take games over. And Odell doesn't have those kind of intangibles. Gifted hands, gifted athlete, obviously.

It's like a Harlem Globetrotter putting on a show before the game that never quite translates into the real game, except for that one night against my Cowboys in his rookie year where he made the greatest catch ever. That launched Odell. But Baker loved Odell, loved him, idolized him like everybody else did, socialized with him, vacationed with him, said, I got to get the ball to Odell, force fed him.

Odell-centric offense to a fault, and it started to fall apart. And remember, Odell was there for parts of three seasons in Cleveland, and he had three surgeries. Three! What do you think? He's becoming a shell of himself in Cleveland to Baker's detriment. And yet, the more Odell struggled, the more it had to be Baker's fault. It's Baker's fault.

And then this is so glaring to me. It just screams that I was right about Baker in year three when Odell finally, unfortunately went down at Cincinnati. Believe it was week seven. Baker took back off just like he had as a rookie when pro football focus said he had 40 big time throws. That was third in the league as a rookie.

Didn't even start all the games. Had 40 big time throws, according to Pro Football Focus. Tight window throws. Throws that they graded as special, big time. Third in the league. What happened after Odell went down? Baker took off. If you watch Undisputed, you're sick and tired of me saying this, but I have no choice. I have to tell you what happened because it actually happened. I have to reiterate.

He goes on an 11-game run, not two or three, 11 games he went on a run and won eight of them and threw 20 touchdowns to three interceptions. And I've been running the tape on Undisputed because I can't help myself. I got to defend myself with evidence. We've got all 20 touchdown passes on one tape.

Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. You say, oh, that was pretty good. Oh, that was real good. That was, that was, that was, that was, well, there's another one. Oh, I remember. Oh yeah. 20, not two games or three games, not four or five touchdown passes, 20 to three interceptions over 11 games. Went to Pittsburgh against their arch rival, a Pittsburgh team that had started 11-0 that year, had a very good defense. Baker had a QBR of 91 in that game.

scale zero to 100. That's special. You don't see many 90 pluses. 91 was Baker Mayfield. He lifted Cleveland to its first playoff win in 26 years. And he's Johnny Manziel? You're kidding me. He's canceled? Stop it or start it. What are we doing? I thought he was spectacular. Shannon Sharp was a bump on the log across from me for 11 straight weeks.

11 weeks, 20 touchdown passes with three interceptions. Does that not count? Or maybe it didn't. Maybe I dreamed it. Maybe I imagined it. Maybe it's a figment of my Baker-fueled imagination. I don't know. I think it happened. And nobody wants to remember it because it gets in the way of your Odell defense. It's Baker's fault.

No, it wasn't. I think he showed you it was Odell's fault. Odell wound up getting cut by the Cleveland Browns because they couldn't find a trade partner. Jarvis Landry, always beat up, got cut because they couldn't find a trade partner. Baker's fault? You're kidding me. But I'm the last man on earth who thinks this. And then, as I mentioned, he got hurt. And that's all the Baker haters needed. See, it was his fault. No, it wasn't.

he shouldn't even be playing. The week after the season, he went under the knife to get his labrum and shoulder fixed. I'm going to assume next year he'll be back to 98%. And I am here to tell you with all my heart and soul, he will win elsewhere under the right circumstance. Remember in this one, he started out with four coaches in three years, four coordinators in three years,

And often, this organization has become a clown show. I give them high marks because in the end, the irony of this is I love Deshaun Watson far more than I love Baker Mayfield. You can look it up. I loved him at Clemson. I loved him almost beating Bama the first time and beating them the second time. I loved him before the draft.

I thought the Texans stole him. I think he's not just a top five. I had him the last time I got to see him play. I had him a top three quarterback in the National Football League. Well, credit to the Browns. They plunged. They broke the bank for Deshaun. And I don't blame them at all. If I had a choice between Deshaun and Baker, sure, I'm going Deshaun. But does that cancel Baker? Does that make him a bust? No, that's absurd.

So now Cleveland's locked in a war, a bidding war of we want a first and everybody's saying, well, you got to get rid of him. We'll give you nothing. We'll see how it plays out. But my point is Baker can still play. And my biggest point is I've got one huge issue with Baker Mayfield. And I said it from the start on Undisputed, and I will reiterate it again right now. He made one huge mistake in his second year in the league.

He agreed to do these progressive insurance commercials, and they are just wrong, wrong, and wronger. It was way too soon. He had proven not nearly enough. We want to do a Cleveland example. If LeBron had done progressive commercials when he was in Cleveland about LeBron's house, his arena, I'm good with it because LeBron had won some championships.

We go all the way up to Tom Brady. If Brady wanted to do progressive, this is my house. I'm good with it. Baker was off to a sensational start, but he had won nothing in his second year, except seven games as a rookie. Pretty special when they were 0-16 the year before, but not special enough to do this many progressive commercials.

And he comes across in the commercials as smug and snarky and way too cool and way too condescending and just way too, too, too much. And there are way too many of them. They're relentlessly played during games. They bombard your senses, your psyche with Baker's house. It's Baker in his house. He and his wife live at the stadium and I'm sick to death of them.

They have inspired nothing but more and more Baker hate. You're a prisoner of what you see in the medium of television. If you're watching me right now, you can see me say this. It's probably pissing you off because I believe it. But I also believe that Baker Mayfield made the biggest mistake ever. I don't care how much money he made. He must, he has to have made set for life money from Progressive. It's like flow.

I mean, the money has just flowed in and I'm sure he feels like he's a big star and pal, you're not. You ruined yourself because every commercial that aired painted a bigger and bigger target on your back. The world was waiting to jump, to plunge, to pounce. And now they're all over you in largest part because of those commercials. You just rub people the wrong way.

You bought no insurance with those people out there who were even sitting on the fence about you. And after a while, they're sick and tired of you. You're Johnny Manziel. You're a bust. You're done, pal. Get out of my sight. I'm sorry. I'm going to say it one last time. Every team right here, right now that considers Baker Mayfield and decides no is making a huge mistake. He can lead.

He can play make and he can win. No, he's not Deshaun, but he's Baker. I stand by this, but I'm the last man standing. School is back and Dick's Sporting Goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to sambas, dunks, and more. Plus the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan, and Adidas. Find your first day fits in store or online at Dick's.com.

This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all-new Prologue EV, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the class-leading passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com slash EV to see offers. Next topic, LeBron or Raymond James Jr.?

I have no doubt that you may think that I hammer away at LeBron far too much, but you know what? Somebody has to tell the objective truth about the master media manipulator that is LeBron James. He is the king of media manipulation. He is the king of setting the narrative that enhances his stature, his resume, his legacy,

He is the king. And I'm sorry, but it's time for me to call Maloney on his latest propaganda that he's not a natural born scorer. I'm not really a scorer. Yet he just passed Carl Malone in all time scoring and he's on path, given his health, knock on wood for you, he's on path

to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be the greatest scorer in the history of the National Basketball Association. Yet he's not a scorer. And in so belittling his abilities, he intensifies, he builds up the feat that is catching and passing Carl Malone. LeBron, got to call you on this.

I'm sorry I couldn't genuflect when you passed Carl. I couldn't bow down. I couldn't pay homage because at that moment, when you passed Carl, you had taken 521 more shots than Carl did in his career. We're talking just regular season here, obviously. 521 more shots. That's a lot of shots for a guy who's not a natural born scorer.

A lot of shots. 521 more? And how about this? Karl Malone in his career, 19-year career, made 85 three-pointers. They weren't a big deal, especially early in Karl's career. 85 total three-pointers. LeBron has made 2,129.

Hmm, that means LeBron has scored 6,132 more points from three than Carl did. Well, that's a huge advantage because obviously last time I checked, three is greater than two. So the emphasis on the three point shot in LeBron's career has allowed him to score 6,100 more points from three than Carl did. Wow, does anybody talk about that? Well, I just did.

Sue me, forgive me, but I'm going to talk about it. By the way, once upon a time when I was in Dallas, Carl Malone, coming out of Louisiana Tech, the mailman, I campaigned for weeks for the Dallas Mavericks to take Carl Malone. They didn't. They didn't listen. Take him. One night after I covered a Utah-Dallas game at what was then Reunion Arena,

My phone rang literally in the middle of the night. It was like 3:30 AM and couldn't believe it. I just deep sleep. I answer, "Hello? Hey, it's Carl. It's Carl Malone. I don't know how I got my number, my home number. This is free cell phone." "What? It's Carl." "Carl Malone?" "Yeah, it's Carl. I just want to thank you for telling the Mavericks how wrong they were, that they should have taken me." This is like three years after he's been drafted.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Good night. Last I heard from Carl. I've seen him a couple times since then, but I tried Dallas. I tried Mavericks. So now we get to LeBron's one and only scoring title that he won way back when. It was in 2008. What happened that year? Huh. Well, LeBron James that year led the whole NBA in shots attempted per game. It was 21.9. Guess who was second that year?

Well, the guy who finished second in scoring, Kobe Bryant, 2008. Kobe took 20.6 shots per game to LeBron's 21.9. So the not-scorer, the not-natural-born scorer, LeBron James, led the league in shots attempted back in 2008. The one and only time he won the scoring title, he did that.

And by the way, just lately, LeBron has vaulted into the scoring title league. And not coincidentally, he has also vaulted right on schedule above Luka, leading the league in shots attempted per game. Huh? LeBron, maybe you're not a natural scorer, but you sure shoot a lot, right? Which brings me to my pet peeve, LeBron's free throw shooting. And I know I've beaten it to death.

But think about this. LeBron's, by his standards, a poor free throw shooter. His career average is 73.4%. Just say he was MJ, who made 84% of his free throws. That's 11% more. That means that in his career, LeBron would have 312 more points if he'd just been MJ at the free throw line. Or let's go current day. Let's go Kevin Durant.

88% career. Wow. That's 15% more than LeBron. So that would mean if he were Kevin Durant as a free throw shooter, he'd have 425 more points. That's a lot of points you left on the table. Couldn't you have worked on it in just one off season? I don't know. So now sights are set on Kareem. LeBron is now 1,402 points away from tying Kareem. Okay. Man, if you were Kevin Durant,

minus 425. You'd be under a thousand points away now, but I'll let that go. Once he passes Kareem, you can just bet on it that LeBron will have taken far more shots than Kareem had in his career. And yet people will sit back and say, I don't know how LeBron did this. He's not even a natural scorer. I know how he did it. He shot and he shot.

And he shot some more. He shot more than anybody else. So I'm sorry, I just can't get all that worked up about the longevity feat that is shooting so many shots to finally pass Karl Malone. Let's take a question, shall we, from the audience. This is from Douglas from Beaumont, Texas. "Do you believe in jinxes for games LeBron plays, or is it only for Cowboy games?" Good question.

Douglas, I believe in jinxes and good luck charms for any game I ever watched that I need to win because I picked said game. Any game. I have tried to school my wife, Ernestine, on the one kiss of death that I cannot suffer, I cannot abide, a rule she violated early in our relationship to her detriment and mine several times.

You cannot walk into the room of a game I'm watching and look at the score knowing that I need team A to win. You cannot say, "Well, you got this one in the bag." No, I don't because as soon as you say that, I'm done. I'm jinxed. She always says, "Wait a second. Are you saying that something I can say to you in Los Angeles, California,

Can impact a game being played in New York? Yep, happens every time, right on schedule. Trust me, believe me. So on Twitter occasionally, I have to resort to what is called a reverse jinx tweet. And I did so last Saturday night. I picked Gonzaga to win it all this year in March Madness. Not impressed so far.

Watched the first couple of games, certainly the second game versus Memphis. Halftime, Memphis is dominating. Just too physical, just too athletic for Gonzaga. It's 41-31 at halftime, and I immediately tried the reverse jinx tweet of, congratulations, Memphis. Way to go, Penny Hardaway. You got this one. My pick is done. So long, Gonzaga, or words to that effect.

And you know what started happening immediately? Like clockwork, here came the Zags. Here came Drew Timmy. Here came Nimhard. And all of a sudden, they roar back and they win by four. And I mentioned Ernestine. You see what just happened? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have no idea. I do have an idea. So speaking of Ernestine,

Now, a quick story about another Memphis team and a classic, classic reverse jinx, good luck charm situation that I encountered just this basketball season featuring the Memphis Grizzlies. This happened on December 29th on the show that day on Undisputed. We finished the show with Shannon Sharp proposing what we call a diet Mountain Dew bet, which

We always bet diet do. I've told you the story before. It's our currency. So as the show ended, Shannon Sharp says to me, I got the Lakers tonight at Memphis, but give me the four points. Two cases. Done. Like it. I've told you before, I love this Memphis team. I love Ja. I love all of them. I love their chances in the postseason if they can get and stay healthy, especially Ja, who's having some knee issues.

So I'm in my office watching the game and I look up and my Memphis Grizzlies are down 14 with 433 left in the third quarter, down 14. At that exact moment, my wife walks in with my dinner. She's going to put it on a TV tray so I can eat and watch at the same time. And she looks up

And she sees the Lakers are ahead by 14. And she says to me, well, they got this one. And I think, thank you. Thank you. I don't say anything because I don't want to jinx that. But I'm hoping she just jinxed the Lakers. Did she ever? So she stands for a moment and makes like, how was your day talk? We hadn't talked. She'd been out shopping. I'm not sure what she was doing, but she just returned. She got my dinner. It's great.

I'm eating, I'm watching, she's talking, beautiful day in LA, blah, blah, blah. And Memphis scores and Memphis scores and Memphis scores again. And I'm thinking, here we go. So she starts to leave and I say, no, no, I'm sorry, please, please. And she knows what I'm doing. I'm using her as a good luck charm. She is holding our little Maltese Hazel at this point.

Poor Hazel looks like she needs to pee. You know, she needs to go out and pee. But I say, no, please do me a favor. Just stay here just for a little while. Just see what happens. She said, oh, here we go again. Yeah, here we go. Because look, they're going. OK, OK. How long do I have to wait? Just wait. Just just hold on. And I need both her and Hazel to stay because they're the ones who broke the spell.

And here we go, and Memphis scores again. And we get to mid-fourth, and they've taken the lead. But little does Ernestine know, I need them to win by five to win my bet. But I can't tell her that because I would jinx myself. So what happens? LeBron makes a three, actually, with 2.43 left in the game.

that cut it to three, but then he went, as he often does, almost always does, he went deadly quiet over the last two and a half minutes of that game. And with 28 seconds left, LeBron takes sort of a running jumper in the lane and missed it. That would have been to cut it to one, but the lead stayed at three. So that was the only other shot in the last two and a half minutes that LeBron took and he missed.

Can't close, doesn't have the closer gene. I've said it before and it was happening again right before my very eyes. But now I need a near miracle to get to five. LeBron has the ball. They're down three.

And he sort of, if you remember the game, he sort of stumbled a little bit at the top of the circle and gathered himself. And I think he's just going to pull up and take the three, but no, he's not feeling it. And he dribbles into the lane. Remember a game, I'm going back a couple of years ago to Dallas, the Danny Green game, where LeBron dribbled all the way in the lane. They need a three to tie to force overtime against Luka. And I'm saying, LeBron, what are you doing? And he's lucky, finds Danny Green,

who got loose with a tug. Dwight tugged on Seth Curry's jersey to get him loose, but Danny Green made the shot. Well, LeBron's thinking the same thing. I got to get in the lane and get somebody open from three to tie the game. Who does he look to? He looks to Russ. We know Russ is the worst three-point shooter in basketball this year, but at that point, December 29th, they're only a game below 500. They're thinking, okay, maybe Russ can make this shot.

And Russ tries to bolt backward to the three-point line. And LeBron doesn't know what to do. He gets caught off, you know, caught in the air with nowhere to go, no plan. And he throws it right to Desmond Bain. Thank you for that. But I need more.

What does Russ do? He doubles back and with five seconds left, he fouls Desmond Bain. Thank you, Russ. Thank you. So Ernstine's like, I got to go. No, no, please. You got to understand. Just trust me on this one. Just stay for a second more. Just one second more. They march to the other end and Desmond Bain goes swish and swish.

Final score, Memphis 104, Lakers 99. By five, I gave Shannon four. My lucky charms stayed with me as the Lakers lost the final, what, 16 and a half minutes? They lost 38 to 19. That's what it took, a 19-point turnaround for me to win that bet. Miraculous.

unless you understand jinxes and good luck charms. And my Ernestine did me right. She stood by her man for 16 and a half minutes and won me two more cases of diet dew. Every game, every game has jinx slash good luck charm possibilities for me. And thank you, Douglas, for that question. It is time for a flashback.

One I touched upon a week ago when talking about my love-hate with March Madness. I told you that I first fell in love with college basketball because of a college basketball team in my hometown of Oklahoma City called the Oklahoma City University Chiefs. Trust me on this. They changed my life. They changed my view of basketball.

They allowed me to have a March Madness Cinderella right under my nose, 20 minutes from my house in the middle of Oklahoma City. But I didn't have to wait until the NCAA tournament for my Cinderella. They lived and breathed all year, my eighth grade year especially, and then my ninth grade year. But if only you could have seen these Chiefs

They averaged almost 100 points a game when nobody did. They shot logo threes without a three-point line. They revolutionized the way the game was played without a three-point line. Trust me, you've never seen anything like what they did. I told you last week that they made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAAs that year after being ranked all year in the top 10.

And unfortunately, they ran into a team called Texas Western. That team dispatched them handily. They were just better than my Chiefs. It was 89-74, and it wasn't that close. UTEP, as they were called, Texas Western, went on to beat Kentucky in the national finals and become the first team ever to start five black players and win the national championship. It was historical. It was revolutionary. But my Chiefs,

little known fact, started four black players and one Native American who was my favorite player. You might say my all-time favorite player on the college level. His name was Gary Gray. He was only 6'1", out of Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, full-blooded Delaware at that point in what used to be called

Indian Territory I grew up in where the five civilized tribes were relocated to my home state of Oklahoma and Gary Gray came out of that tradition to star for my Oklahoma City Chiefs and He played with three other players from the state of Kentucky three black players named Jerry Lee Wells and Charlie big-game hunter and James weasel where and

How did they get out of Kentucky to Oklahoma City? Little Oklahoma City University at little Methodist school, not far from downtown on 23rd Street. Beautiful little campus, but small. How did they get there? It's because Adolph Rupp wasn't real fond of recruiting Black players, which is why Kentucky wound up, all-white Kentucky playing against the five Black starters of Texas Western.

So my coach, the legendary Abe Lemons, was able to go to Kentucky to recruit players who wouldn't be recruited by Adolph Rupp. And they put little Oklahoma City on the map. And Abe Lemons became a national figure because he was part stand-up comic and part part-time basketball coach. Maybe the greatest interview in the history of college basketball ever.

because of his sarcastic, sardonic quips. He wrote a book with the title of what he said to one of his players. "You scored one more point than a dead man." That was the name of Abe's book. Abe Lemons got calls from coast to coast, from syndicated columnists, from the LA Times to the New York Times, wanting to interview him because he just wrote your column for you with his Will Rogers-esque quips.

He was a gifted stand-up comedian. I'm not sure he was a gifted coach because he reminded me later in my years watching college basketball of Guy V. Lewis, coached Phi Slamma Jamma at Houston. What was Guy V's motto? Just dunk the damn thing. Well, Abe's motto was just shoot the damn thing. Whoever crosses half court with it, just pull up and shoot it. 30 feet, 35 feet, they just shot it.

And they all believed it was going in because a lot of the times it did. So me and my eighth grade and ninth grade friends, we had season tickets. We were front row, 50 yard line, mid court. And speaking of 50 yard line, obviously Oklahoma City was dominated by the University of Oklahoma football team, but this team was taking over the city.

This city that I grew up in fell in love with this team, these teams of those couple of years, but especially this team that went 24 and five before running into Texas Western. Gary Gray would pass half court and shoot jump shots. I'm talking about jump shot logo threes with no three point line. He shot the longest shots of anybody on that team. And I fell in love with him and he ruined me as a basketball player.

My eighth and ninth grade years were the height of my basketball prowess. I grew fast. I was about my size then, 5'11-ish, and I lit it up in eighth grade. And in ninth grade, I played on an AAU team that was loaded with star power for that time in that region. Started four other players. Danny Case went to

Oklahoma State on a football scholarship, all state. Obviously, all these four guys were all state in their sports. Jimmy Edwards, close friend of mine, went to University of Oklahoma on a football scholarship to play halfback. And my teammates at my high school, Bruce Scott, went to the University of Oklahoma on a basketball scholarship and a golf scholarship. And Ron Romborg went to the University of Houston.

just mentioned on a basketball scholarship. We were loaded and I started on that team. I'm pretty sure I led that team in scoring because I was at the height. I was about to go to high school and run into a coach who did not like me because I wanted to shoot three point shots with no three point line. Despised me. I got crossways with him.

I wound up starting a few games my senior year because he started his son over me, and he probably should have because I just wasn't that good at that point. But my point was, in eighth and ninth grade, I lived for the Chiefs, and I lived for playing basketball because I could really play. And faithfully, one night, our AAU coach convinced the great Abe Lemons to allow us

to practice on a Friday night that OCU, as we called them, Oklahoma City University, had an away game. We got to practice at what was called Fredrickson Field House. It was an intimate little building right on campus. It couldn't have seated more than maybe a couple thousand. It was very modern for its time, sort of built down beneath ground level. It's like a little pit, but a cool pit. And the Chiefs were just invincible at home.

And there was something about their wooden floor. It was like it had, it was like a springboard. So we're out there warming up and I'm feeling like I can go up. I'm in ninth grade at this point. I could just easily get my hand over the rim, which I couldn't do at school. I'm thinking this is like trampoline floor. Never seen anything like it. So we're practicing. We finish. We're waiting for our parents to pick us up.

And one of the kids says, "Hey, let's go down and look at the locker room." We go down the steps into the Chiefs locker room and they've got those wire mesh lockers that you can see into and there are no locks. No locks on any of them. And one of the kids says, "Hey, let's take some of their practice stuff." And I'm thinking, "No, I've never stolen anything in my life, but maybe it'd be okay." And everybody starts taking shorts or singlet top, whatever. And I think,

I'm going after Gary Gray's stuff. By the way, Gary Gray went on from there. He made academic All-American. He was a third round pick back in the days. They had three rounds of the draft, went to the old Cincinnati Royals, bounced around the NBA for a while, didn't really catch on or make it. Went to Harvard Business School and became an international financier based in Boston. I heard from him a ways back ago, but that's what he was, the glory he was bound for.

So what do I do? I open the mesh locker of Gary Gray and I think, wow, I got to take his sneakers. In those days, you have to understand, we only had one brand. We only had Chuck Taylors, Converse All-Stars, and everybody wore white high tops except for my chiefs, Abe Lemons, the quipster, the jokester. He let his team wear black, low-cut Converse All-Stars. What?

We'd never seen anything like it. So I think I'm going to take Gary Gray's practice shoes and I pull them out in their sweat stain. They got all kinds of sweat design all over them. They're just nasty. And I'm thinking, am I going to really take the, yeah, I think I'm going to take, everybody's taking something. What's your mother always say? If everybody's doing something, should you? If everybody jumps off the cliff, should you? Well, I jumped off the cliff

We all took something home. I took Gary Gray's shoes home and I put them under my bed. I have no idea what I was going to do with them. They're way too big for me and way too nasty. I just, I said, I'll just put them under there for good luck. Maybe I'll sleep on top of them. Maybe I'll get some of his vibes. 7 a.m. the next morning, Saturday morning, my father knocked on my door. I rarely saw my father, let alone have him knock on my door. It was a first and a last time.

I'm still asleep. What do you want? He said, did you steal some shoes? Yeah, I did. How do you know? He said, well, one of your friends ratted to his father, a friend named Charlie Helm. I still see occasionally. Great guy. But his conscience got the best of him. Mine should have, but it didn't. And Charlie ratted to his father, who then called everybody's father and said, we got to return all of this stolen stuff to the chiefs.

So my father said, "You got to take it back." "Now?" "Now." He says, "They're saying that Abe's going to be waiting for you." "Abe Lemons is going to be waiting for me?" "Yep." That's what they said. My father went back to his room.

So I'm in eighth grade. I've told this story before. My mother, who I rarely saw, got sick and tired of having to take me anywhere. So she convinced my father for my 14th birthday to buy me a motorcycle, a little Honda 90 just to get around. Other parents were horrified. My mother's like, who cares? Just get him out of my hair. Let him go on the motorcycle. So I had transportation on my own. So it's like,

February, it's freezing cold outside, no day to ride the motorcycle, but I loaded up with my Gary Grays. I strapped them on the back of the banana seat.

And I bundle up as best I can and off I go, 14 years of age, driving across Oklahoma City, down May Avenue to 23rd and across to little Oklahoma City University. And I walk into Fredrickson Field House and I knew where Abe's office was, it's right up the stairs to the left. And I knock on the door, which is halfway open, and I see him sitting with his little half glasses on with his back to me at his desk.

And he says, put him on the chair. That's all I got. Put him on the chair. So I creep in and I put him on a chair and I stand and I wait for the lecture or maybe, you know, I'm his biggest fan. Like, I love this team. I got season tickets and I wait. I waited for what was probably one minute that felt like an hour. He said nothing more to me. That was enough.

That was the first and last thing I ever stole. Back to your questions. Back to Marquise from Harlem, New York. With all the Jordans that you own, are you on a rotation with the ones you choose to wear or whatever you're feeling that day? This is my favorite question of this day, maybe of all the shows that we've done.

Marquise, thank you for this. I now proudly own 51 pairs of Jordans, if we count the futures, which I occasionally wear on TV on days other than Friday, which is always Black Friday and J Day. My favorites from the start have always been my 11s, the Concords, the high tops and the low tops. Maybe it's that Oklahoma City Chiefs thing. Maybe it's

Maybe I see some Converse All-Star in them just a little bit or something. The feeling of the low-cut Concords. I don't know. There's something about them. When it's a special occasion and I need to feel special, feel invincible, I go with those 11s. But I do not have a set rotation. The night before Friday...

Thursday night, every Thursday night, I just skim my rows of J's, skim my collection, and I think, "Aha, I haven't worn those in a while." And then as you know, every Friday, I always post the picture with the caption, "I can't lose in these shoes." And I cannot. MJ forever. And one last question from you.

This one from Leo from Port Chester, New York. Besides No Mercy, what other music gets you fired up for Cowboys games or for Undisputed? Another great question. Deeply appreciate that question. Leo, nearly every morning, every weekday morning, it's 4 a.m., I listen to one song over and over and over again on my fairly short drive in to the Fox lot.

right off Pico Avenue here in West Los Angeles. That song is "California Love" because I have love for California. I had the privilege of working here soon after college for three years before I went to Dallas to become a columnist at age 25. And I always said if I ever get the opportunity to go back to Cali, I'm going back. And after my

16 years in New York/Bristol, Connecticut at ESPN. I got the opportunity and I seized it. "California Love." As you know, it was Tupac's first single after he was released from prison in 1995, his first for Death Row. And I cannot rap, I will not try to rap, but I do know most of the lyrics by heart. I know Dre's open.

Now let me welcome everybody to the wild, wild west, a state that's untouchable like Elliot Ness. And I'm off to the races with that. And then Tupac. Let me serenade the streets of LA from Oakland to Sactown, the Bay Area, and back down. Cali is where they get their Mac down. It's just, it's just, well, you know what happened. Super Bowl halftime happened.

And I got real tears in my eyes because it opens with Dre doing "California Love." The little help from Snoop. Unfortunately, Tupac is no longer with us. I wish they could have brought him back somehow. But that's my theme song on the way to do "Undisputed." That's my pre-show song. But trust me on this. Lil Wayne's "No Mercy."

is simply the greatest show opening song ever recorded. And he wrote it and recorded it in like a half an hour. I've never seen anything like it. And it just stands the test of time. I'm to the point where I couldn't do Undisputed without hearing No Mercy. And if you listen to the lyrics, they're just dead on perfect. He captures the essence of Undisputed in the lyrics of that song.

Thank you, my brother. That is it for episode 11. Thank you for listening and or watching. Thanks to Jonathan Berger and his All Pro team for making this show go. Thanks to Tyler Korn for producing me and propping me up. Remember, Undisputed, every weekday, 9.30 to noon Eastern Time, The Skip Bayless Show, every week.