Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
It's the most magical time of the year, and I'm not talking about Christmas. I'm talking about the NFL season. So make sure you're ready with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. Get the most live NFL games all in one place. Right now, you can save $85 when you bundle NFL Sunday Ticket with YouTube TV. Sign up today at youtubetv.com slash Spotify. Device and content restrictions apply. Discount apply to first four months of YouTube TV, then $72.99 a month. Ends August 29th. Terms, restrictions, and embargoes apply. No refunds.
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. Get at this. Be tremendous. I'm relentless. Here we go. This is the Skip Bayless Show, episode 6060. Can't believe it.
This, as always, is the Un-Undisputed. Everything I cannot share with you during the debate show that is Undisputed. Today, I will tell you about the one regret I have had in my nearly 20 years on national TV. That one regret involving Mark Cuban. Today, I will tell you why I will take Chris Paul
over Russell Westbrook now and for their careers. This inspired by a debate I had with my man Nelly this week. Today, I will tell you why Charles Barkley was wrong about me again. Today, I will tell you about my makeup. I mean makeup as in playoffs? My makeup? I'm going to tell you all about my makeup.
And finally, I will answer several of your brain-teasing questions such as, who are the Cowboys of the NBA? Now that's a good question. But first up, as always, it is not to be skipped. Please allow me to tell you about the one regret I've had in my TV career. It concerns the one day I faced Mark Cuban on live TV.
a day I have tried again and again to rectify. So now that Mark Cuban has made a mess, a mess I predicted by trading for Kyrie Irving and trying to pair him with Luka, I said it wouldn't work. It has not worked. I said from the start they will not fit together. And together they took the Mavericks from the four seed when Kyrie walked in the door to the 11 out of the playoffs seed that they currently sit in. Now that all that has happened,
I would like nothing better than to face Mark Cuban on live TV once more. Back to the first time. This occurred fairly soon after First Take, the show I used to be on on ESPN, had been blown up. It's still really cold pizza masquerading as the newly formed First Take. It had been blown up and turned into an all-debate two-hour show.
in the beginning built solely around me, but my man Stephen A. Smith had just joined me as my permanent partner. We were doing our first ever roadshow, this at the 2012 NBA Finals, which, as you might remember, opened in my hometown of Oklahoma City. I've told the story before about how I needed 24-7 security because I'd gotten so many death threats
from Thunder fans in my hometown of Oklahoma City because I had the audacity to criticize Russell Westbrook for consistently taking more shots than Kevin Bleepin Durant was in those days. At that point, we were still, let's say, unsure enough about ourselves as a fairly new show, new format,
that we weren't quite ready to try a live road crowd. So our first show, the morning of game one in Oklahoma City, we actually did it from the hotel lobby of the Renaissance in downtown OKC with no fans. Some mingled by, some just sort of gawked at what a wreck that our show became because Stephen A was set up out in the lobby
by himself just looking into his little camera and I was around the corner in the empty bar. This was obviously early in the morning and then maybe predictably Stephen A's equipment failed and I was forced early in the show to do 20 straight minutes solo staring into my little camera in the empty bar. Not easy especially when you're not prepared to do 20 minutes solo.
So as our technicians feverishly worked to get Stephen A. up and running, my producer kept saying in my ear, stretch, stretch, and finally stretch. Did I ever stretch? Next morning, we did
our second show actually from the visitors locker room at the thunders arena again no fans just steven a and and i with our moderator as you might remember at that point jay crawford we had booked as a guest that morning kevin durant's mother wanda who is a captivating tv guest you've probably seen her before and she just happened to be in a much better mood
than she would have been because the Thunder had won game one, as you might recall. But as you also might remember, that was the last happy moment for the 2012 baby Thunder, as I call them, because they proceeded to lose game two in Oklahoma City that night after we talked to Wanda. Then they went to Miami and they lost game three, four, and game five and had suffered what we call a gentleman's sweep, heat in five games.
LeBron James had finally won a ring after two epic fails against my Spurs 2007 and against Mark Cuban's Mavericks the year before in 2011. And LeBron, standing on the floor in Miami right after the game ended, said live nationally on ABC, it's about damn time.
He had played in the NBA for nine seasons, coinciding appropriately with my nine years on national TV, first on Cold Pizza in New York City, then on the, as I say, rebranded version of Cold Pizza, renamed First Take, when we were moved up to the mothership, Bristol, Connecticut, in May of 2007. From the start of my career, as you probably know, I have very closely followed LeBron's career.
Because from the start, I have found him to be supremely talented and so stunningly flawed. So, to many fans, I'd become known as LeBron's number one critic. And to many others, I was seen as a LeBron expert and maybe the only one in the sports media who dared to tell the truth about the king. Nine long years.
I had been going on and on about the pros and cons, the yin and the yang, the is he or the isn't he about LeBron James. Yes, LeBron, it was about damn time. I cannot express to you how excited I was to leap out of bed in Miami that next morning and to put LeBron's first ring into some perspective on first take.
to frame it, to make the point that even though he was the deserving finals MVP, that you could not underestimate how much hot-handed help he'd had from Shane Battier in that game two that they won in Oklahoma City. That was five threes from Shane. From Dwayne Wade in game three, 25 points worth of D. Wade.
from what I call the Mario Chalmers Memorial Game. Game four, Mario came out of nowhere with 25 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter. And then, of course, the coup de grace. Closeout game five, Mike Miller made seven of eight threes to help LeBron's cause and to help win him his first ring. I got to tell you the truth. I was relieved for LeBron. Heck, I was actually happy for LeBron.
And I was so anxious to talk about whether he and D. Wade could stack championships. As you know, Ray Allen would save LeBron's legacy the next year in the finals with the clutchest shot to send game six into overtime that I've ever seen in any game anywhere ever. Then LeBron would lose in five games to my San Antonio Spurs in 2014 by a record finals margin and decide...
"Eh, had enough of D-Wade in Miami, I'm going home." But now came the morning after LeBron's first ring, live from Miami, a show that I hoped would be epic. And would you believe, I was not told until our production meeting that morning, maybe two or so hours before the live show, that a guest had been booked without my knowledge. Mark Cuban had been booked. I was not happy.
First take, as you probably know, is only two hours compared to the two and a half for Undisputed. We would need every minute available during a two-hour first take to cover all the LeBron angles. This was before I had what I guess you would call, quote-unquote, executive producer status on first take, final say on guests. We're still relatively new in our new format.
And I was told the wheels were literally or had been literally set in motion to go pick up Mark Cuban, get him over to our set on time. I fought back saying, look, Mark Cuban is a slippery ego maniac who could not be trusted. And I predict excuse me, I predicted correctly he would try to hijack our show that morning, which he pretty much did.
But the producers considered Mark Cuban an A-list booking. I'll give you that. And they gently pushed back against me and said, hey, we should just go ahead and have him on for just one long segment, maybe a third of the way into the show. And because he had been booked, because the wheels were literally turning to go pick him up, I gave in. I said, okay. But I told my man, Stephen A.,
I don't want to go off on any Dallas tangents with Mark Cuban, especially about the three controversial cowboy books that I had written. I was afraid he would go in those directions. Any other time, any other situation, Cuban would have been a great guest, a great, as they say in the business, get, but not that day. I don't remember exactly how the conversation with Cuban unfolded. I only remember that
I tried to say as little as possible. I tried to not engage with Mark Cuban. The flashpoint came when Cuban tried to explain what a brilliant tactical job the Mavs had done in the 2011 finals, again, the year before this, of defending LeBron James. Of course, I'm rolling my eyes at Cuban, and I did make a point. No, that wasn't what happened.
It wasn't what the Mavs did. It was what LeBron didn't or couldn't do because, as you recall, the chosen one became the frozen one and melted down the way no superstar ever has in NBA Finals history in three straight games, four, five, and six, all won by Dallas. But I didn't want to argue too hard with Cuban because that was last year. The last thing I wanted to do on that morning was
was to go deep into rehashing LeBron's collapse versus the Mavericks. The Mavericks couldn't stop him. LeBron stopped himself when the pressure to close the deal on his first ring just ate him alive. But again, crushing LeBron on that day, on his first ring day,
Just seemed to me so unfair and so out of bounds and so off point. He had finally won a ring. It was about damn time. The clock was ticking on just two hours of first take. So on the fly, remember, all this is live TV. It's all Think Fast. I'm doing it constantly with Shannon Sharp every single day. Think Fast, Think Fast, Think Fast. Instincts.
Try this. Plunge on that. No, don't. No, don't. Yes. Yes, go. No, no, don't go. So I'm trying to think fast with Mark Cuban. I let him make his inside the Mavericks strategy point. And I tried to move the conversation along to a quicker close. That is the God's truth of what happened in my brain that day through those moments. By that point,
In my career, I had quit reading what Twitter said about me. I've gone deeply into that previously on this podcast. But I was told after the show by our producers that the Internet was saying Mark Cuban kicked my ass, that Mark Cuban made me look foolish. Of course, the Internet wants to see me lose, wants to see me exposed as a know-nothing fraud.
especially those billions of blind witnesses out there, those LeBron zealots. But the truth was the foolishness was coming from Mark Cuban's mouth. I just wasn't fighting back the way I have every other time in my career except that one. I didn't book Mark Cuban. The producers booked Mark Cuban. I think in part because they wanted to meet Mark Cuban. They're in awe of Mark Cuban. That's fine. I got it. I get it.
Not that day, not that moment, not that time. Nine years in the making for, frankly, both me and LeBron. And there we were arriving at ring morning and Mark Cuban sitting in the middle of it.
So how have I tried to remedy that? By asking again and again and again publicly for a rematch with Mark Cuban on a level playing field under normal circumstances. Again and again, I have publicly campaigned for Cuban to join me on TV or on this podcast. And I'm doing so again right here, right now. Please, please, please join me.
Mark Cuban can have all the time he wants, all the time he needs to talk about how the Mavericks bamboozled LeBron with defenses he'd never seen and had no answer for. Mark Cuban can have all the time he wants to defend himself on how he tried to sign Jalen Brunson, but how I think Mark Cuban's trying to make the point. I think he's trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes that somehow Jalen's father or his parents...
simply wanted him to be a Nick. I think that's what Mark Cuban's been saying lately. I'd like to hear it from his mouth, and then I'd like to listen very carefully, and I would like to respond about LeBron in 2011 and Jalen Brunson last offseason. I will respond about how I first guessed that Kyrie and Luka would not fit.
about how I think I was the first in sports media to point out what was happening in fourth quarters between Kyrie and Luka. Obviously, Luka has been, to me, pouting because he believes that Mark Cuban brought in Kyrie to be the new closer. That's what the numbers scream, Mark Cuban. In the fourth quarters, in the two overtimes in which Kyrie and Luka have played together, Kyrie took 103 shots in
to Lucas 50, more than twice as many shots than the preseason NBA favorite to win NBA MVP. He and Kyrie went 9-14 together. Lucas says out of one side of his mouth, he's fine with Kyrie, but he's not having fun anymore and that things better change next year because last year, the Mavericks won a game seven
over the defending champs at Phoenix, won 23-90, and got to the Western Conference Finals because Jalen Brunson, very low ego for a star, not a superstar, but just a star, was a great fit for Luka. Luka says he really misses Jalen Brunson. I can't blame him.
No, Mark Cuban derailed a very good team by not pre-acting to get Jalen Brunson signed. He just didn't see it coming. He got caught with his guard down and he lost. And now he's stuck with Kyrie and I guess stuck with having to try to pay Kyrie some big five-year $250 million deal that for the long term could further cripple his franchise.
That's what you call throwing good money after bad. But, you know, like Jerry Jones' Cowboys, the Mavericks will still be big box office, must-see TV, the NBA's best soap opera. Mark Cuban, egomaniac, will still be in the spotlight. But if he does bring back Kyrie, it will not work.
Mark, your franchise just happened to be in the perfect place at the perfect time in 2011. You caught LeBron at his mentally weakest before Dwayne Wade, his big brother in Miami, was able to teach him how to control his emotions, defeat his doubts, and win a championship, the first of his four in 10 finals. He's four and six. But right now, Mark Cuban is farther from a championship than Dallas is from El Paso.
Tell me I'm wrong, Mark Cuban. Give me just one rematch. I dare you to join me on air. You can have all the time you want for your con artistry, only this time it won't be an ambush. This time I won't have to play with both hands tied behind my back. Please, Mr. Cuban, be my guest. Please show Twitter you're not afraid of the guy you exposed as a fraud.
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and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash Bayless. Just go to Indeed.com slash Bayless right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash Bayless. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Let's get to your question, shall we? This is Jose from Georgia who asks, on an average day,
How many people are you texting or calling? Man, Jose, the truth is it follows no pattern. For me, far more texts than calls. And I would say I'm going to go 90% of my calls are to my wife, Ernestine. I call her every single day as I'm leaving this Fox lot after shows or after taping this podcast. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I try to get out to
Brentwood Country Club to at least hit some practice golf balls or maybe play nine holes if I'm lucky. Call her every single time I'm leaving Brentwood and heading home. I like to think I'm very reliable about checking in with her, updating her, where I am, where I'm heading, how the day's going. I believe that is essential to keeping a marriage together, but that's just me and I barely keep mine together.
Forgive me, Ernestine, for all that I do wrong. But I am constantly texting friends, coworkers, sources, I don't know, 40, 50 texts a day. And I do go back and forth almost every day with my brother, little Wayne. And I often hear from Wayne and or my man Nelly during games and especially during shows. Only three people will I answer via text during games.
and we're live on Undisputed. That would be my wife, my brother Wayne, my man Nelly. Those three, and those three only. I will answer occasionally during commercial breaks. Now, Ernstine might text me about how my left or right collar has popped out from under my lapel or whatever. She just goes crazy over that. Or my IFB is showing. She goes crazier over that. Or every once in a while, she'll text to say that she really likes my suit or my shirt.
But Wayne and Nellie will text to tell me how much they agree or very much disagree with what I just said on television. This happened during Monday's show. I had just picked Kevin Durant's sons to be Russell Westbrook's Clippers. And by the way, I can't believe I just said Kevin Durant's sons and Russell Westbrook's Clippers two months ago. Who would have known? What?
What world are we living on? What parallel universe? I had picked Kevin Durant's sons to beat Russell Westbrook's Clippers in five games. So Nelly texted, and he said, and I'm going to quote, Russ, my cat, upset, Clippers in six. I fired right back. I don't have a lot of time in commercial breaks because I'm prepping for the next debate topic with Shannon, but I fired right back in kind. KD, my guy, sons in five.
Then Nelly made the point that he'll take Russ over Chris Paul. Huh. And this prompted a highly charged back and forth about whether Russ or CP3 has had a better career. So I was sort of summing up this upcoming playoff series as Kevin Durant versus his former teammate, no going to city, Russell Westbrook. Obviously they guard each other mano a mano, but, uh,
But Nellie's boiling it down to, wait a second, it's Russ versus Chris. And Nellie made the point he loves Chris as a guy. He knows him. Nellie knows all of them. So does Wayne. But he loves Chris as a guy, but that Russ has had the better career, says Nellie, and has routinely been better in the playoffs, says Nellie. Well, okay. I was caught between a rock, Russ, and a hard place, CP3.
For me, this actually boiled down to sort of pick your quote-unquote poison because I haven't been the biggest fan of either. I'll tell you why in just a second, but it's almost like I had to pick the lesser of two quote-unquote basketball evils. Not that they're evil people, but you know, basketball evils. I've just never been the biggest fan of either one of them, and yet ironically, I
just dawn on me, they're both thirds, as in Chris Emmanuel Paul III and Russell Westbrook III. Mostly I haven't given this, that, or the third about either one of them. But now that Nelly was forcing my hand during our live TV show, I realized I was leaning Chris over us in this series and for their careers. Want to know my biggest reason? Probably because
subliminally, psychologically. Okay, CP3 isn't what you'd call Lil Wayne's cat, but he's like a brother, Chris Paul is to Lil Wayne, like a brother. They got close back in their days together in New Orleans when Chris was a hellacious young pelican, hellacious. And Wayne was obviously a rising artist.
But before I go deeper into why I'll take Chris's career over Russ, understand that let me go a little deeper on just what I haven't loved about either one of them. And I'll start with Russ. He's really, if you want to know the truth, he's never been anything but a solo act of a stat machine. Far more interested in me than we. Terrible three-point shooter. Turned into a terrible free throw shooter. Turnover king.
Worst hands I've ever seen in a point guard on any level. I think I'll include high school in that. Yet it still baffles me how so many NBA stars speak in awe of Russell Westbrook. Top 75 player. He plays so hard every possession. Yeah, on offense he does. The biggest swing and miss of LeBron James' career was campaigning for the Lakers to go get Russell Westbrook.
Best GM move of this entire NBA season was Rob Pelinka getting out from under the $47 million he owed Russ for year two of his Laker career. Utah, as you know, took Russ off Pelinka's hands, but it cost the Lakers their protected 2027 first round pick. So it was a pretty good price to pay to get out from under Russ.
But the most shocking move of the entire NBA season was the Clippers jumping on Russell Westbrook, clearly an attempt to show the Lakers, the Kings of LA, that they, the Clippers, could win with Russ after LeBron and the Lakers failed too. Good luck, Clippers. Chris Paul obviously is a former Clipper. I have long wondered out loud on TV about Chris Paul's one loose screw.
He has a long history of losing his temper, losing his mind, his wits, losing all his control, and punching opponents below the belt. I'm talking about in the man region. What? Chris Paul? This has happened on numerous occasions, dating all the way back to his college days. Chris got suspended playing for Wake Forest in the ACC tournament by a shot he took
while playing North Carolina State. You might remember said incident. Yet Chris has long been president of the NBA Players Association. So I guess fans are quicker to sort of look the other way past these incidents. And more important, because of years and years and years and years of Chris on State Farm commercials, he's seen as a super nice guy with a twin brother, Cliff Paul,
who's so dedicated to selling State Farm insurance. I swear to you that Chris Paul has become better known for those commercials than for his basketball. They're relentless. You're going to see thousands of them throughout these playoffs. And they're great. He's great. He's great as Chris and Cliff Paul. Maybe we'll see a resurgence of Cliff through these playoffs. Back on first take, when Chris was a Clipper player,
I used to call Chris CP0, as in zero rings. I used to argue with my man Stephen A about CP3, and Stephen A would always defend Chris by saying, look, you just can't expect too much from a player who's only about six feet tall, and I will give you that much. Russ is six feet, three inches tall, a good three inches taller.
far more athletically explosive, greatest six foot three inch rebounder we've ever seen. I will certainly give you that, but I will still take Chris Paul III's career, his playoff performances over Russell Westbrook III's career and playoff performances. Bottom line, Chris Paul has always made his teammates better.
than Russ has been able to make his teammates. Chris Paul is the point god, a very naturally gifted floor general, while Russ has all along been more of an egomaniacal two-guard than a point. Always a turnover nightmare because, come on, let's be honest, Russ is the flip side of Chris. He's got low basketball IQ, and yet he started forcing himself to force the ball to his bigs in Oklahoma City.
after his hell-bent drives to the rim. This all because Kevin Durant had left him high and dry, and Russ discovered this stat, this weird obscure stat called a triple-double. As you know, Russ averaged a triple-double four of five seasons. Possibly great, but solo act. This after KD decided he would never be able to win with Russ as his primary decision-maker in OKC.
Russ is egomaniacally selfish. Chris, just the opposite. Chris is an orchestrator. He's a facilitator, a choreographer, a maestro. Chris is interested only in winning, not in starring or statting. So let's compare career achievements, shall we? Okay, so remember, Chris is now finishing his 18th season. Russ, his 15th season. Chris, 37. Russ, 34.
Chris is a 12-time All-Star to Russ's nine times, both highly impressive. Chris Paul is a five-time assist champ in the NBA, five times. Russ has won the assist title three times, pretty great. Chris has been the steals champ six times, okay, but Russ has been the scoring champ two times.
Chris was the rookie of the year, but I'll give you this. Russ was the 2017 MVP. That was his first triple-double season, averaging a triple-double. Something I thought we'd never see. Obviously, Oscar did it way back in 1963. But now we come to this, and I'd lost sight of it. Would you believe, would you buy that Chris Paul nine times has been all defense in the NBA? Nine times.
Russ, no times. It's a big difference. Okay, so now let's go to the playoffs. Magic moments, records. Their records in the playoffs are in games they've played in or started. They're about the same. Chris is 72-70 in the postseason. Russ is 55-56, so that's a push. Okay, let's do magic moments for Russ in the postseason. He did play in that one Baby Thunder Finals that I talked about, 2012-2012.
Game one, he was really good. 27-8-11 he had. But Kevin was really good in that first game also, 26-8-4. And yet, after game two, actually during game two, the great Magic Johnson at halftime on ABC said that Russ had just played the worst half of basketball I can ever remember any point guard ever playing in an NBA Finals game. That was for Magic Johnson. Russ did go on to score 43 points today.
in game, I think it was four in Miami, but in a losing cause. Then I do remember that closeout game that Russ played, the year he played with Paul George, this was at Utah. Russ went for 46, 10, and 5 as playoff P disappeared.
Donovan Mitchell had 38 in that game. So Russ outgunned him 46-10-5. Pretty good, but the Thunder lost 96-91. Paul George was 2-16, 0-6 from three with six turnovers. Didn't get any help. But magic moments, I can't really think of many, if any. Which brings me back to Chris's side of the ledger. Hey, do I remember those games against my San Antonio Spurs? This was way back in 2008.
When Chris Paul was it for the Pelicans, they had Moe Pete and they had Pasha, but it was Chris Paul or bust. And at six feet tall or whatever he is, he might be 5'11". The Spurs just couldn't stop him. They were scared to death of Chris Paul. And I got good sources there. They thought he had become a force of pit bull nature. Pelicans went up three to two on my Spurs when they were riding high.
But my Spurs bounced back and fought back and gritted it out, toughed it out, thought it out, and finally won a game seven at New Orleans, 91-82. But Chris was still virtually unstoppable for them. And then how can I forget another game against my Spurs? Game seven of the first round. This is May 2nd of 2015. I just remember it because it was the day of.
the Manny Pacquiao Floyd Mayweather fight in Vegas. We were there, and yet I'm watching on TV as Chris Paul made a last-second runner up high off the glass after pulling his hamstring and appearing to be down and out of the game. He made it up over my man Tim Duncan to beat my Spurs 111-109.
And then how can I forget game six against a team that I liked, the Clippers, back in 2021. Game six, do you remember this, at what used to be Staples? Chris Paul went out of his mind shooting the basketball. I didn't think he had it in him, but over the last 90 seconds of the third quarter,
and then the rest of the game, Chris Paul scored 27 points. 90 seconds in the third, and then the fourth. 27 points in a closeout game six. 41 total. 19 in the fourth. It was extraordinary to vault the Suns, obviously, at that point, pass the Clippers into the finals. They went up two O's, you remember, on Giannis and the Bucs, but then lost four straight. Chris Paul.
pretty much disappeared in that finals. But that game, that's a magic moment of a game. So my point to you is, again, give me Chris Paul in the clutch, in the postseason, for his career, which brings him back to the present. So how lucky has Russell Westbrook been? Just when I thought nobody was going to sign him. I thought maybe his career was done. He'd been such a liability for the Lakers. Day after day,
We had shown Russell Westbrook blooper reels, turnover blooper reels on Undisputed. Yet all of a sudden, Russ gets to stay home in L.A., where he grew up, a Laker fan. But he gets to play for the Clippers, and yet he was coming off the bench, relegated to sixth man of the year duty for the Lakers, and now he's starting for the Clippers? What?
And now he's gone from third wheel on the Clippers to co-star with Kawhi because Paul George is out for the foreseeable future. Don't know what's going to happen to him, but I don't think he's going to be able to play in this first round series against Phoenix. So I did pick the Clippers before the season started to win it all. I liked them a lot. I liked the way they were playing a whole lot until they jumped on Russ. I don't get it. I'm out. And...
The other move I didn't see coming was my guy, Kevin Durant, dropping out of heaven into Chris Paul's lap in Phoenix. Okay? What's his biggest motivation? He wants to help Chris win his first ring. Way to go, Kevin. I love it. So Chris Paul went from looking older and older as the suns were setting to here comes Kevin Durant. And now I got them winning it all just because of Kevin bleeping Durant. So now defense is...
are going to dare Chris Paul to shoot wide-open threes as they double KD and maybe double Devin Booker at the same time. KD, Book, doubled. That's four out of five guys. Chris Paul will stand there, as we saw him do against Dallas in that first big national TV game on a Sunday. He will take and make KD.
the biggest threes of this postseason. I do trust him to sit down and make those threes. He's got that clutch gear in him. Russell Westbrook is going to go haywire on the Clippers when they need it the least. And if Ty Lue benches him as he is wont to do, Russ will make playoff ways. He is delusionally egomaniacal. He thinks he is the point god. Conclusion?
Cornell Haynes Jr., a.k.a. Nelly, I cannot ride with you on this one. You got to ride with me. You got to give me CP0 over West Brick. Give me Chris over Russ. Give me Suns in five. And I'm sure I'll hear from Nelly as soon as he hears that. Back to your questions. Damon.
from Stockton, California. Who are the Dallas Cowboys of the NBA? That is a great question. For me, that's a brain teaser that turns me into brain lock. So back in the 80s, when I spent a good deal of time around Magic Johnson's Showtime Lakers, I thought the Lakers were the NBA's Cowboys. I thought there were a lot of parallels. Big box office teams, lots of star power, national drawing power.
TV ratings, must-see TV. I thought they were fairly similar. Jerry Buss, out front owner, which would lead soon to Jerry Jones, out front owner, because the cowboy dynasty obviously relaunched in the 90s, but then came the Shaq and Kobe Lakers, and the cowboys responded by what? They didn't respond.
My Cowboys haven't even been back to an NFC championship game since January of 1996. That's 27 years ago. Hey, at least LeBron's Lakers won a championship in 2020. Flawed as it was. An asterisk-laden bubble title. Not a really legit championship in my book, but a championship nonetheless. I call it bubblicious. And it was. Most of the teams wanted to go home. LeBron toughed it out.
And he won. I've always thought the Dallas Mavericks have been sort of cowboy wannabes. But as I mentioned earlier, at least the Mavericks took advantage of LeBron's meltdown, won that championship in 2011. We, as in the Dallas Cowboys, haven't won one in 27 years. The truth is, Damon, there are no NBA Cowboys. There's nothing like the Cowboys anywhere in any sport.
This is the most valuable team in the world, run by the most famous sports owner ever. And this team hasn't even made it to its conference championship game in 27 years. The Cowboys are one of one. And they'll probably go 11-6 next year. They'll win the NFC East and they'll lose their first playoff game at Jerry World. Quick thought.
makeup as in my makeup I'm not talking about what I'm made of I'm talking about what I put on my face every morning for undisputed even for this podcast so growing up in Oklahoma City I could not have ever even imagined wearing any makeup it was the last thing on my mind let alone me putting makeup on my face little-known fact
I apply my own makeup every single morning, about 15 minutes to show time for Undisputed. Over my TV career, it's really longer than 20. I've been on national TV daily shows for almost 20 years, but I've been doing TV for 30, 40 years. I don't know. Dozens and dozens of makeup artists have put makeup on me. Yet the truth was, I didn't always love it.
Some made me look too make-up-y, as in caked on pancake makeup. Some made me look white as a ghost. So by trial and error, I learned to do my own makeup. I am a control freak and I thought, hey, who better than I to do my own? So if you want a little bit of detail, in just a little bit, I use an eye lightener or brightener from Lancome.
that I squirt onto my finger just a little bit of this cream and then on my fingertip I apply it just above my eye, then across my eyelid, and then of course below my eye. And then over that as I light my eyes, down my cheeks, chin, neck, and then forehead, I brush on some dark brown powder from a company called Hoola.
that does smooth out my face, at least the face I see in the mirror. Again, it's all the way over my cheeks with a big broad brush, forehead, put some on my ears. Then I darken my eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil. I know the one thing I learned from the makeup artists early on, they say eyebrows are everything because you express yourself facially so much with your eyebrows. And then across my cheekbones,
I just brush on a slash of what is called blush from Laura Mercier. It's called Strawberry. One makeup artist a long time ago said, hey, God gave you good cheekbones. You should highlight them. So I try. Not sure I do much good, but that's it. Then I'm ready for battle. Makeup for battle. And I know if I look bad, then it's my fault. I bring all this up because I
Just this week, I went through a makeup issue because, I don't know, I think last Saturday it was. I woke up with the classic stye in my left eye. Haven't had one, I think, since I was a little kid. But I had a little welt or bump or it almost looked like a pimple on my under eyelid. And it got pretty sore and it started to send some fluid buildup down under my eye. And I thought I looked like a cyclops.
So, did I try to go to any of our makeup artists here at Fox? Nope. I'm going to trust myself. I'm going to tough it out. And I caked on that under eye that I talked about, that brightener or lightener, on my lower lid and then under my eye. And I still thought I looked terrible, but...
Ernestine did assure me she could not tell on TV. Some of our producers here said, no, we really couldn't tell. I think they were just being nice to me because I think I look like a cyclops. Maybe you thought that I look like a cyclops, but that's makeup for you. The lights are bright, the lights are hot, and maybe, just maybe, I have figured out how to even defeat a stye in my eye.
Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much?
I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. This is Ronald from Michigan who asks, what did your yearbook quote say? Hmm, that's interesting. We didn't have yearbook quotes like, quote unquote, most likely to succeed, quote,
I don't know, maybe mine would have said most likely to piss off the most people. That's probably what people thought at that point because after all, when my senior year of baseball ended, I mentioned before I wrote a column for our school paper called The Shield because we were the Knights, the Northwest Knights. I wrote a column for The Shield blasting my baseball coach Winston Havenstright.
I was probably the second best player on what had turned out to be a pretty bad team. Steve Harris was the best player. He went on his year behind me, but he would go on to the University of Oklahoma football scholarship. But I thought I was the ultimate source for that inside story, which prompted my coach, Winston Havenstrike, to tell several people that if he saw me again, he would, and I quote, kill me. But I will say this.
The single greatest honor of my life occurred right around that point in my life. And I guess it was the equivalent of the great yearbook quote because I had just received or won a scholarship called the Grantland Rice Scholarship for sports writing at Vanderbilt University. It's a full ride. And a sports columnist that I had grown up reading, revering, idolizing,
reading religiously every single morning named Frank Boggs for the Daily Oklahoman had written me a letter of recommendation for said scholarship. Maybe it helped. So every single morning, first thing I did was go retrieve the Daily Oklahoman out on the doorstep, take it in by myself to the living room, drop down on the floor, yank out the sports section and open it up wide to read the sports and to read Frank's column, Always First.
He could be hilarious. He could be scathing. He could be hilariously scathing. So I had interviewed Frank Boggs for a story I wrote about him for our school paper when I was a sophomore. That was the only contact I had. Yet when Frank read that I'd won the Grantland Rice, for which he wrote me the letter of recommendation, out of the blue one afternoon, he called me at home. I was stunned when I answered the phone. This is way before there's any caller ID or
call waiting. I just happened to be there and answer his call. And he told me he wanted to write a column about me. And I was dumbfounded. And I was close to speechless. I'd never been quoted before. I'd never been interviewed before. And Frank wrote a column about me on a very slow column day, I figure. I think he just didn't have another column in his back pocket. But he wrote about
How I was a good kid who worked hard, made great grades, did play sports. I was president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Northwest. And Frank wrote that I would go far. And that has stuck with me my entire life. He wrote about me when I was 18 years of age and it was stripped across the top of what was called the Oklahoma City Times, which was the afternoon paper. I could not believe it. I was in awe.
And I still have that column, one of my few pieces of memorabilia, framed on my wall at home. That was my yearbook quote. So Charles Barkley has been at it again concerning me. Took another shot at me the other day. But hey, we are making progress. I've mentioned this before. Lately, he has not said that he wants to kill me as he did again and again and again over a 20-year period.
until I called him out about it on this podcast. Yet, once again, Charles's criticism of me is just, to me, so laughably wrongheaded that I just can't help myself anymore. I have to respond. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't take Charles seriously. I'm not sure anybody takes him that seriously. He can be clownish. He can be buffoonish. He can be foolish.
But I finally decided, after 20 years of criticism from Charles, 20 years of slings and arrows aimed at me on national TV shows, big talk shows, David Letterman, Jay Leno, now on Dan Patrick, I finally decided enough was enough, and I no longer turned the other cheek as I was always taught to do. No longer will I let Charles fire away unopposed. This time, this is what Charles said.
And I quote, one of the reasons I've been very good at my job, then he paused for a second. One of the reasons I hate reporters, guys like Skip Bayless, you can tell the guys they like and dislike that ain't right. Still Charles talking. You should be fair. Just because me and Mike were great friends, I don't give him a hall pass. He's referring to Michael Jordan.
And he continues, in my 23 years, I have never played favorites. There was nobody can say, Charles, don't like this guy. I have been fair to everybody, said Charles Barkley, taking another gratuitous sort of between the lines shot at me. Okay, let's start with Charles referring to me or dismissing me as a reporter.
The last time I was just a reporter was 1978 for the LA Times out here in Los Angeles. Then I moved to Dallas at age 26 to become the lead columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Columnists write opinions based on journalistic rules. These are points of view that are drawn from carefully reported facts. So Charles thinks of quote-unquote reporters as the beat writers of
who day in and day out covered the teams that Charles played for in the NBA. Beat writers write daily stories, as you know, and then game stories. Beat writers try to write with detached objectivity, no opinions. In my career, I never covered a team for a whole season. I would swoop in and do an occasional game here or there, feature story here or there, but I never covered a team. I never had a beat, not in my life.
Have I been a beat reporter? Now, I have been an investigative reporter dealing only with sports, but I have delved deeply into issues such as out here, my first stint out here with the LA Times, Rams owner Carol Rosenblum ordering coach Chuck Knox to play a certain Rams quarterback depending on which team Rosenblum had bet on, the Rams or the opponent, this according to Chuck Knox to me. Issues I investigated.
Whether the Dodgers back in the day in the 70s had ostracized the great Steve Garvey and his wife Cindy because they sought so much publicity. That's what Cindy told me. I reported deeply on that. Issues such as the 1980s Cowboys rebelling against Tom Landry. That was my first book, God's Coach. Or Jimmy versus Jerry, which became my second book, The Boys.
which did predict that Jerry would soon fire Jimmy ahead of my time on that one. Or my third book about the Cowboys, Troy Aikman versus Barry Switzer. They did not speak from December 4th through the Super Bowl. They won together, a fact I reported in Hell Bent, my third and last Cowboy book. I still use my investigative reporting skills on a nightly basis as I make calls, exchange texts,
looking for unreported facts to bolster my undisputed arguments the next morning. Now, of course, I debate sports for two and a half hours a day every week. That's 12 and a half hours a week of live TV, go-for-the-throat debate. And look, I am trying to win every argument against a pro football Hall of Famer and Shannon Sharp. I'm not a game analyst like Charles is. I
I'm an opinionist. I'm a competitive debater. I try to prove on air that my point, my point of view on a player, on a game, on an issue is more right, more accurate, more valid than Shannon Sharps. So yes, over time, it becomes very clear to the viewers on Undisputed that I do believe that Michael Jordan is far and away the GOAT and that LeBron is the phony GOAT and that I believe
Tom Brady made Bill Belichick, a point I made again and again while they were together in New England, and that Belichick is now getting exposed as I predicted long ago he would. I've said that Tom Brady has come up clutch in more big games than any athlete ever because he's played in so many big games. And I've made it very clear that from age 10 on, I fell in love with my Dallas Cowboys and I cannot help myself when it comes to believing this will be their year.
Now, do I play favorites? So, you know the story. Charles was once very close friends with Michael Jordan. And on TV at one point, Charles said that one reason Michael was struggling to build a winner as the owner and operator in Charlotte was that he had surrounded himself with too many yes men. Michael did not like that. Michael ended their friendship. Charles now indicates he's proud of not selling out to Michael Jordan.
that he, Charles, has no regrets about what he said on TV or about the way Michael took it. Now, point of order. You will not find a bigger Michael Jordan fan than I am. I had the honor, I had the privilege of getting to know him a little when I was the lead columnist in Chicago in 1998 for the Chicago Tribune. But I'm pretty sure I was among the first, if not the first, in the sports media to say, hey,
Michael Jordan is turning into the worst owner slash GM in all of sports. I was scathing in my criticism of Michael for taking Adam Morrison third overall in 2006. This was back in my days on cold pizza. I went strong. I went hard on TV. Adam Morrison will be a bust and he was.
I just might have been the first in all of sports media to proclaim Michael Jeffrey Jordan the worst team builder in sports history. I haven't spoken to Michael in, what, 20 odd years. I don't care if I ever speak to him again. I will still love him for the player he was, the icon that he was. I have never ever played favorites. I just say exactly what I see. I've never spoken to Tom Brady.
I've never connected with him or gone back and forth with him, communicated in any way, shape, or form. I do know Jerry Jones very well. I like him a lot. Ask him if he liked my third and final Cowboys book. He did not. All three of my Cowboy books were extremely controversial, extremely objective. I played no favorites, even though I love me some Dallas Cowboys. Kevin Durant.
I've defended him. I've supported him. I'm hung with him, even though he's taken shots at me. But I don't know Kevin. Never had a conversation with him, but I will continue to believe in him. And I believe he's going to lead the Suns to this year's championship. I often hear, I hate LeBron James. I don't hate LeBron. I don't even know LeBron. Shannon, obviously, is friends with him. I know a lot of people who do know LeBron.
And I always say that I've always heard that he's a very nice guy, LeBron James. I believe too nice to try to dethrone Michael Jordan as the ultimate cold-blooded basketball killer. I always say LeBron is still the best passer in basketball. I tweeted it the other night. He is the greatest driver of the basketball I have ever seen. Nobody, nobody in this league can play bully ball even at age 38, year 20.
the way LeBron can. That's beyond Michael, but he ain't no GOAT. Yes, I can't help when it's called for on Undisputed. I do point out LeBron's been a notoriously lousy three-point shooter his whole career, a notoriously poor free-throw shooter, a liability at the late-game, close-game free-throw line. Nobody has missed more late-game, close-game, last-second shots than
than LeBron since he entered the league or late game, close game free throws than LeBron since he entered the league. I don't see a closer gene. I don't see a clutch gene. I see a phony goat. And by the way, the other night in that play-in game, the last 15 minutes that LeBron played in the game, 10 in the fourth and all five in overtime, the greatest score in the history of the NBA managed to score three total points on one three-point shot to go along with three turnovers. What?
Seriously? Lately, the Lakers in the locker room, when LeBron's being interviewed, they do their ba-a-a-a-a-a. I think it's a sheep sound, but they're trying to do the goat sound, like to try to tell the media, you're talking to the goat. Ba-a-a-a-a-a. Well, the other night in the fourth quarter and overtime, he was just ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ba. Bad. So, Charles, please help me out here. How exactly have I played favorites? And help me out here.
Are you not an even bigger critic of LeBron James than I am? That's how I see it. That's how I watch it. That's how I feel it. And how, Charles, am I exactly a reporter, quote unquote? I have been on national TV debate shows for going on 20 years, Charles. You know that because you just might be my most faithful viewer. And I greatly appreciate that. Heck,
I don't mind it anymore when you take your weird shots at me. I actually enjoy poking holes in your salvos aimed at me. I still hugely enjoy watching you on TNT, Charles Barkley. You make me laugh.
That's it for episode 60. 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. Remember, Undisputed, every weekday, 9.30 to noon Eastern, the Skip Bayless Show, every week.