Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
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So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium Wireless. How about you get 30, 30, how about you get 30, how about you get 20, 20, 20, how about you get 20, 20, how about you get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month? Sold! Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $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 each detail. Here we go. This is the Skip Bayless Show.
Episode 9. But this episode is going to be a little different. Maybe I should say a lot different because this time I have one huge topic I want to unleash on. One huge topic I want to get off my chest and maybe get to the bottom of by going just as deep as I know how to go. This topic concerns Charles Barkley.
and me. And I will apologize in advance. This week, I will not have any time for your questions, which are always my favorite part of this show. Next week, I might do nothing but your questions, your probing and provocative questions that are always so entertaining and enlightening for me, but not today. So here we go.
with one big not to be skipped. I'm about to speak publicly about something I have never spoken about publicly. I've never had the right platform to do this issue, the justice I hope to give it right here, right now. I've never obviously had this kind of platform until now. For about 15 years,
on all kinds of national TV platforms, Charles Barkley has regularly and relentlessly said he would like to, and I quote, kill me. Again and again and again, Charles has said he would like to kill me. And Charles Barkley has not been joking when he has said this. He says it like he means it, like he would very much like to end my life.
We can go all the way back to the days of the late night shows, Jay Leno, David Letterman. Charles Barkley would often do those shows. And numerous times he said on those national TV shows that he'd like to kill me, straight faced. And of course the hosts, Leno and Letterman, laughed because we all know Charles can be naturally very funny. But if you look at the clips...
Charles' face is dead serious. So just to get you in the mood for what I'm about to launch upon, let me give you a couple of other examples. I could give you many. I could take up the next couple of hours with examples, but I'll just give you two. The first one was from a 2013 Inside the NBA, which is obviously Charles' show. He is the star of the show. Shaq, Kenny, you know the rest.
But in 2013, Charles said on Inside the NBA, if I could get Skip Bayless in a room, you'd need DNA to find out who he was. And then another example was 2017 on the Dan Patrick show. If I could get a disease and I'm going to die, again, I'm quoting Charles here. I'll start again. If I could get a disease and I'm going to die,
"How about you get Skip Bayless in here "and I'll kill him live on national television?" Ha ha ha, but Charles was not joking. So at various times, this 15 year onslaught has amazed me, it has amused me, but it has always confounded me because for the life of me, I have no idea why exactly
Charles wants to kill me. And here's the, so to speak, punchline to all of the above. I don't know Charles Barkley. I've never had a single conversation with Charles Barkley. Through Charles' era in the NBA, as you probably know, I got to know Michael, as in Michael Jordan, very well. I've known Magic for years and years. I got to know Isaiah very well.
Charles just slipped through my cracks. I did not cross his path. I didn't cover any of his teams. I didn't ever try or need to try to interview him. I just wasn't around Charles Barkley, around a lot of other stars, but not Charles. To my knowledge, I've never written or said a single word
anything negative about Charles that would make him want to somehow reduce me to only my DNA sample. I do not hate Charles. I watch Charles. I like Charles on television. He is very funny, naturally very funny. I sometimes wonder whether he really gets or knows basketball, but I'll get to that in just a couple of minutes. But I do like him on television.
And just for the record, there's never been any remote sort of personal issue between us because there's no relationship, but there's no backstory here. There's no hidden agenda. I didn't somehow do him wrong in an interview situation. I didn't double cross him. I don't know anything about anything that could have set off Charles as far as what I've said, written or done. I don't know Charles personally.
to the point that I've never interacted with him except for one brief time 33 years ago. And I will tell you that story in just a moment. In the biggest picture, I'm pretty sure Charles Barkley wants to kill me only because of what I say and what I've said on television. Period. End of story. And please understand, that doesn't bother me one bit.
I have lost zero sleep over any of this. My mother didn't teach me much. She wasn't around much, but she did always say, "Sticks and stones." You know the old cliche, sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you. Pretty much lived by that. I would like to think I have extremely thick skin. I've been criticized a whole lot more, I believe, than I have criticized.
this is just what I do. It's where I live. It's who I am. So nothing Charles has ever said about me has bothered me to the point of losing sleep. Again, confounded, puzzled, baffled, but not haunted or tormented. So until now, I've pretty much just ignored it. But I've had to walk that fine line, that tightrope of a line of
of caring a little bit, but not too much in that I have never wanted to look like I'm running from Charles because I am definitely not running from Charles. In fact, several times when I was at ESPN, now on Undisputed here at FS1, I have publicly asked Charles to join me on TV and please explain to me in detail his problems with me.
Several times, dating back a dozen years ago, we started Bookers at ESPN. Reach out. See if he wants to join me and Stephen A on first take. Reach out. Reach out. I don't know. Tried four or five different times. No answer. No response. And now that I have this show, my show, with no live TV commercial breaks, bottomless pit of time that we could spend,
I challenged Charles again, please join me on this show, on this platform. We could have a whole hour to go back and forth to help me better understand why he wants to kill me. And who knows, maybe I could convince him I'm not worth killing. I'm also happy to do this face to face. I know we live in the remote era now, the pandemic era. Hope we're starting to slip out of it.
But I'd be happy to meet Charles, to do this, or if we could get him here. I don't know if we ever could, but that would be ideal for me, face-to-face, because I am not at all afraid to be in his presence. Could he kill me with his bare hands? I assume he could. I weigh 165 pounds, 5% body fat. I'm, what, 10, 11 years older than Charles. I don't know how much he weighs, but I assume he's twice me.
So, yeah, he could probably kill me with his bare hands if he so chose to do. And I guess I should throw out, if he wanted to just beat my ass in a race the way he once did Dick Bovetta, do you remember that back in 2007, the referee Dick Bovetta? Charles raced him. Charles beat him. I think Charles beat him.
I just remember they actually kissed afterwards. I don't think that would happen if Charles and I raced, but if he wants to race, I'm game. I'll be there. I'll meet him any place, any time. We can race end-to-end in the gym or 40 yards or 400 yards or 4 miles or 10 miles or you name it, Charles. I will be there. If Charles wanted to compete at golf, if he wanted to beat my ass on the golf course, I would be there with bells on.
We could play one hole or 36 holes. I don't care if that's the way he wants to do it or needs to do it. I'm happy to do that. But now let's get very serious again. Let's go to the deepest level, to my biggest, most important point, which is that I haven't taken any of this nearly as seriously as people close to me have taken it.
That starts and finishes with my wife, Ernestine, but it also has included her now late mother and my now late mother. My wife, Ernestine, has believed for 15 years that Charles Barkley is nothing but a sick individual, that to her, he is just pure evil, that he is depraved, that he is a scumbag,
And she believes or fears that one day Charles will somehow, maybe unwittingly or maybe wittingly, inspire some other nut to end my life. And this haunts her, this hurts her, because she believes that in the end, Charles Barkley would have my blood on his hands. And if that were Charles's goal from the start,
If that was his goal, then I congratulate him because he wins on this one. He has hurt my wife deeply, and she has lost much sleep over this. So in the end, at her urging, I finally decided way back in 2010 that this was becoming such an issue while I was at ESPN that I would try to
to at least remedy it in some way, shape or form. So I went to one of the big bosses at ESPN, John Wildhack, who is now the athletic director at Syracuse. And he had mentioned to me that he was friends with David Levy, who was then the president of Turner, which would make him Charles's boss, although I'm not sure Charles has ever really had a boss at Turner.
But John Wildhack, who went to school at Syracuse with David Levy, said, let me call him and talk to him. I'm sure, said John to me, I can get David Levy to soften this a little bit. And I said, look, I don't care about any of the other criticism. He can rip, he can slash, he can say whatever he wants. Just for Ernestine's sake, could he please stop using the K word? Please no more kill.
And I'll be honest with you, I did not want to even attempt to do this because I didn't want to give Charles Barkley the pleasure of thinking that I was running scared. I didn't bring up Ernestine. I didn't make that the issue. But I told her, I'll try this. I might look a little weak to Charles in trying this, but I warned her.
this will probably just fuel his fire. And I was right about that because after the request was made by John Wildhack to David Levy, it seemed to my ear that Charles only intensified his use of the K word when talking about me, which does bring me to the one, if you will, silver lining to my quote unquote coffin. This is a concept that
I've never gotten Ernestine to wrap her arms around, even though she is very TV savvy. She works in public relations. She really knows and gets television, but she does not want to hear me talk about this concept. But I will admit to you that I have quietly and greatly appreciated all the publicity that Charles has given to me over the years. It's years and years of national attention from...
a guy I consider a media superstar. And the more I've read about what Charles says about me, the more I realize that he watches Undisputed religiously. And I appreciate that greatly. Over the last 15 years, I can make the case that Charles Barkley has been my number one viewer out there in TV land. I just don't believe any other human has watched me
any more closely than Charles Wade Barkley has. I love him for that. And I sit back and think, well, I must have been doing something right to be that consistently riveting on television, to be that compelling, to be that emotion provoking. Thank you, Charles, for that. But the reason I decided to unleash on this today was that here we went again just the other day
When I read again that Charles has blasted me, this time on Draymond Green's podcast. They now work together, obviously, on TNT. So let me quote this exactly and accurately, if I could. Charles began by saying, I hate Skip Bayless more than life. This is to Draymond. You hate me more than life? Well, I didn't know Charles hated life that much. I don't. But then Charles went on to say,
Skip Bayless hates LeBron and Aaron Rodgers. For me, said Charles, I hate that because the one thing I try to do is I'm never going to lie on television because people believe what they see on television. If you have, I'm still quoting Charles, if you have watched Skip Bayless, you know he hates LeBron. He hates Aaron Rodgers. That ain't right in my opinion, said Charles Barkley to Draymond.
Okay, before I get to those points, Charles also reached for the tired, old, bogus disqualifier that I never played, so I don't know. I've heard this my whole career. I've mentioned to you on this podcast before my issues with this. So many athletes have said over the years, you didn't play, obviously professionally, so you don't know. You have no idea.
wrong, wrong, and wrongest. Charles, have you been closely watching what's happening in team building? Let's just do your sport in the NBA, the personnel directors, the GMs, the pickers of the players, more and more, they didn't play. They definitely didn't play in the NBA. I'll just throw out a couple of quick examples. My man, RC Buford built the dynastic Spurs. I think he's the best in basketball.
R.C. Buford was a walk-on football player at Oklahoma State, never played basketball past high school. So how would he know if he didn't play? He knows. Daryl Morey, the genius, the wizard, the mastermind of the Rockets, now the Sixers. Daryl Morey didn't even, to my knowledge, play high school basketball, Charles.
How about LeBron's new favorite GM? The MVP in Oklahoma City, said LeBron at the All-Star Game. Sam Presti, he played a little D3 college basketball, D3 college basketball, just the way Bill Belichick played a little bit of D3 college football. How do they know they didn't really play? You learn, you see, you know. Now let's do the flip side of that argument, Charles, if we could.
What have I often said in my lengthy career? What have I often found? The greater the player, the worse the GM. Doesn't always hold true. There are exceptions to the rule, but not many. Who is the rule? Greatest player ever in any sport. I'm the biggest Michael Jordan fan you can find. I think Charles and I would agree on this point. Michael's the GOAT, and it ain't even close.
What's happened to Michael in Charlotte as the team builder, the owner and the operator of the Charlotte Hornets? What's happened? I've said it again and again on Undisputed. He's become the worst GM in the history of basketball. The worst. And it ain't even close. His Hornets have made the playoffs three times in the 15 years he has run the Hornets. Three times in 15 years, and they've never won a single playoff series.
His Hornets in the playoffs are three and 12. What? The GOAT is the opposite of the GOAT as a GM. And by the way, Charles used to be one of Michael's closest friends. I've heard Michael talk in my Chicago days about Charles, and he seemed to talk about him more as the court jester of the group, a laugh a minute, fun to be around because
It felt to me like Michael maybe laughed at him more than with him, but enjoyed having him around as the court jester type figure of the group. What happened to those two? They fell completely apart. Michael will no longer talk to Charles because Charles dared to criticize Michael on TNT, on Inside the NBA, for his failure as a GM. Charles's point was he surrounded himself with too many yes men.
And he needs to eliminate the yes men to be able to clear the decks, clear his head, clear his point of view, and turn that franchise back around. Well, that was the end of that relationship. So Charles and I at least have that much in common. Also, before I get back to LeBron and Aaron Rodgers, Charles also took a shot at me saying that on Undisputed, that I gloat over the one prediction I got right out of the 10 that I made.
Nine wrong and one right, said Charles about me on Undisputed. Charles, you know and I know that my partner Shannon Sharp and I predict games that manifest themselves in bets. Our currency became, weirdly, from day one, my drink of choice right here, if you're watching, Diet Mountain Dew, the breakfast of champions, the nectar of the gods. Shannon knew that I had one dew before every show.
I have one due before every Skip Bayless show. And so on day one of Undisputed, September 6th of 2016, Shannon just blurted out, I'll bet you a case of Diet Mountain Dew that blah, blah, blah. So we began to bet our currency became cases of Diet Dew. And just for the record, over the six years I have opposed Shannon on Undisputed,
I am now up over 100 cases of Diet Mountain Dew over Shannon with my predictions, just for the record. Now, back to LeBron James. As God is my witness and I am a God-fearing man, I do not hate LeBron James, Charles Barkley. I have said many times on television, LeBron's really a nice guy. In fact, knowing Jordan the way I got to know Jordan
LeBron, by contrast, is actually too nice a guy to have the killer will that Michael always had in ways nobody has ever had. And I have said many, many times about LeBron, to this day, in year 19, at age 37, he remains the best passer in basketball. He was the day he stepped on the court in Sacramento, right out of high school.
And he is to this day the best passer in basketball. And I continue to say, and certainly said after his 56-point salvo the other night against Golden State, he's the greatest driver of the basketball I have ever seen. LeBron can still play bully ball with the best of them. He's 6'9", what, 260, maybe 270? Never seen a thing quite like LeBron, who's ambidextrous, attacking the basket because he can beat you with either hand.
And with those shoulders and with that Braun as in LeBron, as in L-E capital B-R-A-W-N, Braun. I don't hate any of that, but I have tried to tell the truth about LeBron as I see it. And these aren't lies, Charles. These are just facts. He has suffered epic meltdowns. I know I probably talk about this too much on Undisputed, but it's just the truth, the God's truth.
It started in that final playoff series, his first go-round in Cleveland, 2010 against the Boston Celtics. I thought he played in game three the first night at Boston Garden. I thought it was the greatest game of his career. I was spellbound by it. I never miss a LeBron game. I watch every single dribble of every game because he is still the most entertaining player in basketball. He's still the face of not only the Laker franchise, but of the NBA.
It's going to tear me apart if these Lakers completely miss the playoffs. But I'm watching that game that Friday night, that game three back in 2010, and I said, that's special. Celtics had no answers. All of a sudden, Cleveland's up two games to one, and here it went. I've said from the start, I don't believe LeBron was born with what I call the clutch gene. I can back that up with stat after stat after stat, and I will.
But games four, five, and six, LeBron shrank and disappeared to the point that members of his inner circle planted the story with reporters at ESPN that LeBron had to be sedated before games four, five, and six because he was having a locker room issue with a teammate. Maybe so. I didn't buy it, but...
It was an epic meltdown by young LeBron, who then obviously went to Miami and suffered an even bigger epic meltdown in the finals against Dallas in 2011. Here we went right on schedule. They go up two games to one at Dallas. According to my friend Stephen A. Smith, LeBron went back to his hotel room in Dallas and started making a list of people he wanted to say, I told you so too. And according to Stephen A., I was number one on that list.
Games four, five, and six, LeBron shrank and disappeared. Go look at the numbers. They're abominably bad, shockingly bad. The chosen one became the frozen one. He's talked about it. He had to face up to it, live with it. With Dwayne Wade's big brother help, he did break through in 2012 against those baby thunder of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden. But
Epic meltdowns even leading up to game one of 2018 at Oracle against Golden State. LeBron shot it as well as I've ever seen him shoot it outside the paint. He's not a very good shooter. Go look at it. He's a career 36% three-point shooter. It's, I'll be nice, below average. He's a career 73% free throw shooter. It's way below average.
These are just facts, Charles. They're not lies. And in 2018, they had Golden State on the ropes. LeBron's got the ball in his hands. He gets a switch onto little Steph Curry. It's 6-9 versus, I'll give Steph 6-3. Hot-handed LeBron. Just go up and take the shot. You could get it from the free throw line. Just rise up over Steph. Make the shot. But you're down one. So it's do or it's die.
It would be make or miss and lose. And of course, you know what happened. He made the right play. He passed it to George Hill, who'd never been in the spot before. I never liked George Hill when he was with my San Antonio Spurs. Never trusted him. He got fouled by Klay Thompson. And you know what happened. He made one of two free throws. Then J.R. Smith happened. He lost his mind, lost concentration, lost focus, lost his place in the game.
And LeBron just basically quit on his team. He pouted, he sat away from his teammates. He wouldn't shoot the ball for the first two and a half minutes of the five-minute overtime as they fell behind woefully and completely. These things have happened again and again and again. And clutch gene stats. Let me read a couple of quick ones here for you, Mr. Barkley. Since LeBron James has entered the NBA, regular season and post,
He has missed 103 clutch field goals. These are late and close field goals with the game within five points one way or the other. That's 26 more than anyone else. Number two on that list is Russell Westbrook. He's climbed all the way up to 77. So it's 103 misses by LeBron, who's obviously played longer than Russ, but 103 to 77. Missed clutch three-point shots. Since LeBron came into the league, he's second in the NBA.
to Russell Westbrook. Russ is at 57, but LeBron, because he's missed, I believe, three this year, those walk-off kind of three-point shots that he tends to take instead of wanting to go to the free throw line. I've said from the start, he runs from the late game free throw line. So LeBron's missed 53 to now 57 for Russ. He's closing the gap. How about missed clutch free throws?
LeBron has 17 of those in his career. That's nine more than anyone else over the duration of the 19 years. Second on that list is J.R. Smith with eight. So 17 to eight. And obviously J.R. retired after the 2020 season. These aren't lies. These are facts. The irony of all this is that Charles Barkley, to me, has been the one guy on TV who
who has every once in a while had the guts to criticize LeBron James when it is merited, when it is warranted. And what happened back in 2016, it was actually early 2017, LeBron one night made the comment after a loss, it was the second go-round obviously with the Cavaliers, made the comment that we're top-heavy as you-know-what.
And that night on TNT, Charles Barkley had the guts to dare to call LeBron James whining, called him whining. And I applauded, loved it. LeBron did not love it and fired right back the next day with this. This is LeBron on Charles. I'm not going to let him disrespect my legacy like that. I'm not the one who threw somebody through a window.
I never spit on a kid. I never had unpaid debt in Las Vegas. I never said I'm not a role model. I never showed up to All-Star weekend on Sunday because I was in Vegas all weekend partying, said LeBron of Charles. He nuked him because Charles had the audacity to criticize LeBron James.
Well, I've always thought, I've always had the feeling from afar that Charles wanted to criticize him more. Maybe he felt like he couldn't because obviously for TNT, you're somewhat biting the hand that feeds your network. LeBron is the cash cow for TNT. You can argue for all of us, but especially for any network that carries the games. So am I lying about LeBron or am I
Am I just spinning facts? And remember, Charles, I'm constantly having to debate LeBron in a context that you've ripped many times in the Michael Jordan context. It's constantly the back and forth between me and Shannon Sharpe, or as I call him, LeShannon Sharpe, about who's the GOAT. It's the classic barbershop debate.
Well, I don't think it's even close. I think it's a laughable debate to start with, while LaShannon thinks that it's already over, that LeBron's the GOAT. What? Well, we go at it to the point we want to reach across the table and strangle each other on occasion, but I'm constantly having to criticize LeBron in the Jordan context. Well, LeBron, you're going to pale by comparison. I'm sorry, but
Jordan won 10 scoring titles to year one. I think you got a real shot to win this one this year. So you could make your case, I won a scoring title in year 19. Yeah, but it won't matter. That doesn't make you the GOAT. It marginally, slightly helps your GOAT case. I assume next year, knock on wood for you, knock on this wood, that health allowing that you will pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the greatest scorer in the history of this league.
It's a longevity record. It's in part a durability record. But does that change your GOAT stat? No, it doesn't. You lasted a long time. You took great care of yourself. What do I constantly hear on TV? Nobody spends as much money on LeBron, I mean, on LeBron's fitness as LeBron does. And how do we know that?
How do we know that KD doesn't spend as much? Kawhi doesn't spend as much? I don't know that, but I still admire and I honor LeBron for his dedication to his fitness level, which has contributed to his durability long-term. But I will leave you with this on LeBron. As I mentioned, this was Draymond's podcast. Draymond also took a shot at me concerning my criticism of LeBron. Well, wait a second.
What was the turning point of the 2016 finals when Golden State was up three games to one? What happened in game five, Draymond? Do you recall? I'm sorry, it's actually game four. What happened in game four? You got mad at LeBron and you screamed at him and called him a bitch. You said that. You called him a bitch. In the competitive world...
Man to man, you can't really degrade a man much more than to call him a bitch. And you did that. And then you went down to the other end and got tangled up with him. And you kicked him in the man region, in the groin area. And Kiki Vandeway, the sort of minister of discipline, was sitting close enough that he heard you, Draymond, call LeBron a bitch.
And he did something I thought I would never see. He suspended you for what was then game five. This was at the end of game four, which you were winning handily. So you go up three games to one, and then it's game five back at Oracle. And you're gone, Draymond. You're the guts and the glue of the Warriors. There's no KD to save the day. Well, you criticized LeBron way worse than I ever could. You called him a bitch.
Did anybody ever dare to call Michael Jordan a bitch? No, nobody would have ever thought that. Can LeBron act that way on occasion? Does he have a lot of diva in him? Yeah, he does. Well, you closed my case. You blasted him way worse than I ever have. So Charles, in the end, is it possible I'm just telling truth that you can't tell?
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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. Which brings me to Aaron Rodgers. I'm sorry, I really have to defend myself on this one because I have said for years, dating back to my days on First Take,
that Aaron Rodgers is the most overhyped player in NFL history. I was first to market with this. I guess you could say I had the guts to say it because it was really against the grain for a while, but slowly but surely, I'm pretty sure I've been proven right because my debate partner, Shannon Sharp, has come completely around as the biggest Aaron Rodgers fan ever.
to an even bigger detractor and critic than I am, is now Shannon Sharp, Hall of Famer, NFL Hall of Famer. I said from the start, this man is the GOAT of the regular season, beyond even the real GOAT, Tom Brady, Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. But the point is, he is the lowercase GOAT of the postseason, as in,
The biggest reason the Packers haven't been to a Super Bowl in 11 years. He had one miraculous road wildcard run to a Super Bowl in which the Packers had to go on the road three times to get to the Super Bowl. And they lived to tell about it. And Aaron wasn't great in the first game at Philly.
Michael Vick made one mistake late in the game through an interception into his end zone that ended the game. Aaron was all-time great at Atlanta, blew him off the carpet in Atlanta. And Aaron was pretty pathetic at Chicago in the NFC Championship game, which is now the only NFC Championship game he's ever won. He's 1-4 in NFC Championship games. 1-4? In the one he won...
came courtesy of Jay Cutler spraining his ACL late in the first half, having to ride the exercise bike through the second half on the sideline, and the immortal Caleb Haney was the quarterback for the Bears. Aaron Rodgers barely overcame Caleb Haney. Look at the numbers of Aaron in the second half. They're pedestrian at best. By Aaron's lofty standards now, they're shockingly bad.
He threw what was almost a pick six to Brian Urlacher. Give Aaron credit. He did tackle him and stop the pick six, but they barely survived and then went on to the Super Bowl in which Aaron was the MVP. That's his lone real claim to fame. That was 11 years ago. Since then, Charles, Aaron Rodgers is seven and nine in the postseason.
Six of those seven wins had luck involved, had good fortune involved. And I won't take all of your time here to go through all of them. You've heard me talk about them on Undisputed. But just quickly, the first came against a receiver playing quarterback, Joe Webb for the Vikings, emergency quarterback. Then there was the Dez caught it game. And you know and I know that Dez caught it and scored with it. Cowboys are going to win that game.
And then there was the Odell boat trip game when he led the group of receivers to Miami, to South Beach to get ready for Odell's first playoff game, which was about to be on the frozen tundra at Green Bay. Odell stunk it up that game. Two big drops in the first quarter. Aaron benefited greatly. There was the Mason crossbar game against my Cowboys at Jerry World, Dak Zeke rookie's year.
And it took two intergalactic field goals, two weird-looking field goals of 51 and 56 yards to survive that game for Aaron. And then Aaron Donald loses at Lambeau because he's got cracked ribs and was a shell of himself. And then Rams quarterback Jared Goff had to play that game with a fractured thumb in which a pin had been inserted. Okay, those are six games.
of his seven wins, but he also has nine losses. That means 16 playoff games have been played by Aaron Rodgers since his long ago far away Super Bowl. I'm not making any of this up. I am just spitting facts, not lies, facts. Those 16 games, 16 consecutive playoff games by Aaron Rodgers constitute the longest
stretch any quarterback has ever played in the history of this league without getting to a Super Bowl. Obviously, in this case, he would have to get back to the Super Bowl. Longest ever stretch, 16 games without getting to a Super Bowl. That's on Aaron's resume. Back-to-back years now, he's won MVP and had the number one seed going into the playoffs and lost home games.
First to Tom Brady, then to the guy I call Jimmy Gag, as in Jimmy Garoppolo, Jimmy G. You did? You lost twice in Packer weather on the frozen tundra? Aaron Rodgers lost twice. He's a choke artist. They had it first and goal at the eight against Tom Brady late in that game. Miss, miss, miss. Horrible. Three horrible passes.
Young coach LaFleur says, I've seen enough. I take a field goal. It's going to make it 31 to 26. I don't want Aaron trying fourth and goal from the eight. Really? Then against the 49ers, this past playoffs, Aaron Rodgers has the ball late twice, up 10 to three. In those two series, he completed a total of one pass for four yards, one pass for four yards. And you know what happened? Block punt touchdown happened.
And then long drive by Jimmy gag happened to produce the 45 yard yard walk off field goal. What Aaron bleep and Rogers. That was a choke artist. I've been saying it for maybe 10 years. I don't trust him in the post season, regular season, goat, post-season lowercase goat, little G little, Oh, little a little T as in the reason, the biggest reason green Bay hasn't been to a
Super Bowl with the transcendent thrower of the football, Aaron Rodgers, in 11 years. I don't hate Aaron. He's more hateable than LeBron is to me. But I don't know. Can he be a blame-deflecting, finger-pointing diva? Yeah. Did he lie about being immunized? Yeah. I don't hate him. I talk about him on television because that's my job, to tell the truth about Aaron Rodgers. Lies? Facts. Now,
It's time for my theory, my two cents, and it's worth no more than about two cents, about what has caused all the above from Charles Barkley, the K word from Charles Barkley. This is just me, but I suspect and have for a long time that Charles is just jealous of me. I suspect that he watches me nearly every day, if not every day, on TV,
And the things I say piss him off because in the end, he wishes he had thought of that and that he could say that on TV. Just my two cents of psychoanalyzing Charles Barkley, whom I don't know because I have no relationship with him. But just deep down, I have this feeling that Charles is afraid to ever try to get to know me because he's afraid he just might like me.
But I could be wrong. But I would love to debate all of the above face-to-face with Charles Barkley. So once more, Charles, I do challenge you, come share this stage with me, or I'll come and share one with you. Whatever you want, whatever you like, whatever you're comfortable with, you can have all the time you want and need. You can tell me exactly, exactly why you want or even need to kill me.
And yes, I eventually will respond. I will defend myself. But you go first. You take all the time in the world that you need to make your cases against me, to clarify, to explain all of your issues, all your problems with me. And let's do it next week. Once again, once more, as I have many times, I'll have my people reach out to your people
and I will await your confirmation. You name the time, I will be there. I will be ready because I know you will be. And maybe we can better understand each other, or at least I can better understand what it is about me that sets you off. So in the end, as I promised, I'm going to leave you with one story, one flashback about the one bizarre time
that I briefly did cross Charles Barkley's path. Does this have anything to do with anything we just discussed? I don't think so, but I'll let you be the judge. This happened, I believe, in 1989. I hope I have my year correct because I did this game twice. So it was either 88 or 89, but it was the second time I did it. I'm going to guess it's 1989.
I had become buddies with one Spud Webb. I hope you younger viewers, listeners will remember Spud Webb. He was from Dallas. I was working in Dallas as the columnist at the Dallas Times Herald. And I got to know Spud because he was a sensation. He was a revelation for little people everywhere because Spud at five foot six inches tall in Dallas had won the slam dunk contest for
over his friend and Atlanta Hawk teammate Dominic Wilkins fairly and squarely. He won the dunk contest in 1986, a competition that was held at then Reunion Arena in Dallas. I attended, I covered, got to know Spud. And everybody loves Spud around the league. Even though at this point he wasn't yet starting for the Hawks, he would. Wouldn't make an all-star team, but Spud was pretty good.
did lead the league one year in free throw percentage, sort of the non-LeBron, if you will. And Spud was so popular that he was able to stage each summer a charity basketball game, an all-star game featuring all the greatest players of that time in the NBA because they all loved Spud and would come to Dallas for Spud. I was astounded by that.
what a cavalcade of stars spud could draw to dallas in i think it was in july and magic came one year bird came one year charles barkley came at least one year because a couple of times spud asked me to be the celebrity coach of one of the two teams and i would also be the team builder as in i got to draft my team up against one of the tv guys in dallas at that point
I believe it was Scott Murray that I did battle with in the draft that year in 1989. And guess who I picked? It may have been with my first pick, at least my second. I picked Charles Barkley. Didn't know Charles, didn't cover Charles, but I picked Charles. So on game night, I had obviously needed to make the rounds of the players I didn't know and just briefly introduce myself before tip-off. Very loose rules and very...
Very informal, but I was going to try to quote-unquote coach them, as in take them in and out of the game. So I needed to just say, hey, I'm the quote-unquote coach tonight, blah, blah, blah. Some guys were good guys about it. Some guys weren't. Charles was not. I remember just before tip-off, I tried to walk out onto the floor. Players were warming up. Again, very informal, and say, hey,
hey charles i'm skip bayless blah blah blah and he just ran right by me because they all ran in and got something to drink before they came out for the national anthem didn't bother me a bit it's kind of par for the course it's the way a lot of players would treat media people he just ran right by me and ignored me i'm virtually certain he had no idea who i was because
I was just some guy in Dallas working for the local newspaper. Wasn't on TV at that point, hadn't done any national TV, some local, some local radio, but there's no way Charles could know much, if anything, about me. So I did get to know, and I'd already known a little bit, Joe Dumars,
who was at that point coming off a championship in which his Detroit Pistons had beaten the Los Angeles Lakers, if you remember this, 1989, in four straight games because Magic and Byron Scott had pulled their hamstrings in game one at Detroit. Joe Dumars wound up being the MVP of those finals. Joe was very gracious to me and said, hey, I don't really want to play tonight.
I just went through a long grueling playoffs. So how about, said Joe, how about I sit next to you and give you little tips and pointers about maybe you should sub for him or maybe you should ask him to go back in or whatever. Joe actually coached the team through me. I was extremely grateful for that because I was extremely uncomfortable with trying to coach these guys or trying to figure out who wanted to play for how long and when. But the game remained close.
And near the end of the game, Charles had asked out of the game for a quick blow. And he rested for, I don't know, three, four minutes. And because the game was close and you know how competitive I am, I wanted to win the game.
I whispered to Joe, do you think Charles wants to go back in? He said, he'll go, he'll go, ask him, ask him. So I said, hey, Charles, I leaned over. I can see it like it was yesterday. And I leaned down the bench and said, hey, hey, Charles, could you go back in for Rex Chapman? And Charles looked at me, as you can envision him looking at me. He said, brother, my shit is hurting me.
And I said, "Okay, fine. I got it. I got it." I said, "I'm just trying to win because I was trying to frame it like this is all positive because I need you to help." And he said, "Hey, I want to win too." And I think he repeated the line, "But my shit is hurting. Fine." I didn't think twice about it. I got it. Would you believe that Rex Chapman, do you remember Rex? Six foot five jump shooter, three point shooter out of Kentucky. Rex Chapman
hit a three at the buzzer to win the game for my team. So because Charles Barkley refused to go back in the game, I won the game. And yet that's all I ever really knew or thought about when I thought about Charles Barkley. We didn't speak after the game. I've never spoken another word to Charles except to ask him, "Would you please go back in the game?" And to say, "I'm just trying to win."
Did that have anything to do with provoking him, with carrying this 15-year grudge against me? No way. No way. Would that be the reason that Charles wants to kill me? Stop it. You know and I know that had nothing to do with it. But as God is my witness again, those are the only words I have ever spoken to Charles Barkley. Charles, I await your answer.
That is it for episode nine. I thank you for watching and listening, whichever you're doing. I want to thank once again, Jonathan Berger and his All Pro team for making this show go. I once again want to thank my man, Tyler Korn for producing. I remind you, Undisputed every weekday, 9.30 to noon Eastern, the Skip Bayless Show every week.