Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
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is the Skip Bayless Show, episode 23, in honor of God. Well, as Larry Bird once said, God disguised as Michael Jordan. Today's episode is going to be rare, just as his airness always was in such rare air. Unfortunately,
I must save all of your great probing questions until next week's episode 24, because this week I'm just going to have to start with something that is intensely personal to me. But I will end this episode 23 by giving you the backstory of why I wear Jordans every single day on Undisputed.
and I will then rank my all-time favorite Jordans, and then I will tell you a few of my favorite behind-the-scenes, off-camera Michael Jordan stories as I came to know him and them in that last dance year that I covered the Bulls in 1998 in Chicago. If you're not interested,
And what I'm about to start with, please feel free to just fast forward to Michael Jordan. But first up, as always, it is not to be skipped. Before I say what I'm about to say about Stephen A. Smith, please know this. He has been more of a brother to me than my actual brother ever was to me. I love the man.
And no matter what happens from this point forward, I will always love the man. But brothers do fight. We definitely have fought before, have we? And maybe we're about to fight again. All I know for sure at this point in time is that Stephen A. Smith made some statements on JJ Reddick's podcast last week that flat out blindsided me, that stung me to the core.
that ultimately made me angry and made my wife Ernestine even angrier. And she knows Stephen A very well, maybe even better than I do in some ways. But Stephen A made some statements on JJ Reddick's podcast that made several people I worked with at ESPN pre-Stephen A angry.
Well, I'm not going to say it made them angry. They were just stunned at how so wrong what Stephen A. said was. Here's the guts of what Stephen A. said on the podcast. And I quote, Skip Bayless was doing his thing with First Take, having the two live stews, that's Ryan and Doug Stewart, Jamel Hill, Rob Parker, and various other people debating against him.
And then in 2012, they weren't satisfied with the numbers, the ratings and the amount of revenue that was being generated. Skip Bayless, said Stephen A., comes to me in the parking lot of ESPN's campus in Bristol, Connecticut, and he says, I know you've got your plans. You love the NBA. You love being out on the road. You love being in the locker room, but I need you.
I've done all that I could to take this as far as it can go. I need you, please. Just give me three years. I think we can knock it out of the park, said Stephen A on the Reddit podcast. Then he continued. I thought about it. Those were clearly my best options. They weren't about to give me my own show or anything like that at the time. I thought about it for a couple of days and I said, I'd do it.
"One month later, we were number one, and we've been number one ever since," said my brother Stephen A. Smith on the Reddit podcast. Let me gather myself. What? I cannot tell you how wrong that was. It was so recklessly inaccurate. It was such shocking fabrication. And my first thought when Ernestine sent this to me,
to peruse, I thought, "How could my brother Stephen A turn on me like that? On me? Seriously?" Stephen A was suggesting that he saved and then made First Take. How can you save and make a show that was already as big a billion-to-one success story as ESPN had ever seen?
The ratings and the revenues were impossibly great when Stephen A joined me in 2012. With Stephen A as my partner, First Take would never touch the NFL Monday ratings that it hit in 2011, pre-Stephen A. And I had taken First Take as far as I could. Seriously, I was just getting started. The rocket had just launched the year before in 2011.
Stephen A., how dare you? So look, if Stephen A. had just blurted out what he blurted on that podcast and it had come and it had gone, maybe I wouldn't have chosen to fire back on my podcast. But fortunately or unfortunately, the New York Post wrote an entire story about those remarks. Then it seemed like every website from here in L.A. to New York picked up or reacted to the Post story.
and suddenly I was in danger of this fiction becoming fact. If left unopposed by me, this outrageously revisionist history just might have morphed into bona fide history, and maybe it still will. Maybe it still will become part of that public domain, and in the future,
I don't know, maybe every time someone goes to write about the all-time amazing success story, the against all odds rise of First Take, they will accept as gospel that Stephen A saved and made First Take. But trust me, that is utter untruth. To use one of Stephen A's favorite words, that is just blasphemy. But bear with me because to better drive home just how wrong these statements are,
Allow me to walk you back through the origins of my relationship with my brother, Stephen A. First time I met Stephen A was in the aforementioned 1998 Bulls season in Chicago when I was introduced to Stephen A in the press room, the media room at the United Center, the house that Michael built.
when he was in town covering the Philadelphia 76ers who were about to play the Bulls. And the first thing I noticed was that Stephen A was one of the few beat writers who wore a coat and tie to games to cover his team. And I immediately appreciated that because that appearance to me sent a message that he took his job very seriously. And in turn, I believe that the players and the coaches took him a little more seriously.
I liked the way he carried himself. I liked his swagger. I liked the look in his eye. We immediately clicked in a very brief meeting, but our paths didn't really cross again until 2001, three years later, when we were randomly paired as guests on the old Jim Rome show here on what was called Fox Sportsnet, which was shot right here in this building in which I sit here on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles.
That show on the old Fox Sports Net, which predated FS1, Fox Sports 1, was called The Last Word. And on air in that random pairing that day, we got into it over something that I can't remember, one of the topics on the show, and fireworks ensued and chemistry began to ooze. Who knew? Stephen A. was born and raised in the Bronx.
went to Winston-Salem State, and I grew up in Oklahoma City and went to Vanderbilt University. But we immediately liked each other. We got a kick out of each other on the air. And I think we immediately respected the fact that we were two hard-headed, sometimes hot-headed fighters from opposite ends of the earth who knew what we were talking about when it came to sports. At least most of the time, he knew what he was talking about.
But right away, Stephen A allowed me to go hard at him on TV in ways I do not believe he would have allowed anyone else to counterpunch, especially another white guy. He would even let me in the beginning, right from the start, he would let me puncture that enormous ego of his with an occasional barb. I'm talking about the biggest ego I have ever encountered.
which is coupled with the greatest gift of gab I have ever encountered. The man could just talk, talk, talk off the top of his head nonstop, never seen anything quite like it. So I had to learn to wait until he got to his point of points, until he finally arrived at where he was heading as he talked, talked, talked. And then I pounced, then I unleashed.
And yet Stephen A knew from the start he could trust my heart on live national television. He knew my heart was in the right place, and I think he knew instinctively that I would always have his back. That was and is the truth. At that point, I was a far more experienced debater than Stephen A was because through the 90s, as you might or might not remember,
I appeared regularly on a show on ESPN on Sunday mornings called The Sports Reporters with my late, great, dear friend Dick Schaap as the moderator, going at it with Mike Lupica, Bob Ryan, and others. And then I did three years in the middle 90s, a show up in Bristol, Connecticut called Prime Monday Ahead of Monday Night Football.
with my great friends, Michael Wilbon and Mitch Albom, as we went back and forth debating on what was called the Knights of the Round Table on live national TV. I was just, as I've told you before, a natural born arguer, yet so was Stephen A. And I found right away he could argue with the best of them because I knew the best of them.
So it was in 2002 that Jim Rome got in some sort of contractual snafu. And before I knew it, he was gone. And Fox Sports Net needed a replacement show. And Rome's producer, great friend of mine named John Johnston, had the inspired idea of pairing Stephen A and me. PTI on ESPN had started maybe a year or so before. And John Johnston envisioned...
this show as PTI with more of an edge. He called his pilot show, which he hoped to become the show to replace Jim Rome's last, the last word, called the show Sports in Black and White. And Steve and I, excuse me, Steve and I readily agreed to do a pilot for that show, a half hour pilot. The moment we finished said pilot right here in this building in which I sit,
John Shonston and other producers came flying out of the control room and said, "We could put this on the air tonight." Stephen A. and I agreed that we would move to LA and do full-time TV. But over the next couple of weeks, our pilot had to be run all the way up the flagpole to the very top of Fox Sports. And fatefully and unfortunately, I was soon told that the final verdict was
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And I fought and I fought through John Johnston back up to the top of Fox Sports. I fought and I said, no, you don't get it. He's exactly what you do need five days a week.
on national television, but the final verdict had been rendered. There would be no sports in black and white. Still, I just knew to the bottom of my soul that I was destined to work with Stephen A. And we both eventually found our way to ESPN. And we actually did two full weeks together as guest hosts on PTI.
when Michael and Tony Kornheiser were on vacation slash going to the Olympics, I believe in Greece that year. So Stephen A and I had quite a run doing the show that we were going to oppose on Fox Sports Net. And we clicked and we loved it. And here we went. And I soon joined a show on ESPN2 called Cold Pizza while Stephen A got a shot at doing his own show
quite frankly, and yet shortly into our stays on our respective shows, Mark Shapiro, who had hired both of us, was deposed as the head of ESPN, and I figured we were both a little vulnerable. Stephen A. eventually was given three months to save the ratings of Quite Frankly. He was given the option of firing his showrunner,
a man I came to know because he ended up running Cold Pizza for a while named Mike McQuaid, big fan of Stephen A's, but Stephen A replaced Mike McQuaid with what became a good friend of both of ours named Galen Gordon. And he had three good months to save, quite frankly, and it did not work for whatever reason. And that plug got pulled. In fact, every plug in New York City got pulled by the new regime, except for one.
There was no more Quite Frankly, no more ESPN Classic, no more Stump the Schwab, but Cold Pizza survived. Why? Because our ratings were ticking up. Why was that? In my humble estimation, because we had added the debate element to Cold Pizza and it was starting to work. Some time passed and in a shock to me, Stephen A got sideways
in another contractual snafu, contractual battle. I don't know the details, but in a complete and utter shock to me, Stephen A. Smith got let go from ESPN and wound up doing Fox Sports Radio for the next couple of years. Yet over those two years, it felt like Stephen A. and I talked about once a week. And all I continued to hear from him was, hey,
I got to get back to the worldwide leader. And I would say, I'm going to get you back. And trust me, I wound up knocking on every door on the top floor of ESPN's power building at the mothership in Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN had moved cold pizza. I was now residing in Connecticut, talking long distance to my brother, Stephen A.,
while talking face to face to those that he called the big bosses at ESPN. I went to John Skipper's office. I went to Norby Williamson's office. I went to John Walsh's office. I went to Mark Gross's office. And I said, "You gotta let him come back." And again, I heard, "I'm sorry, he's just more trouble than he's worth." And I said, "No, no, you have to understand. He's matured. This has humbled him at least a little bit.
he'll be great when he comes back. He's just too talented, I continue to tell the big bosses. He belongs here, you know it and I know it. And finally, February 1st, 2011, the great Stephen A. Smith was hired back at ESPN, but he was forced to repay some pretty serious dues. He would be relegated at the start to doing local radio shows for ESPN New York and ESPN LA,
and to writing columns for what was then ESPN New York, not the big ESPN website, the one that just serviced New York. And this pained me to no end because I kept saying to my then girlfriend, Ernestine, he's just better than this. This is a low blow that he has to earn his way back up the ladder. Meanwhile,
First Take was rolling along as what had been a rebranded cold pizza. We'd been moved up to the mothership and we'd just been renamed First Take. Not my name, not my choice. As I continued to debate a rotation of challengers for four segments only a day. Four segments only maybe, let's say 40 odd minutes of the two hour show then known as First Take slash cold pizza.
The rest of the show would be sort of casual fan segments, ballpark food, pets, cigars, and of course, any number of interviews. Then came one fateful day in the history of First Take when a ratings guru, excuse me, ratings guru named Barry Blinn came up from New York to address a staff meeting of all the old cold pizza staffers now living up in Bristol.
And I sat in the back of the room with Rob Parker, who was a member of the debate rotation at that point, living in Detroit, but would come to Bristol maybe for a week every month or so to be one of the challengers in the rotation. And Barry Blend, the ratings guru, who knew next to nothing about cold pizza at that point or rebranded First Take, didn't really know the show or watch the show. As he put up our cumulative ratings report,
on the projection up on the screen for an entire year, he said, "Man, you guys, you got huge spikes four times a day on cold pizza/first take. You guys, you gotta study your rundowns and try to figure out what is causing these spikes. Is it your interviews?
"Is it your food segments, your pet segments? "What was it?" And of course, Rob Parker's next to me in the back of the room, just elbowing me like, "Say something. "It's obviously the debate segments." No, I wasn't gonna say anything. I wasn't gonna put the whole room on notice, but everybody in that room knew exactly what was happening. It was the debate segments. And then fatefully, our showrunner, David Brofsky, great friend of mine, lost his wife,
needed to take a brief leave of absence. And a man named Jamie Horowitz was named as our interim, strictly interim showrunner. My life was about to change forever. Jamie Horowitz took one look at the ratings data and he said enough. And Jamie Horowitz had the guts and the vision to risk his career, his career,
by blowing out all the old cold pizza segments and turning first take into two full hours of debate. He said, "I'm going to rebuild this show around you." He said that to me. And I was at once grateful and a little horrified because I thought it would work, but I wasn't sure because I had two of our old holdover producers from cold pizza pull me aside in the hallway and say,
This will be career suicide for Jamie Horowitz and in turn for me. We had the whole building up in Bristol-Kinetic. The whole building was rooting against us. This will not work. This whole embrace debate motto, bad for business, sending the wrong message. We're supposed to be good sports at ESPN. This will fail miserably wrongly.
Our ratings immediately tripled on the way to quadrupling and whatever the next level is. Then six weeks into the 2011 NFL season, Tim Tebow happened. But I had already staked my claim on Tim Tebow. I'd said before he had been drafted, I said, I'll take Tim Tebow in the bottom of the first round and take
If he is allowed to run his college offense, the one he ran so successfully, so outrageously greatly at Florida, if you allow him to run that offense, he will win games in the NFL, I said. I said no Pro Bowls, but he will win games. And you have no idea how often I got attacked over that stance on ESPN by many of the ex-player analysts.
They scoffed, they laughed at me, and as you might remember, Tim Tebow took off on the most improbable run in NFL history. He took the Denver Broncos from one and four when he took over to the division title and a home playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers of Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin. That was thanks to one miraculous finish after another.
culminating in the 80-yard touchdown pass to the late, great Demarius Thomas in overtime that beat the Steelers. Week after week after week, I battled so many analysts from Chris Carter to Merrill Hodge to Cordell Stewart to John Ritchie to on and on and on. I battled them over Tim Tebow. All I heard was, "He can't throw!" And all I said back was, "All he does is win."
And he won, and he won, and he won some more. On NFL Mondays on ESPN2, where First Take was then located, we did unheard of ratings. We did impossible numbers. We did the unthinkable. We started crushing SportsCenter on what was called E1 on regular ESPN. We cannibalized the network.
We started dominating the flagship show on regular ESPN, SportsCenter, the bread and butter show opposite us. We nuked it. It's impossible. I began to ask John Skipper, then running ESPN, to please move us to E1. And John Skipper continued to tell me, hey, if I do, your ratings will go through the roof because it's the reach on ESPN.
Big ESPN versus E2 is, I don't know, maybe 10 to 1. So he would say, yeah, your ratings would go through the roof. But he said, if I move SportsCenter to E2, ESPN2, SportsCenter will tank. And he said, we can't have that. SportsCenter is just too valuable to us. Would you believe that after the 2011 NFL season, I got nominated for an Emmy? I, me, I...
I don't know how it happened, but I did. I still can't believe it to this day, but I did. I got nominated for an Emmy. Villainous me, nominated for an Emmy. And thanks to DJ Steve Porter, he made a music video built around my defending Tim Tebow. We called it All He Does Is Win off my sort of slogan for the year. Would you believe that DJ Steve's music video
won the Webby Award following the 2011 season. You know, maybe someday somebody will write a story or do a documentary on First Take just against all odds rise in 2011. It was the story within the story, the sort of Tebow-esque run of First Take, which became sort of part and parcel of Tebow's miraculous exploits. But here's the capper.
Here's the apropos point to what I'm getting at. Only about mid-season in 2011 did Jamie Horowitz and I finally convince the head honchos, the big bosses as Stephen A calls them, to let Stephen A do one 10-minute segment on
a week, one a week on Wednesdays on First Take. That was it. That was the quota. You get 10 minutes on Wednesday. So he would join me at the top of the second hour on First Take each Wednesday. And yes, there were automatic fireworks. We had history together. I missed him. I loved the man. And I loved making him look sillier and sillier about Tim Tebow. But he still had to repay his dues.
We still just got the one segment. We began to fudge it and make it 15 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes. Maybe by the end of the year, we tried to pop him on maybe twice in a show. But so it was after the season ended, Jamie Horowitz sat down with me and we talked about what would be best for me going forward on first take. He left it completely up to me. You want to keep the rotation? You want more Stephen A.? Do you want less Stephen A.?
Totally my call. And I said, I want Stephen A to be my constant, my permanent partner, because I need a constant. I need someone I can trust every day to be that guy, that way, every day, while we can continue to weave in members of our debate rotation, which we continue to do. But in the end, you got to trust me on this. There was a big part of me
that wanted to throw my brother, Stephen A, a little bit of a lifeline because I wanted to get him back in the door in Bristol. No more New York radio, LA radio, New York website. He belonged in Bristol. And so I was hoping to reel him back in, get him back in the good graces of the big bosses so that he could, again, rise and shine the way he was meant to do at ESPN.
But trust me on this, I did not plead with him to take the job. I did not need him to save first take. It was a billion to one runaway success story. And Jamie Horowitz, by that point, was now a rising star at the network, soon to leave to run the Today Show. Which brings me to Stephen A, excuse me, Stephen A telling JJ Reddick on the podcast that he
a month after he joined me, that we skyrocketed to number one, where First Take remains. What? As Stephen A. Well knows, the only competition that First Take had at that point was SportsCenter. There was no Undisputed. There was no Fox Sports 1. There was no competition. To be found anywhere, we were competing with SportsCenter. We had already crushed SportsCenter.
So how do you suddenly vault to number one? We had already done that. And in the end, I had hoped Stephen A would join me, but you got to trust me on this also, as much as I missed him and loved working with him, if he had said, no, I just don't want to get up that early to do first take, I'll stick with my gigs, I wouldn't have lost any sleep. I would have been just fine. Life would have gone on beautifully,
for me and Jamie and all those working behind the scenes at first take. It was just that I thought Stephen A would be a little better for me. And I definitely think our ratings continued to climb in part because he joined me, rare chemistry. I give him credit for that, especially during NBA season because he is the face of the NBA on ESPN. But the rocket had been launched against no competition.
And I'm pretty sure that the ratings Stephen A and I did on NFL Mondays in 2012 and '13 and '14 and '15, those four years we worked together, those ratings never touched the NFL Monday ratings that First Take hit in 2011. Never touched them. They were off the chart. They were out of the galaxy. They were impossibly great.
because of Tebow, but because Tebow had become my story. So for Stephen A to suggest that he saved and made first take is just an insult, not only to me, but to everyone behind the scenes. All the courageous brainpower behind the scenes at first take in 2011, pre-Stephen A. I'm talking about Jamie Horowitz. I'm talking about Charlie Dixon. I'm talking about Witt Album. Those three,
who made such a difference in my life by 2016 had come here to try to build FS1, Fox Sports 1, right here in this very building in which I sit. Their message to me in 2016 as my contract was up was, "We're not going to make it here unless you come and help us." And I told my then wife, Ernestine, I owe them
for the opportunity they gave me in 2011. They rebuilt First Take around me. I owe them now to come help them launch on FS1 in Los Angeles. Yes, the money was good, but in the end, as Ernestine will attest, for me, it was all about loyalty and it was about challenge. I left Stephen A. because I wanted and I needed the challenge to come here and try to help
ignite this network and put it on the map. And we have accomplished that. And here I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my man, Shannon Sharp. Could not have done it without you. Shannon Sharp has been a godsend for me. Very different from Stephen A, as you might know from watching both shows. We're talking about a Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end.
with a deep love, a deep feel for, a deep interest in, a deep command of the NBA also. Shannon Sharp works his tail off to compete with me every single day. The highest compliment I can pay Shannon Sharp is he holds his own with me. He is a daily challenge for me and I love him for that. So would you believe
that Shannon and I had not been on the air much more than a month when my old friend, John Skipper, still running ESPN, decided to do exactly what I had asked again and again for John to do, which was move first take from ESPN2 to E1. Again, I'm not sure what the exact number is, but maybe 10 times the eyeballs, the reach. And you just had to figure that
He was moving First Take to help protect it from Undisputed. You should also know that in my first four years here at FS1, living in Los Angeles, every single time Stephen A came to Los Angeles, he came over to visit me and Ernestine. We did not drift apart. We did not lose touch. We actually got closer.
Every trip, every time, seemed like it was once a month, which was great by us. He would come over and we would commiserate about the good old days. And we would talk about maybe someday reuniting. As my first contract here, the first four-year deal neared its end, Stephen A pushed ESPN to try to hire me back. He pushed hard. The idea for us was to initially reunite
on ESPN Plus, but with an eye on, sooner than later, segueing right back into doing what's called linear TV, regular TV, on a show together. I don't know, maybe we would have wound up together back on first take. Maybe it would have been another show in the afternoon. I don't know that, but that was the game plan. And ESPN made a written offer, and my people here at Fox matched that offer
And to their credit, they even sweetened the pot a little bit. I was honored by this. I obviously had not failed in LA and we could have, but we didn't because the salaries have been widely reported. I will reiterate, my second deal here at FS1 was four years at $8 million a year. That was 32 million total.
Stephen A had received huge publicity for the first year of his new deal, which was $10 million for the first year. The next three were for six, six, and six, followed by a fifth year at $10 million. So when I re-signed, this is almost two years ago, when I re-signed with FS1,
I was making $32 million for four years while Stephen A was making $28 million for five years. And I was pretty proud of that. I'm not a big spender, as Ernestine will attest. Money definitely cannot buy happiness. But for me, this was a milestone, a landmark, because I have so much respect for Stephen A's stature. I was just pretty proud of that at that moment. Recently,
My brother Stephen A sent me pages that he has written for an upcoming autobiography. These pages were concerning me and he wanted me to take a look and sign off on all that he had written about me, which was nice of him. I read them all. I had no problems. None of what he said on the Reddit podcast was in any of these pages that I read. That's why
This felt like so much of a sucker punch when I read then saw what Stephen A said on the podcast. That's why all of this just felt overall so wrong to me. But hey, Stephen A, maybe you just had a bad day. It happens, my man. Maybe you've just been run ragged by all the NBA final shows that you have to do on top of first take, which I know can wear you out in and of itself.
Maybe you just got a little too carried away with that podcast mic in your hand. But I still love you, Stephen A. Smith, and I always will. And who knows? Maybe somehow, maybe someday, you never know.
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in honor of episode 23, I will answer this question. How did I come to wear Jordans on air every single day on Undisputed? Well, for years and years and years and years and years, I wore your basic men's dress shoes on TV. You know, I'm talking about every male wore men's dress shoes on TV. And it finally dawned on me one day, wait a second,
I can't ever remember any shoes worn by any male that I work with on TV. They all just blend together. Men's dress shoes. They're just boring. Expensive ones, inexpensive ones, it just didn't matter. They were just as boring as the chicken and broccoli I eat twice a day, every day. In the end, with my men's dress shoes,
I wore Cole Haans because they had those Nike Air Bottoms at that point, which made me feel a little bit more like I was wearing a sneaker. But at that point, I owned only one pair of Jordans, the OGs, the ones first released in 1985, as I'm sure you remember. The ones the NBA originally banned, the ones that Nike brilliantly paid the fines for,
The ones that are still the only Js with the Nike swoosh. The ones that now come in more colors than Crayolas. But I'm talking about the originals, the red on black. The ones that for me were always sort of shockingly clunky in that the bottom was so, so hard sold to me. The ones I tried to play basketball in and felt like I was kind of cement shoeed.
I always wondered, how did Michael launch an '85, like literally launch, rare air in these shoes? Because they're just a little hard to run in, to cut in. But the ones aren't my all-time favorite Jordans. I'll get to that in just a moment. But one day, one fateful day in 2014, I believe, Ernestine and I, she was then my girlfriend,
She was visiting me for the weekend. She lived in New York City. I was up at the mothership in Bristol, Connecticut, and we went to what's called West Farms Mall in West Hartford, not too far from ESPN. And it was the first time I noticed something called Jordan Futures. Aha. And I said to Ernstine, you know, these would look really good with the suit. So I bought some all black ones. That Friday, I wore them on first take.
Felt like I was breaking every rule, but they felt great. I've told you before, I always run every day from my dressing room to the studio. It was actually a little longer run at ESPN. I didn't have a dressing room, but from our meeting room to the studio, it felt like it was about a mile. And running in those futures was really cool. Really got my blood pumping because I felt fast and fast.
The faster I felt, the better I felt like I actually performed on air. And then before I knew it, I bought some red Jordan Futures. And then I bought some light blue ones. And then I bought some silver ones. And then I bought some yellow gold ones. And then I had every color of Jordan Futures and I started wearing them every single Friday on first take. Yet when I arrived here in LA to start Undisputed, I'm thinking, hey,
It's LA, it's sunshine and sand, palm trees. Why not wear Jordans every day? At last count, I'm up to 62 pairs of Jordans, much to Ernestine's chagrin, and I'm just getting started. My favorites are in order. Number one, my 11s, my Concords in black and white. The first Jordans with patent leather.
the 11s that became Michael Jordan's favorites, the ones designed to be worn with a tuxedo, the ones that look by far the best with a suit, the 11s that Jordan wore in the original, the one and only Space Jam. Sorry, Ligon. The 11s to me are by far my favorites. When I want to feel and look my best,
I go to the 11s. Low top, mid top, high top, whatever. I just love the look of the 11s. Number two on my list of all-time favorite Js have a sentimental component. They're my 13s with the green trim. The ones Lil Wayne gave me for Christmas two years ago. I wear them proudly, my brother Wayne. And number three on my list is
are those OGs, the ones, the first pair I ever had. As I've said often to Ernestine, I would sleep in my Jordans if she would let me. She will not. I even have four pairs of Jordan golf shoes. At least when I play badly, I look good. Now, in honor of episode 23, in honor of the undisputed GOAT, not the phony GOAT, not Ligon,
I give you three quick behind-the-scenes anecdotes from that last dance season I covered in Chicago as columnist for the Chicago Tribune. On off days during the NBA Finals, the Bulls would pick one player to talk to the media. The day in question was not Jordan's day. After practice, he walked past me and Terry Armour, who was the Bulls' beat writer for the Chicago Tribune.
We were two of Jordan's favorites in the media. And I put quotes around favorites because I'm not sure he really loved anybody in the media, but we were two that he tolerated the most. And he walked by us and he looked sideways and pardon my language, but he said, I ain't talking to you motherfuckers today. And I got to tell you, I love that. Jordan kissed up to nobody.
not even to the two guys from the paper of record, the biggest paper in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune. There wasn't one ounce of LeBron in Michael Jordan. He did not care about being beloved. He only cared about being respected and feared on the basketball court. As much as he liked me, I was just another MF-er to him. And so was every player he faced and destroyed. Just another MF-er.
Anecdote number two, after that 98 season ended, nobody knew for sure what Michael was going to do. Would he actually retire because Jerry Krause, the GM, was hellbent on replacing Phil Jackson with Tim Floyd? Nobody knew for sure. I couldn't really bring myself to believe it. Michael walking into the sunset at age 35?
Michael was playing in a pro-am golf tournament in Chicago, and I went out to watch. He saw me, and he invited me inside the ropes to walk with him. And on a par five, Michael drove it into a fairway bunker and immediately pulled out his three-wood. If you know golf, a three-wood out of the fairway bunker is not an easy shot. So I said to Michael, that's a hard shot.
And he said, no, it isn't. He said, I just imagine Jerry Krause's face on the ball. Jerry Krause's face on the ball. I love that. I was stunned by that. And he was dead serious about that. And he planted himself in the fairway bunker and took his backswing and he blasted that Jerry Krause faced golf ball. He launched it. I'm going to guess 230 yards, 40.
right onto the front of the green in two shots on the par five. That's when I knew Michael Jordan would never again play for the Chicago Bulls. Anecdote number three. During those 1998 conference finals, this was against Indiana, I was in Indianapolis to show up for and cover an off-day Bulls practice at Market Square Arena, where of course the Pacers played.
And just as practice was ending, a few of us reporters were allowed to enter on the upper level of Market Square, hoping to make it down to the floor before all the players had left the floor. I entered just in time to gaze down upon this scene. Michael Jordan was standing at the free throw line with his right hand completely covering his eyes.
about to shoot a free throw with only his left hand. And apparently there was a whole lot of money riding on this shot because much of the team had gathered around the free throw lane to watch this outcome. And of course, with the ball in only his left hand, Michael Jordan swished it. I saw it. I witnessed it. And even I couldn't believe it.
and maybe eight or 10 teammates surrounding the free throw lane just fell out, just fell all over the court, mostly laughing loudly in amazement and sheer awe. He had done it again. I don't know who his victim was. I couldn't really tell against whom he had bet, but Michael did not hesitate. He did not break stride. He marched straight down the lane,
straight off the court, straight up the tunnel to the locker room. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Michael Jeffrey Jordan. That's it for episode 23. Thank you for listening and or watching. Thanks so much 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 time. The Skip Bayless Show every week.