Skip Bayless ‘Would Like Nothing Better’ Than to Debate Mark Cuban Again
“The internet wants to see me lose, wants to see me exposed as a know-nothing fraud. The truth was the foolishness was coming from Mark Cuban’s mouth.”
There are not many things that Skip Bayless regrets in his long broadcast career, but there is one thing he would like to try again in the future and that is to have Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as a guest on the air with him.
On The Skip Bayless Show, he said that back in the 2012 NBA Finals, the producers of First Take booked Cuban as a guest the day after LeBron James won his first NBA Finals with the Miami Heat and he wasn’t too thrilled about it.
“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 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 2 hours compared to the 2.5 hours 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 ‘executive producer’ status on First Take, the final say on guests. We were still relatively new in our new format.”
Bayless did not want Cuban to take too much time on the show and he also did not want him to talk about anything Bayless had written in the past about the Dallas Cowboys.
“I fought back saying Mark Cuban is a slippery egomaniac who could not be trusted. I predicted correctly he would try to hijack our show that morning, which he pretty much did, but the producers considered Cuban an A-List booking. I will give you that. They gently pushed back against me and said ‘Hey, we should just go ahead and have him on for one long segment, a third of the way into the show’. I gave in and I told my man, Stephen A. Smith, I don’t want to go off on any Dallas tangents with Mark Cuban, especially about the three Dallas Cowboys books that I had written. Any other situation, Cuban would have been a great get, but not that day.”
When Cuban was on, Bayless mentioned he tried to say very little and not to engage with him, but then the Mavericks owner talked about how the team did against LeBron in the 2011 NBA Finals and he had to say something. After the interview was over, the producers told Bayless that social media was saying Cuban won the debate:
“By that point in my career, I had quit reading about what Twitter said about me. I was told after the show by our producers that the internet was saying that Mark Cuban kicked my ass, that Mark Cuban made me look foolish. The internet wants to see me lose, wants to see me exposed as a know-nothing fraud. The truth was the foolishness was coming from Mark Cuban’s mouth. I just wasn’t fighting back the way I have at every other point in my career. I didn’t book Mark Cuban. The producers booked Mark Cuban.”
Bayless is looking forward to debating Cuban once again and according to him, he has tried publicly and privately to get him as a guest either on Undisputed or on the podcast.
“A day I have tried again and again to rectify…I would like nothing better than to face Mark Cuban on live TV once more.”
Ricky Keeler is a reporter for BSM with a primary focus on sports media podcasts and national personalities. He is also an active podcaster with an interest in pursuing a career in sports media. You can find him on Twitter @Rickinator555 or reach him by email at RickJKeeler@gmail.com.
These days, WPLJ in New York City is a Christian station owned by the Educational Media Foundation. When Mike Breen was a kid in Yonkers though, it was one of the most influential rock stations in America and the man who is now known as the voice of the NBA wanted to be on the air there.
On the latest edition of Dan Le Batard’s South Beach Sessionspodcast, Breen revealed that he always loved sports. His first introduction to broadcasting though came from a neighbor named Tony Minecola. He was a few years older than Breen and studying to be a radio broadcaster in college.
“He built a radio station in his basement and played disc jockey,” Breen told Le Batard. “’He had commercials, records, you know, everything. Like it was a real radio station, only it only went from one room to the next. That was what he was into, and that’s what he was going to college for. And we used to hang out in the basement all the time. And one day he says, ‘Hey, why don’t you come in? You want to you want to be the DJ for a little bit?’ And I’m like, okay, let me try it.’ And I fell in love with it.”
Mike Breen didn’t just fall in love with the idea of radio. He saw it as a viable career and knew exactly where he wanted it to take him.
“I enjoyed being on the air and talking. So my initial thought was, ‘I’m going to be a disc jockey.’ WPLJ was like the big rock station in New York back at that time, and I thought, ‘I’m going to be a DJ on WPLJ.’ That was my first goal.
Through the 70s and early 80s, WPLJ was an album rock station. Some of its most iconic on air personalities included Carol Miller, Pat St. John, Fr. Bill Ayers, and Mark Goodman, who was eventually one of MTV’s original VJs.
Breen said he loved the rock music of the time, especially Jethro Tull and Bruce Springsteen, but he realized that a broadcasting career could keep him close to sports too.
Obviously, he chose well. That is not to say that he couldn’t have been a great DJ if given the chance, but he went on to be the voice of the New York Knicks and has called more NBA Finals games than anyone else in history.
WPLJ was out of the rock business by 1983 when it became a pop station.
CBS Sports is set to premiere new episodes of its franchise Beyond Limits, which celebrates athletes who go beyond the implicit boundaries of sports and society. Three half-hour episodes will be hosted by CBS Sports reporter AJ Ross, and will also air on CBS’ linear channel and stream live on Paramount+.
The first episode of the season is titled “Who I Am,” and it will feature Byron Perkins, who is the first openly gay football player at a historically black college or university (HBCU). Perkins is a redshirt senior at Hampton University. The show will also discuss the relationship he has with his mother and how she has impacted him both as a person and an athlete.
Two more episodes will premiere throughout the season – one on making sports adaptable and accessible; and the other featuring athletes who have moved into executive roles. The latter show includes interviews with NBA Executive Vice President and Head of Basketball Operations, Joe Dumars; New Orleans Pelicans Vice President of Basketball Operations and Team Development, Swin Cash; and NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Troy Vincent.
The series, which first premiered in September 2021, is produced by the CBS Sports Race and Culture Unit, with senior producer Sarah M. Kazadi. Its first episode premieres on Sunday, June 11 at 1:30 p.m. EST/10:30 a.m. PST, and should provide fans with unique storytelling and spotlight into the journeys of various key figures in sports and media alike.
Neil Everett has become one of the faces of SportsCenter. After 23 years at ESPN, he announced that he is leaving the network.
Colleagues at the World Wide Leader took to Twitter to share their thoughts. It was universal praise from the people that knew and worked with Everett. Chief among them was his SportsCenter partner of fourteen years, Stan Verrett.
I started at espn in 2000, a few months after Neil Everett. We joined up for sportscenter from LA in 2009. For 14 years, he was the best teammate I could imagine. Selfless, caring, generous, and a pro’s pro. He’s moving on now, but we are brothers for life. That’ll never change.
Everett has spent the last two years as part of the television studio crew covering the Portland Trail Blazers. He told Front Office Sportsthat he will be seeking to expand his role with the team.
If Root Sports Northwest requires references, there are plenty ESPN colleagues past and present that were immediately ready to vouch for Neil Everett.
Neil Everett doesn’t believe in Twitter. Leave positive comments here and I will share with him. Or, I will just give you his number. Great teammate, great friend, many laughing fits with him. Loves animals, WA and Hawaii. And Oregon.
Neil Everett. Nicest guy. Old school SportsCenter cool. Crazy funny. Great writer. Loves sprint car racing. 23 years of all that? Blessed to have called him a teammate. Even more to call him a friend. pic.twitter.com/vH6GntFJyX
Mahalo to Neil Everett, the best I ever co-anchored with. And an even better person. *3 months into my gig at ESPN, invited me to his home for Thanksgiving *For a few years, we both refused to say “Thunder” on TV #Sonics *bonded over music, WA & much more.#SimplyTheBestpic.twitter.com/QG1ae9AE7v
Everett was not laid off. He turned down a new contract that would have forced him to take a pay cut.
The Walt Disney Company is in the middle of layoffs effecting every division. CEO Bob Iger has tasked his leaders with reducing costs by $5.5 billion and cutting 7000 jobs.
