Stephen A. Smith Declares Skip Bayless a Pioneer in Sports Media Following FS1 Analyst’s Acknowledgment as ‘Most Hated Personality’

Media veteran Skip Bayless recently declared himself the ‘Most hated man in sports media‘. While discussing Joel Embiid’s recent comments about being the most hated player in the league, Bayless claimed that he gets a lot more hate in the media space. Stephen A. Smith somewhat agreed with Bayless’ declaration but decided to put forward a different perspective.

During a usual monologue on The Stephen A. Smith Show, Smith heaped praise on his former colleague and anointed him as a pioneer in the sports media business.

SAS said that even though Bayless believes he’s the most hated, he isn’t one to be bothered by the hate. Instead, the 72-year-old wears the hate like a badge of honor and means every word he utters on air. However, the hate against Bayless is not always fair, according to Smith.

The ESPN analyst went on to list out the contributions the FS1 host has made in the sports media space, which we often tend to overlook. Instead, we choose to focus only on the incendiary things Bayless says on national TV.

While claiming that Bayless deserves to be respected as one of the pioneers in the media space, SAS said that the media vet has been pivotal in shaping the sports media business into what it is today. Therefore, everyone who came after him is a beneficiary of his work.

In Smith’s words, “When we look at the world of podcasting and sports talk…Skip Bayless is one of the pioneers…So many people pay too much attention, wondering and lamenting what he says. The hating on LeBron James…his fixation on the Cowboys in a positive way…in all of this stuff, you know what you miss? If he didn’t do what he did, how would we have been able to do what we do?”

SAS then took a trip down memory lane, reminiscing his time working with the 72-year-old.

Stephen A. said that all the groundbreaking, challenging work that they were able to do on TV was a result of the faith that Bayless had in him. According to the ESPN vet, there wouldn’t be a thriving sports media industry if Bayless didn’t birth so many skilled people in the industry.

For all these reasons, he deserves the utmost respect from everyone.

However, Bayless claims that it’s only hate that he sees for himself in the public.

Skip Bayless believes he’s the most hated man in the business

It all started with Bayless discussing Embiid’s comments about being hated. He said, “The final irony to this discussion is somebody sitting at this table is the most hated man in all of sports media, but I don’t know who that is.”

After that, he was reminded by Keyshawn Johnson that hating on LeBron and Dak Prescott has turned Bayless into a villain.

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It seems like having the ‘Most hated’ tag is actually a badge of honor because Paul Pierce said that he believes that he belongs on the most hated list as well. The NBA veteran said that he was hated a lot during his time in the league.

Pierce claimed that playing for the Boston Celtics made him an enemy for a lot of teams, including the Lakers, Heat and the Knicks.