Tag Archives: SportsCenter

Top newsmakers for 2012: No denying that everyone talked about Skip Bayless

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When I launched ShermanReport on April 16, I had some initial concerns that there might not be enough fresh content to do a daily site.

Couldn’t have been more wrong.

There’s so much territory to cover, it can be overwhelming at times. For a solo performer, it is a challenge to keep up. It’s never dull, that’s for sure.

As 2012 nears a close, I’m going to reflect on the year in sports media this week. Today, I begin with newsmakers. My criteria is people who were interesting, intriguing, controversial, and generally seemed to be in the news cycle, for better or worse.

Here we go:

Skip Bayless: Yes, Skip Bayless. I can see your eyes rolling, but name me someone who has generated more sports media talk?

I know he is extremely polarizing, and he routinely gets obliterated from the critics. Twitter nearly exploded when he got nominated for a Sports Emmy.

This isn’t to say that Bayless and First Take rank as the best in 2012. The latest episode involving Rob Parker off-mark comments about Robert Griffin III are an example why many people feel the show is a stain on ESPN. A blow to its credibility.

However, whenever the topic is sports media in a podcast or elsewhere, I’m hard pressed to think of a time when the discussion didn’t include Bayless and First Take. My former Chicago Tribune colleague receives a remarkable amount of attention for a mid-morning show on ESPN2. Not exactly prime time. Love him or hate him, people tune in to hear Bayless’ and Stephen A. Smith’s views. The show continues to do a strong rating and Bayless has nearly 1 million followers on Twitter, up from 550,000 in April.

More so, athletes react over what he has to say. Kevin Durant, Jalen Rose, Charles Barkley, and Terrell Suggs, to name a few. Again, somebody must be listening.

In a Q/A I did with Bayless in April, I asked if he saw himself wearing the black hat. He said: “The thrust of our show is people trying to take me down. They just want to see me lose. That’s why they love Stephen A (Smith). He calls me Skip “Baseless.” Fine. Then I quickly prove to the audience that I’m not baseless and win the argument from him, using live ammo, real facts that he can’t refute.”

Will Bayless be at the top of the list again in 2013? I wouldn’t bet against him.

Bob Costas: Costas hit a milestone birthday, turning 60. While it’s just a number, he continued to define his status as perhaps the sportscaster of his generation in 2012. He tied it all together in hosting yet another Olympics for NBC. Even more so, he stepped out on controversial issues: The failure to do a memorial of the slain Israeli athletes at the Olympics and his anti-gun commentary during halftime of a Sunday night game. If sports has a social conscience and voice, it is Costas.

Mark Lazarus: Unlike his predecessor Dick Ebersol, the NBC Sports president took a low profile in being at the helm for his first Olympics. While the tape delay issue had viewers screaming, they still watched in record numbers. Bottom line: The Games even turned an unexpected profit for NBC. Lazarus didn’t have to say much more than that.

John Skipper: The ESPN president oversaw the network’s buying spree in 2012, locking in important long-term rights deals. Skipper also is refreshingly frank. He earned plaudits for admitting that ESPN went overboard with its Tim Tebow coverage.

Joe Posnanski: No sportswriter faced a more intense spotlight than Posnanski. His much-anticipated book Paterno was roundly criticized. The response was so extreme, Posnanski did limited interviews and virtually no public appearances. As a result, his move from Sports Illustrated to being the signature name for the SportsOnEarth site received little fanfare.

Clearly, Posnanski’s book was hurt by a deadline that was moved up to cash in on the timeliness of the story. But even worse, he appeared too close to Paterno and his family to write an objective book that this subject required.

Michelle Beadle: After several months of over-the-top speculation about her future, Beadle bolted ESPN for a package at NBC. She shined in a hosting role at the Olympics. Always entertaining, Beadle will add a new show at NBC Sports Network in 2013.

Erin Andrews: Speaking of over-the-top, Andrews also left ESPN and signed on at Fox Sports. The big lure was a chance to host a primetime college football studio show in advance of Fox’s Saturday night game. Alas, Andrews and the show generally got panned. Look for some changes in a second attempt in 2013.

Chris Berman: Speaking of polarizing figures, it’s often target practice on Berman. His act, once unique and fun in another decade, now is viewed as old and tired. It’s almost as if he has become a characterization of himself. If only he listened to the many people who have to be begging him to tone it down.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch blew him up several times. Following Berman hosting the NFL draft, he wrote: “The bellowing never stops. It pummels you over the head like a hard rain.”

Of the critics, Berman told Michael Hiestand of USA Today: ”I just talk to people everyday walking down the street,” he says. “That’s what I care about. That’s good enough for me. They didn’t like Ted Williams either. Now, I’m not Ted Williams.”

That is quite true. He is not anywhere close to comparing his situation to Ted Williams’.

As for ESPN making any changes with Berman? Don’t count on it. He signed a long-term deal in 2012.

Jim Rome: Another escapee from ESPN, Rome took his act to CBS, where he was given many platforms. His daily show on CBS Sports Network reaches a limited audience simply because the network still doesn’t register in the mind of most sports viewers. He recently launched a weekly show on Showtime. We’ll see how that goes. In a few weeks, he will take his radio show to the new CBS Sports Radio Network.

The biggest Rome news occurred when he got in a flap with NBA Commissioner David Stern. It stemmed from a poorly-worded question about whether the draft was fixed.

The move to CBS clearly is a work in process for Rome. He knew it would take some time. However, he will want to see some progress in 2013.

Jeff Van Gundy: Van Gundy has emerged as a star for his blunt, honest analysis of the NBA for ESPN. You have to listen closely because he is capable of saying anything at any given moment. He wasn’t shy about criticizing the network when it backed out of a deal to hire his brother, Stan. He’s become one of my favorites.

Bill Simmons: ESPN’s franchise man on so many different platforms was given another toy by being added to NBA Countdown. The studio show is a work in progress, but Simmons’ addition has made for a different feel. A basketball junkie, he has a unique and at times quirky perspective on the game. I have found myself listening to hear what Simmons has to say.

Tim McCarver. The announcer called his 23rd World Series, a record. He also received the Ford Frick Award at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, an honor that was long overdue.

John Clayton: Who knew that the 58-year NFL analyst wore a ponytail, worshipped Slayer, and lived with his mother? The cult of John Clayton grew with one of the year’s best commercials. It even received a tweet from LeBron James.

Darren Rovell: Hey, somebody actually jumps to ESPN. What a concept. Rovell left a gig at CNBC where he was the big fish in a little sports pond. Now he’s swimming among fish of all sizes in the ESPN ocean that is the Pacific. The move has some risks, but Rovell felt when ESPN calls (a second time for him), you dive in.

Frank Deford and Vin Scully: Let’s finish with two legends who still are going strong. Deford wrote his memoirs in a terrific book, Over Time: My Life as a Sportswriter. As you would expect from Deford, it was entertaining and insightful, covering more than a generation of sports writing. At age 74, Deford still goes strong with his commentaries for NPR and work on Real Sports for HBO.

What can you say about Scully, the ageless wonder? Now 85, he gave us the best gift possible by deciding to return for yet another year in 2013. Remarkable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q/A with John Clayton: His 24/7 study (obsession) of football; That’s what I do

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First of two parts:

Here is what’s more amazing than John Clayton becoming a YouTube sensation (more than 2 million views) with his new ESPN SportCenter ad: The fact that he even took a day off to shoot the ad.

Clayton rarely takes days off. Maybe 10, 15 tops, all year, he says.

The truth is, a day off separates him for doing what he truly loves: Studying football.

Study, not cover, is exactly what he does for ESPN. Hence, his nickname, “The Professor.”

I always have been fascinated by Clayton. In Chicago, he does a weekly report on Wednesday at 4 p.m. on WMVP-AM 1000, the ESPN-owned sports talk station. I am continually astounded at his knowledge and his ability to name players buried deep on a team’s depth chart

How does Clayton do that?

I now know how after talking to Clayton late last week. His schedule is insane. For instance, after covering the Atlanta-Kansas City game during week 1, Clayton woke at 3 a.m. the next morning so he can begin watching replays of the other games prior to going to the airport.

Note: Our interview was interrupted twice because he had to takes call from NFL front office people. No doubt, calling him for information.

Here it is:

Who is the third string running back on the Bears?

They just made the change. Remember, they had Kahlil Bell, and they cut him. They made the adjustment with Armando Allen, who they brought up.

How do you keep track of all that? You’re talking about a guy who barely gets on the field. Do you have photographic memory?

Oh, well. Any free moment I have, I study it.That’s what I try to do. I’m even doing more things this year than I ever have before. I find it so essential to do.

I want to know everything I can about a roster. Everything.

I keep track of every contract in the league. I have every roster in the league. I make sure my rosters are updated every day.

I have these databases. One data base has every salary of every player, every age of every player, every height and weight of every player, every year of experience, every entry level.

What I do with the salaries I build a program, takes the salaries and add them up. I have the proration of their signing bonuses, and the money they are likely to earn. I mix that all together so I can put together a salary cap number of every team in the league.

Second data base: How they were built. I’ll have the name of the player; what year he came into the league and position he plays. I can keep track of whether the team is too old, how many new players they have.

I keep track of the inactives on Sunday…

Why do you need to know all this?

Because that’s what I do.

Not everybody does this.

OK, do I follow the salary of a player because I care about what he makes? No. A decision is made for that guy to make that salary. What does it mean that you have a back up who is making $2 million? Well, before the start of the season, they’re going to come to him and ask for a pay cut. You know going in, certain guys are going to go.

If you’re above the cap, you know Kyle Vanden Bosch is going to redo his contract to give (the Lions) cap room.

I also need to know who is the third receiver. When I talk about fantasy receivers, how do they use those guys? People want to know.

You live in Seattle. Nothing is close to you besides the Seahawks. Why do you feel you have to be at a game every Sunday as opposed to watching all of them on DirecTV?

To me, it’s the best way to get a feel for football and finding the changes and finding the trends. The game changes to a certain degree every 3 or 4 weeks. I’m at the game and I’m watching every game. I’ve got the iPad.

When you’re at the game, you get a full view of what’s going on and the immediacy of going down to the lockerroom and answering those questions. You don’t have the ability to ask those questions if you’re sitting at home.

I go to Atlanta-KC. I see what I see. Then I have the ability to go over to Matt Ryan and talk about what he’s doing with his offense; get a feel for the Chiefs.

I’d go to 32 training camps if they let me. When you’re watching practice, I’m pretty intense about following everything. You watching and saying, ‘this guy is in good shape, this guy has lost some speed…’ You’re putting that all in perspective and you have the immediacy of asking somebody.

Do you watch every game eventually?

Before I’d tape every game I could. Now thanks to NFL.com, they have the digital version of every game in 30 minutes. So literally in KC, I got up at 3 on Monday morning. I watched four games at the hotel. Went to the airport and watched three more. I had seven games done by the time I flew back home. When I got home, I watched the rest.

Does anyone do what you do?

The teams are. If teams are doing it, and if I can get in the heads of the teams, it might help me out a little bit.

You go, ‘All of the sudden. Wait a second. If the fourth round pick is ahead of the third round pick, then you start to realize maybe the third-round pick is being phased out.’

Do you have GMs hitting you up for information?

Yeah.

How do the players treat you? I imagine it is different than when you were covering the NFL as a newspaper reporter.

In 2000, ESPN did a Clayton Across America. I went to 31 teams in 28 days. The top players would be nice enough to come over to you, particularly on teams 23 and 24. They were following me. They would come over and say, ‘Hey John, I know you must be really tired. Do you need me for anything?’

I always do the Inside the Huddle notebook, because I’m trying to stay on top of trends. Once I started doing that segment, the top players on the teams were so cooperative. They would tell the little things they were doing differently. What trends they spotted.

If you’re a negative, ripping person, they’ll like you or hate you. I am what I am. I try to find the trends and do the most honest job I can. For whatever reason, that’s gone over well. Most of the top players are good to me when I see them or need them.

So what’s your daily routine?

I get up every day at 4,5,6. I try to go as long as I can before I get fatigued.

How much writing do you do?

Today, I did 3,500 words. Tomorrow, I’ll do about 1,400 words.

Do you ever see your wife?

Every Friday night is date night. As soon as I get done with my last segment, I take her out.

Do you ever take any days off?

Year round, maybe take 10-15 days off. It’s a seven-day-a-week job.

Do you feel if you did anything less, you’d be slacking off?

I would, yeah. What it all comes down to is that even though I’ve been doing this for a long period of time, I’m trying to always reinvent myself. I’m trying to get better. You can only get better when there’s so much new information out there.

You really love this, don’t you?

My only goal in life was to be an NFL beat writer for a team. Now instead of doing it for one team, I get to do it for 32 teams.

It’s phenomenal how much fun it can be. There’s so much information out there. I would like to do more with the numbers from a sabemetrics perspective. Sort of like what they do for baseball. Could I find a wins against replacement number for a QB, WR, Offensive tackle? I can see things visually, but I’d like to translate them into numbers.

It’s a fantastic job, and it’s only getting better.

Tuesday: Clayton on the making of the commercial, the reaction, and what’s really in his office.

 

 

 

 

 

SportsCenter at 50,000 shows: The best of Charley Steiner on his early ESPN days, Robin Roberts, beards and meeting Carl Lewis

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ESPN invited Charley Steiner to participate in a recent teleconference noting the 50,000th show for SportsCenter. He was an anchor from 1988-2002.

“I feel like Marv Throneberry in that old light beer commercial,” Steiner said. “‘I still don’t know why they asked me to do that commercial.'”

Because he’s one of the best. Steiner, now an announcer for the Dodgers, was wildly entertaining then and still is today.

Here are some terrific soundbites from the teleconference, including his memories of meeting Carl Lewis. Check out the video to see why that was an uncomfortable moment for Steiner.

On joining ESPN:

In 1988 when suddenly out of nowhere I was asked to do this new SportsCenter show, Would you like to come up to Bristol?  I had two questions:  Why and where?  14 years later it changed only everything.

When we first got there, understand that ESPN was just this sports cable station, it was not the monolith it has become.  It was a mom and pop store that has turned into this four-letter icon.  To be a small part of it a million years ago and to watch its growth from afar has been thrilling.

More on joining ESPN:

I started out as a radio guy.  I never had any intention whatsoever of being on television.  I still consider myself a radio guy that just happened to have a 14-year diversion on TV.

When I was first offered the job, I didn’t seek it out.  My agent, Donald Buchwald, who is Howard Stern’s agent, who has done much better with Howard, said, Why do you want to go to Bristol to a cable station?  It seemed like sage advice, with all due respect, Ms. Steele.

I said to him, Let’s give it a shot.  If it doesn’t, let’s go back to radio.  I had no idea it would last 14 years and have the impact on my career that it did.  I don’t know.  All I know is when I was seven years old I wanted to be the announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers.  It took 15 years, 3,000 miles, a lot of stops in between.

On working with Bob Ley and Robin Roberts:

Again, the Christopher Lloyd portion of the program, when Bob and Robin and I were together.  We were on the air every day for seven years.  Bob and I were together for about 10 years.  This is going to sound like a bunch of hooey, but it’s the God’s honest truth.  Those meetings we had in the morning where the three of us would chime in, Mark Gross was part of that when you had different initials at the end of your name, we would talk about everything.  It wasn’t necessarily sports related, but how it would all come together as part of this soup that we would serve up at 6:00, 6:30, 7:00, depending on the hour we aired the show.

In those days, Bob is so damn smart.  Robin is, well, Robin.  I was thankfully the caboose on this wonderful train.  We would sit around and we would talk.  More times than not we would come out with the right news judgment.  Mercifully, Tim Tebow was four years old then.  There was not a lot of Tebow coverage at that point.

Again, we were at that point historically where we had the Tyson story, Pete Rose story, Magic Johnson story.  We had stories that were above and beyond just sports news.  Those are the things that thankfully gave some foundation to the SportsCenter project.  We just happened to be the ones who were there and then.

Keith, Dan doing the 11:00 show.  Ours was more a news-generated show.  We didn’t have the electronic wherewithal to bring in all the highlights at 7:00.  These days you get highlights in at any second with the social media and any other stuff.

On Robin Roberts:

Every one knows what Robin is going through. I mentioned earlier one of the joys of my entire career are morning and afternoon editorial meetings with Bob, Robin and I.  We used to jokingly call ourselves the Mod Squad.  Bob and Robin are dear friends to this day.  Everybody holds a special place in your heart, in your brain, in your soul, whatever it is for what Robin is going through.  That’s all I want to say.

On competition back then:

Again, when I got there in ’98, ESPN was just a sports channel on cable.  Our competition in 1988 was CNN, Nick and Hick, Nick Charles and Fred Hickman.  Within about a year CNN basically removed sports from its lineup.

Then we’re kind of on our own.  Most of the time we’re on our own because nobody had quite done what we were doing before.  They talked about SportsCenter attitude and all that.  We were a bunch of guys trying to figure this out.  We had no attitude.

Then Sports Channel for a time.  They didn’t put up much of a fight.  Then FOX came along.  For a time they at least made some noise, put up some competition.  But we knew they were dead the day they put their first FOX Sports commercial out, which was a direct knock-off of all the things we had done.

Our collective thought at that time was, If they’re coming into our neighborhood, we’re pretty well-situated, they’ve got no shot.  FOX tried to put their studio show on immediately after all their live games, so they were never on at any specific time.  So in terms of ratings, we were there every night, same time, same bat channel, those guys were all over the place trying to do exactly what we were doing.

I think the battle was won the first time FOX attempted to do a funny commercial like ours and failed miserably.

On his memorable SportsCenter ads (Here’s the link from Sunday’s post):

Two things come immediately to mind.  The one we went and did, Melrose Place, Bobby the pool boy, Sydney.  We’d go out there.  We’re on this big Hollywood set.  All the women on the show didn’t know me from Adam.  They were scared to death that they might have their reputations sullied by being something on SportsCenter with the short, fat guy.

The guys, on the other hand, were all congregating around, talking sports.  This is pretty cool.  Then Sydney thought it would be a career-ender.  Little did she know she was so right, but that didn’t matter.  That spot had some pretty good wings to it.

The other one was the Follow Me to Freedom.  We did about four different lines at the end.  Follow Me to Freedom was just one of four that was selected by the producer and the director.  Others were something like I’ll Lead You to the Underground, All is Well, Brothers and Sisters, all that kind of crap.

It was the only time I wore a tank top.  Anybody who might remember the spot knows why.

On facial hair and his friendship with Wolf Blitzer:

Wolf and I are dear friends.  We’ve been friends for more than 20 years because we’re the only two bearded guys on TV.  He’s taken off a little more weight than I have over the years, but we still remain friends.

When I first got there, I’d done nothing but radio.  Facial hair was not even a consideration to me one way or the other.  When I first got there, one of the many consultants who were trying to force feed television into my radio brain asked me one day matter of factly, Would it bother you if you shaved your beard?  I’d never given it any thought one way or the other.

I go out on the air.  I was God awful in the beginning.  Anybody who was up at 11:30 on the West Coast would watch me learn how to do TV at night.  I was totally lost.

So a couple of weeks in, one of the producers walked over, Steve Anderson.  He said, We just finished having a meeting.  I said, Good.  He said, You can keep your beard.  I had no idea it had been up for discussion.  So that’s the long and short of the beard story.  About five years ago one day I just decided, you know, it’s time to shave.  I’ve been shaving every day since.

That’s a meaningful answer to a meaningful question.

On finally meeting Carl Lewis:

I met Carl Lewis once.  This is the God’s honest truth.  This is right around the time he did his magnificent rendition of the national anthem.  It was several weeks after.  Carl and his manager were really pissed off at me and ESPN for showing the thing.  Of course, they didn’t consider the fact that he sang the thing.

Having said that, it was a post Tyson fight party.  In those days the security was unbelievable, and they’re all so very friendly.  So we are kind of pushed through this police cordon, me, a producer, a couple other people.  We’re pushed through.  I am face to face with Carl Lewis.

He looks at me and I look at him.  He doesn’t know what to say.  I don’t know what to say.  I said finally, Carl, my man.  That was no response.  Now 20 something years later there still hasn’t been one.

Carl, my man.

 

 

 

 

 

ESPN late SportsCenter chooses NBA first round over Rangers-Caps thriller

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Not to beat a dead horse here, but…

I found it interesting that the late version of ESPN’s SportsCenter led with the NBA over the NHL Tuesday morning.

My son, Matt, who knows what I have been writing about ESPN’s hockey coverage (or lack thereof), called it to my attention. An avid hockey fan, he said, “I can’t believe they’re starting off with Memphis-Clippers.”

Indeed, ESPN’s producers decided Game 4 of a first round NBA series was more newsworthy than Game 5 of a second-round NHL series. And that game featured an incredible finish with the New York Rangers scoring the tying goal with six seconds remaining and then beating Washington in overtime.

Indeed, not only did ESPN begin with the Clippers game (admittedly an exciting overtime game), but it went to the San Antonio-Utah game next with extended highlights and interviews. Then, SportsCenter finally turned to Rangers-Caps.

OK, maybe ESPN opted for the Clippers out of the box because it finished late. Most viewers in the East went to bed without knowing the outcome. Also, the late SportsCenter is geared to a West Coast audience, especially in LA.

However, we still can ask the question: Would ESPN have made the same news decision if the network had the NHL rights? Given the finish and the fact that this was a pivotal game in a second-round series, wasn’t the Rangers victory more important?

Where’s that dead horse…?

 

 

 

ESPN’s Bayless talks about being polarizing; blindsided by Rose; HS hoops career

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When I visited Skip Bayless at ESPN back in March, he was beaming. He had just learned that he was nominated for a Sports Emmy in the Outstanding Sports Personality-Sports Event category.

“It is the greatest honor of my career,” said Bayless.

Bayless was fresh off airing a First Take show that included in-studio appearances by Arian Foster, Victor Cruz, and LeSean McCoy. Imagine, big-time athletes wanting some face time on his program. It’s a usual occurrence.

With a Diet Mountain Dew sticking out of his bag, Bayless was pumped as usual. Not that he ever comes down.

Life was good, and we did our interview.

However, there have been some new developments that warranted a follow-up interview. First Kevin Durant knocked Bayless for some of his comments on Russell Westbrook. “That guy doesn’t know a thing about basketball,” Durant said.

That was nothing.

Last week, Bayless was vilified in certain circles when a story alleged he embellished his high school basketball career in a couple of Tweets to his nearly 600,000 followers.

The whole episode went into Twitter/blog hysteria when Jalen Rose called him on it during Tuesday’s show during a basketball debate. It was a low, low blow, catching Bayless off guard. Awkward doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Wednesday’s show then addressed the issue with Bayless adding details about his high school career and rebuking Rose. Mel Bracht of the Oklahoman actually did a piece on Bayless the hoopster, quoting former teammates as saying he really could play.

Meanwhile, Bayless’ critics, of which there are many, went crazy, taking great joy in watching him squirm.

Yet for all the people who profess to detest Bayless, here’s the bottom line: Wednesday’s show, which morphed into a vigorous debate about athletes and the media, attracted more than 400,000 viewers on ESPN2, double the audience that it did on that date in 2011.That’s a huge number for a blah sports Wednesday in April with no Tim Tebow story, or anything else to feed the machine.

In the Twitter world, the show and subjects being discussed had 5 of the top 10 trends. There were tweets from Lance Armstrong, Bill Walton, Jay Feely, Jamal Anderson, among thousands of others. Yet another barometer: Bracht’s story on Bayless had nearly 10 times more pages views than anything else on the Oklahoman site that day.

The entire episode underscored the big question: Can anybody name a more polarizing figure in sports TV right now than Skip Bayless?

As Bayless, 60, says: “I could argue for the Easter Bunny, and I still would lose on Twitter.”

On the one hand, the guy gets nominated for an Emmy. The other nominees were Cris Collinsworth, Charles Barkley, Al Leiter, Harold Reynolds, Kirk Herbstreit, and Trent Dilfer.

On the other, the outrage from his critics was about the same as if a faction of the Democratic party nominated Rush Limbaugh for Man of the Year.

Writes Ken Fang at Fangbites.com:

Besides yelling and inexplicably latching onto Tim Tebow, what Skippy does is bloviate and make a spectacle of himself. He makes himself the story instead of covering it. The Academy got this nomination wrong. I just hope Skippy isn’t labeled “Emmy Award-winning” this year or any other year.

Believe me, that was actually kind compared to others.

In the interest of full disclosure, I worked with Bayless when he was a columnist at the Chicago Tribune in the late 90s. I can say he was as intense about his job as anyone I’ve ever seen in the business.

I also know he believes every word he says. Don’t ever, EVER question his conviction on a subject. Bayless does nothing for show.

Love him or hate him, people certainly are talking about him. And watching, judging by the ratings.

So with that in mind, here are the highlights of my interviews with Bayless:

How does it feel being such a polarizing figure?

Bayless: Wasn’t that the case at the Chicago Tribune? I’ve been through that my whole life. It’s the way it was when I was with the Miami Herald, the LA Times, in Dallas. I grew up on this. The weird thing is wherever I’ve gone, things just happen. I’m trained to go through this. My skin is extremely thick. I must admit when I open my Twitter responses, you always have to remind yourself these are emotional overreactions in large part. My Twitter followers love me. Some of them love to hate me, but it’s born of love.

Certainly some of the comments on your Twitter have to get pretty vile.

Bayless: If someone crosses the line, I go on to the next one. It happens often, but you have to remind yourself: Just accept it for what it is and go on. I get emotional too. I think I’m always right, but a lot of people disagree. Turnabout is fair play. If I can do it on the air, they can do it to me on Twitter. It’s part of the entertainment of sports. I welcome that they do it.

What was your reaction when Rose hit you with that comment on Tuesday’s show, calling you “Water Pistol Pete”?

Bayless: I was blindsided. I restrained myself on the air. I was shocked that Jalen confronted me and used it against me in what was one of our basic debates. The show ended and I was told, ‘Jalen would like to apologize to you for what he did.’ I said he doesn’t need to do that. They said, ‘No, he feels like he owes you that.’

All I was upset about was that Jalen didn’t come to me before the show and say, ‘Is this the truth?’ It wasn’t even close to being the whole the story. All I wanted to do was sit and say here’s my side of the story. If you still want to ridicule me, I’m great with that. I felt like he was running with half-baked blog reports. He did say he say he was sorry and seemed sympathetic. He had a similar story on a much higher level (a clash with then coach Larry Brown with the Indiana Pacers).

How did Wednesday’s show come about?

Bayless: I said, there’s no reason to run from this. Let’s tee it up the next day. The amusing part was I didn’t know what Jalen would do on the air. I didn’t expect him to apologize, but I thought he might be apologetic. If you know Jalen, and I do, and this is what I like about him on the show: He was back to being defiant Jalen. All of the sudden we ripped it off and quickly left behind my insignificant high school basketball career and launched into an all-out discussion on athletes vs. the media.

The great thing about our show is that we are so flexible. We had blocked 10 topics for that show. We scrapped the rest of the rundown. We just said, let it fly.

How did you feel about people saying you embellished your high school career with those Tweets?

Bayless: I get constantly asked on Twitter, did you play basketball in high school? On a Saturday, I put up two tweets. One about this and one about baseball. Baseball was my better sport. I wrote what I did and got to 140 characters. I thought, should I expand on this? I figured nobody cares, and I let it go. Every word in that tweet is 100 percent accurate, but it is only 5 percent of the whole story. But thanks to the 140-character limit, I thought that was enough.

I guess the takeaway is that there are some things that defy Twitter. You don’t have the space to do the whole explanation.

Were you concerned that people were questioning your credibility?

Bayless: This is what kills me. People equate my ability to play basketball with my ability to evaluate basketball and other sports.. This is a constant argument I have with Jalen and Cris Carter. Last year, 28 of the 32 NFL general managers never played one down in the NFL. How do you explain that, Cris?

To Jalen, I say, the best GM in the NBA is R.C. Buford in San Antonio, who didn’t even play college basketball. A classic example is a guy like Michael Jordan. The greatest player who ever played, and we can make a case he is the worst general manager/personnel director/owner in the history of the NBA. They don’t have a comeback for this.

How did you feel about Kevin Durant’s comments?

Bayless: That knocked me out of my chair. I’m from Oklahoma City. Durant is my favorite player. I make no bones about that. All of the sudden because I’m down on his teammate for stealing shots from him, he blasts me. This is Kevin Durant, one of the nicest guys you’ll meet, saying I know nothing about basketball and that I must never watch the Thunder games. In fact, I watch every dribble of the Thunder games. I was just trying to make a point about Russell Westbrook, and I think I’m right.

What does it say that you have athletes reacting to what you say and that you have people searching for your high school basketball records?

Bayless: It shows me our show is arriving. I rarely meet a pro or college athlete who does not watch our show. They all watch it. Partly because it fits into their schedule and lifestyle. I asked Marcellus Wiley, ‘Why is it so many athletes watch our show?’ He said, ‘Because it’s real.’ Then he chuckled and said, ‘They want to see somebody take you down.’

Do you see yourself as the guy wearing the black hat?

Bayless: The thrust of our show is people trying to take me down. They just want to see me lose. That’s why they love Stephen A (Smith). He calls me Skip “Baseless.” Fine. Then I quickly prove to the audience that I’m not baseless and win the argument from him, using live ammo, real facts that he can’t refute.

You’ve described yourself as being obsessive. How does that translate on the show?

Bayless: I’m a fanatic. I’m obsessed. I live for this show. My whole night is watching sports. I watch the 6-7 Sportscenter. Then I watch it seems like every game ever played. Go to bed at midnight. Get up at 5, watch the (West Coast) SportsCenter on the treadmill. I have no choice. When you walk in the door at 7:15, you better know everything that happened the night before, and more important, what your stance is. Are you pro or con?

Are these debates personal to you?

Bayless: I’m driven. I’m competitive. I want to win every debate. The audience gets it. People laugh, but I say I win most debates every night between 6 and midnight in preparation. Reading, watching, thinking, formulating my argument. I do it every night without fail.

What does the Emmy nomination mean to you?

Bayless: It was the greatest honor of my career. I had writing honors. This was against all odds, against the grain, to be nominated in the category I’m in. It was breakthrough for the show, much more for me. And all the people who worked on it, fought so hard, come so hard. Long, hard struggle. The show has broken through since the fall. This has been a thrill ride for all of us. We’re getting validated by the eyeballs for the first time. We’ve always done fairly well, but not like this. This was the cherry on top of all that.

Why is the show registering now?

Bayless: We found our audience. They were there. Whenever I traveled, airports, all I ever heard was, ‘We love the debates. We just wait for the debates.’ I believe we have developed a dynamic unlike anything that’s been on sports television. It’s real, raw. It’s unfiltered. It’s basically unplanned. It’s definitely unscripted. We’re fearless about our topic.

Charles Barkley is another one of your critics. He’s even said he wants to kill you. How does that make you feel?

Bayless: I’m mystified by whatever he’s said about me all the way to his recent kill quotes. I don’t understand it. I don’t know the genesis about it. I love Charles Barkley on the air. I watch every Inside the NBA. I look forward to everything he says. I don’t always laugh with him. Sometimes I laugh at him. The great irony is that many of our debaters who know Charles say, “You’re missing the boat here. Skip’s heart is good. I believe my heart is good.’ I’ve asked him many times to talk to him on the air. We’d go to Atlanta to do it. This vehicle is built for Charles Barkley. He would thrive in it.

A postscript: Bayless sent me the following email Sunday, providing the proverbial “rest of the story” to his high school basketball career.

Bayless: As I said on air on Wednesday, if I HAD played for a high-school coach who loved and encouraged me, I very well might not be where I am today. If, as my teammate told the Oklahoman, I had transfered to a rival high school and averaged 18 a game in an era of 45-40 scores, I probably would have tried to play college basketball, even Division II, and probably gone nowhere. But I was so disillusioned my sophomore year, when I had gone from rising star to shattered confidence, I was far more receptive when the journalism teacher asked me to write two columns a week for the school paper.

I fatefully had her for the one non-journalism class a day she taught, advanced English, and the first day of school she asked us to pick any book and write a one-page report, just so she could gauge our writing ability. I chose a Y. A. Tittle biography. She asked me to stay after class on Friday. I thought I was in trouble. She told me I could write – first I’d heard that – and she told me I was going to write for her paper. I said no, I was player. But by the end of that year, I was writing for the school paper. She eventually entered me in the Grantland Rice Scholarship competition at Vanderbilt – a full ride given once a year to the best prospective sports writer. I won. My career path was set. My faith has always been very important to me. Sometimes God works in mysterious ways.