11/05/24
June 23, 2012
Mark Cuban slashes up Skip Bayless's arguments on ESPN. : Never before has a windbag been under such excruciating pressure.
posted by ursus_comiter to basketball at 04:04 AM - 17 comments
That was excellent. Bayless doesn't understand the game and figures he doesn't need to because people just like to hear him talk.
posted by cixelsyd at 09:54 AM on June 23, 2012
I love this; Cuban hitting hard on what defensive schemes were played and Skip coming back with more generalities. He can't even articulate why someone would play zone; being around the game this long, and not learning even the basics, is ridiculous.
posted by dfleming at 10:23 AM on June 23, 2012
If you watch the longer version, you see Stephen A. Smith stepping in to defend media for their lacklustre analysis...which is baloney. Stephen's response is kind of weak; access gets you into a particular team's playbook, but you don't need access like that to understand why LeBron is shooting from the perimeter. Any former coach, any former player, can read a defence, and the fact that Skip Bayless doesn't is proof he doesn't care about the game so much as he cares about the headline he's going to get afterwards.
posted by dfleming at 10:39 AM on June 23, 2012
Skip Bayless is ultimate proof for ESPN that ignorance is bli$$.
posted by NerfballPro at 11:13 AM on June 23, 2012
Bayless is a douche, but Cuban is arrogant as hell. Regardless of the defense thrown at a player like James, he shouldn't be shut down in big games (I'm talking about previous years, not this year). If James is going to ever be shut down it should be because he's taking it to the hoop and his shots are just not going down, not due to him standing on the perimeter with the excuse the defense is switching up and causing him to play out there. He's big, strong, and dominating when he plays like he did against Oklahoma City, and any team that doesn't understand that and create situations for him to do that, whether there's one or two players checking him, or the defense is in a zone, is ridiculous.
Obviously you're going to get generalities from a guy like Bayless, and that's why people who want X's and O's shouldn't bother watching him. Why anyone would spend time watching him ever is beyond me.
posted by dyams at 11:25 AM on June 23, 2012
What the NBA and ESPN have wrought, they must now defend and live with. And, present as their best possible product for this time block. Pathetic. As if, viewers are "too stupid" too understand complexities; when actually, IMO, it is the media who cannot put the correct "explainers" in the right place. No one ever complained when John Madden drew up a diagram to show MNF viewers WTF he was talking about. He made it simpler. In this piece, so does Cuban.
posted by Leominster at 11:32 AM on June 23, 2012
Skip Bayless is a blowhard who doesn't really know anything about sports. He practically worships Tim Tebow.
The only reason he's on ESPN is because the producers think it's entertaining to have Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless yelling at eachother on the teevee.
posted by insomnyuk at 01:44 PM on June 23, 2012
The only reason he's on ESPN is because the producers think it's entertaining to have Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless yelling at eachother on the teevee. he has incriminating photographs of the producers.
There, fixed that for you.
posted by Howard_T at 05:58 PM on June 23, 2012
Bayless is a douche, but Cuban is arrogant as hell. Regardless of the defense thrown at a player like James, he shouldn't be shut down in big games
I think you missed Cuban's point. As did ESPN: they devoted a fair bit of Sportscenter today to SAS talking about how the Heat finally wanted it enough. To say LeBron should never be shut down without talking about what the other team did or didn't do against him is meaningless. If they put 10 guys on the court, if they put glass over the net, would you still expect him to go for 45-10-12 or whatever unholy stat line he put up this playoffs? It's embarrassing that ESPN has achieved total dominance in sports news and then used that position to trot out slogan spewers who wouldn't be deep enough for a segment on The View or Ellen.
I'm guessing Bayless was captain of his high school debate team too.
posted by yerfatma at 12:54 PM on June 24, 2012
I understand Cuban's point, but still make the observation he's a pompous windbag. Bayless doesn't have the market cornered on that.
Obviously the way an opposing team plays James is something that should be discussed, but again, you're talking about a player (James) that many want to be recognized as the best basketball player EVER! Someone in that role finds ways to dominate, whether inside, outside, at the free throw line, wherever. It remains a 5 on 5 game, and LeBron James, in my mind, can't be stopped if he doesn't want to be. He, himself speaks about how he's grown this year as a player and it showed. He went out this year, especially during the finals, and wasn't going to be denied, which is much different than in playoffs past. If speaking to James' mindset and approach is talking in generalities, then so be it. It's as important as the strategical approach the opponents throw at him.
posted by dyams at 01:20 PM on June 24, 2012
Skip Bayless is a self centered fool and it's about time someone proved it. The great thing about TV is that there is a mute button for when Bayless starts talking.
posted by ic23b at 01:33 PM on June 24, 2012
Someone in that role finds ways to dominate, whether inside, outside, at the free throw line, wherever . . . It remains a 5 on 5 game, and LeBron James, in my mind, can't be stopped if he doesn't want to be
Which is why Michael Jordan never lost a game or playoff series. People say that thing about it being "only" 5 on 5 all the time, but how often has a single player beaten a better team in a playoff series? The last twenty years have seen plenty of individual players drag a team to the Finals (LeBron and Iverson spring to mind), but I can't think of too many examples of that kind of player winning a Finals. Here's a list of NBA Finals; my memory only goes back to '83 or '84, but I can't see a one-man gang team winning any of them. The truth is people just don't like LeBron, so they've set the bar higher than it ought to be and put the hazy memories of greatness in his way.
posted by yerfatma at 02:05 PM on June 24, 2012
He went out this year, especially during the finals, and wasn't going to be denied, which is much different than in playoffs past.
Because in previous years, he accepted before the playoffs began that he would be denied?
Someone in that role finds ways to dominate, whether inside, outside, at the free throw line, wherever. It remains a 5 on 5 game, and LeBron James, in my mind, can't be stopped if he doesn't want to be.
They said the same thing about Wilt Chamberlain.
He AVERAGED over 50 points per game one year for the Philadelphia Warriors, in one of the most dominating seasons in NBA history.
Somehow, the Warriors still didn't win the NBA title.
posted by grum@work at 06:00 PM on June 24, 2012
The guy calls himself the King, for gods sake! If anyone has been behind the "setting the bar too high" problem, all he has to do is look in the mirror.
I don't like LeBron but I am giving him credit. Don't know what you're driving at, yerfatma, but the guy needed to get a championship, and he did. And he played much differently this year than he did in past playoff series. Say it's all based on X's and O's from the opponent, I don't really give a damn. But he brought a game to this year's finals that was missing in past years.
Because in previous years, he accepted before the playoffs began that he would be denied?
Maybe. I never talked to him. But he was denied previous years, and that's a fact.
Truth be told, even though I don't like LeBron that much, I really don't like Cuban. He's a big mouth who craves the spotlight, and I really don't care to see or hear him. He's got money. Great for him. Him and Bayless were made for each other because they're both big-mouthed jackasses.
posted by dyams at 08:00 PM on June 24, 2012
He's got money. Great for him.
Cuban's got more than that. He's got a ring. The Dallas Mavericks were the worst team in professional sports in the decade before he bought the team in 2000, and now they're one of the league's best franchises. If you weren't a fan of the team in the '90s, you might not appreciate how improbable the turnaround was. The Mavs were hopeless.
He's not just a bigmouth when it comes to how the NBA is played. He's obsessed with putting hard numbers into measuring every aspect of the game.
posted by rcade at 08:29 PM on June 24, 2012
I think Cuban enjoyed himself. It was an amusing diversionary respite from the complexities of being the majority owner of the franchise. Compared to having to deal with the presence of Ross Perot on a daily basis (among other things), getting to match wits with the likes of Skip Bayless is an idle pleasure, like licking the jimmies off the top of an ice cream cone.
If you gave Bayless a Stinger missile and told him to take out an ATM kiosk, he'd shoot himself in the shoulder.
posted by beaverboard at 11:44 PM on June 24, 2012
Ha! That was great.
Yeah, sportswriters and television personalities are the worst... they're like political commentators, but with even less substance and insight.
I rarely dislike Cuban, because he seems to have the "fuck you, system" perspective missing from so many owners or people with control. The media and Stern can't make him be a certain way, and it's... refreshing.