Skip Bayless Targets His Bogus Look-at-Me Hatred at Young Mavs Superstar Luka Doncic

Skip Bayless of FOX Sports, Prepping To Replace LeBron, Targets His Bogus Look-at-Me Hatred at Young Mavs Superstar Luka Doncic

DALLAS - Skip Bayless is someone I've known for 30 years, so I feel uniquely qualified to call him a "Human Hemorrhoid'' as a person and a "stain on the profession of journalism.'' At the same time, I recognize that Skip has forfeited sense, responsibility and even decently for one of sports media's fattest paychecks, and I recognize that his career path is ideal for a man with an ego as big as his conscience is small.

Which takes us to the FOX Sports 1 "sitcom-disguised-as-talk-show'' host's foolishly hot take on Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks, whose "struggles'' are all relative in that he's the reigning Rookie of the Year and this season a 20-year-old phenom who hears chants of "M-V-P!'' most everywhere he goes.

But Skip's "expert'' opinion of Doncic? "I'm sorry,'' Bayless tweeted this weekend, "I'm not seeing superstar in Luka. At least, not yet. Don't see much defense or fourth-quarter mental/physical toughness.''

I'm sorry, I'm not seeing superstar in Luka. At least, not yet. Don't see much defense or fourth-quarter mental/physical toughness.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) January 11, 2020

Of course, if we're to take this analysis seriously, we have to consider what people (athletes or not) are supposed to be doing at age 18, 19, 20.

Reflect first on Dallas coach Rick Carlisle's weekend words on Luka: “When I was 20 years old, I was walking around as a freshman at the University of Maine. I didn’t know whether to shit or wind my wristwatch, and this guy is a second-year player and he’s going to be a starter in the All-Star Game.

"I think we have to understand that he’s still young. He’s mature beyond his years in terms of how he sees the game and his skillset and how he can do things out on the floor, but ...''

"But'' he's 20. So in the very rare instances, certainly this season, when there is a defensive lapse or a clutch-time error, it's almost certainly not about Luka's "ability.'' It's about his "youth.''

And if Skip Bayless would interview anybody who knows Luka or even who knows basketball - I can virtually guarantee, again, given my history with him, that he has not - he would not be able to find a credible source questioning "toughness'' or "superstar'' qualities.

What is Skip Bayless truly plotting here? As someone who has made a fortune from being a "contrarian,'' Skip is pretending to be a "life-long Cowboys fan'' (he is not) and Skip is pretending to believe LeBron James is "overrated'' (he is not) ... and he's seeing that as LeBron ages, the Skip Show is going to need a fresh, new whipping post. (LeBron on Luka video above via Taimon Turner and Dallas Sports Fanatic.)

Luka Doncic, welcome to Skip's fraudulent and bilious world, The Toilet of Sports, where public figures exist only to be chewed up and then disposed of.

Skip doesn't "hate'' LeBron and he doesn't "love'' the Cowboys and he doesn't really know a damn think about Luka Doncic, probably not even that Doncic was a teenager winning the EuroLeague MVP on the way to quick contention for the same trophy in the NBA at the same age that teenage Skip Bayless was scoring 1.4 points per game on his high-school team in Oklahoma City on the way to claiming on TV that he'd been an "All-State''-caliber player, in the style of "Pistol'' Pete Maravich, when in fact  ...

Skip was, as co-worker Jalen Rose noted cleverly, "Water Pistol'' Pete.

Sadly, all of this is in a sense a sign that Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks has arrived, as he's entered a public conversation that is led by Skip Bayless and his gullible minions, an unfortunate world in which facts don't matter - only victims do.