Former NBA player Matt Barnes revealed that he had to stop an NBA player and coach on separate occasions because they wanted to beat up Fox Sports analyst Skip Bayless.
Bayless, who is known for his controversial opinions across several sports, has recently been under fire for a tweet he sent on Monday night during the Buffalo Bills’ game against the Cincinnati Bengals after Damar Hamlin was injured and had to have CPR administered on him on the field.
No doubt the NFL is considering postponing the rest of this game – but how? This late in the season, a game of this magnitude is crucial to the regular-season outcome … which suddenly seems so irrelevant.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) January 3, 2023
Barnes explained in a video that appears to have now been deleted on Instagram that he had to diffuse situations where people were so frustrated with Bayless that they wanted to beat him up.
“I know personally, personally that I’ve had to diffuse two situations,” Barnes said, per the New York Post. “One with a coach, and one with an NBA player. They wanted to f— Skip up. Personally I’ve had to do it. One was this year, one was last year. Personally I had to reach out to Unc (Shannon Sharpe) and set up a conversation for people who wanted to f— Skip up. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, but it’s just gone too far in my opinion.”
Bayless has made a career off of standing his ground with some of his takes, but Barnes believes that it has gone too far.
Athletes and coaches in every professional sport take a lot of criticism, but it shouldn’t come to a point where Bayless is making people want to physically go after him.
Barnes posted another video on Twitter addressing a recent argument that Bayless had with his “Undisputed” co-host Sharpe.
Matt Barnes speaks on Skip bayless & Shannon sharpe pic.twitter.com/53pzpw57I2
— Shannonnn sharpes Burner (PARODY Account) (@shannonsharpeee) January 4, 2023
“Shannon’s had a lot of love or does have a lot of love for dude, but you can even see Shannon’s fed up,” Barnes said. “Someone’s gonna end up hurting Skip because his ego, his arrogance, his disrespect has kind of always been on this level, but now I think it’s gone to a new level, and now he’s disrespecting his co-host in Shannon.”
Barnes, who has transitioned into the media himself after a lengthy NBA career, clearly believes that Bayless has gotten worse with his disrespect as the years have gone on.
As a former athlete, Barnes has a bit of a glimpse into both sides of the coin when it comes to criticism since he has transitioned into a media role, specifically with his podcast.
Bayless has amassed a ton of followers (3.2 million on Twitter) and has been outspoken for quite some time.
However, the fact that he’s made players as mad as Barnes says is certainly concerning, especially since some players don’t have an avenue to go and dispute when the Fox Sports analyst says something about them.
