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When Stephen A. Smith accepted Skip Bayless’ invitation to reunite on-air for the first time in nearly a decade, thoughts of whether the famed “First Take” sparring partners could pick up where they left off nine years ago immediately bubbled up.
“All of the sudden, the reality hit me, ‘Gee, what if it’s not the same? What if it’s awkward or it feels like it’s something that was a relic of the past that we could never reach back and re-launch?’” Bayless recently told The Post.
The “trepidation” Bayless, 73, felt as he prepared to host Smith, 57, as the first guest of “The Skip Bayless Show” evaporated moments after the pair exchanged pleasantries through the cameras.
“I just immediately felt like we were still on the air together, like I had done this yesterday and the day before and the day before. It felt completely, utterly normal from moment one,” said Bayless, who exited FS1 last summer.
“They say it’s like riding a bicycle, yeah, it was like riding a bicycle, except it was like riding the greatest bicycle ever built in sports media in a heartbeat.”
From their “instant rapport” during an early 2000s appearance on Jim Rome’s “The Last Word,” to their reconnection at the Worldwide Leader, where “Pardon the Interruption” appearances led to a “First Take” team-up in 2012 upon Smith’s return to the network, that “something special” between Bayless and Smith was on display Monday when the pair took a long-awaited stroll down memory lane on Bayless’ program.
During the near 60-minute conversation — which has since eclipsed more than 900,000 views on YouTube — Bayless and Smith covered an array of topics such as the current state of the Lakers, if Aaron Rodgers is considered “overrated” as his anticipated free agency decision looms and, of course, Smith’s five-year, $100 million contract extension with ESPN that was announced last week.
“It was [an] easy conversation,” Bayless said. “There was not a hint of awkwardness whatsoever, at least, I can’t speak for him, but at least for me it wasn’t.”
The road back to this reunion hadn’t been without some bumps.
Bayless left ESPN in 2016 for a lucrative contract at FS1 and appeared on “Undisputed” for eight years. The relationship between the two became frayed following comments Smith made on JJ Redick’s podcast in 2022.
Smith claimed that Bayless had pleaded with him to co-host full-time as ESPN brass wasn’t thrilled with the ratings for “First Take” — which was originally “Cold Pizza” — shows that were spearheaded by Bayless.
Bayless was “blindsided” by the comments, which he adamantly shot down on his self-titled program.
“The last thing in the world that was on the table was we need to save our ratings,” Bayless told The Post. “No, I just wanted him to be my partner so I didn’t have to have a new partner every single week.
“… I just wanted Stephen A. because I knew it was magic and that I could wake up every morning, expecting magic from Stephen A.”
Smith, who had been covering the 2022 NBA Finals in Boston between the Warriors and Celtics, traveled to see the West Coast-based Bayless, where they ironed out their differences in a scenic setting.
“He flew out here, it must have been right after the Finals because it was the Sunday of the U.S. Open golf final round at Brookline in Boston,” Bayless said. “I’m a big golf fan and I gave up watching about five holes of the U.S. Open on the back nine to go sit with him out by the pool here in our gated community and we hashed it out.”
Bayless wasn’t sure if anything would be gnawing beneath the surface when he taped with Smith following the widely publicized rift.
“We go back on the air the other day, and I didn’t know if there would be any lingering hurt feelings over that but there weren’t, it was just like the great old days,” he said.
Bayless felt that “competitive warmth” from Smith for one.
“We were together for a long, long time, and we did a whole lot of television and radio together, a whole lot, so I just immediately felt that competitive warmth that I always felt with him, where it’s like a brotherly competition based on love, built on love and respect,” he said.
While Bayless “absolutely would” host Smith again, there is one thing he’d do differently.
“He’s had me on as a guest [on his radio show], I don’t know maybe 10 or 15 times, and that was the first time where I was the moderator, and I don’t like being the moderator because it sort of takes away your ability to debate because someone has to stay a little neutral to change the subject and bring up the next topic and it’s like, how far can I go if I take issue with him? I can’t go too far with it because I’ve got to move this along at some point, and we usually trust or depend upon the moderator to do that,” Bayless said.
“… It’s the first time I got thrust into the moderator role and I must tell you, I didn’t love that. I need a referee,” he continued with a laugh.
Although the path to this moment followed challenging times — Bayless was named as a defendant in a bombshell lawsuit filed by a former hairstylist in January and has denied the allegations — he is still in awe over how seamless the reconnection with Smith transpired.
“So, [my wife] Ernestine made a point after, she said it’s like you have an old friend that you maybe lost some touch with from high school or whatever, and maybe you haven’t talked to that old friend for 10 years, and for whatever reason, maybe it’s Christmas or a birthday, you reconnect via phone, and as soon as you get on the phone with them, even though you both have a little trepidation about, is this going to feel awkward? You feel like you never left, you just spoke to them yesterday,” Bayless said.
“That’s how I felt with him.”
