If Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless are ever going to repair their relationship, Smith believes the ball is now in Bayless' court.
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Since parting ways with ESPN and First Take in 2016, Bayless and Smith have maintained a mostly cordial relationship. However, in recent years, things have taken a turn for the worse, with Smith now suggesting that Bayless' lack of communication is the reason their relationship has soured. According to Smith, it wasn't anything that Bayless said that caused the rift, but rather what he didn't say.
"When I say we don't have a relationship, it's not anything negative from my end," Smith explained. "It's me letting you know, 'Yo, bro, I picked up the phone on several occasions.' He never called me back. To me, if you that kind of person, that doesn't make you bad, it just means that we can't vibe. Because I'm gonna answer a call."
Smith went on to clarify that despite being upset with some people in recent years, he's always willing to take their calls.
"I got a lot of people over the last year or two that have really, really pissed me off. I'm picking up the phone if they call. There's only one person that I won't pick up the phone for, everybody knows who that is... Skip had his right not to pick up the phone when the whole Shannon thing was going down and that's fine. That's his prerogative. But live with that."
Such is life in the sports media landscape.
The "whole Shannon thing" Smith refers to is the explosive Dec. 2022 blowup on Undisputed, when a debate about Tom Brady between Bayless and Shannon Sharpe turned personal, leading Bayless to famously tell Sharpe to "put your glasses back on." That moment strained Bayless' relationship with Sharpe, and it appears it also affected his bond with Smith.
Smith continued, "Our relationship goes back too long for me not to get a call from you when I called you. When you made that decision, cool. Live with your decision. I will always love Skip, even when I adamantly and emphatically disagree with some of the things he says and does. But the part about not calling me back? Not answering my call? Nah, bro. Anybody that knows me, family included, anybody that knows me knows you don't get too many shots with that with me. I don't pick up the phone too often to call you. If you don't answer my call, you don't answer my call."
Smith also revealed that he had called Bayless to tell him he was "flagrantly" wrong about Sharpe. It's clear Bayless, not one to take kindly to being criticized, didn't respond well to the call, and Smith says that was the breaking point.
In a recent interview on Talk with Flee with Cam'ron, Smith opened up further about his relationship with Bayless and why, for him, the lack of a returned call speaks volumes.
