Skip Bayless says Manu Ginobili was better than Hakeem Olajuwon

I hate talking about “hot” takes like this one.

For one, it lacks objectivity. The fun of sports debates is that they’re inherently subjective, and subjectivity allows for a discussion. But some things in sports are objective. When you ignore objectivity, then you’re no longer allowing for a discussion on sports, and instead have someone yelling threats at you like what Shannon Sharpe did here.

Secondly, there’s no provided insight after the statement. Sharpe is having a sincere discussion about Dirk Nowitzki’s career, and in the middle of it, Skip Bayless just interjects with an asinine statement to never be revisited. No facts or evidence was given afterward. Bayless just said a thing and supported the thing with nothing.

Watch for yourself:

For those who can’t watch/hear the discussion:

Sharpe: *talking about Hakeem Olajuwon being the greatest foreign player of all time*

Skip: (Unprompted) I must add I think Manu Ginobili is better than Hakeem - but that’s just me. I’m going to throw it out there cause he’s -”

Sharpe: “I’m going to throw you out of the building.”

Bayless: “ - You don’t get how special Manu was. You don’t get it.”

Sharpe: “You better get up outta here, Skip.”

Bayless: “I’m just saying, I’m not gonna back off that.”

This is easily the worst form of sports entertainment, with a VERY close second being bloggers talking about this form of sports entertainment. Again, it’s not a discussion worth having. I’m not even going to give the stats because we wouldn’t have to revisit the stats to know the truth.

What would happen if I did anyway?
-“Well, did you know Ginobili averaged 19.5 points in 2008?”
-“Oh, wow. That trumps Hakeem being the all-time leader in blocks any day!”

Raising a ludicrous point and immediately backing it by saying that it’s your opinion isn’t entertaining or insightful or even fun. It sounds like someone being edgy for the sake of being edgy - like the sports version of Ricky Gervais. You now just have a bunch of people gathering more talking points about how much of a terrible TV show host you are.

Still, if Bayless was just looking for a bunch of people to discuss him (which he probably was), then congrats because he got me to talk about him.