Skip Bayless wants Charles Barkley to stop using “the k-word.”
During a recent episode of The Skip Bayless Show podcast, the veteran sports pundit claimed his wife takes serious issue with how often Barkley casually jokes about killing Bayless during interviews.
“My wife Ernestine has believed for 15 years, that Charles Barkley is nothing but a sick individual,” Bayless said, per the New York Post.
“To her, he is just pure evil, that he is depraved, that he is a scumbag and she fears that one day, Charles will somehow … inspire some other nut to end my life. And this haunts her, this hurts her, because she believes that in the end, Charles Barkley would have my blood on his hands.”
“If that were Charles’s goal from the start, if that was his goal, then I congratulate him,” Bayless continued. “Because he wins on this one. He has hurt my wife deeply.”
Bayless went on to cite two instances of aggressive callouts from the rival broadcaster. In a 2013 episode of Inside the NBA, host Barkley said, “If I could get Skip Bayless in a room, you’d need DNA who he was.”
In a 2017 appearance on The Dan Patrick Show, Barkley fantasized about dispatching Bayless on live TV.
“If I could get a disease, and I’m gonna die, how about you get Skip Bayless in here, and I’ll kill him live on national television.”
The Post adds that Bayless even asked former ESPN executive and current Syracuse Athletic Director John Wildhack to pressure former Turner Sports boss David Levy to get Barkley to back down.
“I said look, I don’t care about any of the other criticism,” Bayless said. “He can rip, he can slash, he can say whatever he wants. Just for Ernestine’s sake could he please stop using the k-word, please no more kill.”
Bayless also claimed that Barkley’s aggression heightened after Wildhack spoke to Levy. But he did offer a theory to explain why the NBA legend-turned-sports personality seems to hate Bayless.
“I suspect that Charles is just jealous of me. I suspect that he watches me nearly everyday on TV, and the things I say piss him off. Because in the end, he wishes he had thought of that, and that he could say that on TV. Just my two cents, psychoanalyzing Charles Barkley, whom I don’t know.”
“He’s afraid to try to get to know me, because he’s afraid he just might like me. But I could be wrong.”
Despite Barkley’s threats, Bayless said he’d be happy to get in a room with him and talk it out.
“I would like to debate all of the above. Come share this stage with me, or I’ll come share one with you. Whatever you’re comfortable with. You can have all the time you want and need. You can tell me exactly why you want, or even need, to kill me.”
“You name the time, I will be there.”
