“How could I love that team? It didn’t love me. My city turned on me.”
Skip Bayless is not very well-liked by many sports fanbases. One, in particular, apparently sent him so many death threats that he needed to hire bodyguards while in town.
The FS1 host was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma so he was recently asked if he would be rooting for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2024 NBA Playoffs. As the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, the Thunder are in a position to make a run and win their first NBA Championship since coming from Seattle.
Bayless used the opportunity as a chance to talk about how Thunder fans allegedly sent him so many death threats that he didn’t feel safe being in the arena.
“The Thunder faithful, in my hometown of Oklahoma City, completely turned on me,” said Bayless on a recent episode of The Skip Bayless Show. “And when our team at First Take took our show on the road for the first time ever to the 2012 Finals, which began in Oklahoma City, I had to have a bodyguard in my own hometown, because Thunder fans had sent me so many death threats. How could I root for that team? When I got to Oklahoma City, I was rooting for me to survive the first two games. Bodyguard with me 24/7.
“The bodyguard shepherded me through the night of Game 1 at the arena and then back to the hotel, downtown Oklahoma City, all the way up the elevator to the sixth or seventh floor to take me to my room. He said, ‘You gonna be okay from here?’ I said ‘I got it, I’m fine.’ And as I walked onto the elevator, two middle-aged women walked on and behind me. He looked, like, ‘Okay?’ I said ‘I’m good.’ And as soon as the doors shut, those two women went off on me. They skewered me for scathing criticism for my criticism of ‘Westbrick‘ all the way up to the seventh floor. They were on 9 or 10, so I got two earfuls from both of them all the way to my seventh floor. And they held the door open as I exited to continue to berate me as I hurried down the hall to my room.
“How could I love that team? It didn’t love me. My city turned on me.
Bayless added that he’s not letting his old experience get in the way of enjoying the current Thunder squad.
“And now I’m rooting for my city because this team is fun. This team is real.”
Death threats are one thing and are certainly not to be made light of. However, Bayless getting chewed out by a pair of women in an elevator sounds pretty fun. Meanwhile, the lack of accountability on Bayless’s part for not understanding why Oklahoma City fans would be so mad at him seems like par for the course.