Skip Bayless Revealed His 1st Impression Of Stephen A. Smith

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless have not worked together in several years, but the two will be inextricably linked for a long time. Smith and Bayless helped user in the "Embrace Debate" era of sports television programming, for better or worse.

Their most famous work together came as adversaries on ESPN's First Take from 2012-16, but their relationship goes back to the late-1990s when both were writers for major newspapers. In an appearance on the "All the Smoke" podcast, Bayless broke down his first encounter with Smith. It happened back in 1998, when the former ESPN and FS1 host was covering the Chicago Bulls for the Chicago Tribune and Smith was covering the Philadelphia 76ers for the Philadelphia Inquirer .



Smith, Bayless recalled, showed up at the United Center that night "suited and booted" in a coat and tie, leaving an immediate impression. Getty Images "Sportswriter didn't wear coats and ties. And I was impressed, because he was trying to send a message: 'I'm legit.

I take this seriously. I'm here to do a job,'" Bayless said. A couple of years later, the two longtime writers were featured as guests on Jim Rome's Fox Sports show The Last Word , which planted the seed for their later work together at ESPN.

. "Right away, I just liked him. And we clicked and connected off-camera because he started to A.

) Respect me and B.) Trust me," Bayless said. "We just clicked.

We both had newspaper hearts, sportswriter hearts. We come from the same business. He respected my ability to write.

I definitely respected his ability to report." Skip saw that Stephen A. Smith was moving different from the jump 🫡 “He was trying to send a message.

‘I’m legit. I take this very seriously. I’m here to do a job.

’” ALL THE SMOKE with @RealSkipBayless : https://t.co/cncmujvcCC pic.twitter.

com/36VLW6LyHx Unfortunately, Smith and Bayless' relationship has not been the same since their time on TV together ended. “We’ve only spoken once over the last year, a year and a half or so,” Smith told Cris Carter on Carter's "Fully Loaded" podcast earlier this year. “We don’t speak much anymore.

He got upset over something he thought I said to JJ Redick, and he went on his podcast and attacked me for about 45 minutes. And then I flew to California and approached him face-to-face, and we resolved that issue. I’m never gonna speak against him per se, but our relationship admittedly hasn’t been the same since that moment.

" Hopefully, the two can rekindle some of their friendship in the coming years. Clearly, there's a lot of mutual respect still there. Related: Stephen A.

Smith Gives Sad Update On Relationship With Skip Bayless.