Skip Bayless and Russell Westbrook have been feuding with each other for years. Bayless infamously chastised the nickname 'Westbrick' for Russ, but the latter did not appreciate it. Since then, they have gone back and forth on social media, although not as much these days.
Bayless was recently a guest on the 'All the Smoke' podcast, explaining his beef with the 2017 NBA MVP's genesis.
"This runs deep for me and there is some personal here, I will admit," began Bayless.
KD told Skip he doesn't know anything about basketball
According to Skip, as an OKC native, he naturally had an affinity for the Thunder. As a fan, his favorite player was Kevin Durant, but when Westbrook arrived, Bayless took exception to Russ taking more shots than KD and began criticizing him for that.
Durant felt Bayless was causing division in the OKC locker room with his criticisms, so one day, he spoke against Skip and told him he didn't know anything about basketball. Spurned, the former FS1 analyst has since vented his frustrations at Westbrook, and he said he felt vindicated when KD left OKC for Golden State.
"Remember, Kevin chose to leave Russ," added Skip. "And I was told by somebody very close to Kevin Durant the main reason he left OKC going into his 10th year, he left because this was the quote I was told 'he finally decided he'd never win with Russ as primary decision-maker.'"
The Warriors wouldn't have beaten LeBron without KD
Bayless felt vindication when Durant led the Warriors to back-to-back NBA championships in 2017 and 2018, winning the Finals MVP award during both title runs. He claimed the Warriors wouldn't have won either championship if KD had not joined them.
"They knew, Steph and Klay and Draymond and Steve Kerr knew full well they were not going to beat LeBron and whoever was left with him," continued Bayless. "We didn't know about Kyrie at that point or Kevin Love but there was no way they were beating LeBron without Kevin. Kevin titled the playing field. He's too good. It's not that Steph's too good or Klay's too good."
It's crazy to think how far this beef has gone, considering we know how it started. Bayless admitted to taking it personally, and that's where this went wrong. It was normal for KD to protect his team's interest over Skip's opinion, even if it was correct. Bayless should've known better. But that's probably the reason why Russ is still an in-demand commodity in the league, and Skip is without a network right now.
Related: Kevin Durant fights Skip Bayless on Twitter -- "I really don't like u"