Can I Live?

Don't Believe the Hype

When deconstructing the latest sports stories, the facet that attracts me most to the thought process of ESPN's Skip Bayless is his ability to formulate his opinion independent of what the masses advocate.

Concurring with Skip isn't a rarity as you have to respect a man who provides empirical, occasionally biased, evidence as method to his madness. As a viewer, that insures me you're truly affording objectivity, reacting to what you've seen and adhering to set standards of precedent that you've established.

Bayless was usually consistent with his routine until recently. As soon as the Mia/Chi series concluded I was anxious to hear his views on Lebron and D-Rose and sadly found his views terribly off.

I'm probably one of the few Skip constituents remaining after he made the discreditable blunder of a statement: "D Rose is overrated."

First off, I'll beat the dead horse one more time by reiterating the implicitly obvious that Rose was by himself and out of gas.

Luol Deng shocked most by overachieving and going above and beyond, but when you sign an alleged big name free-agent in Carlos Boozer, "by himself" is a situation that should never happen.

Blaming Boozer's inept and porous effort would be easy but you can't blame him for taking all that undeserved money. You blame the Bulls organization for panicking and trying to appease the Chicago fan-base when they couldn't sign Amare Stoudemire or any of Miami's "Big 3" and taking Boozer as a consolation prize.

Even though Lebron has a chance to pull a Ray Lewis and get a championship one year after a polarizing transgression, D Rose still has the ability to write the greatest story that's never been written YET and the one Lebron shied away from: the hometown hero wins a ring for his city.

I was also disappointed in Skip when he didn't give Lebron his proper due. Bayless credited D Wade's 4 point play as the catalyst for their comeback and his new-founded clutches as a default or result of D-Wade's presence.

Of course there's less than a 0.071% chance Bayless will ever read this and this wasn't intended as disgruntled "Stan" lamentation. But in all reality, game commentators/studio analysts for the ESPN/TNT affiliated networks shape the opinions and run the stories of the NBA.

Skip Bayless is right under that umbrella if not the wooden handle. He prides himself on not being a "prisoner of the moment" and even admits when he is. Too bad he didn't realize he was guilty of that concerning Rose or Lebron.