In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, Draymond Green and Stephen A. Smith dissect Skip Bayless' comments about the on‑field cardiac arrest of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. Green opens by condemning Bayless' suggestion that the game should continue, calling it a lack of compassion and “no mercy.” Smith agrees, labeling Bayless outright wrong and emphasizing that the incident transcended sport, becoming a matter of life and death. The conversation then shifts to the broader culture of sports commentary: the historic power dynamics on ESPN’s First Take, the loyalty and indebtedness Smith feels toward Skip for launching his TV career, and the tension between respecting that debt and publicly disagreeing. Both guests reference past NFL tragedies (Jack Tatum’s hit on Darryl Stingley, Michael Irvin’s paralysis, Tua Tagovailoa’s injury) to illustrate how the league’s “old‑school” mentality of playing through injury clashes with modern awareness of mental health and athlete welfare. They also discuss Shannon Sharpe’s reaction, the personal impact on him, and the importance of maintaining a seat at the commentary table despite controversy. Throughout, the dialogue weaves personal anecdotes (e.g., Stephen’s friendship with Kenny Smith) to underscore the human side of punditry, concluding that empathy, accountability, and respect among commentators are essential as sports media evolves.
Chapters
a guy who I don't think people will ever be able to separate y'all names just because of the history on First Take. Skip Bayless.
Yeah.
Recently made some comments, and when speaking of no mercy, recently made some comments about Damar Hamlin. And the comments that he made live during the game, I think, Everyone knew immediately in that moment they were wrong. Like this guy just passed out. We just watched CPR be administered on live television. And you say a game should continue? That's no mercy. That's not having any, number one, feel. I think the feel there is just off. But no, secondly, That to me, I always speak about how people view the athlete and that's having no mercy at all for just the athlete, for the mindset. You know, when you think of today's day and age and everyone, the awareness around mental health and all of these different issues. And to say that someone who, you know, Steph Curry's a brother of mine, like Klay Thompson, is my brother. You, you, you, you, blood, sweat, and tears with these guys. You experience some of the highest of highs in life with these guys and some of the lowest of lows in life with these guys. And to say that you can just witness that, number one, as a player, let's not even look at it from Draymond Green's standpoint in his life. Let's just look at it from the standpoint of players, athletes in general.
Okay.
To say that Josh Allen can witness that and then just go call a play and throw a football? Like, what about the compassion for the athlete? Now, I don't even want to go to the compassion for Damar and his family because that's a totally different thing. And that, I mean, that really goes to an entirely different category. So I'm really just trying to keep it sports. But when speaking of no mercy and someone that you've worked with, what was your opinion and thoughts Thoughts on Skip and then to double down and say, oh no, I stand on that even after knowing the condition that he's in. I guess for me, I can respect you saying you stand on your opinion. I can respect that. But at the same time, it feels low.
First of all, let me get this out the way. Skip was wrong. Plain and simple. If we were on First Take together, and he was sitting across from me, I'd have told him he was wrong. There's no doubt about that. And that needs to be said. At that particular moment in time, you can use the phrase "feel in the room," you can use whatever other phrases that you want, but at the end of the day, it reached a point where it was not about football. It was not about games. It was about a man's life, a young man's life being on the line. So there's no defending that. And I agreed with Shannon Sharpe's position on that. Having said that, what I will say, and there were people that wrote articles that Stephen A. came to the defense. No, I didn't. But I did explain. What I mean by that is, number one, it's important that I preface any comment about Skip Bayless in terms of saying this. Draymond, I'm not here today if it were not for Skip Bayless. Skip Bayless is the one that brought me on First Take. And I will never walk around like I don't owe that man a lot. But I disagreed with him after I owed him that. Mm-hmm. On First Take every day. So why can't I disagree with him now? And why wouldn't I disagree with him in the future? I'm sure he would disagree with me. I promise you he disagrees with what I'm saying right now. That comes with it. But remember when I talked about attacking what someone does as opposed to attacking them?
Mm-hmm.
I've known Skip for 20 years. I know people who despise him. I know people who think the worst of him. I know all of these different things. I'm not one of those people. And I will always have love for my man. I think he was wrong, but I also knew what mistake he made. Draymond Green, he's looking at the game and here's what he's thinking about. He's seen Jack Tatum paralyze Darryl Stingley. He saw Michael Irvin on the turf at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, believably paralyzed. He just recently saw Tua Tagovailoa get carried off the same field in Cincinnati by ambulance and was concussed. I mean, his body stiffened up like it had rigor mortis, like rigor mortis kicked in. And throughout NFL history, which Skip Bayless has been covering since the '70s, he's seen the game continue. And a lot of times people are not taking that into account. You can say we're living in a different time. That is true. We are living in a different time. But you also have others who hold on to a certain culture. Now, sometimes they hold on to certain cultures in the world of politics. We don't like that. World of news, don't like that. Social justice issues, we damn sure don't like that. But in the world of sports, there's tens of millions of people who hold on to the way things used to be.— which is what the new media, as you like to call yourself, right?
Like to—
Like to bring up how you got cats that hold on to it. What I'm saying to you, Draymond Green, well, that's who you're talking about. That's the guy. The guy that is like, this is the way that things were done. This is what customarily happened. So he wasn't tweeting like, the hell with this guy's well-being or health or anything like that. I know Skip Bayless enough to know that he cares whether or not Damar Hamlin lives or dies. And people that extended themselves to accuse him of that, I think are totally wrong. But was he guilty of, okay, well, this is— well, serious stuff has happened before. Because remember, we don't see, we don't know how— we know it's serious. We know they're trying to resuscitate him, but "We don't know the particulars." Well, okay, they're gonna take him out in the ambulance and then the game is going to continue. I know a lot of people who felt exactly that, but not necessarily because it should. They're saying it because that's been the history of the NFL.
Mm-hmm.
But times have changed. And I would've said to him, "Fair enough," thinking that he believed what I just articulated. I would've said, "Fair enough, but you know better." And that same tweet could've been put out 24 hours later.
Mm-hmm.
And it would not have been treated with the same vitriol as it was. But unfortunately, he didn't have someone in his ear to tell him that. And, you know, it is what it is.
As I can honestly sit here and say, I'm not one to shy away from an opinion, as you know.
Sure.
I don't like Skip Bayless. I'm not a Skip Bayless fan at all. I don't think Skip Bayless is smart enough to have got me to see another side the way you just did. The way you just got me to see the side that he could have possibly been seeing, Okay. It's special in itself, but it's also, it needs to be heard because if I'm being honest, I didn't see that side at all. I did not, not one bit. And I thank you for that because number one, that will help me continue to grow in this space. But I think, like I said, the world needs to hear that because, and I think another thing that I really didn't appreciate was Even after the fact on Undisputed the next day, it still wasn't this. It was like, I stand on that and that.
Right.
And it's just like, ah, and that's where I think—
Well, that's where we're aligned. That's where we're aligned. Because see, I was more disappointed in the next day only because, all right, this is what everybody's feeling. You see what I'm saying?
Yeah.
It's like, listen, because I was saying, Skip, I know you. You know, you better than that. You see what I'm saying? Regardless of what anybody else wanna believe, I know sides of him I've seen, and I know he's better than that. It's like, yo, just give it up. You know, I shouldn't have sent that text last night.
Yeah.
That wasn't the time and the place to do it. That's all. But, you know, I can assure you, some people think that it's a prideful thing where he can't admit that he's wrong. I take it a step further. I don't think he thinks he was wrong at all. I think he was right with what he was telling Shannon the next day. And usually I don't have time to watch it 'cause I got my own show to do, but they came on a half hour earlier and I knew what had transpired the day before. So I had to see if it was all right. And then I reached out to him. I said, "If you need to talk, I'm here." but he hasn't reached back and I understand he's going through a lot right now.
Yeah, no, I respect that. And you being on the other side of that table and sitting in Shannon's spot, you know, like you said, Skip brought you onto the show. So at one point, you know, at one point I would believe he probably had more say in the show than you did. Then you kept ascending and ascending. Absolutely.
No, no, no, totally, totally. I always deferred to him, Dray, because, Even though I got there and my star had ascended, and again, he had been beyond that point of going to games. He had done that for 30-some years or whatever. He wasn't doing that anymore. You know me, I love going to games. I love being inside that locker room. I can't as much as I used to 'cause I got the daggone show to do and my obligations. But anytime I can show up to a game, I'll show up just so brothers can see me and talk to me.
Absolutely.
But with him, you know, so my star was ascending. But I was always mindful, he brought me here. That's his show. That's his show. And I never, never once took that away from him.
So do you think a part of Shannon feels that way now? Whereas like, I could see that Shannon felt disrespected. I could see that Shannon was kind of hurt. And you could just see that it was so personal to him being that he's been on that same football field He's been tackled that same way for 15 years. But I'm asking more so from the grand scheme, like, so Shannon took the day off, right? And Shannon spoke about why he took the day off. But do you think Shannon is more handcuffed that Skip has more say in the show and that he has to suppress a little bit more? Or do you think that's just growth in life?
I think that's natural. I think that's natural. I think that anybody in Shannon's position would feel that way. But what I would tell you is this, you know, listen, I've been blessed and fortunate enough to, for First Take, we've been, you know, we arrived, I arrived in the spring of 2012. We've been number one since. I've been number one for 11 years. And Shannon and Skip have been the competition for the last 6. Let me be very, very clear with what I'm saying. I don't know Shannon that well. We've spoken a few times over the years.
Mm-hmm.
I have a lot of respect for Shannon Sharp. I know it's not supposed to be popular to say because he's the competition, man. Damn all of that. He's a brother. I got love for him. I respect the hell out of him. And every time I see him, I greet him very fondly. And I will remind everybody, he's one of the greatest tight ends in the history of football.
Yes.
And he's a Hall of Famer. This ain't some scrub like I was. This brother was something special. Okay? And so, to watch him in this business trying to do what he's doing, I respect the hell out of him. And I can only imagine the kind of position that he found himself in, in light of Hamlin's injury. The only thing that I would say, if Shannon had come to me and asked my advice, for example, Here's the only thing that I would say. That's your chair. You don't give it up for nobody. That's yours. You see what I'm saying? I don't give a damn if you were in the chair and had nothing to say. You see what I'm saying?
Absolutely.
And you just wanna give it to him. You don't miss sitting in that chair because there's an audience out there that expected to see you.
Yes.
But I understood him, like every single NFL player, present and former, that I've spoken to. Hearts was in the right place, going through a lot. I remember that time Kenny Smith, during the whole social justice movement, walked off the set of TNT because he didn't feel it was a good idea for him to be there. You remember that? When Kenny Smith got up—
Absolutely.
And turned around, right? "Right?" Well, Kenny Smith will tell you, I called him and I said to him, "My brother, I love you." You know, that's my queen's brother. His brother Vincent Smith used to train me for crying out loud, at Lost Italian Hall in New York City when I was trying to be half the player Kenny "The Jet" Smith was, okay? I idolized Kenny Smith and I love him like a brother. And I called him and I told him, which he would tell you. I said, "Brother, you sure that was the right decision?" And he's like, "Stephen A., I just felt like it was the right thing to do." I said, "I get that, but that chair matters." We need to see you. And I often think about that when I think about myself. When you turn on First Take, it's one thing if I'm going on vacation or I got a day off or something like that. But when some real stuff hits, you turn on First Take, you expect to see Stephen A.
100%.
And Stephen A gonna show up. I'm gonna show up. And that's what I would encourage Shannon, Kenny Smith, or anybody, Shaq, Barkley, anybody else. We fought for centuries to have a voice. You got it. You don't give it up.
