NBA Players, Media Slam Skip Bayless For Heartless Hayward Tweet
At first, Skip Bayless had a reasonable reaction to Gordon Hayward's gruesome injury in Tuesday night's season-opener between the Celtics and Cavaliers.
JUST AWFUL: First quarter of first game as a Celtic, Gordon Hayward falls awkwardly on alley-oop, looks like badly hurts knee.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) October 18, 2017
Then he got back to being himself.
Just moments after Hayward was stretchered off the floor with an apparent fractured tibia and dislocated ankle, Bayless used the occasion to mock LeBron James.
If Gordon Hayward is gone, maybe for the season, LeBron's path to losing a sixth finals gets even easier.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) October 18, 2017
That stirred instant outrage within the NBA community on Twitter. The Raptors' DeMar DeRozan was the first to respond.
"You're a clown for that tweet after a man gets hurt with a potential career ending injury! Sh*t bigger than basketball," said DeRozan.
The Spurs' Rudy Gay followed suit 10 minutes later.
Really? You are a heartless Clown. Go paint your face! https://t.co/1HYNPwdw7T
— Rudy Gay (@RudyGay) October 18, 2017
Bayless was also chastised by fellow media members, mostly for his lack of empathy.
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports:
Don Van Nattar Jr. of ESPN:
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) October 18, 2017
Michael Gallagher of NBC Sports:
seriously?
— Michael Gallagher (@MikeSGallagher) October 18, 2017
The Toronto Star's Bruce Arthur offered the harshest rebuke of all, Tweeting, "Skip Bayless might be an attention-craving a**hole, guys."
The fans weighed in, too.
A man just broke his leg and all you think about is LeBron smh
— Danny ???? (@PrimeGronkowski) October 18, 2017
— Cam (@CameronWinfree) October 18, 2017
Not the best take by Bayless, to say the least.