A Hater Until The Very End: Skip Bayless Dropped A 13 Minute Video Trying To Suggest That Russell Westbrook Is Not A Hall Of Fame Player

Thearon W. Henderson. Getty Images.

There are a lot of things in life that can make you start to feel old as shit. In the sports world, for me it's generally two things. First, when we see the kids of athletes we grew up watching play college sports/professional sports. That's always a mindfuck. Next, is when you see players you grew up watching enter their respective Hall Of Fames. That'll always be weird for my brain to comprehend. Then of course, there are the moments when the legends we all watched from Day 1 of their careers officially hang it up, as Russell Westbrook did yesterday. I remember being at ASU and watching him play when he was at UCLA like it was yesterday, and now all of a sudden he's retired after nearly two decades in the NBA? Man, time really does fly by in the blink of an eye. 

When Westbrook's announcement came out yesterday, the reaction from about 99.9% of people was what you expected. There was sadness, appreciation, respect, all the stuff that a player of his caliber deserved. Hate or love Russell Westbrook as a player, there is no denying the impact he made on the game of basketball and the NBA, and he walks away as one of the more decorated players of his era (despite not winning a ring). He'll arguably go down as one of the best players to play the point guard position in the history of the game, and I don't even really think that's me being hyperbolic. I just say that as someone who watched Westbrook play for the last 20 years. Few in history went about the game and the position the way Westbrook did, and he was pretty damn good at it. For the most part, it seemed like the sports world was all in alignment with that.

And then of course, there was Skip Bayless. A true hater until the very end. 

I know this is his schtick and blah blah blah, but I'm sorry, this act just doesn't quite hit the same here in the big 2026. Especially when it comes to Russell Westbrook's Hall of Fame candidacy. For anyone to suggest that Russell Westbrook is not only a first-ballot HOFer, but a HOFer at all is them simply being a gigantic asshole. This is a man with a 99.9% HOF probability. There is no argument to be made that he is not a first-ballot Hall of Fame player. To suggest such a thing about a player with this resume:

• MVP 

• 2x scoring champion 

• 3x assist champion   

• 2x 1st Team All-NBA 

• 9x All-Star 

• 2x All-Star game MVP 

• 1st Team All-Rookie 

• Most triple doubles in history (209)

• Top 14 in all-time scoring (27,176 points)

• Top 5 in all-time assists (10,351)

• Top 60 in all-time rebounds (9,025)

• NBA 75th anniversary team member 

is maybe the dumbest thing a person could do. You don't have to be a fan of Westbrook as a player, but you can also use common sense and acknowledge his accomplishments without being weird and attempting to be a contrarian by diminishing what he did over those 18 years. I could understand if the player was on the fringe of the HOF and there was an actual debate as to whether they should get in or not, but that is NOT the case with Russell Westbrook. 

I know that blogs like this and the online attention Skip gets from putting out a video like that is the whole reason he does it and that as a society we should just ignore it, but sometimes you can't let things slide. I guess there always has to be someone to play the contrarian role, but in my opinion it's also perfectly normal to not shit on a guy and discredit his entire career on the day he retires. It's OK to just celebrate the player and keep it moving, especially when they had the career Westbrook did. But to instead let some personal beef because you were a Kevin Durant fan (???) lead you to this type of conclusion is just weird. I get it, the whole "Westbrick" thing went viral like 13 years ago or whatever when Skip first dropped that name on TV, but to still being doing that shit all these years later is pretty lame.

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I can only imagine the video he'll put out when LeBron officially retires. That's going to be cringey as hell, you just know it. He'll probably say some shit like he's not a HOFer either or that his career was overrated and he'll never be in the conversations with MJ etc. What I do know is that'll be just as sad as what he put out yesterday regarding Westbrook. I get that being a hater made him rich as hell and all that, but at this point it's just getting sad.