Skip Bayless — a person whose primary job is to get you to quote tweet takes and say “you’re crazy for this one, Skip!” or “No!!!” — makes a whole lot of money. Bayless was considered the face of the Embrace Debate era at ESPN, alongside Stephen A. Smith, which he then parlayed into being the face of FS1’s morning sports programming alongside the wonderful Shannon Sharpe.
The exact dollar sign on Bayless’ deal was about $6 million, but his contract with Fox expired in September and there was no word on what the future would hold. It turns out his future involved more money at the same place, as Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that Bayless signed a new four-year deal worth $32 million, even though ESPN apparently wanted to bring him home and have him work with Stephen A. again.
As part of the agreement, Bayless, a professional provocateur, continues to do his daily morning sports debate show on FS1’s “Undisputed” with Shannon Sharpe. Bayless and FS1 are in the early planning stage of a potential second daily show for the afternoons. At this point, Bayless is expected to be a solo act for the program.
That is a lot of money! There is a big conversation to be had about how much Bayless makes, how it is something of an indictment of sports media’s desire to invest in firing off takes than having deep and substantive conversations, and a whole lot of other things. We, instead, are going to attempt to contextualize just how much money this ($8 million a year, to be clear) is by comparing it to some top NBA players’ annual salaries, who similarly make a lot of money, but not as much as Bayless.
Via basketball-reference:
PJ Tucker, $7,969,537
LaMelo Ball, $7,839,960
Seth Curry, $7,813,953
Derrick Rose, $7,682,927
Rajon Rondo, $7,500,000
Jonathan Isaac, $7,362,566
Robin Lopez, $7,300,000
Jaren Jackson Jr., $7,257,360
Trae Young, $6,571,800
Donovan Mitchell, $5,195,501
Bam Adebayo, $5,115,492
Enes Kanter, $5,005,350
Collin Sexton, $4,991,880
Mikal Bridges, $4,359,000
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, $4,141,320
Jarrett Allen, $3,909,902
OG Anunoby, $3,872,215
Tyler Herro, $3,822,240
Kyle Kuzma, $3,562,178
Michael Porter Jr, $3,550,800
Boban Marjanovic, $3,500,000
Austin Rivers, $3,174,603
Donte DiVincenzo, $3,044,160
Alex Caruso, $2,750,000
Marc Gasol, $2,564,753
Carmelo Anthony, $2,564,753
Dwight Howard, $2,564,753
Udonis Haslem, $2,564,753
Jared Dudley, $2,564,753
JJ Barea, $2,564,753
Jeff Green, $2,564,753
Hassan Whiteside, $2,320,004
Keldon Johnson, $2,048,040
Payton Pritchard, $2,035,800
Robert Williams, $2,029,920
Shake Milton, $1,701,593
Monte Morris, $1,663,861
Mitchell Robinson, $1,663,861
Kendrick Nunn, $1,663,861
Duncan Robinson, $1,663,861
Jalen Brunson, $1,663,861
Devonte’ Graham, $1,663,861
Luguentz Dort, $1,517,981
Talen Horton-Tucker, $1,517,981
A handful of them have extensions kicking in starting next season — Mitchell and Adebayo, most prominently — but still, it’s a pretty wild list when you consider what they have to do to be great at their jobs so they don’t get told they suck by someone like Skip.