It has been nine years since media personalities Sage Steele and Skip Bayless were last in the same room together.
The pair were co-workers at ESPN a decade ago, with Steele serving as an anchor for the NBA Countdown Show and SportsCenter.
Bayless, at the time, was a commentator on First Take alongside Stephen A. Smith until he departed for Fox Sports in 2016.
There he co-hosted Skip and Shannon: Undisputed alongside NFL Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe, and re-launched the show after Sharpe’s exit in 2023 until leaving for good in August 2024.
But in a sit-down together on the latest episode of The Sage Steele Show, the two discussed their working relationship, and a particularly poignant moment when the two took a long walk together during the 2014 NBA Finals.
Steele reveals Bayless had her back
There, it was revealed that Bayless gave Steele a heads-up that the outspoken Bill Simmons was actively trying to oust the anchor from her role on the show.
“I don’t know if you remember 2014 [NBA] Finals,” Steele said.
“We were in Miami and there was some drama going on behind the scenes on ‘NBA Countdown’ — and we went on a walk … around the lake.
“And I didn’t know what was willfully happening around me with Bill Simmons, who did not want me on that show. And you gave me the heads up and just were kind with no ill words about him.
“It was literally like, ‘I know you, I see you and I love you as a friend. And you need to watch your back and you need to be careful, and know that they’re coming.’”
Bayless spoke of how that “great walk” with Steele on that night turned emotional very quickly.
“I had heard things and we looped your hotel a million times in the heat of the afternoon,” the 73-year-old recalled.
“And that’s all we talked about for at least an hour, and I just poured my heart out to you — because I believe in you and definitely believed in your ability then, and you just needed to keep your eyes open and be tough and you were.”
Simmons – known for founding The Ringer – was, at the time, an analyst on NBA Countdown, but it was clear to Steele that he didn’t want the show to have a host.
As such, she was just caught in the middle of the power struggle between him and ESPN, where after he brought in Jalen Rose to be his wingman on the show, he felt he had more authority in the decision-making than what was the reality.
“That’s when the toughness really began, I think,” Steele said. “That whole season, when I thought, wait a minute, I’m just here to be a host.
“Why doesn’t he like me? What did I do wrong? And it was not even about me. He didn’t want a host; he wanted a talk show format without a host. And they threw me in, so I was the devil.”
“But you didn’t have to do that, and I never forgot that either, along with many other things.”
Steele remained with ESPN until August 2023, after settling a lawsuit that she had filed following her removal from air back in 2021 after publicly criticising the network’s Covid vaccine policy.
Simmons wound up being fired by ESPN in 2015 after 14 years as a writer and NBA analyst. This came after he was suspended for three weeks following some derogatory remarks made toward NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about his mishandling of the Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal.