After five years together, Bayless left the ESPN show in 2016.

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless clash in fiery First Take reunion, a decade after last debate

After five years together, Bayless left the ESPN show in 2016.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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May 8, 2026 2:11 p.m. ET

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless on 'First Take'. Credit:

ESPN/YouTube (2)

- Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless reunited on Friday's *First Take*.

- The duo were on-air partners for years, before Bayless left the ESPN series in 2016.

- LeBron James, the New York Knicks, and the Dallas Cowboys were among the big debates.

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless are back embracing debate together, and it's like they never stopped arguing.

For years, the duo revolutionized sports talk shows with *First Take*, and a decade after Bayless left the ESPN morning staple, he returned on Friday for the first time. And the reunion didn't disappoint, providing plenty of fiery debate and classic Skip and Stephen A. arguments.

Dressed "for a funeral," Bayless opened his welcome back show with a sincere message about how "proud" he is of his friend Smith, who has continued as the face of *First Take *since Bayless' departure. However, Bayless quickly pivoted away from the pleasantries and had a decade-worth of quarrels to get off his chest.

"For 10 years I have watched this man on television, and I don't know how many times I've said, 'You said what,'" Bayless declared. "And I have pounded my desk and said, 'That is asinine, asi-ten, asi-eleven, asi-one thousand!'"

*First Take* launched in 2007 and was built around Bayless, a former Dallas newspaper journalist, debating sports topics with a rotating cast of experts and athletes. The colorful hot take artist eventually met his match in Smith, who Bayless pushed to make his permanent partner, a move that became official in 2012. Five days a week, for five years, the friendly rivals battled on-air, generating plenty of social media conversation and influencing the rest of sports media's approach to content, for good and bad.

Bayless left in 2016 to headline *Undisputed* on Fox Sports 1, which wrapped its run in 2024. Meanwhile, Smith stayed at *First Take *and quickly emerged as the new face of ESPN. Since Bayless' replacement Max Kellerman left in 2021, *First Take* has fully turned into the Smith show. And his profile has grown to the point that there's been real conversation about whether he would run for president in 2028.

But, even a decade later, Bayless and Smith couldn't help fall into some of their old debates.

"I saw him say the other day you've already elevated LeBron James all the way up to No. 2 on your all-time list," Bayless said of the Los Angeles Lakers superstar. "I have him at nine! Nine!"

Bayless has long been a critic of the four-time NBA champion, but even Smith couldn't believe that Bayless put him in the position where he felt the need to defend James, whom Smith has publicly beefed with over the years.

“That is one of the most asinine things that has ever come out of your mouth in your illustrious career in television," Smith retorted. "It's almost so blasphemous I don't know if you should be banned from television. I can't believe what the hell you just said."

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The heated back-and-forth continued with Bayless and Smith debating the merits of their favorite teams, the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Knicks, with Smith continuing his ongoing mocking of the Cowboys.

In the end, they both, unsurprisingly, declared victory. "I've never lost a debate to Skip Bayless, it just doesn't happen," Smith said.

Bayless countered by bringing back a nickname in claiming his win: "He's Stephen A. Myth as a debater now because I won every one."

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