On slow news days, American sports shows pivot to debating LeBron James and Michael Jordan‘s claims to the basketball GOAT throne, and nobody does it more than Skip Bayless. The Fox Sports analyst is a noted critic of James and is never short on ideas to downplay the Los Angeles Lakers superstar’s greatness. On Saturday’s episode of The Skip Bayless Show, he was seemingly short on topics to talk about and so filled the airtime, quite unsurprisingly, with the subject that has been beaten to death.
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Bayless banged the same old drum about James not being clutch and even called the Lakers superstar out for his infamous ‘Chosen One’ tattoo that he got early on in his career. The veteran NBA analyst said,
“I remind you, at age 18 coming out of high school…LeBron James had ‘Chosen One’ tattooed across his shoulders and back… LeBron chose to wear Jordan’s number (23)… and also chose to adopt or steal or carry on Michael’s pre-game press row powder toss…LeBron was born without a clutch gene. LeBron was born without a closer gene. LeBron was flawed from the start. As great as he’s been, he was clearly, utterly flawed from the start.”
The former Chicago Tribune columnist once again brought up his days covering Jordan and the Bulls to discount LeBron’s dominance on the court. Bayless seemed to hold King James’ early imitation of MJ, who was his idol growing up, as a kind of death sentence to his career’s flaws.
Bayless is well wide off the mark with his ‘clutch gene’ comments as well. In the playoffs, James has been the most high-volume clutch shooter in the NBA. Per Basketball Reference, during his career, the Lakers superstar has attempted 18 go-ahead shots in the last 30 seconds of the game and has banked 11. The next best, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker have five each. Jordan attempted only six such shots and banked three. James is also fourth on the list of most buzzer-beaters scored with seven, trailing only Michael Jordan (9), Kobe Bryant (8), and Joe Johnson.
As is often the case, Bayless’ accusations were dispelled with a quick look at the stats. The analyst has tried to be a thorn in James’ feet for over a decade without the four-time MVP ever responding to his verbal jibes. The 72-year-old won’t stop trying to get under the future Hall of Famer’s skin and the Lakers superstar will continue to avoid him.
Michael Jordan is disinterested in GOAT debates
While the GOAT debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James has gotten stale, it continues to rage on in NBA circles. However, in a promotional video for NBA 2K12, Jordan once said,
“People always debate it, who’s the greatest player of all time. Dumb question! It should be who’s the greatest team of all time.”
Jordan proceeded to cheekily name the six title-winning Chicago Bulls teams of the 1990s as the greatest ever, with the 1995-96 roster taking the cake. While the six-time Finals MVP avoided crowning himself the GOAT, James had no problem in claiming the throne. In an interview with Kenny Smith, he claimed that beating the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who beat the Bulls’ regular season wins record, made him the best player to ever play the sport.
While Jordan and James have had their say on the GOAT debate, the talking heads on TV are far from done. And on a day with not much to discuss, expect them to circle back to this same old conversation.
