Skip Bayless Slanders LeBron’s ‘Lucky Desperate’ Game Winning Shot: On a Clutch Scale of 1-10, ‘I’m Going To Give It a 1’
Believing LeBron James isn’t clutch is a tough hill to die on, but Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless is repeatedly willing to go there. Even after James drained an incredible game winning three-point shot in a postseason game against Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors, Bayless gave the performance a measly one out of 10.
“Scale of one to ten, how clutch was it? I’m going to give it a one,” Bayless told his Undisputed co-host Shannon Sharpe. “There was a minute left on the clock!” he continued. “Jordan would have waited until the bitter end to take and make the big shot.”
LeBron was running around on a bad ankle that caused him to miss 26 of the Lakers final 30 games. He was seeing triple after getting poked in the eye and still managed to drain an incredibly difficult three-point shot during a play-in game, carrying the Lakers into the playoffs.
But Bayless didn’t even wait for his Thursday morning show to slander LeBron’s game winner, tweeting that it was a “lucky desperate three” with “no expectation, no fault” on the line.
Lucky desperate three by LeBron with the pressure off at the end of the shot clock. He's at his best when there's no drive-or-launch decision. He can just heave and hope. If he misses, no expectation, no fault. It's an "impossible" shot. Besides, he "was seeing three rims."
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) May 20, 2021
“For the first time ever after a game, LeBron James actually thanked the man upstairs,” Bayless said, trying to explain that the shot was lucky, not clutch. “He threw up a prayer that went in and said ‘I’ve seen the light! I am yours Lord! What do you want, I am your servant now!’”
According to Bayless, there’s no pressure on a low percentage heave, as compared to an open look near the rim. “Nobody’s going to hold him accountable for a miss here, in fact, most people would have would have expected him to miss a shot that he actually fell away to shoot…there are zero consequences to this shot, there’s zero ramification, zero repercussion if he misses.”
Bayless pointed to LeBron’s 36.5 three-point shooting percentage this season as proof that his fall away game winner against the Warriors was lucky. But Sharpe argued, “maybe it’s the Tebow effect.”
Bayless always praises Tebow for his ability to be “clutch,” finding ways to win games late even if he had a terrible first three quarters. LeBron being a below average three point shooter doesn’t mean it’s “luck” not “clutch,” when he drains one late.
Watch above via Fox Sports
