Veteran sports analyst Skip Bayless never passes up an opportunity to take shots at LeBron James, and Klutch Sports Group CEO Rich Paul presented him with one recently. Paul, James’ agent and good friend, claimed that Michael Jordan would have gone 0-6 in the NBA Finals if he didn’t have Scottie Pippen by his side.
Bayless, one of Jordan’s fiercest defenders in the media, was always going to respond to that jab. He took to X to declare that James would be 0-10 in the Finals if he didn’t play with Dwyane Wade, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis.
“Without DWade, Kyrie and AD, LeBron would be 0-10 in Finals. Without Ray Allen, he would now be 3-7.”
That was an absurd comment from Paul, and this is an absurd response from Bayless. These come across as something trolls put up on social media nowadays.
Ultimately, no one wins championships by themselves in the NBA. Every player, no matter how great, needs a quality supporting cast around them.
Jordan had Pippen, a do-it-all athletic forward, for each of his six title runs. He made seven All-Star, seven All-NBA, and 10 All-Defensive Teams during his career, and was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team.
In James’ case, he has moved around a lot more than Jordan, so he’s played with more stars. His first two championships came in 2012 and 2013 when he played alongside Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat.
James then headed back to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014 and won a championship with Irving and Kevin Love in 2016. He’d move to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018 and won a championship with Davis in 2020. Davis has made the 75th Anniversary team, as has Wade.
Would Jordan and James not have had the same level of success if they didn’t play with such great players? Of course, but you can say that about so many other all-time greats. To try to diminish Jordan and James’ greatness with such remarks is not a good look for Paul or Bayless.
As for Bayless bringing up Ray Allen, he was referring to the Hall of Famer’s iconic clutch three-pointer in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals between the Heat and the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs were up 3-2 in the series and led 95-92 in the closing stages when James missed a three-pointer.
That should have ended the series, but Bosh got the offensive rebound and passed to Allen, who drilled a three with 5.2 seconds remaining. The Heat eventually won the game in overtime and the series in seven.
Pointing out that James would be 3-7, instead of 4-6, in the NBA Finals today without Allen is something Bayless has done countless times over the years. What he chooses to ignore is that the only reason the Heat were even in that position was that their superstar forward had taken over the game prior to that sequence.
James had scored 16 points in the fourth quarter to drag the Heat back into that game. We wouldn’t even be talking about that Allen shot today had it not been for his outburst. We should appreciate what he did there, but you better believe Bayless is going to keep ignoring and hating. He even has James down at ninth in his list of the greatest players of all time, which lets you know there isn’t much objectivity here.
Dan Patrick Called Out Rich Paul For His Take
Bayless was far from the only one in the media world to take issue with Paul’s absurd take. The agent had also claimed Pippen was more impactful than Jordan, and Dan Patrick made it clear that it was a crazy comment on his Dan Patrick Show.
“That’s crazy to say that Scottie’s more impactful,” Patrick said. “He’s not. Can you make the case better all-around player for the Bulls back then? What he was asked to do was different than what Mike was asked to do. Scottie was guarding everybody. He could guard everyone one through five. He was a good passer. He could pick you up full court. He could score. He could block shots.
“I mean, there were a lot of great things that he did, but he wasn’t more impactful than Michael,” Patrick continued. “And yes, does Michael need Scottie? Yes. How many rings does Scottie have without Michael… Every great player has had talent to win a title. Do I take away [Magic Johnson’s titles] or do we demean them because he had Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] and [James] Worthy and Byron Scott? And I mean, go down the list of great players. [Larry] Bird, who had best front line in basketball. Like, what are we doing here?”
This is not rocket science. Basketball is a team game, and you can’t go all the way by yourself. We can pick apart everyone’s resumes if we go down the route that Paul and Bayless have.
