LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers couldn’t live up to the expectations of fans last season. They failed to qualify for both the play-in tournament and postseason as they were outplayed by most teams in the NBA.
Due to that, there were many doubting that LeBron would sign a new contract with the Purple and Gold. Fans thought if the Lakers failed to add good players around James, he would leave the team.
Well, the Lakers didn’t really add quality players to the roster, but LBJ still decided to sign a contract extension with the franchise. It was a happy moment for the fans, since they will get to see James dominating his opponents while wearing the Lakers’ jersey for a few more years.
But one might wonder, considering that James will turn 38 years old by the end of the year, the Lakers might have made a mistake by handing him a max contract.
Skip Bayless Explains Why LeBron James Was Given A Max Contract
Skip Bayless is someone who has made his career by constantly berating LeBron James. He has been criticized for his comments about James for god knows how many times. But he never stopped calling out LeBron. This time around, the veteran NBA analyst surprisingly praised James after he signed a new contract with the Lakers.
(Starts at 4:59):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUvZW1gEFg4
“The point is, he missed some games last year; he missed some games the year before. Jeanie Buss is concluding that Showtime has to be more side-Showtime. Because all in the end that she has to care about is her bottom line. And now it’s more about marketing and rating than winning championships. He is still the face, not only of the franchise, he’s the face of the league to me.”
Bayless still made it sound like the only reason why James was given a new contract by the league was due to the fact that he is the face of the league, even at 37 years old.
While Bayless’ comments weren’t a full-fledged praise directed towards James, this was better than what he usually has to say about the King. Hopefully, LeBron will prove to Skip that he has more value to the team rather than being just a marketing face for them.
