Gilbert Arenas is zoning in for his debate with Skip Bayless. The retired player and the famed analyst have been trading verbal shots over the last week, with the main core of their feud being Skip’s years-long criticism of LeBron James and how he’s essentially made a career out of bashing ‘LeGOAT’.
Advertisement
Skip bravely called out Arenas on a recent edition of his podcast, claiming that they could put their differences aside and “talk facts.” Arenas not only accepted, but is ready for war.
“It’s not going to be pretty,” Arenas recently stated at Skip on his Gil’s Arena podcast. “When you want to talk facts with someone like me you better use all the facts and not just the ones you pinpoint.” The three-time All-Star promised that he would give a more dignified response to Skip’s challenge at another time, but let his upcoming opponent with one final horrifying thought: “You’re in my world now.”
One point that Bayless has constantly made about LeBron’s GOAT candidacy is his decision to form the “Super Team” in Miami, something he believed that Michael Jordan never did. However, Arenas has unearthed some information that is going to make Skip feel like quite a fool. That His Airness once offered to take a pay-cut so that Larry Bird could join him as a Chicago Bull. Gil has the receipts, and spilled the tea on a recent Playback stream.
The Boston Celtics were famously looking to trade Bird in the 1990 season. When word got around to MJ, the future Hall of Famer famously stated in an interview, “If they want to trade him, we’ll take him.” Not only that, Jordan even offered to take a pay cut to play alongside the Celtics legend. “I make enough money on outside stuff,” MJ stated at the time. He was raking in $2.5 million at that time just in player salary alone.
Gilbert Arenas is about to cook Skip Bayless.
He found an 80s report where the Celtics were rumored to be shopping Larry Bird, and MJ said he’d take a pay cut for the Bulls to trade for him after losing to Bird repeatedly. pic.twitter.com/dUrBSE2n8t
— nbashane (@nbashane_) March 19, 2025
The trade never happened, but the narrative that players of that era, particularly Jordan, only wanted to play against the top competition is no longer valid. James may have made the move to Miami, but Jordan clearly wanted Bird with him when the option presented itself.
Not only that, but at this time Jordan and the Bulls couldn’t even get by Bird and Boston in the postseason. Obviously, that changed in time. But will Skip call attention to MJ nearly breaking this code? We’ll see how he responds when Gil shows up locked and loaded with this info.
Skip continues to ride the wave that he’s always been fair about his criticism of LeBron
Skip Bayless’s response to Gilbert Arenas’ saw him spew the same lies he’s been telling his audiences for years. That the criticism he’s given to LeBron James hasn’t been harsh, but in his mind, fair.
“I’ve never been anything but fair and honest in my assessment of LeBron James,” he said on a recent edition of his podcast. To his credit, Skip did call LeBron one of the game’s greatest passers and referred to him as a “bullet train of a freight train” when driving to the basket.
But Skip recycled his same tired argument of LBJ’s lack of the “clutch gene.” He pointed to his poor three-point shooting in late-game situations on top of his poor free-throw percentage when the game was tight. He also gave more credit to Ray Allen and Kyrie Irving for helping Bron go 4-6 in the NBA Finals rather than 2-8.
Skip can claim as much as he wants that he’s been fair to LeBron. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
