Skip Bayless Mocks LeBron James’ Seriousness and Clutch Abilities by Calling Him ‘King of Practice Games’

LeBron James has become Team USA’s savior in the last leg of the pre-Olympic exhibition games. The stacked Team USA could have lost against South Sudan and Germany without the four-time NBA Champion’s late-game heroics. But somehow Skip Bayless still found a way to ridicule the 39-year-old athlete’s clutch scoring.

Bayless has always criticized LeBron for failing to perform according to expectations during crunch time. But his clutch plays in the last two games prompted the FS1 host to only double down on his criticism. Bayless pointed out that the recently concluded exhibition games were just practice games and the official Olympic fixtures are still a few days away.

Bayless declared that LBJ only shows up during such practice games, disappearing when the real deal starts. The veteran NBA analyst discounted LeBron’s performance once again by claiming that nobody else was taking these games as seriously as the Lakers superstar.

On UNDISPUTED, Skip Bayless mocked LBJ’s ‘King James’ moniker as well, dubbing him the ‘King of Practice Games’. He said, “These are practice games, these don’t count. These are exhibitions, these are what the internationals call ‘friendlies’. It’s just practise, and I tweeted at the end of the game yesterday, LeBron James is the King of Practice Games.”

Skip then brought up LeBron James’ 2020 Orlando ‘Bubble’ Championship ring and his inaugural 2023 In-Season tournament win. The former ESPN reporter claimed that LeBron’s competition didn’t take these tournaments seriously and that’s exactly why the four-time NBA Champion flourished.

Otherwise, LeBron wouldn’t have been able to play so well. In other words, the 72-year-old wouldn’t be impressed until James displays similar abilities during the actual Olympic games. But who knows, even then Bayless may find some fault with his game.

Skip Bayless blasted King James on X

LeBron James scored the final 11 points in the 92-88 win against Germany. If not for him, the Germans would have overpowered USA after sustaining a terrific rhythm in the second half. But that didn’t stop Skip Bayless from criticizing Team USA’s best player so far.

On X, he wrote, “LeBron, King of the Practice Games.” In his other tweet, he pointed out that James’ “bully ball” style came into effect only during an exhibition game. Later, Skip typically brought Michael Jordan into the conversation, claiming that MJ would have ensured that USA covered the predicted point spread of -15.5.

But his criticism overlooks a crucial part of the narrative. What if LBJ didn’t show up and Team USA lost against South Sudan and Germany? Then LeBron would have been blamed for those losses. Apart from that, the exhibition games are also meant to identify who can be the hot-hand when the going gets tough.

James proved that he is still one of the most reliable clutch players in the world in such situations. At the end of the day, he had to fight tooth-and-nail to ensure a 5-0 record in the exhibition games to save Team USA from embarrassment.