Skip Bayless Urges LeBron James to Beat Jimmy Butler-Less Heat, Highlights Lakers Being 6.5 Point Favorites: “Snap Out of It. Get It in Gear”

Skip Bayless is well known for calling out players openly in public, with LeBron James being his favourite. Recently, during the Los Angeles Lakers-Miami Heat fixture, the UNDISPUTED analyst found another opportunity for the same and took to X (formerly “Twitter”) to subtly call out LBJ.

Going up against the Jimmy Butler-less Miami Heat, Bayless pointed out that the Los Angeles Lakers were the favourites (-6.5) to win the game. As the Purple & Gold were trailing by eight points at the half, the 72-year-old urged ‘the King’ to take over the contest and lead his team to the win.

“Come on, Bron, these are the Heat without Jimmy Butler. You were 6 1/2 point favorites tonight. Snap out of it. Get it in gear. Take this nationally televised home game over. No way you should lose to these guys.”

Come on, Bron, these are the Heat without Jimmy Butler. You were 6 1/2 point favorites tonight. Snap out
of it. Get it in gear. Take this nationally televised home game over. No way you should lose to these guys.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) January 4, 2024

Seems like someone showed Bayless’ tweet to LBJ before the start of the second half. Using Skip’s words as motivation, LeBron James and co. managed to cut down the lead, trailing by only five points. But, the Miami side didn’t sit back and came back stronger in the game.

LeBron has been sensational in his 21^st professional campaign, putting up All-Star and All-NBA numbers. However, the 39-year-old has had an off night. Barely crossing the double-digits in points scored, James’ subpar outing was the huge reason behind the California side losing the contest. Darvin Ham’s boys fell short to the Heat and lost the game with a scoreline of 110-96, going against the odds.

Skip Bayless has been constantly dishing out backhanded compliments to LeBron James

Throughout his career, Skip Bayless has enjoyed berating LeBron James. Whenever possible, Bayless uses the platform available to him to bash the King. This season, we’ve witnessed a lot of backhanded compliments dished out by Skip to James.

After the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Charlotte Hornets late in December, Skip sarcastically congratulated the four-time MVP for defeating the ailing Eastern Conference team.

LeBron and the Lakers looked pretty good tonight … at home … against
7-22 Charlotte.

— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) December 29, 2023

The basketball pundit didn’t lose out on the opportunity of ripping apart Bron during the Lakers-Wolves fixture. As the game went down to the wire, the birthday boy could not release the ball in time. As a result, the Lakers suffered a tough loss. Of course, Bayless called out the four-time champion for doing so.

Despite all the backhanded compliments and the nasty comments, Skip Bayless did show some faith in LeBron recently. During an episode of UNDISPUTED, the host revealed that he wasn’t going to “write off” the Los Angeles Lakers.

Bayless might be one of the biggest LeBron James detractors, but even he cannot deny that the Los Angeles Lakers are one of the genuine title contenders.