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Analyst Skip Bayless has often criticized LeBron James since the latter's arrival in the NBA in 2003. While Bayless has claimed that he does not hate "The King," he has continued to call him out on a regular basis.
The LA Lakers superstar made headlines earlier this week by playing in the Drew League. James put up 42 points, 16 rebounds, three assists and four steals. He shot 18-for-36 from the field, but was just 2-for-13 from beyond the arc.
After the game, Bayless took the opportunity to criticize James' performance in the famed pro-am league.
"Love it that LeBron played in the Drew League today. But: he shot only 2-13 from three??? He missed the late free throw that would've at least clinched overtime? Some things never change."
Bayless' comments were one of the topics discussed by Chris Brockman, TJ Jefferson and Adam Chudwin on a recent episode of "The Rich Eisen Show." Jefferson was particularly impressed with how James has completely ignored Bayless for his entire career.
"Let's give LeBron props for not even acknowledging this jerk for like your entire career," Jefferson said. "It's probably ... Skip doesn't stop, he keeps doing it."
Despite calling Bayless a jerk, Jefferson did give him props for being one of the highest-paid sports personalities on television.
"Skip Bayless makes $8 million a year doing that and I don't. So maybe I should apply it and use maybe what works for him because I'd like to make $8 million a year at some point."
Has LeBron James ever acknowledged Skip Bayless?
The common belief on social media is that LeBron James does not pay attention to anything Skip Bayless says.
However, Reddit user jack64467 did a deep dive into James' Twitter account and found out that he had acknowledged Bayless at least twice, in 2011 and 2012. Below are his tweets regarding the analyst:
It appears, however, that LeBron James has not made any references to Bayless for more than a decade. This is impressive considering the things that the sports personality has said about the LA Lakers superstar.
At this point in his career, James has learned to tune out the external noise. On the latest episode of "The Shop," James admitted that he did not want to take game-winning shots early in his career with the Cleveland Cavaliers because he feared the backlash that would follow had he missed. However, the four-time MVP does not care about that at all now.
"Maybe when I was younger because I cared about what everybody else thought. I don't give a f**k now," James said.
With the way he played last season, LeBron James could break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record next season. He's expected to spearhead the Lakers' charge to the playoffs.
