LeBron James had 22 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and this game-winning three-pointer in the Lakers’ play-in victory over the Warriors on Thursday:
James played on an ankle that had caused him to miss 26 of the Lakers’ last 30 games. He said he got poked in the eye hard enough to mess up his vision before launching his shot in the 103-100 win, which enabled the Lakers to grab the Western Conference’s No. 7 seed in the NBA playoffs.
But the superstar’s worst critic, Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless, still had to serve up a contrarian hot take.
“Lucky desperate three by LeBron with the pressure off at the end of the shot clock,” Bayless wrote on Twitter. “He’s at his best when there’s no drive-or-launch decision. He can just heave and hope. If he misses, no expectation, no fault. It’s an ‘impossible’ shot. Besides, he ‘was seeing three rims.’”
Bayless’ rip job went viral and fans reacted thusly:
Bayless, a commentator on Fox Sports 1′s “Undisputed,” has made a career of criticizing the superstar. He has ripped James for his free-throw routine, accused him of drinking water for dramatic purposes, and repeatedly claimed that he “isn’t a closer.”
Even when James was a closer on Thursday, that still didn’t shut Bayless up.