Stephen A. Smith was visibly appalled by Skip Bayless arguing that LeBron James should be ranked at No. 9 among the all-time NBA greats, thus forcing him to come to LeBron’s defense.
Bayless, for those unaware, made his return to First Take with Smith and Shae Cornette on Friday (May 8), quickly getting right to his point after previously making the same argument in a post shared to X.
“You’ve already elevated LeBron James to No. 2 on your all-time list,” Bayless said after a montage of past Smith and Bayless highlights was played to welcome him back to the show. “I have him at nine.”
Smith was clearly put off by this assertion, though the two didn’t chop it up in more detail until a bit deeper into the episode.
“For the audience to have to be subjected to this drivel that’s about to come out of your mouth,” Smith, clearly disgusted, said. “LeBron James. You got me defending LeBron James. … Eight players in NBA history that you’d pick ahead of LeBron James. You know what, it’s your day. It’s unbelievable.”
Bayless elaborated on his personal ranking and highlighted some of the players—Magic Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, and Larry Bird among them—that he believes deserve higher positions than James. These stars, Bayless argued, are “cold-blooded” players whom he’d “trust with games for my life.”
Bayless further argued that James, meanwhile, is “the most mentally fragile superstar I have ever closely observed.” James, he added, is “lucky to be in the top 10,” due in part to him being, in Bayless’s opinion, a “liability” when it comes to the late-game free throws.
In his impassioned rebuttal, Smith, who’s famously been critical of LeBron in the past, deemed Bayless’s remarks among “the most asinine things that have ever come out of your mouth.” He continued by jokingly entertaining the idea of having Bayless “banned” from TV.
“That is one of the most asinine things that have ever come out of your mouth in your illustrious career in television,” Smith said. “It’s almost so blasphemous, I don’t know if you should be banned from television. I mean, I can’t believe what the hell you just said.”
Thursday, the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder with a final score of 107-125. The two teams will square off again this weekend.
In a post-game interview on Thursday, seen here, LeBron said the Lakers “played well in spurts” and got “some really good minutes” in, but conceded that they ultimately fell short.
“I just didn’t get it done,” he said.
