Skip Bayless Claims There Are 8 NBA Players Ahead Of LeBron James All-Time
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Skip Bayless criticized LeBron James during his return to ESPN's "First Take."
Bayless returned to "First Take" this Friday morning for the first time since June 2016. While there was plenty of buzz surrounding his reunion with Stephen A. Smith, it didn't take long for that to get erased by the TV personality's old tricks.
While discussing the NBA playoffs, Bayless went on a rant about where LeBron ranks among the greats.
"He is the most mentally fragile superstar I have ever closely observed. The poor man, as gifted as he is, was born without the clutch gene. He's a liability at the late-game free thrown line," Bayless said. "He is - by superstar standards - a poor free throw shooter and poor 3-point shooter. You want to talk about launching LeBricks, he's launched a lot of them. He's had so many epic fails that his billions of blind witnesses scrub from his résumé and sweep under their carpets."
After unleashing this rant on ESPN, Bayless shared his rankings for the top-10 players in NBA history.
As of this moment, here are the eight players that Bayless has ranked ahead of LeBron:
- Michael Jordan
- Magic Johnson
- Shaquille O'Neal
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
- Tim Duncan
- Bill Russell
- Kobe Bryant
- Larry Bird
- LeBron James
- Wilt Chamberlain
NBA fans are in agreement on Skip's list.
As you'd imagine, most NBA fans hate this list from Bayless. They find it to be nothing more than a gimmick to generate clicks.
"This is where Skip's logic falls apart. He trashes LeBron for free throws and mental fragility while having Shaq ranked #3 one of the worst high-volume free throw shooters ever," one fan said.
"His list hasn't changed in 10 years," a second fan commented. "This is so obviously performative."
"Magic Johnson top 2 is a gimmick I've never gotten in my life," a third fan said.
"Honestly since it's coming from someone who made it his mission to dump on LeBron his whole career… having him in the top 10 is pretty good," another fan argued.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 9:09 AM.