There are, essentially, two things that propelled Skip Bayless to his current position. One is the fact that no human on earth was more willing to tie their professional fortunes to Tim Tebow’s NFL career, which you can argue was the single most important thing for propelling ESPN into its Embrace Debate era of programming.
And then there is LeBron James, who Bayless has long made a career out of criticizing for one reason or another. One of his frequent critiques involves James’ “clutch gene,” which has long been a vibes-based argument. Still, Bayless has jumped at any opportunity to make it, which includes this from the most recent episode of his podcast:
.@RealSkipBayless says Bronny may have a bigger clutch gene than LeBron pic.twitter.com/BoEbuphCSs
— The Skip Bayless Show (@SkipBaylessShow) July 4, 2024
“I am a Bronny fan,” Bayless said. “In fact, I think Bronny is built even tougher than his father is, because Bronny’s been through a lot in his life in the harshest spotlight any kid can be thrust into as LeBron James Jr. I love how Bronny’s handled this, I get a good feeling every time I watch him, not only play basketball, but just handle himself, carry himself. Kid’s got a backbone, kid’s got guts, kid’s got principle and character — his parents did a good job raising him. I think he’ll be more calm, cool, and collected in the eye of next year’s storm than even his father will be.”
There’s some more talk about how well he’ll play and how weird the vibe could be with the Los Angeles Lakers — both between his own role on the team and JJ Redick taking over as a first-time head coach — before we got this absolute doozy of a take.
“I think he’ll become a clutch three-point shooter,” Bayless said. “I’ve always gotten the feeling that Bronny had a bigger clutch gene than his father does. McDonald’s [All American] Game, he was in the spotlight, they went to him late two or three times, he just nailed threes. He did not shoot the three well at USC, but I’m giving him a complete and utter break, cause I’m knocking on wood for him — he had a serious heart condition that delayed him to start his first year of college basketball at USC, and it just never quite got going, and I get it, and that team never quite got going around Isaiah Collier.”
I don’t know if this is a better or worse example of Bayless using anything and everything to prod LeBron than the time he thought about his special flavor of Ruffles during a Celtics and Bucks game, but it sure is something.
