*FAN SUBMISSION by Chad Jones of Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Twitter @westsidebuckeye.*
Courtesy: Deadspin
At the risk of whatever credibility I have at the outset of this essay, I have to say that I don’t hate Skip Bayless. I don’t know Skip Bayless. I know the character he plays on television. I hate that guy. If that’s actually who he is then disregard my first sentence. I shouldn’t hate someone who is sick though. Not very Christian of me. Oh, you haven’t heard? Yeah man, Skip Bayless is sick. He got infected about 8 years ago. The symptoms are rough to deal with. They include fame, money, ratings, and loss of credibility. It’s rough. LeBron Derangement Syndrome is real. He’s patient zero.
LeBron Derangement Syndrome: Looking at anything LeBron James does on a basketball court, even the positives, and finding the negative in them. Purposefully omitting key statistics to make a point against LeBron James. See: Skip Bayless.
Recently Bayless wrote an article for ESPN.com. It was actually a hit job on LeBron James, but I saw it for what is really was: a call for help. It’s hard to recognize it through the lack of reality found throughout the piece. It’s in there though. You can hear it faintly in the background. Full blown LDS can only be cured with truth. Not “his truth” mind you, but actual facts. Here are a few gems from his article. The antibodies are in italics.
Fact: LeBron still has made only three buzzer-beaters in his career, a 2-point jumper at Golden State in 2009, the 3-pointer off an inbounds pass against Orlando in the 2009 playoffs and the layup that beat Indiana in last year’s playoffs. Hence my longtime stance that he wasn’t born with the “clutch gene.” In my opinion, he still shies away from having to shoot two stand-alone free throws to tie scores, as he did when he opted not to go up strong against Roy Hibbert in the final seconds of this year’s Game 5 at Indiana.
Courtesy: ESPN
For the record, if you’re breaking down a player at a molecular level you are, by definition, overanalyzing. Since 2003, LeBron James is 7-16 on game tying or go ahead buckets in the playoffs in the final 24 seconds of the 4th quarter or overtime. That’s better than Kobe, 5-17, as well as Durant and Dirk who are both 5-12. That’s better than anybody who has played in the NBA since LeBron got there. Make of that what you will.
Fact: LeBron bizarrely froze up in a home Game 5 against Boston in 2010.LeBron averaged 27 points a game in the series and had a 27 19 and 10 triple double in the closing game in which he supposedly “quit” on his team. The only bizarre thing here is Bayless’s take away that he didn’t show up in game 5.
Fact: LeBron froze up so stunningly in the 2011 Finals against Dallas that even Stephen A. Smith agreed with me that LeBron had qualified as the “mentally weakest superstar ever.”
Stephen A. Smith has admirably admitted that he killed LeBron for years and has since taken a step back once he got, as he calls it, “his ship”. The idea that Bayless tries to apply this quote from his co-star on the made for TV murder of journalism that is First Take to LeBron James today is a prime example of his full blown LDS. See Dr. Mark Cuban for a second opinion.
Fact: LeBron had three Finals games last year that resembled the last three quarters of Tuesday night’s game, when he went inexplicably passive on offense. Then, after a spectacular burst early in the fourth quarter of Game 6, LeBron came apart, committing three uncharacteristic turnovers in the final six minutes and missing the 3 to tie the game with seven seconds left.
The Headband Game, in which LeBron brought his team back from down 12 late in the 3rd, registered a triple double, hit a huge three late to keep them alive, and set twitter ablaze with the realization that we’d never seen him on a court without a headband is the game skip is referring to here. Again, he had a triple double in a Finals elimination game. The next game, another finals elimination game, he had another triple double. Totally came apart there.
But, Ray Allen saved LeBron’s legacy by quick-triggering that corner 3 that sent the game to overtime and the Heat to a second straight title. If that shot had missed, LeBron would be 1-3 in the Finals.
If, if, if, if, if, if, if. The idea that the greatest three point shooter in the history of the NBA hit a big three pointer seems outlandish to Bayless. Since Ray Allen was playing for the Heat at the time it counts for them. It was a 7 game series and the Spurs lost. LeBron won. Get over it.
People like Bob Ley, Robin Roberts, Keith Olberman, Dan Patrick, Linda Cohn and countless others both in front of and behind the camera built ESPN. Through the good and the bad it is an American institution. What Skip Bayless does on a daily basis spits in the face of that. Ratings though, can’t argue with ratings. I guess people should get into more accidents on the freeways. That gets eyeballs too.
