LeBron James may or may not be tired right now. Skip Bayless’ act, however, is undeniably exhausting at this point.
The FOX Sports contributor has been one of James’ biggest critics for as long as we can remember. No matter what, Bayless finds a way to needle James for everything and anything.
And for some reason, Bayless’ opinions still generally move the needle, as outlandish as they usually seem.
So when the talk about James being tired started moving to the forefront of the discussion during and after the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Game 5 Eastern Conference finals loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night, you just knew Bayless was going to be all over it.
“Nobody ever said a word in all the time I was around Michael Jordan — I covered him, I knew him — nobody ever brought up ‘He’s tired tonight.’ It was just never a factor,” Bayless said Thursday on FS1’s “Undisputed.”
“I was around Magic (Johnson) in a lot of playoff series, nobody ever said ‘Magic was tired tonight,’ or ‘Larry Bird was tired tonight.’ You just didn’t hear it because it just wasn’t an issue.”
Is James tired? Probably, yeah. He hasn’t gotten a ton of support from his supporting cast, although blaming his performance solely on fatigue also seems like a disservice to the Celtics, who are playing tremendous basketball at home despite not having their two best players.
Giving the Celtics credit, however — notice how quickly Bayless glossed over Jayson Tatum’s standout performance? — would take away from the narrative Bayless has spent years constructing.
In the same vein, it should surprise no one Bayless still is picking the Cavs to win the series, despite the Celtics (who are 10-0 at home) having home-court advantage in a potential Game 7. Because if Bayless’ Cavs prediction doesn’t come to fruition, he can blame LeBron. Then if the Cavs protect home court in Game 6 and beat Boston in Game 7, Bayless gets to downplay James’ achievement by saying he should have beaten a Celtics team that’s playing without its two best players.
What a life.
