Skip Bayless furthered his lead as the foremost LeBron James critic in all of sports media Monday night by targeting the NBA superstar’s son, Bronny James. Yet somehow, Bayless didn’t understand the backlash to his critique.
Bronny went viral on Monday, as the 17-year-old threw down a thunderous dunk over his opponent during a high school basketball game. While most basketball fans were in awe of his athleticism, Bayless sought to knock Bronny back down reality.
Hey, Bronny … impressive. But your dad would've dunked it left-handed. You sure got away with it, though.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) August 16, 2022
“Hey Bronny … impressive,” Bayless tweeted. “But your dad would’ve dunked it left-handed. You sure got away with it, though.”
Naturally, Bayless was blasted for the hot take. But Tuesday morning, the Fox Sports host appeared unable to understand why he received so much backlash for the take.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocY071l0u1s
“It shocked me last night when my tweet exploded,” Bayless said. “Because I wasn’t criticizing Bronny, I was merely commenting on a young man who is going to be a focal point for this show and everybody else from this point forward.”
In reality, Bayless received the exact reaction he sought for his tweet. The backlash opened the door for him and his Undisputed co-host Shannon Sharpe to dedicate 11-minutes of their A-block to LeBron James’ son, simultaneously placing Bayless at the center of the topic.
Also, Bayless declared 17-year-old Bronny James a focal point of the show. Despite the fanfare, Bronny is still a bit of an unknown as a basketball prospect, but he fits into Bayless’ desperate need to talk about LeBron. And while the 37-year-old LeBron enters the twilight portion of his NBA career, Bronny offers Bayless the opportunity to keep his title as LeBron’s biggest critic.
Of course, Bayless doesn’t actually pay attention to any of the reactions to the tweet that provoked him to build an 11-minute segment on national TV.
“I don’t read my comments on Twitter,” Bayless claimed before noting his wife Ernestine monitored the reaction. “She says, ‘Well you did it again.’ I don’t look at my mentions and she said ‘I’m getting a bunch of Google alerts, you’re getting ripped for ripping this poor kid. You gotta lay off the kid.’”
But according to Bayless, he didn’t rip Bronny James, who is months away from turning 18. It was mere commentary, much like the contrarian commentary he hopes to deliver about Bronny James on Fox Sports for years to come.
