Skip Bayless: LeBron James ‘wasted’ the first 20 years of his NBA career

Remember those four titles, four MVPs and 19 All-Star appearances LeBron James earned during the first 20 years of his career? All a waste according to Skip Bayless.

There is little Bayless can say about LeBron that is shocking at this point. He built a TV career out of hating on LeBron. But on the latest episode of The Skip Bayless Show, the former ESPN and FS1 host gave a take that seemed like he was trying way too hard to be outrageous.

“On a nightly basis, I hear commentators rave about how hard LeBron has worked to come a better shooter,” Bayless said. “The other night on ESPN, Richard Jefferson, who of course played with LeBron, who loves LeBron, just gushed about how much time and how much effort LeBron has put into improving his jump shooting. Way to go, LeBron!”

While most reasonable people are impressed by LeBron’s dedication to basketball and the ability to keep improving certain areas of his game at the age of 40, Bayless just wonders why he didn’t make those improvements decades ago. And according to Bayless, this is no hot take.

“This is not a nitpick, this is a boulder pick. This is an extremely fair and valid biggest picture question about the NBA’s greatest scorer ever,” Bayless insisted. “Why didn’t he work to improve his shooting after his rookie year? After his second year? After his third year? He finally improved his pathetic shooting in year 21 and 22. Think about that.

“What was he doing his first 20 off-seasons? I mean, he wasted 20 years! He did, seriously! What was he doing all those off-seasons? Making a lot of money off the court, making a movie, making commercials, having fun, traveling the world. I don’t know. Why didn’t LeBron, much earlier, get in the lab, why didn’t he put in the time and the effort to make himself unguardable as a high volume three-point shooter, making 40% of his attempts.”

Maybe this take shouldn’t be surprising. By now, we all get Skip’s schtick and are largely immune to his incessant desire to criticize LeBron. But the idea that LeBron spent the first 20 off-seasons of his career goofing off and not working hard was just too ridiculous to ignore.

Michael Jordan won six championships and five MVPs. But he was never a prolific three-point shooter. He was never as good as LeBron is at age 40. What a waste of a career, right?