Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka appeared to call LeBron James a “b****,” and Skip Bayless used it as an opportunity to pile on.
During the Lakers 107-97 win over Houston Saturday night, James and Udoka got into a verbal spat. Later, a viral video posted on social media featuring leaked audio appeared to indicate what the interaction was regarding, showing Udoka telling James to “stop crying like b****es, man.”
“We all grown men. That b**** word ain’t cool, don’t use it so loosely,” James could be heard responding to Udoka. “Don’t use that word so loosely. Nah, don’t use it so loosely, though. Don’t use it so loosely.”
Monday morning on FS1’s Undisputed, Skip Bayless was quick to turn James being called a “b****” into another reason why the Lakers superstar pales in comparison to Michael Jordan.
“Nobody’s calling him the b-word,” Bayless insisted about Jordan. “That’s the manhood word.”
Skip Bayless must be stopped. pic.twitter.com/UF9luFSsxa
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 4, 2023
Keyshawn Johnson and Richard Sherman were quick to push back, both assuring Bayless that Jordan was almost certainly called “b****” on the court during his playing days. Johnson specifically cited the Bad Boy Pistons, confidently believing someone on that squad would have been willing to call Jordan the b-word. But Bayless still wasn’t sure.
“I know, but he’s just not that,” Bayless said of Jordan and the b-word.
“Of course,” Johnson said. “And neither is LeBron!”
Again, Bayless wasn’t sure, making a face, rolling his eyes and muttering “I don’t know” to Johnson’s claim that James isn’t a b****.
“I don’t know, that’s the way a lot of people think,” Bayless admitted. “They look at LeBron as a nice guy. A really nice guy.”
Skip staked his flag as the foremost LeBron James-hater in sports media years ago. Still, Johnson was stunned to see the hot take artist go so far as to imply that he thinks James is the b-word.
“You don’t know?!” Johnson exclaimed with surprise before noting that Bayless just went off the rails. “You always start off good and then you go way left.”
Bayless incessantly arguing that Jordan is better than LeBron is fine. Bayless claiming LeBron just barely squeaks into his top-10 list of NBA players is borderline absurd, but we get that it’s his schtick, so it’s fine. Skip Bayless, a decades-old sports media provocateur implying one of the greatest athletes in sports history is a “b****” and viewed that way by his peers has to be crossing the line. Skip’s LeBron slander must be stopped. But it won’t be. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s hot take.
