Skip Bayless tells LeBron James to lead his Los Angeles Lakers and not complain about having to travel and play the Milwaukee Bucks.
Skip Bayless takes shots at Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James again
With the NBA preseason in full swing, all teams are taking turns to figure out their schemes and how new faces mesh with the existing players. Most of the time, teams are squared off against fellow conference opponents. But in the case of the Los Angeles Lakers, they have to play the Milwaukee Bucks. As the purple and gold have to play across the conference, LeBron James was not happy.
He publicly vented his frustrations about having to fly all the way to Milwaukee, only to play a preseason game. This came to the attention of perennial LeBron James critic, Skip Bayless. The former Undisputed host tweeted this from his X account:
LeBron: They’re paying you $50 million a yr. If they say they need you to fly to Milwaukee for a preseason game, you just have to suck it up & tough it out. Yeah, somebody’s doing a big-business favor for somebody else – you know how it works. But just be a leader & get thru it.
Skip Bayless wrote on X
Bayless naturally wanted to take full advantage of an early opportunity to call out the superstar, as he always has maintained his disdain for James since he called himself the GOAT.
Skip Bayless has never missed an opportunity to take a shot at James. In this situation, he was appalled by the four-time champion’s criticism. He believes the Lakers pay James more than enough to follow through and not bother about such problems.
LeBron: They’re paying you $50 million a yr. If they say they need you to fly to Milwaukee for a preseason game, you just have to suck it up & tough it out. Yeah, somebody’s doing a big-business favor for somebody else – you know how it works. But just be a leader & get thru it.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) October 9, 2024
The 72-year-old did make a point that the decision for the Lakers to play in Milwaukee was a business decision. Last season, the Milwaukee Bucks travelled to Los Angeles to play their preseason game. Therefore, it was a return of favor between the two franchises.
LeBron James does not want to waste time travelling in preseason
When the NBA schedules away games for any team, it generally allocates games which are in the same vicinity. Therefore, teams do not have to spend a lot of time travelling. But in this instance, it was for one preseason game, which means LeBron James and his teammates will travel roughly three and a half hours one way.
Add the round-trip hours and travel to and from airports and the jet lag—and they will lose one full day of practice; that is, other than what they would have usually lost. The player possessing the most IQ in the sport knows all too well that his team needs all the time to work on schemes under new head coach JJ Redick.
Schemes work when players go through repetitions on the practice court. The all-time leading scorer in NBA history wants himself and his Los Angeles Lakers teammates to get acclimatized before the regular season begins, as their season depends on how quickly they can implement the new schemes in games.
