“Do not sleep on Michael Jordan’s passing ability” Skip Bayless admits LeBron James’ passing game is above MJ’s
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Michael Jordan, Skip Bayless and LeBron James
Ever since Michael Jordan retired from the league, he was considered the standard for every future superstar and moreover regarded as the GOAT of the game of Basketball. Very few would disagree with that until LeBron James managed to reach a somewhat similar feat in his 19-season career. The GOAT debate between Jordan and James remained eternal and after every season LBJ adds some astonishing stats to his names, giving some fire to an already burning topic. Still Many consider His Airness as GOAT and LBJ as 2nd best in most of the departments. In those “many people” comes kin eye critic Skip Bayless.
But in a recent episode of “The Skip Bayless Show”, a 70-year-old analyst accepts one point that LeBron is a better assist maker than Michael Jordan. Though it was a twisted analysis, where Skip argued the difference not being very vast and MJ could have bettered that stats also; he for once gave LBJ an edge over MJ.
Michael Jordan “follower” Skip Bayless considers LeBron James is a better assist maker
Perhaps no one takes the GOAT debate between Michael Jordan and LeBron James more seriously than Skip Bayless. Ever so critical about LeBron’s every move, Skip never misses a chance to denounce the King against GOAT Michael Jordan. Today’s topic sparked as former NBA Champion and Celtics Star Ray Allen slams LBJ fans with some of James’ shortfalls in-game. Adding to Ray’s points Skip Bayless targeted 4-time NBA Champion LeBron but in a softer way this time.
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On the Skip Bayless Show, a fan- Paul, attempted to get Bayless to agree that James was a better passer than Jordan. Although the analyst accepted the fact, he said Jordan could have been better if he wanted to. Skip said, “As I always say, LeBron James is still the best passer in basketball as he enters year 20. He is a generational passer. He was born with a rare gift of being able to see it and anticipate it before it even happens. Execute it before it even becomes apparent to most human eyes.”
Skip pointed out the reasons for Jordan’s low assist stats and went on to say that Michael Jordan’s passing ability was underrated. He spoke about his remarkable 1989 season where he averaged a career-high 8.0 assists. He said, “But, do not sleep on Michael Jordan’s passing ability. It’s not quite LeBron, but I’m going to remind everyone. 1989, Michael Jeffrey Jordan, that was his fifth year, led the league in scoring 33 a game.”
Following it up with the stats of Jordan’s impressive season, Skip added, “He (MJ) also averaged eight rebounds but here’s the catch, he also averaged, that year, a career-high 8.0 assists. Think about that. Jordan, as he led the league in scoring also averaged eight assists. For his career, Michael averaged 5.3, which is still pretty good.”
There is no question about Michael Jordan’s game sense and techniques. He really could have had more assists, had he not carried the scoring load himself in many games for the Bulls. If we go by the stats sheet, it was only MJ-Pippen doing a host of the work for the team, and Jordan took scoring responsibility, not that he had bad scorers in the team.
While talking about LeBron James’ assist average, Bayless noted that they were significantly better and eventually conceded that James was the better passer. However, knowing Jordan’s competitive nature, Bayless said one would be remiss to count him out, “LeBron’s at 7.4. LeBron’s career-high was in the bubble when he led the league in assists at 10.2. So, if we take LeBron’s career-high 10.2, Michael was career-high 8.0. So, they’re about two assists difference in career-high year and career overall assist per game.”
Concluding the “assist” comparisons, Skip accepted the passing game belonged to LBJ more, but added his views about Michael Jordan too, He said, “So, I’ll give you. LeBron’s a little better passer but don’t sleep on Jordan as a passer. If he had decided to, he also would have led the league in assists. But he didn’t need to because he led the league ten times in scoring to LeBron’s one time. Ten times to ones in scoring titles.”
Both players play at different positions and yet are very much ball-dominant athletes. 6-time Champion was more of a scorer and had no flaw in passing though. Other than Points per game where Michael Jordan still tops the list with 30.1 points on average, both the stars are fairly equal in most of the other departments. And that is why people compare them in the GOAT debate.
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