Skip Bayless unimpressed by ‘lousy free throw shooter’ LeBron James, downplays 40K points achievement

Skip Bayless has been the biggest critic of LeBron James and his GOAT claims.

Skip Bayless unimpressed by ‘lousy free throw shooter’ LeBron James, downplays 40K points achievement

Skip Bayless unimpressed by LeBron James' 40k points record

Skip Bayless is at it again, going after LeBron James and his achievement of reaching 40k points. This time, he has based his logic around James’ poorer than other superstars’ free throw and 3-point shooting. It seems Bayless brought this free throw logic to downplay the mark the Los Angeles Lakers superstar has set in his 21st season.

Skip Bayless was speaking on his podcast, The Skip Bayless Show. While discussing James being the first player to reach 40k points, Bayless said;

Just telling you the truth, LeBron James is a below-average 3-point shooter. LeBron James is a lousy free-throw shooter by superstar standards. Do you realize how that heightens the degree of difficulty for him. Think about how many hundreds of points he left on the table. Do you realize how much faster he would have gotten to 40000 points?

Bayless alluded that had LeBron James scored 10% more free throws than his career 73.5%, he would have reached the 40k points mark faster. It does not help that James has played more minutes than anyone in the history of the league.

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Bayless compared James’ free throw shooting to that of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Both were 83% free-throw shooters. But James has played 15000 minutes more than Jordan and more than 300 games than Bryant. Had James shot at Jordan and Bryant’s numbers, he should have reached the 40k points mark much faster.

Bayless also added that James is not a finesse player. He has always used his body and strength to generate those points. Normally, that would lead to a lot of wear and tear on a basketball player’s body. Certainly enough to make their bodies fail way before their 21st season. So if James has done that for 21 years, Bayless alluded that it should have reflected on his points total.

What would have happened if LeBron James had a higher free-throw percentage?

If one dissects Skip Bayless’ logic, LeBron James could have reached 40k points much faster than his 21st season. As of yesterday, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar has made 8310 free throws out of 11301 attempts, giving him his 73.5% ratio. If James shot at 83.5% he could have reached the 40k points mark in approximately 173 games earlier. That would bring his career total to above 41k points as of today.

Although the logic does make sense mathematically, one has to consider that James’ lack of finesse, as mentioned by Bayless, plays its part in the free throw narrative. Most players who do not have the finesse in their shots have not been good at free throws. Whereas the players, with a deft touch with the ball, have excelled in that department.

Since LeBron James has been a power player throughout his career, the logic of free throw percentage does not seem valid. After all, each player is different. James reaching 40k points with power play as his only tool is actually quite impressive. Although Skip Bayless may not feel that way.

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