Skip Bayless faces 25 NBA and NFL fans in Jubilee’s Surrounded, defending four bold takes: Magic Johnson is the greatest Laker, Jordan is laughably better than LeBron, Mahomes is overrated, and Brady made Belichick. Will Skip stand his ground or get shut down? Follow our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@jubilee Follow Skip Bayless: https://www.instagram.com/skipbayless https://www.youtube.com/@SkipBaylessShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who is Skip Bayless and what is the format of this Surrounded episode?
From Jubilee Media, this is Surrounded, where one brave soul faces a room full of disagreeers. Today's guest is the popular sports commentator Skip Bayless, who will be debating 25 NBA and NFL superfans. Skip will debate them one-on-one until they are voted out by their peers and replaced by someone new. Let's get into it.
Chapter 2: Is Magic Johnson the greatest Laker of all time?
I'm Skip Bayless. I've been a sports commentator for many years on ESPN and on Fox. Now I host the Skip Bayless Show on YouTube. Right now, I am surrounded by 20 NBA and NFL super fans, and I wish each and every one of you the best of luck today because you're going to need it. My first claim is, Magic Johnson is the greatest Laker of all time.
I know you think Magic is the greatest Laker of all time. I do. Skip, I think it's Kobe. I think the game is about a bucket at the end of the day. I think the priority is scoring the basketball. Kobe did that better than Magic. I think both of them were very, very transformative in what they did for the Laker franchise and the NBA in general.
And I would give it to Kobe because of his scoring prowess and also, of course, how transformative he was and how many players he inspired.
Look, I take nothing away from Kobe's ability to score buckets, get buckets because nobody was greater in the history of the game. Magic did transform the franchise because remember Kareem had been a Laker for four years doing next to nothing until Magic walks in the door in 1980
and turns them around and gets them all the way to a game six at Philadelphia in the finals in which Kareem could not go. And I believe Magic Johnson that day at Philadelphia that evening played the greatest NBA game of all time, greatest playoff game because he goes as a rookie for 42, 15 and seven with three steals. He makes 14 or 23 shots in all 14 of his free throws.
and lifts the Lakers over Dr. Jay Sixers to a championship and he's off to the races. Now let's look quickly at Kobe. Again, no disrespect, but I feel like Kobe was obviously Robin to Batman in the three-peat with Shaq because Shaq dominated those three finals the way no players ever dominated an NBA finals to me, including Jordan. That's why I think Shaq is the second greatest Laker of all time.
And in those finals, Kobe was good, but he wasn't close to the production that Shaq was equaling. So then Shaq, they fall apart, they lose to the Pistons, obviously. 2004 and he's gone traded way to Miami. And here we go. So Kobe without Shaq misses the playoffs the first year. Then they lose to the Suns in the first round and he has the pout game in game seven.
And it was hard for me to forgive him for that. And then they lose to the Suns in the first round the next year. And then they lose to Boston in the finals in the closeout game six. Kobe is horrible in that game. They lose by 39 points at Boston. I can't defend that. They broke through and beat Dwight Howard's Magic. It was supposed to be LeBron's Cavs. So I thought that was a little overrated.
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Chapter 3: What arguments compare Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Jerry West?
And then even when they did beat Boston and get over the hump, in game seven, Kobe was six of 24 in that game. So I... I don't know, I agree with your big picture, but when I go little picture of playoff performance without Shaq, I'm sorry.
I totally understand what you're saying. And I think Magic was extraordinary. And to be a rookie and start at center in the finals as a point guard, I mean, we've never seen that before. I don't know if we ever will. And yeah, he was terrific. He was splendid. He won his championships. Of course, Kobe got his.
And I understand you, you know, picking out these individual games and years and teammates and everything. And I think, you know, you can really do that with anyone. And I think it's important to look at the big picture.
Kobe's mystique was bigger than Magic's, but... If you look at Magic's productivity, how he changed a culture that both Shaq and Kobe benefited from piggybacking that culture, I'm going slightly Magic over Shaq, Shaq over Kobe.
All right, pause. You've been voted out by the majority. Please return to your seat.
Good job, Jack. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Way to go.
So, Kobe Bryant, 20 years with the same team, 18 All-Stars, 15 All-NBA, 12 All-Defense, MVP, two finals MVPs, five championships. And even though he's done all of that, I think what makes him the greatest Laker of all time, it's different than what makes a player the greatest player of all time. Because like LeBron's not the greatest Heat player of all time, that's Dwyane Wade.
So it's not just, are you better? Like, are you greater? It's what you've done for that city and that franchise. And I would argue, I love magic. I grew up on magic.
But when you watch- It feels like you grew up more on COVID, right?
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Chapter 4: Why is Michael Jordan considered laughably better than LeBron James by Skip Bayless?
I give you all that. But it gelled around the new son, S-U-N, who was Magic, right? And he lifted them into what was nine finals. And he is the driving force. Kareem was really more of a Robin, but you can make a case he was the greatest Robin of all time. Okay? I give you all your numbers because clearly it took LeBron playing now 22 years, but it took 21 years to break Kareem's record.
And that's the point that I was making is that at the end of the day, unless Kareem just got unlucky because the best player of all time, LeBron James, took that scoring title from him, but he would have been able to keep that for his whole life. And then if we go to Kobe, right?
For example, if I was to take your papers right there, ball them up in a trash can and shoot it, whose name would we say? We wouldn't say Magic. No. Who we saying? We saying Kobe, you know what I mean? And then, and that's what it's about.
And when we talk about like keeping that mentality, how you go through life, how you focus on what you need to do in life, nobody says, you know, keep that magic. they say keep that Mamba mentality. That's what it's all about.
Okay, but you grew up in the Mamba mentality era, am I right?
Exactly, exactly. That's why I started off with Kareem first.
Okay, all right, you do, and I give you that. But Magic Johnson was the greatest NBA leader ever, beyond Bill Russell, beyond Michael Jordan, beyond, we got Brady over on the other side in the National Football League, so that's another argument. But on just NBA leadership, Magic on charisma, on winning time, as he called it, winning time.
In my generation, winning time was more important than, because we didn't know mama mentality yet. I want winning time. I want magic time.
Kobe had the same type of leadership style as far as like, Kobe had aura. Like, you know, jobs not finished, like all of those things. But also he showed it in the actions first. You know what I mean? He wasn't really about the party and they're going out. He was so dedicated to the crowd.
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Chapter 5: What counterpoints do fans make defending LeBron James against Michael Jordan comparisons?
Right, he wanted no part of that.
And he's a badass, like, in that way. And he put together Showtime. He put together Shaq and Kobe. He... He helped Memphis have a team at all.
Okay, but we're not talking about post-career. We're talking about playing career because Jerry West, to me, is the greatest GM ever in the history of the NBA. And by the way, Michael Jordan was the worst GM in the history of the NBA, just for objectivity here.
But to your point, okay, so Jerry West and the Lakers get to nine finals, nine finals, and he loses eight times, and a lot of it had to do with that guy, Bill Russell. To the Greatest team ever. But if I swap out, if I put Magic in place of the logo on those teams, Magic was the greatest winner this side of Michael Jordan that I ever closely observed and got to know.
So if you put him in on those Jerry West teams with Wilt and with Elgin and with Gale Goodrich, he puts them over the top because of his dynamic charisma and leadership. It was unequaled. I've never seen a thing like it. Jerry's leadership...
I'm sorry. It was quiet leadership. But he had Elgin, who was charismatic, who was like Michael Jordan before Michael Jordan. And West won the MVP of the finals, only person, I think. On a losing cause. On a losing cause. That's how great he was.
He's the logo of the NBA. And you can't say that's better than Magic's winning time showtime.
Also, to be the greatest Laker ever doesn't mean you're the greatest Laker player ever, necessarily.
Yeah, I understand that.
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Chapter 6: How do Skip and fans debate Steph Curry's place in the GOAT conversation compared to Michael Jordan and LeBron James?
four and six in the finals for LeBron. And Ray Allen saved LeBron a loss there because LeBron had completely self-destructed in game six of that 2013 finals. And then if Kyrie, when nobody can buy a shot, if Kyrie hadn't hit the shot of shots in game seven at Oracle, LeBron could be two and eight in the finals. So we're talking about winning. Look, I give you, I say it all the time.
LeBron is still to this moment, the best passer in basketball. I say it all the time. LeBron is still the greatest driver of the basketball I ever saw to a fault because he's a poor jump shooter, a poor three point shooter by star standards or certainly by superstar standards. And he's a poor free throw shooter by superstar standards. He should have...
5,000 more points, but he's such a worse shooter than Jordan ever was as a jump shooter and a free throw shooter that it's hard for me to say, how can you call LeBron the goat when he's a lousy shooter?
Part of the argument to what you said is everything you just said is wrong. So if you look at true shooting percentage, which takes into account all the scoring, Who had the better true shooting percentage in his NBA career in the regular season? LeBron James. Who had the better true shooting percentage in the playoffs? LeBron James. And you just said Michael Jordan won a lot better.
So starting one and nine in the playoffs in his career doesn't count, just doesn't matter. Or losing to the Pistons over and over again because he was so dominated by any level of physicality because he was soft. So that does not count. That doesn't matter.
Wait, did you just call Michael Jordan soft? Compared to LeBron James? He was the baddest you-know-what who ever stepped on a basketball court. Trust me, I was there. Not like LeBron? Not like LeBron. LeBron is like the nicest guy ever. He's soft. He's a diva. He's thin-skinned. And can I start down the litany of epic fails that LeBron had that Jordan never had?
Yeah, it took a while to break through against Larry Bird Celtics. But remember that... Michael Jordan had missed the whole year. He played three games and broke his foot. This is his second year in the league. And he comes back just for the playoffs and goes up against arguably the 86 Celtics where you could make a case they were the greatest team ever. And what does he do?
He scores 49 in game one. And in game two, he scores 63. It took double overtime. But after that game, Larry Bird said that was God disguised as Michael Jordan. Well, trust me, Larry Bird would have never said God disguised as LeBron James because look at the epic failures here. Do you remember 2010, the last go around of the first 10 in Cleveland, It's against the Celtics in the playoffs.
It's the conference semifinals. They win big by 22. He's 14 to 22 from the floor. It's game three. Then we get to four, five, and six. And right on schedule, he just crumbles to the point that he had somebody from his inner circle tell Stephen A. Smith at ESPN, because I was there alongside Stephen A. at that point,
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Chapter 7: Why is Patrick Mahomes considered overrated by Skip Bayless and how do fans respond?
So every time you want to protect Jordan, I knew you were going to go with 6-0.
Okay, so he goes up against the Warriors. Okay. And I always give him this. Those first three games, you remember, because he doesn't have Kevin Love, he was gone already, right? Kyrie fractures his kneecap in overtime of game one at Oracle. Remember this? Mm-hmm. LeBron put up the greatest numbers of his career for three straight games.
And I'm like, you got this team, because they weren't the Warriors yet. They obviously didn't have KD yet. And they weren't sure who they were. So they're down two games to one. And game four is in LeBron's house in Cleveland. And in game four, he was horrible. He goes seven of 22. He was five of 10 from the free throw line. And I'm like, the next day, I'm telling Stephen A on ESPN,
he had a chance to step on their throats. It was remember the Iguodala game where Steve Kerr said, I'm gonna switch, I'm gonna start Iguodala and I'm gonna put him on LeBron. And LeBron just shrank, he closed up, he had them. If he had stepped on their throats and they'd gone up three games to one in that, this is the 2015 finals, the first one against the Warriors.
You got me, you could make a go case. But instead he shrinks and disappears in games. Here we go again, four, five and six right on schedule and they lose in six games. So he couldn't close deals. All the great clutch shots that Jordan made, they closed deals. LeBron's made a few clutch shots, but they never mattered. They were never meaningful. They never ended series or games or championships.
No, you see, that's where you're trying to pick and choose, right? You want to talk about clutch games, but then you don't want to talk about how he's dragged so many teams to the finals, right? And he's the one hitting the game-winning shots, right? The same way he took Toronto out, right? The amount of times he did that countless times, you don't want to talk about that.
You want to only talk about when Jordan does it in the finals as if Jordan's career was only six years. He's six in the finals, but his career isn't six years. He had six to seven years before that. And then he had another two years in the Washington Wizards at 40 years old. We don't want to talk about LeBron at 40 now.
Okay, I don't.
They literally tried to drag him out the court. Gilbert Arenas talked about how they literally was ready to hand him the keys and get Jordan out of there by 40. He was a cancer.
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