stephen a smith hosted Skip Bayless back on First Take on May 8, and Bayless used the one-time reunion to rank LeBron James ninth on his all-time NBA players list. It was his first appearance on since 2016, and the conversation turned quickly into a public debate over where James fits in the league’s hierarchy.
Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith
Bayless opened Friday’s show by going after LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers for complaining about the officials after their Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He then widened the argument into his top-10 list, putting James at 9th and saying he was “barely hanging on” to the ninth spot ahead of Wilt Chamberlain.
Smith and Bayless bantered through the exchange, and the ranking became the center of the show. Bayless framed his criticism around James’s age and said the Lakers star has “lost some of the respect of the referees” because he can no longer “finish the way he used to” at the rim.
LeBron James at No. 9
The placement landed inside a list Bayless said he was building from his view of the top-10 NBA players of all time. James has already put together a career marked by numerous league records, including scoring, games played and All-NBA selections, along with four MVP awards and four NBA titles, but Bayless still kept him behind eight others.
That same stance was not new. Last year, Bayless said James had “wasted 20 years” of his career for not working to improve his jumper, a comment that fit the harder edge he brought back to the show for the reunion.
One-time Return
The appearance mattered because it was Bayless’s first appearance on since 2016, and he had not been on television since 2024. The return was framed as a one-time reunion with Smith, but the LeBron discussion took over the hour and left Bayless’s ranking as the clearest takeaway from the show.
For viewers who tuned in for the reunion, the practical answer was simple: Bayless came back, put James at ninth, and made the Lakers star the subject of the day’s sharpest debate. The rest of the exchange only reinforced that the old rivalry-style energy was still intact.
