For years, Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe have made a living out of going back-and-forth about LeBron James.
Skip can't avoid talking about James even if it's 2 AM and there's no basketball on TV. Shannon will defend The King by all means necessary, and then both go cash their checks after one hour of ranting against each other.
One of their latest debates was actually a pretty interesting one. Bayless tweeted that he wanted to watch LeBron and Westbrook shoot threes from the Lakers backcourt, obviously because they're not exactly great shooters:
"Can't wait to see LeBrick and Westbrick launching threes from the Lakers' backcourt," Bayless tweeted
Bayless has a valid point when it comes to Westbrook, who's a career 30.5% shooter from beyond the arc. As for LeBron, he may not be right at all.
That's why Sharpe pointed out that James, as "bad" of a three-point shooter as Skip says he is, actually shot better from three than James Harden, Bradley Beal, and Trae Young last season:
"Man, this is Skip just being a hater," Sharpe said. "I'm actually glad you brought that up. Did you know that LeBron shot better from the three last year than James Harden? Did you know that? You just called him LeBrick and he shot better from the three than James! Did you know that he shot better from the three than Bradley Beal? Did you know that he shot better from the three than Trae Young? (...) if this ain't hate, what is it?"
Then again, Sharpe's words and stats also have to be taken with a grain of salt. While it's true that LeBron was statically better than the aforementioned players, it wasn't significant.
James knocked down 2.3 of 6.3 three-pointers per game last season (36.5%), while Harden shot 36.2% from the floor (2.7 of 7.3 three-pointers). The gap was even smaller with Bradley Beal (34.9% with 2.2 threes on 6.2 attempts) and Trae Young (34.3% with 2.2 threes on 6.2 shots).
LeBron is considered a bad shooter while the others are often lauded for their three-point shooting skills. Context is always important when looking at the stats. But this is just an example of how narratives can hurt a player's image.
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