{"id":731084,"date":"2026-06-12T04:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731084\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T04:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:14:09","slug":"skip-bayless-finds-new-target-of-criticism-after-lebron-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731084\/","title":{"rendered":"Skip Bayless finds new target of criticism after LeBron James"},"content":{"rendered":"

After spending nearly two decades as a staunch critic of LeBron James<\/a>, Skip Bayless has found a new target in San Antonio Spurs<\/a> center Victor Wembanyama<\/a>, who is one loss away from dropping his first career NBA <\/a>Finals.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama drew criticism from Bayless after yesterday\u2019s Game 4 debacle<\/a>, in which they squandered a 29-point lead to lose 107-106 to the New York Knicks<\/a>. The defeat clearly had Bayless in disbelief, as the Spurs made history for the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s already becoming clear the New Face (Wemby) has this in common with the Old Face (LeBron) \u2026 no clutch gene. Late missed game-winners, missed crucial free throws, killer turnovers. Disappeared in last night\u2019s second half: 0 blocks, 0 defensive rebounds. 1-9 career late\/close,\u201d Bayless wrote on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, last night\u2019s Spurs collapse wasn\u2019t quite as painful (or fatal) as the far more condensed collapse late in 2013\u2019s Game 6. Up 5 with 20 seconds left! Heat fans fleeing the arena! Spurs had won another championship! RAY ALLEN<\/a>,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

MORE: Victor Wembanyama blames Spurs\u2019 \u2018greediness,\u2019 lack of hunger in NBA Finals Game 4 collapse<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jun<\/p>\n

Jun 10, 2026; New York, New York, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) reacts in the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks during game four of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The 2026 NBA Finals are a learning experience for Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs<\/p>\n

One can argue that the San Antonio Spurs could\u2019ve been up 3-1 if Victor Wembanyama hadn\u2019t made crucial mistakes in Games 2 and 4. In Game 2, the Frenchman inexplicably turned the ball over and fouled Jalen Brunson<\/a> with the game tied. And in Game 4, he missed two free throws with 1:47 remaining that would\u2019ve extended their lead to three points.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing we learned in this year\u2019s postseason, it\u2019s that the Spurs still have ways to go in closing out the big games. They should\u2019ve kept their foot on the gas when they built a seemingly insurmountable lead in Game 4 to turn the series into a virtual best-of-three at 2-2, which Wembanyama alluded to during his postgame presser.<\/p>\n

To Bayless\u2019 point, LeBron James experienced similar growing pains early in his NBA career. Wembanyama should take notes from the King if he wants to reach his full potential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After spending nearly two decades as a staunch critic of LeBron James, Skip Bayless has found a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,20455,7896,590,1666,289290,10549,69950,85,28021,12838],"class_list":["post-731084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-ray-allen","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-skip-bayless","tag-sports","tag-the-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}