Lakers News: Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe Chide Pat Beverley's LeBron James Tease
While your Los Angeles Lakers were being roundly vanquished on the Crypto.com Arena court by the visiting Chicago Bulls, ex-LA guard Patrick Beverley took a moment to mock Lakers All-Star LeBron James with a goofy "too small" gesture following a made jump hook over The King (i.e. indicating that the 6'9" James was too small to defend all 6'1" of Patrick Beverley). Chicago would go on to win the matchup, 118-108.
Fox Sports personalities Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless took umbrage with the act today on their show "Undisputed."
"I filed a report. This was harassment," Sharpe joked of the move.
Bayless, not to be outdone, went further, and I don't think he was kidding.
"It's actually beneath even Pat Bev's dignity," Bayless chimed in. "It was a nice move, it was a little fake-and-wheel, and a little jump hook. Okay, I got it. But the game is done. The game is out-of-hand, it wasn't exactly like you made the game-winning shot. And I know he's just having fun. He wanted to do so at the Lakers' expense."
Of course he did. And what's wrong with a little extra motivation? That's what separates the winners from the losers. For Bayless to actually criticize some chuckle-inducing in-game teasing as somehow being undignified is pretty darn absurd. But that's par for the course when your name is Skip Bayless.
"It is what it is. He won," Sharpe said. "He said this is what he wanted to do, he wanted to knock the Lakers out, keep them out of the playoffs. That was a great job yesterday."
At the end of the day, the Lakers at 37-38 will still have their opportunity make the play-in tournament or even hop into the playoffs proper (i.e. a top-six finish) in the Western Conference. Beverley did what he could to slow that process down. LA needs to examine what it did wrong, especially on defense, and make the proper adjustments ahead of a Wednesday rematch in Chicago.
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