Skip Bayless Names LeBron James as 9th-Best NBA Player Ever, Reveals Full Top 10 in Video

Skip Bayless returned to First Take for the first time in a decade in all his trolling glory, particularly as it pertains to his favorite subject: LeBron James.

The outspoken commentator used a portion of his first appearance on ESPN since 2016 to rank his top-10 NBA players of all-time, with James "barely hanging on" to the ninth spot ahead of Wilt Chamberlain.

Here's Bayless' full top-10 ranking:

1. Michael Jordan
2. Magic Johnson
3. Shaquille O'Neal
4. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
5. Tim Duncan
6. Bill Russell
7. Kobe Bryant
8. Larry Bird
9. LeBron James
10. Wilt Chamberlain

Proving he hasn't lost his touch despite not being on television since 2024, Bayless started Friday's show by going at James and the Los Angeles Lakers for complaining about the officials after their Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Bayless also said that James has "lost some of the respect of the referees" because of his age and not being able to "finish the way he used to" at the rim.

Honestly, the biggest surprise might be that Bayless even put James on the list to begin with. He said last year that the NBA's all-time leading scorer "wasted 20 years" of his career for not working to improve his jumper.

How one can waste a career that has resulted in breaking numerous league records, including scoring, games played and All-NBA selections, plus winning four MVP awards and four NBA titles is difficult to square.

Regardless, Bayless absolutely got what he wanted out of this return to ESPN for the first time since 2016. He and Stephen A. Smith bantered about their opinions for a while, and his argument about James' spot in the all-time NBA hierarchy took over the show.