Skip Bayless call out LeBron James’ non-improvement in shooting: “Hard work would've made him a career 38% 3-pt shooter”
LeBron James dropped a season-high 39 points against the San Antonio Spurs to lead the LA Lakers to their fifth win in six games on Saturday. James’ blistering night was highlighted by him scoring with seven of his 12 attempts from beyond the arc, a far cry from his 23% efficiency before the game.
During the postgame interview, the four-time MVP insisted that he wasn’t worried about his terrible efficiency from long-range to start the season. He said that the amount of work he has put in will ultimately get him out of his shooting slump.
Skip Bayless, James’ unabashed critic, promptly tweeted this after the game as well:
“LeBron just said he 'puts in too much work; to remain in a 3-point slump. Huh??? He has ALWAYS been a pretty sorry 3-pt and free-throw shooter. Hard work would've made him a career 38% 3-pt shooter and a career 85% FT-shooter.”
LeBron just said he "puts in too much work" to remain in a 3-point slump. Huh??? He has ALWAYS been a pretty sorry 3-pt and free-throw shooter. Hard work would've made him a career 38% 3-pt shooter and a career 85% FT-shooter.
In his career, LeBron James has hit just 34.5% of his 3-point shots and only 73.4% of his free-throw attempts. Over the years, some NBA teams have taken advantage of James’ so-so shooting both from rainbow distance and the free throw line.
Per StatMuse, the league's average 3-point shooting percentage over the last 20 years, which is basically the length of James’ career, is 35.7%. The free throw shooting percentage across all NBA teams spanning two decades is at 76.1%.
To Skip Bayless’ credit, LeBron James isn’t even hitting the league average for his career.
James’ best year of shooting threes was during the 2012-13 campaign when he hit 40.6% of his attempts. This season, he’s averaging a career-low 28.7% on nearly eight attempts per game.
Before he hit 7-12 (58.3%) against the Spurs, his most efficient game shooting 3s this season was against the LA Clippers on November 9. He made four of his nine attempts for a 44.4% clip.
Earlier this month, he also went 0-5 against the Utah Jazz on November 4 and 0-7 against the New Orleans Pelicans on November 2. At one point, he missed 13 straight 3-point attempts.
LeBron is shooting 20.7% from three, the worst in the entire NBA (min 50 attempts).
He has missed 13 threes in a row. https://t.co/eLqMceP5wI
LeBron James needs to be more consistent to even reach his 3-point shooting career average this season.
LeBron James has been piling up the points despite below-league-average 3-point shooting in his career
LeBron James is on an inevitable march to unseating Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time scoring king. He is 1,016 points away from tying the legendary six-time MVP for arguably the most hallowed individual record in the league.
One can only imagine how quickly James could have gotten the record if he’d been an average 3-point shooter.
The four-time MVP isn’t an artist from beyond the arc, but he sure knows how to amass points throughout his career. The only time he failed to average at least 25 points per game was in his rookie season when he had 20.9 PPG. He has 19 seasons hitting that average with Kevin Durant the closest pursuer with 14.
Most seasons averaging 25 points per game in NBA history:
LeBron James 19
Kevin Durant 14
Kobe Bryant 12
Michael Jordan 12
Karl Malone 12
Crazy. https://t.co/d3aZ6lcUcM
Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan only had 12 seasons with at least 25 points per game when they retired. Steph Curry, the 3-point God, only has seven to his name.
LeBron James will likely not have hit 38% of his shots from beyond the arc when he finishes his career. However, no one has been as consistently prolific as him when all is said and done.