Skip Bayless
Skip Bayless

Sports commentator Skip Bayless dismissed reports that LeBron James is planning an ESPN documentary chronicling his final NBA seasons in the style of Michael Jordan's "The Last Dance," even as conflicting accounts emerged about whether such a project is actually in the works following James's move to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Athletic's Andrew Marchand reported that a camera crew would follow James starting this upcoming season to document his time with the 76ers, whom the 41-year-old signed with this summer on a two-year, $8 million deal. Bayless responded to the report on social media with a pointed critique, framing the project as an attempt by James to draw comparisons to Jordan's legacy. "LeBron is at it again, trying to be Jordan, beat Jordan with a Jordan-style 'Last Dance' documentary," Bayless wrote on X. "Laughably pathetic. He's not even in MJ's universe. There was only one 23."

Bayless has been an outspoken critic of James for much of his broadcasting career, a stance he has attributed to his admiration for Jordan, whom he covered extensively as a lead sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune during the 1990s. That period placed Bayless in close proximity to the Chicago Bulls dynasty that Jordan led to six NBA championships, an era that has continued to shape Bayless's public comparisons between the two players throughout James's career.

Not everyone close to James has confirmed the documentary plans described in the initial report. Maverick Carter, the chief executive of Uninterrupted and James's longtime business partner, moved quickly to dispute the characterization of the project on social media. "We are NOT doing anything like the 'last dance,'" Carter wrote on X. "LeBron doesn't even know when his last season is." James amplified Carter's statement by retweeting it, effectively co-signing the denial through his own account.

Carter and James have built one of the most enduring partnerships in professional sports over the course of James's career, with the two having grown up together before Carter went on to serve as James's business adviser. Under Carter's guidance, James has built a business empire that has helped push his net worth beyond $1 billion, spanning ventures in media, entertainment and consumer products alongside his NBA career.

The conflicting accounts come amid a significant and closely watched chapter in James's career, following his decision this summer to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers after a lengthy free agency process that included interest from several other prominent franchises. James enters the coming season with a clear stated objective: winning a fifth NBA championship, which would require him to add a title with the 76ers to previous championships he won with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers. Should James accomplish that goal, he would become the first player in NBA history to win a championship with four different franchises, a milestone that would further cement his standing among the league's all-time greats regardless of how it compares to Jordan's own championship résumé.

Jordan's "The Last Dance," a 10-part documentary series that aired on ESPN in 2020, chronicled the Chicago Bulls' 1997-98 championship season and became a cultural phenomenon during its release, drawing record ratings for ESPN amid a period when live sports programming had been paused because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The documentary offered an unusually intimate look at Jordan's final season with the Bulls, drawing on archival footage combined with new interviews, and significantly shaped public discourse around Jordan's legacy and his rivalry-driven leadership style.

Given the outsized cultural impact of Jordan's documentary, any suggestion that James might pursue a similarly structured project chronicling the final stage of his own career was always likely to draw close scrutiny and comparison, particularly from commentators like Bayless who have spent years positioning Jordan as the definitive standard against which James's career should be measured.

James's move to Philadelphia has generated substantial attention across the league this offseason, with reactions pouring in from players, executives and media figures alike since the signing was finalized. The specific question of whether a documentary project will ultimately materialize, and in what form, remains unresolved given the direct contradiction between The Athletic's initial reporting and the public denial issued by Carter and amplified by James himself.

With training camp and the start of the new NBA season still weeks away, further clarity on the documentary question may not emerge until closer to when James's on-court preparations with the 76ers begin in earnest, giving both supporters and critics of the potential project additional time to speculate about what, if anything, cameras might ultimately capture of James's stated pursuit of a fifth championship during what he has indicated could be among the final seasons of his playing career.

Read more