Michael Jordan fan Skip Bayless undermines LeBron James' career milestone with 'phony GOAT' jab

Several notable personalities have chosen their side in the GOAT battle between LeBron James and Michael Jordan. One of these personalities is Skip Bayless, who is well known for being against James in this particular debate. Bayless once again made it clear which side he stood on during a recent episode of "The Skip Bayless Show."

On his eponymous show, Bayless pointed out after the LA Lakers' victory over the Sacramento Kings that James was only two 30-point games behind Jordan. Jordan finished his career with 562 and James achieved his 560th 30-point game by dropping 32 on Saturday against the Kings.

Bayless said that James' fans will use the argument that he will eventually surpass Jordan as to why he is the GOAT. However, Bayless tried to shut down these arguments by pointing out a certain statistic.

"Phony GOAT," Bayless said. "LeBron James has now played 16,500 more minutes than Michael Jordan did. 16,500 and counting. If I divide those minutes by LeBron's career average of 38 minutes played per game, LeBron has played 434 more games than Jordan played." (0:58-1:36)

Bayless then pointed out that James has been the most durable superstar. As such, he is expected to set all these records simply because he has played longer.

After Tuesday's episode of "The Skip Bayless Show," LeBron went on to drop his 561st career 30-point performance. That happened during the Christmas Day clash between the Lakers and the Golden State Warriors.

In that game, James scored 31 points and also dished 10 assists. His performance contributed toward the Lakers securing a two-point victory (115-113).

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Looking at how many more games LeBron James has played compared to Michael Jordan up to this point

Michael Jordan began his NBA career in the 1984-85 season and played until 2002-03. However, he did not play in every single season during that time span. In fact, Jordan would miss a total of four full seasons in this 19-year period.

Jordan first sat out a full season in 1993-94 when he retired for the first time. He would eventually announce his return in 1994-95 but would once again retire after the 1997-98 campaign. This time around, he stepped away from playing for three years.

In 2001-02, he returned as a member of the Washington Wizards and would go on to play for one more year in 2002-03. He played a total of 1,072 regular season games in the 15 years he was active.

Meanwhile, LeBron James has been actively playing since his rookie season in 2003-04. In these 22 years, James has played in 1,520 regular season games. A number that will still increase.

LeBron James has also played in most of his team's games each season he's been in the league. The least amount of games he's played in a campaign is 45, which was in 2020-21. So far, that was the only time that he's played under 55 games in a year.

Meanwhile, there were two seasons wherein Michael Jordan played under 20 games. In his sophomore season, he played in only 18 games after breaking his foot.

Then in 1994-95, his first season back after his very first retirement, he played in only 17 games.