Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe's Discussion About Phil Jackson-LeBron James Trade Rumors Goes Off the Rails

Yes, the NBA playoffs are in full swing. No, the sports media world will not stop talking about the Los Angeles Lakers instead. The latest rumor to dominate airtime on the most popular debate shows involves Phil Jackson and LeBron James. Specifically, LA Times reporter Bill Plaschke says he's "heard" that Jackson wants to trade LeBron and keep Russell Westbrook. This report surfaced on Wednesday and by Thursday morning Plaschke had made appearances saying he didn't have anything on-record to back it up, it was just something he heard.

Plaschke is a reliable Lakers reporter so we should probably take him at his word that this isn't concrete intel. That acknowledgement does not prevent it from becoming fodder for the daily content machines. In fact, Undisputed was made to discuss this kind of report. Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe talked about it today. Things got... pretty off the rails, if we're being honest.

The segment opens with Sharpe hollering at the top of his lungs about Jackson's previous transgressions making basketball decisions. Bayless explains he'd trade LeBron if he was getting multiple superstars in return and thinks that's a realistic expectation for the Lakers. Sharpe can't believe his counterpart actually said that and brings up Tom Brady, at which point Bayless has his own blow-up and they talk about Brady for most of the remaining time in the segment. Instead of any definitive conclusion, the discussion just sort of fades away and they move on.

You'd think Bayless would've had some stronger opinions on the idea of trading LeBron but I guess reminding Sharpe he was right about Brady was more important.