Skip Bayless claims Jayson Tatum “isn’t that guy” and NBA fans are on board

Matthew Legros

Skip Bayless knew exactly who to blame for the Boston Celtics’ tight 115-109 championship preview loss to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night.

Bayless went straight for Jayson Tatum’s jugular for not willing the Celtics over the defending NBA champions in crunch time.

It’s not the first time that Bayless has come after Tatum for his “clutch gene” as he calls it. He’s also not the only one who looks at Tatum funny when the game is on the line.

The sports personality and his audience were on one accord about Tatum’s shortcoming.

Skip Bayless bashes Jayson Tatum’s it factor

The Celtics entered the fourth quarter down 90-80. Tatum kicked things off with a technical free throw and a jumper that cut the deficit to seven.

After that, Tatum was virtually nowhere to be found. He only made two free throws in the final 4:16 and left much of the heavy lifting to Jaylen Brown and Kristaps Porzingis.

Accordingly, Bayless could be found on X — his usual stomping ground — where he slammed the MVP candidate for capping off his quiet quarter with a serious blunder late:

The FS1 analyst did more than just analyze Tatum’s botched field goal. He issued a bold take that dampened Tatum’s outlook as a late-game deliverer and ran contrary to the All-Star’s reasoning for not getting more love from MVP voters.

Tatum recently pinned his lack of votes on Boston’s 2022 Finals loss to the Warriors. He claimed his image hasn’t recovered since, and it was only exacerbated by social media opinion heads:

The Tatum hate was real. It’s still ongoing and could last until the Duke product gets a chance to right the ship against the Phoenix Suns on Saturday.

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About The Author

Matthew graduated from Brooklyn College in 2022 with a Bachelor's degree in Communications. In the past, he's written for Heavy Sports, Sports Illustrated, and SB Nation. On top of penning scripts for Empire Sports Media, Matthew covers the latest NBA, NFL and Boxing news for Dexerto. His expertise lies in basketball, with a personal passion for track-and-field. You can contact him at matthew.legros@dexerto.com.