Skip Bayless scolded LeBron for saying he won the hardest rings ever: 'I promise you this was the easiest path to a ring ever'

"I promise you, this was the easiest path to a ring ever; it was so easy that the rings were made of cubic zirconia," Bayless said. "They get Portland in the first round, and Portland is 35-39, and Damian [Lillard] gets hurt mid-series, and it's over… Round two, and right on schedule when the series was tied 1-1 against Houston, Daniel House gets kicked out of the bubble… and they [Rockets] fall apart."

Skip added, "Then we moved to the Clippers; obviously, the Clippers were better than the Lakers. They were looking ahead to the Lakers; that's all they cared about the whole year, and yet they didn't want to be in the bubble… It was the cleanest, clearest, nicest superhighway to a finals to a ring you could ever ask for."

Not the toughest

The Lakers' path to the 2020 championship appeared dominant on paper, but Bayless has relentlessly criticized their perceived easy journey.

"And then you get Game 1 of the finals, and the Miami Heat, the fifth seed in the East, lose their leading playoff scorer in Goran Dragic… and they ended up playing two rookie high minutes in Games 2 and 3… And you're saying it was hard," the sports analyst said.

The Bubble title wasn't the only ring called out. The Akron native's 2016 championship with the Cavaliers is considered by many to be his crowning achievement—not for Bayless.

The Cavaliers faced the Golden State Warriors, who set an NBA-record 73-9 regular-season mark. The Cavaliers found themselves down 3-1 in the Finals. No team in league history had ever overcome such a deficit in the Finals, let alone against one of the most dominant squads ever assembled.

LeBron, alongside Kyrie Irving, led Cleveland to three straight wins, culminating in a dramatic Game 7 victory on June 19, 2016. This series featured unforgettable moments, including No. 23's iconic chase-down block on Andre Iguodala and Irving's dagger 3-pointer over Steph Curry.

The victory delivered Cleveland its first-ever NBA title, erasing years of heartbreak and criticism that the 20-time All-Star couldn't win without stacked teams.

However, skeptics, including the veteran commentator, point out key moments that shifted the series in Cleveland's favor, notably the suspension of Warriors' star Draymond Green for Game 5.