How the dynamics have shifted! Skip Bayless, once a staunch critic of LeBron James, failed to win over Deion Sanders, a devoted fan of the basketball legend. But now, a change is in the air. Shedeur Sanders receives a nod from Bayless and suddenly, the game has transformed.

As the Colorado Buffaloes quarterback sensation gets a thumbs up, it seemed to have melted the ice as the touched father shared Bayless’ quote on his Instagram story. Now that the Undisputed host begs to differ with most of the mock drafts about the chances of Shedeur landing late in the 2025 NFL Draft, will this help the quarterback win back the trust he has lost to nepotism allegations? 

Will Bayless’ unexpected praise significantly affect Deion’s feelings and perceptions?

The NBA analyst is always the first one to drop in and land a caustic jab at King James. Even though Bayless had nothing to do with Deion, Coach Prime, being the biggest worshiper of the NBA giant, always had a sour attitude toward the analyst. Even though Deion kept it to himself, Bayless chose to fix it this time. Given the current situation, when the NFL teams are “shying away from” pursuing Shedeur, the analyst grabbed the opportunity to foster a closer relationship with the Buffaloes’ head coach.  

On Undisputed, Bayless then dropped a bold proclamation, “He’s [Shedeur] not just the best QB in the Big 12 Conference, but he’s the best QB in the country.” This statement will only hype up Deion Sanders, who lives by the belief that his son is “pulling an Eli Manning in the league.” While Coach Prime counts on Shedeur’s clean stats of a 76% completion rate that earned him a 93.4 PPF grade, NFL recruiters can’t get over the fact that the QB ended the last season with the highest sack rate. Now that good words pour in from a stalwart like Bayless, it will be a good push to Shedeur’s stock. But the question now arises: Will this be enough to allure Coach Prime, whose idol often suffers a blow from Bayless?

Bayless’ history of sharp words landed at James

Sanders, now and then, pours in his love and respect for the Lakers star. His latest shoutout came in February when James hit the court wearing the legendary Nike Air DT Max ’96 kicks to celebrate season No. 21 in the NBA during the All-Star game. Basking in James’ glory, Sanders wrote in one of his Instagram posts, “Congratulations to my brother @kingjames for his Class, Grace, Passion, Commitment to Excellence & Consistency for 21 Years!!!”

But it is challenging to locate any instance when Bayless let loose his kind words in James’ honor. Instead, it has been always the other way around. The NFL analyst’s criticism of the King has hit the ceiling as he tagged some of his acts on the court as “garbage.” On February 22, Bayless wrote, “LeBron James, in Year 19, has already played 36 minutes tonight but is still in the game, trailing by 22 with 5:08 left, to stat-pad with easy garbage-time buckets as he chases Kareem’s all-time scoring record.” 

After the Denver Nuggets swept the Lakers at the 2023 Western Conference finals, the NBA legend contemplated calling it off forever. But surprisingly, to Bayless, with this move, LeBron came off as a “master media manipulator.” Now that Bayless has turned into the biggest Shedeur fan, will Deion press the delete button to erase the attacks on James from his memory?