Will LeBron James' legacy be stained if Lakers miss postseason?

The Los Angeles Lakers are in grave danger of missing the playoffs.

And much to their chagrin, the Lakers aren't in control of their own destiny. They sit in 10th place in the Western Conference as of Thursday. If the San Antonio Spurs end with a better record, or end the season tied with LeBron James' troupe, S.A owns the tiebreaker over L.A.

And according to Skip Bayless, if the Lakers are relegated to a seat on the couch during the postseason, it will harm James' legacy interminably.

"No, I'm not going to demote LeBron on my list [of all-time great players if he misses the playoffs] — he stills ranks No. 9," Bayless said this week on the "Skip Bayless Show."

"I will say this: What has happened to his Los Angeles Lakers this season has indelibly stained LeBron's legacy. I remind you, these Lakers were favored to win it all. And I remind you, they're not even going to make the play-in tournament. I'm going to ‘guesstimate’ they're going to finish 18 games under .500. That's impossibly awful for ‘The King.’"

In Bayless' mind, James himself has been responsible for a large portion of the team's pitfalls.

"I'll give you a dozen games this year that ‘The King’ should've close, and couldn't close because he doesn't have the clutch gene. Even the other night in New Orleans, they have a 23-point lead. If you're the GOAT, as Shannon [Sharpe] says, you close that one in your sleep. And down the stretch, LeBron missed three 3s down the stretch. It didn't surprise me."

Bayless went on to argue that James' scoring title forge has distracted fans from the Lakers' troubles.

"The genius of LeBron is nobody knows himself better than he does. He knew that at 37 and Year 19, he's no longer capable of carrying a team, so at the All-Star break, he says, ‘I gotta do what I’ve gotta do. I've got to go magician, and distract the audience from the glaringly obvious: We're going to miss the playoffs. I'm going to win the scoring title in Year 19! And my billions of blind witnesses will be able to gloat about it.' 

He's not the maestro anymore. He's leading the league in shots attempted and scoring. Way to go. Brilliant. I'm sorry 'Bron, but missing the playoffs is going to outweigh getting the scoring title."