As Los Angeles Lakers All-Star LeBron James enters his 23rd NBA season, his Decision 2.0 faked out many people anticipating that 2025-26 will be his last season, including former player and FanDuel Sports analyst, Lou Williams. The marketing for James' second decision was a Hennessey ad, which didn't sit well with Williams, as he explained why.

Williams thinks James' retirement fakeout set a bad example for kids, he said, per FanDuel Sports' Run It Back.

“It's the dad and the coach in me. When you flirt with the Decision 2.0, the first time it was about the Boys & Girls Club. So, when you do it again, you involve the kids,” Williams said. “My daughter texted me “Is LeBron retiring?” So, now, you have this age of kids waiting to hear his decision, and we're inviting them to a Hennessey party.”

Lou Williams' co-host, Chandler Parsons, didn't like LeBron's new ad either.

“I thought it would be something worthy of making a decision about [retiring]. So, yeah, I got duped a little bit,” Parsons said. “But I didn't love this. You're LeBron James, man. It just felt like a reach for attention when you're the last person that needs that. I was not a fan.”

For the first time in his career, James will not begin the start of the upcoming regular season due to a sciatic nerve injury on his right side, which will keep him out for at least the first few weeks. LeBron missed the Lakers' entire preseason.

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Skip Bayless rips LeBron James' new ad ahead of Lakers' season

Lakers forward LeBron James (23), wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers hat, smiles after watching his son, guard Bronny James (9), dunk a rebound against the Golden State Warriors in the third quarter at Chase Center
David Gonzales-Imagn Images

Few NBA analysts are less critical with Lakers All-Star LeBron James than Skip Bayless, who ripped unsurprisingly ripped James for his Decision 2.0 ad with Hennessey. Bayless didn't hold back as he spewed his frustration with James for making such a move at this stage of his 23-year NBA career, he said, per the Skip Bayless Show.

“It was an iconic sports moment because we'd never seen anything like that,” said Bayless of James' original 2010 “Decision” to join the Miami Heat. “It was a GOAT-ish sort of endeavor… and to take that decision, ‘The Decision,' and stoop to cheapen it, to sell it out? To make money, to launch some new Hennesy brand of Cognac? Really, you would stoop to that LeBron, as you enter this stage and age, as you enter year 23, age 40?”

The Lakers will host the Warriors in their regular-season opener on Tuesday.