LeBron James joined “The Pat McAfee Show” and spoke about his tiff with Stephen A. Smith and the courtside exchange that went viral.
It’s safe to say that LeBron James is not a fan of Stephen A. Smith (SAS). While it can’t be definitively said that James dislikes the sports talking head and personality—he’s never outright said “I don’t like SAS”—his recent comments while a guest on “The Pat McAfee Show” make me think that James won’t be sitting down with SAS anytime soon to hash out their issues.
What are their issues? Well, earlier in March, a viral video of James confronting SAS courtside at a game between the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, set off a litany of sports takes, podcast discussions and thinkpieces about what exactly happened between the two. James’ confrontation with SAS stemmed from comments SAS made about James that implied that the elder James put his son, Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny James, into an unfair position to be scrutinized by getting him drafted into the NBA, alleging that Bronny just wasn’t ready for the big league yet.
As you can imagine, James took exception to the comments, which were less about Bronny and more about James parenting and, in not so many words, told SAS to stop talking about his kid. SAS addressed the confrontation the next morning on ESPN’s “First Take” and continued to discuss it further on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast, referring to James’ actions as “weak” for approaching him in that fashion, while also making it clear that he’s willing to sit down with James to discuss things at any point.
On Wednesday, James spoke about his feelings regarding both SAS and why he addressed him in that fashion, which James thinks went over SAS’s head.
“He completely missed the whole point. The whole point. Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport and criticize players about what they do. That is your job to criticize, or to be in a position where if a guy’s not performing, you know? That’s all part of the game. But when you take it and you get personal with it, it’s my job to not only protect my d— household, but protect the players.”
Prior to that, James also mockingly pointed out that he believes SAS would be thrilled knowing that he spoke about SAS.
“He’s gonna be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me talking about him,” said James of SAS. “I know he’s gonna be happy as h—.”
While it doesn’t appear likely that the two stars in their respective lanes will sit down to discuss things further, SAS did acknowledge that perhaps he was wrong about Bronny’s readiness to play in the NBA. In a game last week where several of their starters were out for various reasons, Bronny played extensively in the game and SAS acknowledged that he “might have been wrong” about Bronny’s play.
“I’ve always believed this kid had the potential to be in the NBA, but what I saw last night, he keeps showing up playing like that…then indeed he’ll be in the league as a bonafide player, sooner than later,” said SAS on an episode of “First Take” after Bronny’s breakout performance.
“I believe he’s going to be an NBA player sooner than we think,” SAS continued, after having called for the James family to hear his comments.
We’ll see what happens from here and maybe the two men will hash out their differences one day, but it doesn’t appear that will happen soon.
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