Stephen A. Smith would’ve ‘swung on’ LeBron James had he touched him. Lakers star trolls him
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The LeBron James-Stephen A. Smith feud doesn’t look like it will be ending any time soon.
The ESPN personality said Wednesday he “would have immediately swung on” James had the Lakers superstar “put his hands on me” during a courtside confrontation this month.
Addressing the matter on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on YouTube, Smith also made it clear that “I would have gotten my a— kicked” had the run-in between the men come to blows.
James responded on Instagram that evening, after he tipped in a game-winner in the Lakers’ 120-119 victory against the Indiana Pacers. He posted an old video of Smith taking part in a boxing workout along with 14 emojis of a face laughing while crying and the words, “WHOMP WHOMP WHOMPPPPPPPP,” at the end, apparently meant to mock the basketball analyst’s fighting skills.
Smith addressed the video Thursday on “First Take,” saying that it was “from a decade ago” and he had “two torn rotator cuffs” at the time.
“It’s a very, very embarrassing video,” Smith said, adding that anyone thinks “that’s how I throw hands, knock yourself out. I’m good with that. I know that the man I am today is not the man I was a decade ago, physically or beyond, I can tell you that.”
Stephen A. Smith says LeBron James confronting him was ‘weak’: ‘I was talking about you,’ not Bronny
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says LeBron James confronting him last week was ‘weak’ and possibly was caused by James’ son and Lakers teammate Bronny having a ‘sad look on his face.’
The most recent escalation in the ongoing beef started Wednesday morning, when James appeared on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” and talked about the incident that occurred during the Lakers-New York Knicks game at Crypto.com Arena and how Smith has addressed the interaction.
“He’s like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,” James said. “It started off with [Smith saying], ‘I didn’t want to address it. I didn’t want to address it. I wasn’t going to address it, but since the video came out, I feel the need to address it.’ Mother— are you kidding me? If there’s one person that couldn’t wait until the video had dropped so you could address it, it was your a—. Like, seriously?”
Smith has characterized the interaction as James “making sure I mind what I say about his son,” a reference to James’ oldest son and Lakers teammate Bronny James. Smith previously said on air that Bronny should play in the G League rather than split time with the NBA.
“I am pleading with LeBron James as a father: Stop this,” Smith said on the Jan. 29 episode of “First Take.” “Stop this. We all know that Bronny James is in the NBA because of his dad.”
Smith walked back his criticism a bit after Bronny had a good game. But James told McAfee that Smith had “completely missed the whole point.”
“Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court,” James said. “That is your job to criticize or be in a position where if a guy’s not performing, that’s all part of the game.”
Four days after the best NBA game of his career, Lakers rookie Bronny James had a career-high 39 points in a G League game Monday, earning praise from his dad, LeBron.
But, James added, “when you take it and you get personal with it, it’s my job to not only protect my damn household but protect the players. ... And I know he’s gonna be happy as hell. He’s gonna be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me talking about him again. Oh my God. He’s gonna get home and get some ice cream out of his f— freezer and sit in his chair in his tighty whities on the couch.”
Smith addressed James’ comments later in the day, on an episode of his YouTube show titled, “LeBron … the lies keep coming.”
“I just want to say for the record LeBron James is full of it,” Smith said. “And in this particular instance, as it pertains to his son, he is a liar. And he went on national television today and he lied again. You see, when he approached me while I was sitting courtside at that game against the New York Knicks ... I was in no position to give any kind of retort without making a scene. It was during the third quarter, it was fresh out of a timeout, it was him walking to the basketball court, it was on national television, the cameras were rolling and had I done something — what do y’all want me to do? You want this to be a reincarnation of Chris Rock and Will Smith?
“And let me state for the record that while we bring up that, let me assure you it wouldn’t have gone down like that. I would have gotten my a— kicked, because had that man put his hands on me, I would have immediately swung on him. Immediately. That, I’m not gonna tolerate. But I knew he wasn’t going to do something like that. There was no fear in my mind about it. It was shock. Because as I have repeatedly stated, I was not talking about his son. I was talking about him.
ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith ever-so-slightly walked back his comments on Bronny James after LeBron James’ son and Lakers teammate had his best NBA game.
“There have been plenty of second-round picks that have worked their way up through the ranks before getting to the pro level. Me pointing that out about his son and talking about how his son has been pushed to the forefront, thereby put in a line of fire for folks in the media to come at him, is not denigrating his son. It’s simply highlighting what we all knew, which is he’s not ready yet. But based on what we’ve seen from Bronny recently, there are indications that he will be. And as LeBron James pointed out on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ today, it’s probably sooner than later because his growth and his maturation from just a year ago has happened by leaps and bounds. Nothing but respect and appreciation. Wishing Bronny nothing but the best. This is not about Bronny. This is about LeBron.
“The real point at hand is this: LeBron James continues to lie. He hoodwinked y’all into thinking that he was upset about criticism about his son. If your son is a professional basketball player and I was talking about your son as a basketball player, since you just went on Pat McAfee’s show and said you would never knock anybody for talking about the game, then what is it that I said? What I said was, as a father, stop. I wasn’t talking about you as a father, as somebody that’s home minding your business and I just call you out because your son is in this position. That’s not the father I’ve been talking about. … All I’m asking is for comprehension of the actual point.”
Smith suggested Thursday on “First Take” that James is behaving in this manner because Smith thinks Michael Jordan, not James, is the greatest basketball player of all time.
“I have never, ever gone after somebody’s family and I would never do that,” Smith said. “And he is creating this narrative because he can’t accept the fact that I won’t kiss the ring and acknowledge him as the greatest ever. Why? Because he is not.”
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith says LeBron James confronted him at Thursday’s Lakers game over slighting Bronny, with the NBA star ‘making sure I mind what I say about his son.’
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