Things are getting nastier between ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James, culminating in a heated exchange on Thursday morning. The feud began when Smith urged LeBron to stop what he described as nepotism by having his son, Bronny, rostered with the Los Angeles Lakers. “I am pleading with LeBron James as a father: Stop this,” Smith said on ESPN’s debate show, First Take. “We all know that Bronny James is in the NBA because of his dad.”
LeBron was not pleased and confronted Smith directly during a Lakers game, creating a viral moment. Smith later addressed this encounter with a series of statements, asserting that James should have kept their disagreement private. In response to the escalating situation, James appeared on the Pat McAfee Show, where he criticized Smith’s actions, stating, “Stephen A Smith is on a Taylor Swift tour run right now. He completely missed the whole point… He got personal with it, and it’s my job to not only protect my own household but also all the players,” James said to McAfee.
On Thursday morning, Smith fired back without holding back, suggesting, “I suggest that he be happy with the things that I haven’t brought up,” Smith commented in a clip posted to Twitter by Awful Announcing. He noted, “I never brought up really and never really discussed why you were not at Kobe Bryant’s memorial service or why you did not attend Dwyane Wade’s Hall of Fame induction, when that man was directly responsible for you capturing a championship for the first time in your career.”
Smith continued, highlighting the longevity of their feud: “The day he came up to me was the day my new contract was announced. So he knows, like everybody else, it’s going to be a little while before I go away. I was here before he got here in 2003, and in all likelihood, I’m going to be here when he’s gone. You gotta deal with that, bro. Plain and simple. It ain’t a crime for Michael Jordan to be a GOAT. But clearly, it’s something that’s a crime with him.”
Adding to the controversy, Smith’s colleague at ESPN, Kendrick Perkins, joined First Take to denounce LeBron’s actions as well. He stated, “LeBron James needs to stop. I’m so sick of him with this ‘oh how the league is covered’ because he wanted to be covered a certain way.” It would be surprising if LeBron allows this situation to conclude easily.
