If you thought the LeBron James-Stephen A. Smith drama would sail off into the sunset without anymore fuss, you would be sorely mistaken.
Three weeks ago during the Lakers–Knicks game, LeBron confronted SAS for his comments on Bronny, feeling he had crossed a line from criticizing him as a player to making the situation personal.
Naturally, Stephen A. used that as a reason to talk about it extensively and show that he missed the point. And, as he always does, LeBron took notice. So, while appearing on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, LeBron was asked about SAS again and, this time, held absolutely nothing back.
“He’s like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now…It started off with ‘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.’ M——- f—— are you kidding me? If there’s one person that couldn’t wait until the video drop so you could address it, it’s your ass. And he completely, like, missed the whole point. The whole point. Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court. 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.
But 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. I think a lot of the media, including him – and I know he’s going to be happy as hell. He’s going to be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me talking about him again. Oh my God. He’s going to get home and get some ice cream out of his f——- freezer and sit in his chair in his tighty whities on his couch…Like, dude, like relax.”
Good LORD.
Look, LeBron is right about all of this. From the moment Stephen A. appeared on TV to talk about this situation, it was evident that he didn’t understand or care to understand the perspective LeBron had on the situation.
Instead, he was interested in using the situation to make it a talking point on as many shows as possible. He wasn’t interested in actually changing his approach to things.
So, good on LeBron for calling him out on this.
But Stephen A. wasn’t the only ESPN journalist who was in LeBron’s crosshairs on Wednesday. Later on in the show, LeBron took some shots at Brian Windhorst, too.
When discussing being the face of the league and how he’s covered, LeBron used something from Windy as an example of being talked about constantly…and people not knowing the truth.
“I seen Brian Windhorst on one of these shows not too long ago. This guy says he’s like my f——- best friend. These guys are just weird…He went on his show and said ‘Don’t let LeBron fool you. He wears number 23 because of Michael Jordan.’ Ok, that’s a fact. ‘He signed with Nike because of Michael Jordan.’ Like, no the f— I didn’t. I signed with Nike because I got a hell of a signing bonus and they gave me a seven-year, $90 million contract and I moved my mom out of the hood the next day I signed that contract…Like, what are we talking about?”
The hilarity of LeBron calling out a pair of ESPN journalists is that the Pat McAfee Show is simulcast on ESPN each day.
Considering what the company prioritizes in its sports coverage, they probably love this, though. This is hours and days of talking points and coverage across a host of shows now. They don’t have to do any sort of real discussion about the league and, instead, can talk about what LeBron said about two of their prominent voices covering the NBA.
Which, again, would be missing the whole point. But, as LeBron has already pointed out, that’s par for the course, it seems.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
