The LeBron James-Stephen A. Smith feud doesn’t look like it will be ending anytime soon, as the Lakers superstar trashed Smith on the network that employs the “First Take” host.
Appearing on Wednesday’s episode of ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” James talked about his confrontation with Smith during a timeout at a Lakers game earlier this month and how Smith has addressed the incident multiple times since then.
“He’s like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,” James said of Smith. “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 had previously said on air that Bronny should play solely in the G League this year rather than split his time between that league and 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.”
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.”
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.”
Oddly enough, Smith already responded to a different part of the James interview before the show even aired. A clip from the prerecorded interview was released ahead of the full show. In it, James proclaimed the Milwaukee Bucks star “Giannis Antetokounmpo would have 250 points in a game in the ‘70s.”
Smith addressed the comment Wednesday on “First Take,” before the entire James interview had aired.
“Here’s the problem with what LeBron James did. It’s still disrespectful to the previous eras. And there’s no call for it,” Smith said. “And so when he does what he does on that level, that’s him passive aggressively, yet again, finding a way to take shots because inherently he has a problem with himself being compared to dudes from previous eras.”
Even though he had no way of knowing Smith would say any of that, James told McAfee soon after making his comment about Antetokounmpo: “I would be able to play in any era.”
Smith has yet to publicly respond to anything else from the James interview.
