The NBA is full of drama, from rivalries to trades, and in this case, a beef battle. Stephen A. Smith, commonly known as an NBA analyst on ESPN, is never shy of criticizing a player after a couple of bad games. But this time it was personal, and LeBron James let him know it.
On January 28, Stephen A. Smith addressed LeBron James directly, urging him to “stop this.” He also went on to say that “We all know that Bronny James is in the NBA because of his dad.” He said that Bronny should simply stay in the G League, where he belongs. Over the weeks, he continued to attack the James family and critique Bronny. LeBron wasn’t going to take this lightly. On March 6, before a Lakers game, LeBron confronted Stephen A. Smith courtside and expressed his frustration over Smith’s comments about Bronny. He told him to stop messing with his son. Like any other father would do LeBron was looking out for his family, since this was personal. The next day Smith labelled Lebron’s actions as weak, defending his comments on Lebron and his son.
On March 26, Lebron appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show,” addressing the ongoing feud and his desire to protect his family from media scrutiny. On the show, he jokingly said that Smith is on his “Taylor Swift turn run.” He also said that he was sure Smith was waiting for this video to come out, so that he could go ‘grab his ice cream and sit on the couch in his tighty-whities.’ Stephen A. Smith then responded that LeBron was trying to make this personal just so he could dodge media criticism. He then said that if Lebron made physical contact during their March 6th interaction, he would have ‘swung’ and thrown hands. Lebron replied to this by posting a video of Stephen boxing on his instagram, captioning “Womp womp.” Smith then fired back, with more comments about Lebron, claiming LeBron is acting this way since Smith said he wasn’t the GOAT. He also claimed that LeBron never attended the funeral service of Kobe, which he took back a few hours later, as it was false.
Stephen A. Smith has been criticized a lot recently, being told that this feud is unnecessary, and LeBron is just a family man. Whether this is the case or not, I’m sure all NBA fans have enjoyed these two stars taking shots at each other.