Stephen A. Smith has taken a furious swipe at LeBron James over their viral courtside spat – calling the NBA legend’s decision to confront him publicly ‘weak’ and ‘bulls***’.
Shock footage of the ESPN personality’s heated exchange with LeBron as he sat courtside for the LA Lakers‘ win over the New York Knicks went viral on social media last Thursday.
James, the NBA’s all-time leading point scorer, was visibly unhappy as he confronted Smith after his team’s victory at Crypto.com Arena, which came after they recently traded comments in the media.
The ‘First Take’ host broke his silence on the dispute the following morning, revealing that LeBron had taken issue with remarks he made about his son Bronny, who is currently in his rookie NBA season.
Despite suggesting their conversation shouldn’t have happened in the public eye, he conceded that the basketball legend approached him as a ‘father’ on the night.
Yet five days on, Smith has now offered a more scathing verdict on his bust-up with James during an appearance on the ‘Gil’s Arena’ podcast.
Stephen A. Smith has taken a furious swipe at LeBron James over their viral courtside spat
Shock footage of the ESPN personality’s heated exchange with LeBron went viral last week
‘I thought it was weak, I thought it was some bulls***,’ he said about LeBron confronting him at courtside. ‘But in the moment, I knew that I was listening to a father.’
He added: ‘Apparently LeBron had walked out at the timeout, and I turn around and he’s right here in my face.
‘He said, “Yo, you gotta stop talking s*** about my son. You gotta stop f****ng with my son. That’s my son, that’s my son!”‘
A few days after the incident, a new video emerged which appeared to show LeBron speaking about it with Smith’s ESPN colleague Richard Jefferson.
‘That’s the only thing I’m tripping,’ James could be heard saying to Jefferson. ‘I don’t give a f***. Once he talks about: “I’m pleading to you as a father”. I can’t.’
Smith said he was ‘really p****d’ after seeing James’ discussion with his co-worker, despite stressing that it vindicated his original comments about Bronny – having accused the Lakers icon of opening his son up to criticism last year.
‘Even though I thought that he misrepresented the argument, I was glad he did,’ Smith continued. ‘Because you see, what he was really talking about, which was confirmed with his conversation with Richard Jefferson, is that I was talking about him as a father.
‘And so what happens is… had he said that to me, then I wouldn’t have been thrown off. I’d have came right back at him [and said], “Yes I was. I was talking about you, you did this s***.”‘
Smith described the NBA legend’s decision to confront him in public as ‘weak’ and ‘bulls***’
Smith addressed the courtside altercation during Friday’s episode of his ‘First Take’ show
A new clip appeared to show LeBron discussing the feud with one of Smith’s ESPN colleagues
Smith then took another shot at James for choosing to confront him in public.
‘Rather than come up to me at courtside, all you had to do was say, “Yo, I need to see you after the game,”‘ he fumed. ‘You didn’t do that s***. You said you’re f****ng with my son. No I wasn’t! I was talking about you!
‘It wasn’t about your son. I know he’s number 55. I know he got work to do. I believe that he’s got the potential and by the way, I’m rooting for him. I ain’t rooting against nobody! But I was talking about your a**! You! You did this!
‘All of us as reporters, as a league, as an NBA franchise, had to sit back and be quiet and capitulate to your s***, you did that.’
Despite Smith’s latest comments, James’ agent Rich Paul insists the feud is now over after they ‘moved on’ from the heated confrontation.
Paul attempted to play down the feud during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. But he does believe that analysts can be guilty of getting too personal in their comments on star players.
LeBron’s agent Rich Paul defended the NBA star over his clash with Smith last Thursday
‘I didn’t think it was much but as adults you try to handle things the best way possible so I was glad they were able to move on,’ he said.
‘But it’s tough – any time you have media platforms and there’s so many today and these guys… as much as (they) critique, sometimes it can be felt as if it’s a little bit more than that.
‘So there’s a balance there to try to maintain. I just try to focus on the business of it and keep the personal stuff away.
‘But sometimes you have those things, but we have moved on – it was a dust-up and we moved on.’
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