LeBron James hasn’t seen hardwood action for a couple of days, but he continues to be in the headlines, although not for reasons related to basketball. Currently, his confrontation with ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith is more on the forefront of the news than his groin injury that he sustained last Saturday during the LA Lakers’ game against the Boston Celtics.
Last Thursday, during the Lakers’ game against the New York Knicks, James saw Smith sitting courtside, approached him and told him to stop talking about his son Bronny, who plays alongside him for the Lakers.
Many people have voiced their opinions about the confrontation, including James’ former teammate Patrick Beverley. On Wednesday, Beverley revealed on his podcast that he and LeBron James had exchanged some profanity-laced text messages about the now-viral confrontation. The former EuroCup MVP said he wanted to bleep their messages out before showing them but eventually decided against it.
“The first thing I did after I see it, I text LeBron, ‘Let me know if you want me to respond about that Stephen A. s**t. Buddy was out of line. Keep being great,’” Beverley said.
Stephen A. Smith says LeBron James’ move to confront him “weak”
Stephen A. Smith used to have plenty of praise for LeBron James in the past, but he has been recently critical of the four-time NBA champion. The ESPN analyst addressed his now-viral confrontation with the LA Lakers superstar on “First Take,” on his eponymous podcast, and on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast. He didn’t care for the way things unfolded and called James’ actions last Thursday a “weak” move.
“I thought is was weak, I thought it was some bulls***. But in the moment, I knew that I was listening to a father,” Smith said.
“I thought it was weak. I thought it was bullsh*t.”@stephenasmith gives @GilsArenaShow the full story of what happened during his confrontation with LeBron 😳 pic.twitter.com/K6rtZsbYvf
— Underdog (@UnderdogFantasy) March 11, 2025
Smith has a friendly relationship with James’ agent Rich Paul, and said James knew how to get in touch with him if he wanted to. He also said he would’ve even flown to LA to address the issue with him face-to-face if the Lakers superstar wanted to talk to him.
“Rather than come up to me at courtside, all you had to do was say, ‘Yo, I need to see you after the game.’ You didn’t do that sh*t, you said, ‘You f***ing with my son.’ No, I wasn’t, I was talking about you! It wasn’t about your son.” Smith said.
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Dan has been active in sports since 2016 and has worked behind the scenes as a scriptwriter for basketball, volleyball, and other sports. At a time, Dan has also been working as a sports commentator for CBA Pilipinas. During the pandemic, he has also been actively writing betting articles for CashBet and BetNow.
