During his lengthy interview on “The Pat McAfee Show,” which aired on Wednesday on ESPN, LeBron James pulled back the curtain on several aspects of his life and different well-known folks who are or were in his sphere. He spoke at length about Miami Heat boss Pat Riley. He spoke about his relationship with Kobe Bryant. He spoke, too, about his relationship with Michael Jordan. 

But it was how he spoke about one of the beloved figures in NBA reporting circles–ESPN’s Brian Windhorst–that ruffled the most feathers across the league’s media landscape. 

Windhorst has been covering James since his arrival in the league in 2003, and even before that at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s High School.

He was a beat writer for the Beacon-Journal in Akron in those days, and moved up to the Cleveland Plain Dealer later in his career. ESPN hired him to cover the Heat when James left Cleveland to go to Miami in 2010. That launched Windhorst as a national personality, and these days, he is known for his NBA predictions and as the host of the popular “Hoops Collective” podcast. 

James, though, decided to take a shot at Windhorst in his McAfee interview. 

 Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

“I see a lot of (expletive), though,” James said. “Like I saw Brian Windhorst on one of these shows. This guy who says he’s like my (expletive) best friend. These guys are just weird.”

That comment was not taken kindly by others in the media. Windhorst has a reputation as a good journalist, and while he has certainly benefitted from having begun covering James at a young age, the notion he’d claimed to be James’ “best friend” is unfounded. 

Media critic Andrew Marchard of The Athletic wrote on Twitter/X: “Windhorst has never said that. He has covered LeBron for a long time. Weak sauce from LeBron.”

The popular site Old Skool Ball tweeted: “Brian Windhorst is the no. 1 source when it comes to LeBron James since day 1. Since 2003, everyone read his reports from Cleveland papers to get to know LBJ. No one knows him better than Windhorst. Covering books, articles, and everything. Always backed LeBron up. Today Windhorst got betrayed and trashed out.”

And radio host Nick Wilson noted, “Really disappointed by LeBron. Windy has never represented himself like that and there’s really no reason to say this other than to get over on Windy which is classless.”