Before the Los Angeles Lakers took on the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, LeBron James found some time to make an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” the popular ESPN sports talk show. He talked about a number of topics, and one of them was the apparent beef he has with ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith.
Several weeks ago, Smith told James to “stop this” as far as James’ son Bronny shuttling back-and-forth between the G League and the NBA. Not too long afterward, the elder James physically confronted Smith during a game against the New York Knicks at Crypto.com Arena and had some choice words for Smith.
Smith has had some things to say about that incident, and now the elder James has responded.
“He’s like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now…It started off with ‘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.’ [Expletive] are you kidding me? If there’s one person that couldn’t wait until the video drop so you could address it, it’s your [expletive]. And he completely, like, missed the whole point. The whole point. Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court. 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 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. I think a lot of the media, including him – and I know he’s going to be happy as hell. He’s going to be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me talking about him again. Oh my God. He’s going to get home and get some ice cream out of his [expletive] freezer and sit in his chair in his tighty whities on his couch…Like, dude, like relax.”
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Smith claims he never criticized the younger James and that his initial comments were directed at the 40-year-old. In fact, he praised the rookie guard after a recent 17-point performance against the Milwaukee Bucks and admitted he may have been wrong about the guard’s potential.
The elder James even talked about another ESPN reporter — Brian Windhorst, who has covered him since his high school days in his native Akron, Ohio.
“I seen Brian Windhorst on one of these shows not too long ago. This guy says he’s like my [expletive] best friend. These guys are just weird…He went on his show and said ‘Don’t let LeBron fool you. He wears number 23 because of Michael Jordan.’ Ok, that’s a fact. ‘He signed with Nike because of Michael Jordan.’ Like, no the [expletive] I didn’t. I signed with Nike because I got a hell of a signing bonus and they gave me a seven-year, $90 million contract and I moved my mom out of the hood the next day I signed that contract”
Generally speaking, the national media has been extremely complimentary of the elder James going back to even before he was the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. But he’s not the most thick-skinned man, and thus it shouldn’t be too surprising that he has taken exception to some seemingly minor things that media personalities have said about him.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: LeBron James speaks out on Stephen A. Smith and Brian Windhorst
