LeBron James jokingly compared Stephen A. Smith to Taylor Swift on Wednesday, referring to the number of times the ESPN commentator has publicly addressed a tense March 6 interaction between the two men.
“He’s on, like, a Taylor Swift tour run right now,” James said during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” the first time he has publicly spoken about the issue.
James confronted Smith during a timeout in the second half of the Lakers’ 113-109 overtime win over the New York Knicks in Los Angeles on March 6. Smith, who was sitting with Endeavor chief executive Ari Emanuel and comedian Larry David near the Lakers’ bench, had previously been critical of James’s son, Bronny.
Smith appeared on ESPN’s “First Take” the next day and said, “That was LeBron James coming up to me, unexpectedly, I might add, to confront me about making sure that I mind what I say about his son.” Smith also griped that James could have spoken with him privately but chose not to.
“LeBron James knows how to get in touch with me if he wanted to,” Smith said on March 7. “He never called.”
Smith initially said he was reluctant to address the situation until it went viral on social media, but has since done multiple interviews discussing the interaction with James, including calling it “weak” and “some bulls—t” on the “Gil’s Arena” podcast.
James pushed back on Wednesday, saying that Smith, one of the biggest stars in sports media, enjoyed the publicity.
“It started off with, ‘I didn’t want to address it,’” James said. “‘I wasn’t going to address it. But since the video came out, I feel the need to address it.’ M——f——, are you kidding me? If there was one person that couldn’t wait until the video had dropped so you could address it, it was your ass. Like, seriously?”
The initial tension appeared to stem from comments Smith made after Bronny James went scoreless in 15 minutes in a 118-104 road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 28.
“I am pleading with LeBron James as a father: Stop this,” Smith said on “First Take” the next morning. “Stop this. We all know that Bronny James is in the NBA because of his dad.”
James said Wednesday that Smith “completely missed the whole point” of why he confronted him.
“Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court,” James told McAfee. “That is your job to criticize or to be in a position where, OK, if a guy is not performing, that is all part of the game. That’s all part of the game. But when you take it and get personal with it, it’s my job to not only protect my damn household, but protect the players.”
James also acknowledged that he was guaranteeing more attention for the story.
“He’s gonna be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me talking about him again,” he said of Smith. “He’s gonna get home and grab some ice cream out of the f—ing freezer and sit in his chair in his tighty whities on the couch. Like, dude, like, relax, bro. Like, relax. Like, seriously.”
Later on Wednesday, Smith responded to James on his podcast, “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” saying, “I have not, as Lebron James accused me of doing to my face, of s——- on his son. … I was not clapping back at his son.”
Smith said James “rolled up” on him at the Lakers-Knicks game, and he couldn’t respond to James “without making a scene.”
“What do y’all want me to do? You want this to be a reincarnation of Chris Rock and Will Smith? … Let me assure you it wouldn’t have gone down like that. I would have gotten my ass kicked because if that man had put his hands on me, I would’ve immediately swung on him. Immediately. That I’m not going to tolerate. But I knew he wasn’t going to do something like that.”
(Photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)
