Leave it to sports commentator Stephen A. Smith to get the last word! We thought we heard the last of Smith’s dispute with NBA star LeBron James after an altercation between the two went viral last week... but no. It seems Smith still has some things to get off his chest.
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As The Root previously reported, things heated up during a Los Angeles Lakers’ game when James confronted Smith over his son, Bronny James. Since the Thursday (March 6) dispute, James and Smith both came out sharing their respective sides of the story. But even though the ESPN commentator previously said he can’t “be angry or feel slighted by LeBron James in any way,” now, he’s changing his tune big time.
Smith appeared on “Gil’s Arena” podcast on Tuesday (March 11) to talk about the altercation, but this time, he didn’t hold back criticism for the basketball icon. In fact, Smith called James’ actions “weak,” during the show saying “I thought it was some bulls**t.”
To Smith’s credit, he said he understood where James was coming from. “In the moment, I knew that I was listening to a father,” Smith said during the podcast before detailing the moments leading up to the confrontation. “LeBron had walked out at the timeout, and I turn around and he’s right here in my face,” he continued.
“He said, ‘Yo, you gotta stop talking s**t about my son. You gotta stop f*****g with my son. That’s my son!’” Smith revealed. But the issue for him wasn’t that James had a problem. Instead, the “First Take” personality said James simply should’ve picked a better time to initiate the conversation.
“My point is, rather than come up to me at court side, all you had to do was say, ‘Yo, I need you to stay, don’t leave this game I need to see you after the game,’” the 57-year-old commentator suggested. “That’s all he had to say to me.” Smith continued saying the whole thing boiled down to a clear misunderstanding.
According to Smith, James thought Smith was “‘f*****g with’” Bronny, but that wasn’t the case. “No I wasn’t. I was talking about you [James]. It wasn’t about your son. I know he’s No. 55,” Smith said, referring to Bronny’s draft pick. “I know he got work to do, I believe he got potential to go pro, I truly believe that. It’s gonna be tough, but I think he can pull it off.”
Since the now-viral confrontation, many have defended James saying as a father, he made the right move. Even James’ former teammate and 13-time NBA All-Star Dwyane Wade sided with the Laker over the matter. “I would have walked up on him the same way,” Wade told TMZ before revealing he also had a talk with Smith after the altercation.
Smith continued on the podcast saying “unlike a whole bunch of people with their podcast and beyond that talk about the NBA, I cover the NBA. And it’s my job to talk about the subjects and the subject matters that matter.” He added that despite his critiques of James and Bronny, he’s still rooting for his success.
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