The ongoing Stephen A. Smith-LeBron James feud has escalated.
A very public back and forth between the ESPN pundit and Los Angeles Lakers star continued Wednesday night when Smith went on his live YouTube show and responded to James blasting him on ESPN’s “Pat McAfee Show” earlier in the day.
The crux of the conversation is Smith’s coverage of James’ son Bronny. LeBron approached Smith courtside during a March 6 Lakers game, reportedly saying ‘Yo, you gotta stop talking s*** about my son. You gotta stop f***ing with my son. That’s my son, that’s my son!'”
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Smith was not amused, saying James’ confrontation was ‘bulls*** and weak.” James said his part Wednesday by painting the incident as him protecting his family.
Hours later, Smith had a lot more to say.
First, he said he has no issue with his ESPN colleague in McAfee bringing James on to criticize him, as that’s the nature of their line of work. Then he accused James of lying about his coverage of Bronny and whipped out a Chris Rock-Will Smith comparison.
Smith claimed that had James touched him, he would have taken a swing at the Lakers star then immediately experienced a bad time:
“I just want to say for the record LeBron James is full of it and in this particular instance, as it pertains to his son, he is a liar. He went on national television today and he lied again. You see, when he approached me while I was sitting courtside at that game against the New York Knicks, when he rolled up on me, I didn’t know he was going to roll up on me. I had no idea, but when he said what he had to say, I was in no position to give any kind of retort without making a scene.
“It was during the third quarter, it was fresh out of a timeout, it was him walking to the basketball court, it was on national television, the cameras were rolling and had I done something, what do y’all want me to do? Do you want this to be a reincarnation of Chris Rock and Will Smith?
Let me state for the record that while we bring up that, let me assure you it wouldn’t have gone down like that. I would have gotten my ass kicked, because had that man put his hands on me, I would have immediately swung on him. Immediately. That, I’m not going to tolerate. But I knew he wasn’t going to do something like that.
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James responded hours later on Instagram, with a video of Smith doing some training.
