The ongoing saga between Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James and ESPN First Take host Stephen A. Smith has taken on a new layer of drama. Appearing on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast, Gil’s Arena, Smith provided additional context on exactly what happened during their confrontation last week at Crypto.com Arena.
Last Friday, Smith spoke out on First Take about the incident, saying that he felt the exchange was like “a parent” confronting him about his son, Bronny James. He also clarified that he wasn’t “offended” or “insulted” and held no animosity toward James over what transpired.
However, on Tuesday night’s episode of Gil’s Arena, Smith took a sharper tone, calling the confrontation “weak” and “some b******t.”
Smith then elaborated on his perspective of the confrontation, which occurred late in the third quarter. He explained that LeBron confronted him about criticisms of his son Bronny, who was a second-round pick of the Lakers himself.
“LeBron had walked out of the timeout, and I turned around, and he’s right here in my face,” said Smith. “He said, ‘Yo! You got to stop talking s**t about my son. You got to stop f*****g with my son. That’s my son.’ And I was like, what? Then he said, ‘Nah, f**k that.’ I said, ‘Yo! Let’s talk later.’ He’s like, ‘F**k that. Nah, f**k that. You got to stop f*****g with my son.’ And I said, ‘Alright, dude.’ Then he walked off.”
On Friday, Smith acknowledged that James is a devoted family man who cares deeply about his son. He noted that it was clear James took issue with some of his past comments about Bronny. Additionally, Smith mentioned that James’ agent, Rich Paul, and business manager, Maverick Carter, both had his number. However, he pointed out that he never received a call from James before the incident. If James had wanted to speak with him in advance or meet in person, Smith believed he could have made it happen.
Further explaining his reaction, Smith revealed on Gil’s Arena that he initially had no intention of discussing the confrontation on First Take the following morning. However, he was persuaded to do so.
“Believe it or not, I know this may be shocking for people to believe. But I didn’t have any intentions of talking about it,” Smith said. “Until I woke up that morning and saw that this s**t had gone viral. Once the s**t had gone viral, the bosses at ESPN said, ‘Now you got to talk about it. This is you and him. You got to talk about it.’ I said, ‘Fine.’”
The confrontation took place on the same night that news broke about Smith’s new agreement with ESPN. Given the timing of the incident, Smith recognized that he couldn’t afford to escalate the situation. Instead, he let LeBron say his piece without turning it into a bigger distraction.
“I just agreed to my contract. Of course, that day was when it was announced,” explained Smith. “It’s a nationally televised game. The cameras are rolling, and I’m like, if I do anything, this is going to be a scene. Now, we can sit up here and front all we want and act like we don’t work for somebody. Damn it, I work for Walt Disney. If I had gotten into some s**t with him at courtside, right there at that moment, no matter how right I would have been, it would have been wrong.”
As of now, LeBron James has yet to comment on Smith’s latest remarks regarding the incident.
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