The disagreement between Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith reached new levels of vitriol on Wednesday following remarks made by the former on The Pat McAfee Show. James emphasized that Smith missed the point of his problem with how he went about discussing his son, Bronny, which ultimately led to a confrontation courtside at Crypto.com Arena.
Smith took to his podcast to respond and emphasized that he would have swung at James if he put hands on him, which resulted in the Lakers forward posting an old video of Smith boxing on his Instagram page. Dan Le Batard, articulating that he was unable to “resist the siren’s call,” broached the topic on the Thursday edition of his show and admitted that it was great content.
Le Batard remarked that Smith referring to James as a liar was indicative of a new escalation within this conflict and something he has not seen from him that often. With Smith recently earning a new five-year contract extension with ESPN reportedly worth at least a total of $100 million, he divulged how he has been rewarded for everything he is. Moreover, Le Batard explained that James and McAfee ultimately led to content synergy and integration across ESPN programming as this topic continued to gain steam.
“But the childishness in it beyond, ‘I would have swung at him and he would have kicked my a**,’ and all the nonsense that men do when they’re being silly around the soap opera, the idea that LeBron is mad and that Stephen A. thinks he’s mad and keeps coming at him with, ‘You’re not my G.O.A.T. You’re not the best, you’re the second best Shannon Sharpe thinks you’re the best,’ it’s 7-year-olds,” Le Batard said. “That’s how 7-year-olds would do all of this, and it is passing for content I cannot resist. You can’t resist it.”
Amin Elhassan, who was co-hosting the show from the Meadowlark Media studios, conveyed that he could resist it and was ashamed to see what happened. In fact, he urged NBA commissioner Adam Silver to get on the phone and tell Smith and James that this is enough, contending that it was an embarrassing moment for the sport. On top of that, he called out James for averring that Brian Windhorst thinks he is his best friend, defending his objectivity and credibility as a journalist.
“LeBron has a responsibility, just like Stephen A. has a responsibility, that when the say things – yes, they’re human; yes, their feelings get hurt; yes, they react and lash out,” Elhassan said, “but the problem is when you’re at that place, you can’t do that because your words hold more credibility than a regular person just lashing out and saying, ‘Oh man, that dude thinks he’s my friend or whatever.’”
Le Batard admitted that this occurrence is shameful, but he added that it is part of the game and does not believe Silver should step in the situation. The part that could be bad for the sport is that the discussion surrounding James is focusing on the dispute with Smith rather than him hitting a game-winning buzzer-beater on Wednesday night.
After Le Batard underscored that attention is currency in this environment, Elhassan proceeded to outline that Silver has a responsibility to make sure things do not cross a line and threaten the structure of the business. In addition, he stated that the Commissioner’s Office cannot control everybody, which resulted in Le Batard verbalizing that the entity cannot control Smith either. Elhassan vehemently disagreed with this premise, on which Le Batard expounded later in the conversation.
“I can tell you having run into these clashes at ESPN with Rob Manfred, who was trying to control what I was saying, that ESPN could not do that to me, and while Stephen A. is the only person at that company who has told me on the phone after a conflict with that company, ‘Hey Dan, you can’t go against the company,’ I would say that Stephen A.’s present power is such is that he could absolutely buck the people involved,” Le Batard elucidated, “and if Adam Silver calls him, I’d say he’s got a responsibility to tell people that Adam Silver has called him and tried to mute the conflict as a journalist.”
Le Batard discussed the ostensible intentionality of James deciding to appear with McAfee, but characterized it as trying to please a corporate partner. Elhassan, claiming that Le Batard was naïve in this situation, divulged that James likely chose that venue to essentially take a shot at Smith on the ESPN airwaves, contextualizing it as doing a “nuclear strike from inside the building, not from miles and miles away.” As the duo discussed whether or not this was good for ESPN, Le Batard asked what the people want and how it assists certain vested parties.
“The conflict is your television partners with somebody, but this is dream scenario on a Wednesday when there’s not a lot going on,” Le Batard said. “Your big guy is fighting the league’s big guy in a way that makes for good media that I guarantee you the ratings go up when McAfee is interviewing LeBron and he is saying those things, but this is the conflict in the partnership. It’s the conflict, and it’s the conflict in the world happening around the partnership as the sport feels like it deteriorates a little bit because it’s storylines and highlights instead of games.”
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