Whenever there is a sports movie happening, Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James are both likely characters to be involved. There’s a reason why LeBron James is basketball’s biggest brand since Michael Jordan and why Stephen A. Smith is about to ink a $100M deal with ESPN to talk about sports.
Being that both of these men are at the top of the corporate ladder in their respective fields, it was wild that LeBron James would decide to confront Stephen A. Smith aggressively for all to see while the action on the court was about to heat up.
Here you have LeBron James, who is worth $1B dollars and will openly brag about his power, his accomplishments, connections and ability to lift his son Bronny into the NBA despite those who feel he is not ready for such an honor. LeBron James often preaches ignoring negative people and staying focused on the task at hand. He also has a tendency to not practice exactly what he preaches.
LeBron James Lacked Professionalism?
Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James both had a right to be in the arena prior to the Los Angeles Lakers defeating a short-handed Knicks team in OT (113-109) without superstar Karl Anthony-Towns. However, did LeBron lack professionalism by addressing an issue with his son, while Stephen A. Smith was hanging out with his agent in a non-working capacity?
LeBron didn’t come to Smith about a comment he directed at the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. Smith has been commentating on LeBron James since LBJ came into the league. He stepped to Smith as a father defending his son, which is very different.
Smith acknowledges that much in his response after the video went viral, even saying that he understood LeBron’s angry demeanor under the circumstances.
“That wasn’t a basketball player confronting me, that was a parent. That was a father. I can’t sit here and be angry or feel slighted by LeBron James in any way in that regard,” Smith said on “First Take” on Friday. “He’s a wonderful father who cares deeply about his son and based on comments I think he thought he heard, he clearly took exception and he confronted me about it.”
Why Didn’t Klutch Sports Reach Out To Stephen A. Smith About Any Issues?
At the same time, Stephen A. Smith was very adamant about the fact that LeBron James’ Klutch Sports team knows how to reach him at any time if they want to discuss something that he might have said or gotten incorrect. Waiting until a national event on a huge NBA night, when all cameras are on, could be mistaken as LeBron James creating a favorable narrative for himself, as a father taking up for his son. He’s very strategic with how he operates, even if it appears that it’s just a spur of the moment thing.
“(His agent) Rich Paul and Maverick Carter have my number. LeBron James knows how to get in contact with me if he wants to. He never called,” Smith said. “I would have flown out and had a conversion man-to-man.”
Why Did LeBron James Choose To Address Smith In Front Of Cameras At The Game?
Smith continued to paint his picture of the events: “He elected to confront me while I was sitting courtside. He walked right up to me and said what he had to say. He feels like I was slighting his son.”
So in this case, LeBron James has some explaining to do. Why did he choose to address Stephen A. Smith like they were at a pickup game? This confrontation could have waited until after the game. LeBron couldn’t tell one of his many minions to set up a meeting with Stephen A Smith by the tunnel prior to the game? Or a Facetime?
Stephen A. Smith Says He Criticizes LeBron Not Bronny: His Son Is an Innocent Party
That’s Smith’s only real beef here is that his criticisms have been of LeBron James and not Bronny. The way LeBron has handled his son’s journey into the NBA has been highly-criticized throughout sports, not just by SAS, as the veteran reporter pointed out on Friday’s show.
“He also said that his son could play on the Lakers right now and he was better than half the dudes in the NBA” Smith said, quoting past remarks made by James.
“In the aftermath of all of that, he instructed everybody before the (NBA) draft, if y’all want me… draft Bronny. Wherever Bronny is at, that’s where I’ll be. I’ll do whatever it takes to play with my son for a year. It’s not about the money at that point.”
“My point months ago, because of who you are…there’s an immense amount of pressure that comes with that for his son. And when he talks like that anything that goes awry as it pertains to his son there will be a microscopic eye even more intensified on Bronny James because of what his dad had said,” Smith explained. And that’s when I was talking about, c’mon man this is the situation you’re putting him in”
LeBron Thinks Stephen A. Smith Is Attacking Him Through Bronny
Stephen A Smith believes that because of the frosty relationship he and King James have had over the years, LeBron believes any criticism of Bronny is really a shot at him.
“It was almost as if he was saying, keep that between me and you,” Smith surmised. “Almost if he was thinking that anything I said about Bonny was a result of him. But I really understood where he was coming from. He could have called me. I would have come to see him… He could have been just upset with me face-to-face.”
LeBron Just Being A Dad Protecting His Son
This idea by fans that anything LeBron James does concerning Bronny is OK because he is a father protecting his son is unrealistic. Bron is the face of the NBA and he’s also expected to conduct himself as such.
Nobody needed to see him confronting Stephen A. Smith prior to one of the biggest NBA games of the season. That could have been kept in-house. You can’t bully reporters into being silent on issues that they feel compelled to address and that the fans want to discuss. The player-reporter relationship has always been an agree to disagree arrangement.
NBA Players Can’t Threaten Reporters
Players can’t be out here intimidating reporters. Joel Embiid got in trouble for shoving Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes earlier this season. Embiid, who is out for the season with another injury, took issue with Hayes mentioning the All-Star center’s late brother and his son — both named Arthur — in columns questioning Embiid’s professionalism and effort not being in shape after playing in the Paris Olympics.
Embiid confronted Hayes, threatening, “The next time you bring up my dead brother and my son again, you are going to see what I’m going to do to you and I’m going to have to … live with the consequences.”
Family is a very touchy issue for players and with Bronny trying to pave a way for himself in the league, LeBron might want to re-think how he went about this one and the optics, knowing that social media can always turn a mole hill into a mountain.
