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The feud between Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James is beginning to get ugly. On Wednesday afternoon, LeBron went on ESPN’s Pat McAfee show to blast Smith for his coverage about their confrontation two weeks ago.
“He’s like on a Taylor Swift run right now, he literally started off “I didn’t want to address it, but since the video came out I feel the need to address it”, like motherf–er are you kidding me? If there’s one person who couldn’t wait until the video dropped to address it, is your a–”
“He completely missed the whole point, never would I ever not allow people to criticize players about what they do on the court. That’s your job to criticize or to be in a position if a guy is not performing, that’s all part of the game, but when you take it and get personal with it, it’s my job to not only protect my damn household, and to protect my players.”
LeBron would later mock Smith’s boxing skills on Instagram after the ESPN host said he would have swung on the Lakers star.
On Thursday morning, Smith responded to James by reminding everyone that LeBron didn’t go to Kobe Bryant’s memorial service.
“I suggest that he be happy with the things that I haven’t brought up. I never brought up really and never really discussed why you were not at Kobe Bryant’s memorial service.”
Stephen A. Smith goes off on LeBron James and exposes him for not attending Kobe Bryant’s memorial 😳
(🎥 @FirstTake ) pic.twitter.com/kESQZ2L5ta
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 27, 2025
Fans immediately responded to Smith by clarifying that LeBron did reportedly attend Bryant’s memorial service but was not shown.
Why is he lying ? https://t.co/ECxFJ3r4fv pic.twitter.com/tOVjfRXEz5
— Mike (@Tmbil24) March 27, 2025