LeBron James has broken his silence on the apparent feud between him and ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith — and invoked Taylor Swift to make his point.
While Smith, 57, has addressed his March 6 pregame confrontation with James, 40, multiple times, the Los Angeles Lakers star has stayed quiet. That changed on Thursday, March 27, when James appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN.
“He’s, like, on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,” James said, appearing to mock how many times Smith has discussed the incident.
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James continued to poke fun at Smith, mimicking the way he seemed to feign a reluctance to speak about it.
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“It started off with, ‘I didn’t wanna address it. I didn’t wanna address it. I wasn’t going to address it, but since the video came out, I feel the need to address it,’” he continued. “Are you, are you kidding me? If there’s one person that couldn’t wait for the video to drop so you could address it, it’s your ass. Like, seriously?”
The video showed James seeming to have a heated argument with Smith, who was sitting courtside at the Lakers game that night against the New York Knicks. Smith has since revealed the discussion was about his criticism of James’ son and Lakers teammate, Bronny.
After James’ segment on McAfee aired, Smith used his own platform on First Take to respond.
“This man is in his feelings. I wonder why. Could it be because I don’t believe you’re the GOAT?” he began in a lengthy rant. “Because I’ll never believe you’re the GOAT? Because I’ll believe you’re No. 2 all-time?”
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He continued, “Great father, great husband, great philanthropist, great businessman, great director, great producer, great host, great basketball player, great leader. I mean, my God, I have done everything but put diapers and a bib on this brother. But it ain’t enough because one thing matters to him and one thing only, and that’s him being recognized as the greatest of all time. Well, you’re not, in my book. That belongs to Michael Jordan.”
Smith took it a step further, bringing up things that he thought James might not want to be made public.
“I never brought up, really, and never really discussed why you were not at Kobe Bryant’s memorial service. I never really brought up or discussed why you did not attend Dwyane Wade’s Hall of Fame induction when that man was directly responsible for you capturing a championship for the first time in your career,” Smith said. “I brought up none of those things. But LeBron James at the end of the day wants to come at me, and he’s walking around pouting. Why would he be pouting?”
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