Dec 15, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) reacts in the first half against the Memphis Grizzlies at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images After a viral spat surrounding Bronny James just a few short months ago, top ESPN basketball personality Stephen A. Smith admitted that he simply does not like LeBron James.
This is an instance of two stars quite literally colliding. James is the best basketball player of this generation — a fact that hasn’t been up for debate for the last decade. Smith is one of the highest-paid sports personalities in history and has reshaped the way sports conversations happen on television.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Smith admitted that he does not like James — and that James doesn’t like him either — and accused LeBron of using the Bronny story as an excuse to go after ESPN’s top talker.
“I don’t like him, and he don’t like me. He’s one of the greatest players who’s ever lived. I’m going to show him that respect, and I’m going to cover him objectively,” Smith said. “When he does great, I’m gonna applaud. When he doesn’t do great, I’m not gonna applaud. He hid behind his son, tried to make something out of nothing, as if I was dogging his son — which I was not. The real issue was we don’t like each other. And he used that as an excuse to confront me.”
Recently, on his Mind the Game podcast with Steve Nash, James noted that the obsession with “ring culture” is one of the issues with basketball coverage today.
“I don’t know why it’s discussed so much in our sport,” James said. “Trying to nitpick an individual because he was not able to win a team game … it’s just so weird.”
Well, Smith wasted no time ripping that take to shreds.
“If [winning a championship] didn’t mean much or shouldn’t mean much … why were you so relieved to finally have one? Why did you depart Cleveland to go to Miami?” Smith said.
We’re officially on a collision course between two powerful figures in the basketball world who clearly despise each other. And it’s not even the slow part of the summer yet. The NHL just crowned a champion. The NBA Finals are still underway. Don’t you get the feeling this little rivalry is just beginning?
To this latest point, the one criticism that Michael Jordan fans can still hold over James is the fact that Jordan has six rings — and never lost in the NBA Finals. James is 4-6 in the Finals, struggling to get the job done against the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors dynasties during his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat.
Smith is hardly the lone TV debater to take issue with James. Famously, his former co-host Skip Bayless would ruthlessly defend Jordan’s legacy over James, even when LeBron was at his peak.
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