Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith are on less-than-great terms at the moment. The two began butting heads after Smith publically pleaded with LeBron James to stop what he deemed a charade by having his son Bronny be a rostered member of the Los Angeles Lakers.
This led to LeBron confronting Smith courtside in the middle of a Lakers game, which led to Smith taking to a media tour of sorts to condemn James’s behavior.
James reacted to the entire situation in an interview on The Pat McAfee Show that aired on Wednesday afternoon.
“Stephen A Smith is on a Taylor Swift tour run right now. He completely missed the whole point.. He got personal with it and it’s my job to not only protect my own household but also all the players,” James said in his appearance.
However, Smith appears to be getting the last word on the day, as he says he’d have punched James if he needed to.
“If that man would’ve put his hands on me. I would’ve immediately swung on him. Immediately,” Smith said in a video that’s making the rounds on social media.
Fans reacted to the video on social media.
“he presses you in person and you took it like a good boy. enough with all this fake toughness media persona,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“Guarantee you he would not be saying this if he was face to face,” another person added.
“the biggest main character syndrome in the media. Stephen is the equivalent of a keyboard warrior. We all saw how quiet you were when he confronted you,” someone else added.
It’ll be interesting to see if James deems this worth responding to.