Stephen A. Smith insists his relationship with LeBron James has deteriorated to the point that he would be happy never to speak to the NBA legend again.
Back in March, cameras caught James and the ESPN personality in a heated confrontation during the Los Angeles Lakers’ matchup against Smith’s beloved New York Knicks.
Smith later revealed that James had taken issue with remarks he made about his son, Bronny.
They then continued their war of words, with the ESPN star accusing the Lakers star of being a ‘liar’ and a ‘bully’. He even claimed: ‘Had that man put his hands on me, I would have immediately swung on him’
LeBron, meanwhile, went on The Pat McAfee Show, and mocked Smith for repeatedly discussing their feud. ‘He is on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,’ James joked.
Now, nearly six months on, Smith insists he and James have ‘no relationship’. ‘He doesn’t like me, and I don’t like him… if I never, ever speak to him again in life, that will be OK. And I’m good with it,’ Smith said Friday on the Gil’s Arena livestream. ‘There’s nobody that can mediate.’
Cameras caught LeBron James having a heated exchange with Stephen A. Smith in March
LeBron later took a savage swipe at ESPN star Smith over their courtside confrontation
He continued: ‘All I would say is people don’t know the things that have happened behind the scenes… things that have been said, who they’ve been said to. The kind of things that have been engaged in in an effort to hurt me, along with contemporaries and others.’
Smith insisted there is ‘a lot of s***’ he doesn’t say and that ‘there’s a reason that I feel the way that I do.’
‘And the last straw was him approaching me and turning the Bronny thing into something about me attacking somebody’s family, when it was him I was talking about. Not Bronny,’ the ESPN star continued.
The analyst has always maintained that the four-time NBA champion misconstrued his comments about his son.
‘And then to go on The Pat McAfee Show, which comes directly on after my show, on the channel that I work on. To insult me. Now, people can get into all kind of components that go into it and all that other stuff. I have nothing to say,’ continued Smith, who suggested he would now only discuss James when he has to.
‘I’m never going to denigrate any employer, any partner, or myself by getting into anything excessively, unnecessarily, when it comes to him or anybody else,’ the ESPN star explained. ‘I’m going to do my job. I’m going to cover the game of basketball.’
