Not too long ago, the Lakers beat the Knicks at the Crypto.com Arena, and after the match LeBron James confronted Stephen A. Smith on the court by asking him to stop messing with his son Bronny, who has been heavily criticized since he first started playing in the NBA this season.
Weeks later, the 40-year-old believes the ESPN icon misunderstood his reasoning. “He completely missed the whole point. The whole point,” the player said. “Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport and criticize players about what they do.”
LeBron then added: “That is your job to criticize, or to be in a position where if a guy’s not performing, you know? That’s all part of the game. But when you take it and you get personal with it, it’s my job to not only protect my damn household, but protect the players.”
Despite the drama, James’ eldest son has been showing lots of improvement over the past weeks. On March 20, for example, he had to step up for the Lakers in the absence of many key players, and delivered with a career-high 17 points for the rookie.
Even Smith was impressed by the youngster’s game and congratulated him on air the following day. He might have not apologized, but he certainly admitted he might’ve jumped the gun a bit. “I saw an elevation in his poise and confidence,” he said. “He didn’t look as nervous as he did in previous contests.”
The ESPN star continued his point: “And if that kind of stuff continues, then indeed he’ll be in the league as a bona fide player sooner than later. One game doesn’t make that determination. You need to do more than that. But I wanted to make sure I emphasized that point.”
However, one of the most hilarious things Stephen claimed during his show was that he would’ve “immediately swung” on LeBron if the player had touched him during the confrontation. Smith then added that, “I would have gotten my ass kicked.”
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