While LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers were mounting a comeback against Stephen A Smith's beloved New York Knicks with him in attendance Thursday (March 6), he decided it was time to confront the First Take star. Their tense interaction was caught on video and it spread like wildfire overnight. Folks have been trying to decode what James was saying to Smith. Some are of the belief that the future Hall-of-Famer was saying, "Keep my son out of this sh*t, bro." Well, all of those speculations can be put to rest now because the longtime journalist is setting the record straight in that regard. He broke it down on his self-titled talk show yesterday, March 7.
"Let me just put to bed, a couple of things that have been reported that are false," Stephen A Smith began. "People was talking about LeBron calling me out my name, or somebody said he called me a b*tch. Somebody said he called me a punk and all this other -- none of that is true. He was fiery. He approached me during the game, and he said, 'Stop f-ing with my son. That's my f-ing son. Stop f-ing with my son.'" Smith said that he was caught off guard by James' comments; however, the NBA icon wasn't going for all of that.
LeBron James Stephen A Smith Video
According to Smith he kept going, "'Nah nah nah man. Straight up, man to man. Real talk. Stop f-ing with my son." Then, he explains how he visibly upset he was and extended an effort to talk about it more at a later time. Presumably, Smith was doing so to give James more time to air out his grievances. "'We can talk about it later,'" he says he told LeBron. Once again, though, number 23 wanted to handle it right then and there. "'Nah, F that, f that, stop f-ing with my son. That's my son. That's my son." After that, the heated confrontation came to an end. Overall, Smith and James have never had the best rapport, but from the sounds of it, it may never even be cordial anymore.
However, with the way the James went about it, there's a chance that won't be something he loses sleep over. This all started due to Smith's coverage of Bronny James on First Take. Clearly, LeBron has felt a certain way about it, hence the reason for him going nuclear. It's been a rough road for the 20-year-old rookie, though. He's appeared in under 20 games for the Lakers and his stats have not been great as a result. Smith reiterated on First Take yesterday that he's always been rooting for Bronny and has said that he has some skills to make him an asset in the league. In fact, he's said so on multiple occasions due to ESPN encouraging them to talk about him so often. But it sounds like there won't be any more topics on his son for a while or may be ever again.
