While repeatedly accusing LeBron James of “lying” on Thursday, ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith falsely claimed the Los Angeles Lakers superstar did not attend the memorial service of NBA Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant — despite numerous news outlets reporting that James appeared at the 2020 event.
Smith, who recently signed a multi-year contract extension with the sports network, has been engaged in a largely one-sided feud with James in recent years. Much of Smith’s aggressive commentary about James has focused on the multi-time NBA MVP’s son Bronny, a member of the Lakers and the subject of criticism over nepotism.
Weeks after James confronted Smith on the sidelines of a Lakers game over the ESPN commentator’s nonstop remarks about his son, which went viral and prompted an on-air response from Smith, the NBA champion appeared on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday and briefly discussed his issues with McAfee’s network colleague.
“Stephen A. Smith is on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,” James snarked. “If anyone was waiting on the video to come out it was his a**… He completely missed the whole point. He got personal about it all, and it’s my job to not only protect my household but also all the players.”
Before his appearance on Thursday morning’s broadcast of First Take, Smith first fired back at James on his personal podcast — which his new ESPN contract allows him to spend more time promoting. (Besides sports, the longtime sports host wants to devote more time to political punditry.)
“I just want to say for the record LeBron James is full of it and in this particular instance, as it pertains to his son, he is a liar. He went on national television today and he lied again,” Smith fumed on his podcast, adding that when James “rolled up on me” that he was “in no position to give any kind of retort without making a scene.”
He then claimed that if the 6’8” forward had tried to get physical with him, he would have had no other option but to punch James back.
“Do you want this to be a reincarnation of Chris Rock and Will Smith? Let me state for the record that while we bring up that, let me assure you it wouldn't have gone down like that,” Smith declared. “I would have gotten my a** kicked, because had that man put his hands on me, I would have immediately swung on him. Immediately. That, I'm not going to tolerate. But I knew he wasn't going to do something like that.”
Devoting an entire 15-minute monologue to James on Thursday, Smith repeated the prior night’s claims on his podcast that the Laker was “lying” about his commentary on Bronny. Smith also chalked up James’ supposed issues with him to his unwillingness to name the all-time leading NBA scorer as the greatest basketball player ever.
“The day he came up to me was the day my new contract was announced. So he knows like everybody else, it’s going to be a little while before I go away. I was here before he got here in 2003,” Smith exclaimed. “And in all likelihood, I’m going to be here when he’s gone. You gotta deal with that, bro. Plain and simple. It ain’t a crime for Michael Jordan to be a GOAT. But clearly, it’s something that's a crime with him.”
This eventually devolved into Smith insisting that his criticism of James over the years could have been far more personal before he lobbed a series of accusations about the four-time NBA champ.
“I suggest that he be happy with the things that I haven't brought up. I never brought up really, and never really discussed, why you were not at Kobe Bryant's memorial service,” Smith bellowed. “I never really brought up or discussed why you did not attend Dwyane Wade's Hall of Fame induction when that man was directly responsible for you capturing a championship for the first time in your career.”
However, despite Smith’s allegations, James was in attendance at the “Celebration for Life” for Bryant and his daughter Gigi, which took place at the Staples Center on February 24, 2020. While James did not take the stage to deliver any comments about the Lakers great, several media outlets — such as The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Entertainment Tonight — reported that he was in attendance.
Additionally, while he didn’t deliver remarks at the memorial, at least one speaker acknowledged him from the stage. Diana Taurasi made a joke about James during her eulogy of Bryant’s daughter and appeared to look directly at him.
Furthermore, when it comes to James not appearing at Wade’s Hall of Fame induction, that took place two weeks after Bronny suffered a cardiac arrest — even though Smith insisted on Thursday that the ceremony occurred several weeks before the health scare. In fact, just before Wade was honored, James and his family visited the Mayo Clinic so that his son could continue to receive treatment.
Later on in the show, with social media users already pointing out that James had attended the Bryant memorial, Smith said his phone was “blowing up” before insisting that he didn’t actually allege James had been a no-show.
“I didn’t mean to say he wasn’t in the building,” Smith proclaimed. “I was told he was in the building, you understand, but we saw a whole bunch of players out there. We didn’t see him. Why? I’ll let him answer that one day if he so chooses.”
ESPN declined to comment when approached for a response about Smith’s false allegation.
While the network didn’t want to comment on one of its top stars' claims, it does appear it took some action to mitigate the spread of the falsehood. Though Smith’s remarks about the Bryan and Wade ceremonies were included in the video clip that First Take’s official X account shared, that portion of the rant was excised from the clip on ESPN’s official YouTube channel.
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