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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Jimmy Traina

Ugly Fallout From LeBron James-Stephen A. Smith Feud Continues

LeBron James Stephen A: Stephen A Smith Pat McAfee Kobe Bryant Stacey King MLBTV Adam Amin Darrion Williams ESPN
Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James don't seem interested in ending their war of words. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images; Brad Penner-Imagn Images

1. A lot of people have waved off the LeBron James-Stephen A. Smith back-and-forth this week as just two guys playing the attention-seeking game. I’ve even had people ask me I think the feud has been staged because we live in this horrible time where everything is a conspiracy theory.

The reality is that too many ugly and nasty things have now taken place for anyone to think this is a work.

For starters, during a nearly 20-minute diatribe on Thursday responding to LeBron’s interview on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, Smith, for some unknown reason, brought up James’s not attending Kobe Bryant’s memorial service.

Why Smith would bring this up is beyond me. As I said in Thursday’s Traina Thoughts, it was just gross.

It also turns out the accusation was also false. James did attend Kobe’s funeral, and Smith had to issue a cringeworthy apology on Twitter.

The other piece of ugliness that has come out of this is that LeBron has taken hits from some people for going on McAfee’s show and not a show with black hosts.

McAfee acknowledged this on Friday.

I would assume LeBron and his camp wanted to go on McAfee for two reasons: (1) McAfee’s show gets more attention than any other sports show these days, and (2) they probably wanted to stick it to to Stephen A. by going on the show right after his show and then have LeBron mock Stephen A. on his own network.

One person who came to James’s defense for going on McAfee was his former teammate and lead ESPN NBA analyst, Richard Jefferson.

2. Huge, huge kudos to Bulls broadcasters Adam Amin and Stacey King for their work during the wild ending to Thursday’s Lakers-Bulls game, which saw three 3-pointers in 10 seconds, including a half-court game-winning heave from Chicago’s Josh Giddey.

Amin and King captured the moment with frantic, over-the-top calls that just added to the excitement. Bonus kudos to King for the Sanford and Son reference in his call.

3. Speaking of calls, this was perfection from Kevin Harlan. We always tip our caps to Harlan for the pipes and yelling, but his call at the end of Arkansas-Texas Tech was so good because of the attention to detail on the game-winner: “Williams, corkscrews, up, off and DOWN!

4. I wrote this in Thursday’s Traina Thoughts: “No matter which way CBS goes, I can tell you from rumblings I’ve heard over the past few weeks that there are going to be some significant changes in the NFL media world before next season gets under way.”

One domino fell on Friday morning with Peter Schrager set to leave his current jobs at NFL Network and Fox for ESPN.

5. While I hate watching sporting events on streaming services more than any other human being, I don’t want to see anyone suffer. But if I’m being 100% honest, I did enjoying seeing people flip out on Thursday when MLB.tv decided not to work properly ON OPENING DAY!

6. A brand-new SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast dropped Thursday. This week’s episode features a conversation with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch about all the latest sports media news.

Among some of the topics covered: Pat McAfee getting LeBron James in-studio for over an hour; impressive ratings for the men’s and women’s NCAA tournament; J.J. Watt becoming CBS’s No. 2 NFL analyst; Stephen A. Smith and RGIII playing the media game;  the one problem with Caitlin Clark’s national TV appearances; UConn’s communications director threatening a reporter for posting video of Dan Hurley ripping officials; how the WWE has handled John Cena’s heel turn and more.

Following Deitsch, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for the weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment. This week’s topics include the NCAA tournament, MLB Opening Day, Licata’s day at a New York Rangers game, a must-watch wrestling show and much more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 55th birthday to Vince Vaughn.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ugly Fallout From LeBron James-Stephen A. Smith Feud Continues.

Good for Jefferson for speaking out.
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