It\u2019s said that sometimes the best defense is offense. LeBron James took that approach Thursday night when he confronted Stephen A. Smith courtside at a Lakers game and scolded him, telling him in no uncertain terms to stop talking about Bronny James, LeBron\u2019s son and teammate.<\/p>\n
Smith, who reportedly has agreed to a five-year, $100-million contract to continue his lengthy career with ESPN, responded Friday morning by opening \u201cFirst Take\u201d with a subdued explanation of why LeBron James was upset with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was LeBron James coming up to me, unexpectedly I might add, to confront me about making sure I mind what I say about his son,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI can\u2019t repeat the words because they aren\u2019t suited for FCC airwaves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith questioned why James chose to confront him at a game at Crypto.com Arena, where the Lakers beat the New York Knicks in overtime, rather than privately through a phone call or face-to-face meeting. And he said that he recognized James was speaking not as a \u201csuperstar basketball player,\u201d but as a \u201cdaddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Smith\u2019s central point was that his earlier criticism had been directed at LeBron, not Bronny, saying, \u201cI was talking about the position [Bronny] was put in by his dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before Bronny was drafted in June by the Lakers, LeBron made it clear he wanted his son to be his teammate, and Smith was among many journalists who believed the union was forced and placed undue pressure on the then-19-year-old whose only experience beyond high school was 25 games as a role player at USC.<\/p>\n
For his part, Bronny didn\u2019t express the same enthusiasm, saying at the NBA scouting combine a month before the draft, \u201cMy dream has always just been to put my name out, make a name for myself, and of course, you know, get to the NBA. … I never thought about just playing with my dad, but of course he\u2019s, he\u2019s brought it up a couple times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith paraphrased his reaction to LeBron\u2019s efforts to make sure Bronny was drafted so they could play together, saying, \u201c\u2018C\u2019mon man, this is the situation you are putting him in.\u2019 That\u2019s where I was coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith, who was sitting at the game with Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel and actor Larry David, said he recognized that James was \u201cvery, very upset,\u201d and declined to respond in such a public setting. \u201cHe and I don\u2019t necessarily vibe. … We don\u2019t see eye to eye,\u201d Smith said of James. \u201cNeither of us loses sleep over it. It\u2019s been that way for years. It was like he was saying, \u2018Keep that between me and you.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a father, I get it. … If I was in his position, I cannot say definitively that I wouldn\u2019t have done the same thing. I don\u2019t blame him one bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeBron James confronted Stephen A. Smith over his comments about Bronny James, his son and teammate, and told him to stop talking about him.<\/p>\n
Smith said that James was speaking not as a \u201csuperstar basketball player,\u201d but as a \u201cdaddy,\u201d and that he understood why James was defending his child.<\/p>\n
Bronny James has played in 18 games for the Lakers, scoring 25 points in 76 minutes, and has fared better in seven G League games, averaging 13.4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.9 assists while playing solid defense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stephen A. Smith Confronted by LeBron James over Bronny Comments LeBron James Confronts Stephen A. Smith over Comments about Bronny James It\u2019s said that sometimes the best defense is offense. LeBron James took that approach Thursday night when he confronted Stephen A. Smith courtside at a Lakers game and scolded him, telling him in no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-wellness"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/eaf0c2b\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1806x948+0+235\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdf%2Fec%2F774198d042218dedd5944f20b8a8%2Fjames-smith.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9398,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9396\/revisions\/9398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}