The NBA media, including ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, recently went on a major war against Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James.
The 4x NBA champion made headlines for criticizing how the coverage of the league's top star has changed over the years, with negative content effortlessly being slammed in the faces of fans.
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As mentioned earlier, Smith was one of the biggest voices against James' theory and defended his program on ESPN. In a way the veteran analyst proved James' point as he focused on utterly ignoring the premise of the Lakers star's comments.
Now, days after Smith's criticisim of the 40-year-old, the ESPN analyst has retired the GOAt debate between LeBron Jamesa and Michael Jordan.
"He's been absolutely phenomenal. I'm going to sit up here today... Although he annoyed the living hell out of me last week with all of that nonsense he was talking. In the end, the greatness that he has put on display. For as long as he has put on display. I'll even go a step further," Smith said.
He added: "Knowing how I feel about Jordan. And I think anybody that knows basketball agrees with me. I actually think it's time to not even have the debate anymore. Because that's how great LeBron James has been. For as long as he has been that great. I can stand down and acknowledge that because this is absolutely phenomenal."
in the end, Smith still thinks Jordan is the GOAT, but he gave James his flowers for his insane longevity.
For context, James became the only player in NBA history to have 50,000 combined regular season and playoffs career points during the Lakers' blowout win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
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While Smith says he wants to end the GOAT debate, fans shouldn't be surprised if he runs another MJ vs. LBJ segment next week on First Take.
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