You would think that the Los Angeles Lakers picking up their eighth win in a row against the New York Knicks would put LeBron James in a great mood. But that wasn't the case, as he was seen publicly confronting ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith, who was in attendance to watch the game, during a break in the game. James appeared very agitated throughout the interaction before walking away.
Smith, who recently signed a $100 million contract extension with ESPN, attended to support the New York Knicks, his favorite NBA team. He has long expressed his admiration for Los Angeles's warm weather, so celebrating his massive new contract by watching his favorite team in a beautiful city seems appropriate.
The video linked above doesn't show Stephen A.'s facial expression, so it's hard to decipher what he might be thinking or feeling at the moment. However, given that his body language appears tense and he seems to be exchanging words with James, one can imagine that it wasn't a very pleasant conversation.
Smith has spoken about James a lot in recent weeks. Most recently, after LeBron James scored 50,000 career points, Smith called for an end to the long-standing GOAT debate between the King and Michael Jordan, noting that both players are spectacular in their own right, and having a debate like this will continue to divide fan opinion on them.
On top of that, the ESPN mainstay also called out LeBron for his recent criticism of the NBA's mediasphere for consistently criticizing the modern players and holding them to the standard of the previous era. The Lakers superstar had made his comments to defend Anthony Edwards, who had recently claimed he didn't want to be the face of the league.
Stephen is one of the most vocal and outspoken members of the NBA mediasphere, so he was never going to take those comments lying down. But many felt he crossed a line when he went at James for allegedly brokering a deal for his son, Bronny, to play in the NBA on the Los Angeles Lakers.
LeBron is a proud family man who doesn't appreciate it when anyone takes unnecessary shots at his loved ones. So you'd have to imagine those comments didn't sit right with the four-time NBA champion. However, given that we didn't hear any direct or indirect rebuttal from James' camp over the matter, he decided to ignore Smith's comments as nothing more than media rage-bait.
All of this isn't to say that Smith doesn't respect James or give him his fair due. He recently defended LeBron and slammed Scottie Pippen for insinuating that he was a better player and didn't chase his NBA championships..
Whatever the confrontation was about, hopefully, both sides were able to walk away from it having resolved some of their issues with each other.
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