The saga of LeBron James confronting ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith in the crowd during a timeout in a March 6 New York Knicks-Los Angeles Lakers game continues almost a month later.
There was new fuel added to that fire on both sides Wednesday, where James went off on Smith in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show (broadcast on ESPN) and Smith took to his own podcast to respond. But Shannon Sharpe, a regular presence on First Take alongside Smith, said on his own Nightcap show with Chad Johnson Wednesday that Smith should stop reacting to James.
Sharpe starts that by discussing James’ comments to McAfee, including the line of “a Taylor Swift tour run for Stephen A.” He says he’s left this alone to this point, but needs to discuss it now following James’ pushback on Smith. He then quotes some of James’ remarks, and then (around 1:30) gets into his own thoughts, especially when it comes to Smith’s repeated discussions of the situation.
“I wish Stephen A. would have just left it alone. Once he addressed it, once it happened, address it, ‘This is what happened, he came over to me, said what he said, I want to address it now, and I’m going to be done with it.’ Because as my grandma used to say to me, ‘Boy, stirring up old ish, it still smells.’ So every time Stephen A. talks about it, it stirs it up again.”
“I see both sides of the equation, but Stephen A. just needs to let it go. He needs to let it go. And now he’s like ‘Well, if he’d have hit me,’ I don’t think LeBron was coming to hit you, bro. LeBron was coming to tell you ‘Stop talking about my son.’ He said ‘As a father, now you making it personal. You making it personal, because now you’re making it seem,’ this is how LeBron, I think, took it, ‘You’re making it seem like I’m not a good father, that I’m not putting my son in the position to be successful. You’re pushing this.'”
Sharpe says he understands James’ frustration, but is a little surprised this played out in such a public forum.
“So LeBron took it a certain way. Am I surprised that LeBron took it the way he did so publicly? Because LeBron’s a very private person. He might have an issue with someone and you would never know it. So for him to do that at a game? And it wasn’t after the game, it wasn’t before the game, it was the third quarter during a timeout. That lets you know how upset he was at Stephen A. and what Stephen A. had been saying.”
For Sharpe, though, while James’ further comments were understandable, he disagrees with the way Smith has kept talking about it.
“But at this point in time, I understand asking LeBron about this, but if I’m Stephen A., ‘Hey guys, I’ve already addressed that. He said what he said. I understood his point. I said what I said. Now it’s time to move on. It’s not going to stop me from talking about LeBron James, the basketball player, on the court. But the incident, I feel like we’ve talked about it ad nauseum, I feel like we’ve talked about it enough, and it’s time to move on.’ That’s what I wish Stephen A. would do.”
Sharpe adds that he understands there’s a business case for discussing anything related to James, though.
“But like you say, I get it. That’s LeBron James, the biggest name in pro North American sports, and when you mention his name, people want to click and hear what you have to say about him. But the one thing I know about this guy, and I know him a little bit, I don’t know him as well as a lot of people do, that man loves his family. He’s going to protect his family.”
And Johnson responds by saying that it’s in Smith’s character to address pushback and not let things go.
“Any time someone says something to or about Stephen A., he’s going to have an answer to whatever is being said. That’s just him, that’s always been him. I know you would like him to leave it alone, but I don’t think that’s how that’s going to go.”
Sharpe goes on to share a story about how he and Kevin Durant worked out a conflict between them, and how he feels there’s a key distinction between criticizing athletes for on-court play and criticizing them as people. But what’s particularly notable here is Sharpe expressing his disagreement with Smith’s tactics in the wake of the James situation, and with his continued addressing of the matter. And while Sharpe may want Smith to “let it go,” Smith’s extensive discussion of this to open First Take Thursday suggests he may not yet be ready to do that.