Stephen A. Smith had more to say about LeBron James, unsurprisingly. The 57-year-old media personality falsely accused the Los Angeles Lakers superstar of skipping Kobe Bryant’s memorial service in 2020 in his latest rant.
The sports analyst opened First Take with a nearly 20-minute rant about LBJ’s appearance on The Pat McAfee Show and his Instagram post making fun of SAS doing a boxing workout. Amid him reiterating his belief that James isn’t the GOAT of basketball, comparing his resume to Michael Jordan’s, and making other comments about his character, he brought up how the four-time MVP skipped out on paying the late Lakers legend his respects after he died in a helicopter crash.
“I never brought up really and never really discussed why you were not at Kobe Bryant’s memorial service,” SAS said. “I never really brought up or discussed why you did not attend Dwyane Wade’s Hall Of Fame induction when that man was directly responsible for you capturing a championship for the first time in your career.” He added that James likely skipped Wade’s ceremony to be with Bronny James while he recovered from cardiac arrest, only to question why he was out of the country on business two weeks prior.
Here’s the problem: LeBron James was at Kobe Bryant’s memorial service and requested not to be shown on camera. His attendance was confirmed by The Los Angeles Times, so it is unclear why Stephen A. Smith thought otherwise and confidently stated so on national television. Fans on social media were quick to pull up articles from other publications confirming James’ attendance and have labeled SAS “disgusting” for such an accusation.
The eponymous podcast host has grown angrier over the last few weeks, but Wednesday’s events (March 25) may have sent him over the edge. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer called Smith out for “missing the point” of their altercation at the March 6 game against the New York Knicks and dragging out the situation. He also called analyst Brian Windhorst “weird” for acting like he was his best friend, which upset Smith.
Later that evening, James made a buzzer-beater to help the Lakers defeat the Indiana Pacers and took to Instagram shortly after to clown SAS. He posted a video of him boxing and added the popular Key Glock and Young Dolph “Womp, womp, womp” meme in response to Smith saying he would have swung on him if their altercation got physical. Notably, these were James’ first reactions to the altercation from almost three weeks ago.