Stephen A. Smith has dropped his reconciliation following his confrontation with LeBron James, and is now calling the NBA superstar's actions “weak” and “Burche*T.”
James faced off Smith last Thursday, facing off in the third quarter of the Lakers-Knix game in a tense exchange that appears to be focused on Smith's comments about James' son Bronnie.
At his ESPN show, Take it firstSmith sounded like he had reconciled about the encounter the next day.
“It wasn't a basketball player facing me. It was a parent, it was a father. I can't sit here and be mad or be downplayed by LeBron James. In all the explanations, he is clearly a great family man and father who cares so deeply about his son, and I think he thought he heard based on some of the comments he heard – a clear exception to some of the things he heard, and he confronted me about it.”
But Smith's tone changed after another video emerged in which James talks to former NBA player and ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson.
“I thought it was weak. I thought it was a few burches. But at this point I knew I was listening to my father,” Smith said. I said Tuesday Gil's Arena Podcast.
Smith said of James, “He said, 'Yes, you have to stop talking about my son. You have to stop f*cking with my son – it's my son. That's my son.”
In his comment Take it firstSmith said the initial conflict with James centered around what Smith said about his son. However, after seeing James' interaction with Jefferson, Smith realized that James' beef had Smith's critical comments about the Lakers pushing him to draft his son, Bronnie. Although, in Smith's view, Bronnie was not ready for the NBA.
“I thought he misrepresented the argument. Smith continued. “The reason he was really talking was confirmed in his conversation with Richard Jefferson, because I was talking about him as a father. If he had told me that, I wouldn't have been dumped. I would have come back to him soon – yes, I was talking about you, you did this sh*t.”
Bronnie had a short, glitches-free stint at USC before being drafted by the Lakers in the second round. Since joining the NBA, Brony spent most of his time in the G League, appearing only 18 games with the Lakers.
