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LeBron James Breaks Silence About Viral Confrontation With Stephen A. Smith

Kristen Wong

Screengrab on Twitter/ @PatMcAfeeShow
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LeBron James opened up about his side of the story following his viral confrontation with Stephen A. Smith during a Los Angeles Lakers game earlier this month.

James was seen walking over to Smith, who was sitting courtside, in the second half of the Lakers' overtime win against the New York Knicks and giving him an earful about something. Smith later revealed James confronted him about his critical comments about James's son, Bronny, this past season.

"He approached me during the game and he said stop f---ing with my son. That's my f---ing son. Stop f---ing with my son," Smith said on his podcast.

James finally addressed the incident on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday and ripped the ESPN analyst for going so public with their spat.

"He's like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now," James said. "It started off with, 'I didn't want to address it. I wasn't going to address it, but since the video came out I feel the need to address it.' Motherf---er, are you kidding me? If there's one person who couldn't wait for the video to drop so you could address it, it's your a--.

"He completely missed the whole point. The whole point. Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court. That is your job to criticize... That is all part of the game. But when you take it and when you get personal with it, it's my job to not only protect my d--- household but protect the players."

James ended his brief rant with a simple, blunt message directed at Smith:

"And I know he's going to be happy as hell, he's going to be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me talking about it. Oh my god, he's going to get home and grab some ice cream out of the f---ing freezer and sit in his chair in his tighty whities on the couch. Like dude, relax bro. Relax."

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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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