‘It Was Some Bullsh*t’: Stephen A. Smith Sounds Off over Confrontation with LeBron James

Stephen A. Smith has dropped his conciliatory tone following his confrontation with LeBron James and is now calling the NBA superstar’s behavior “weak” and “bullsh*t.”

James confronted Smith last Thursday during the third quarter of the Lakers-Knicks game in a tense exchange that seemed to be centered on Smith’s comments about James’s son, Bronny.

On his ESPN show, First Take, Smith sounded conciliatory about the encounter the following day.

“That wasn’t a basketball player confronting me; that was a parent, and that was a father. I can’t sit here and be angry or feel slighted by LeBron James in that regard. By all accounts, he’s obviously a wonderful family man and father who cares very, very deeply about his son, and based on some of the comments he had heard — or shall I say I think he thought he heard — clearly took exception to some of the things he heard me say, and he confronted me about it.”

However, after another video emerged of James talking with former NBA player and ESPN analyst Richard Jefferson about the incident, Smith’s tone changed.

“I thought it was weak; I thought it was some bullsh*t. But in the moment, I knew that I was listening to a father,” Smith said Tuesday on the Gil’s Arena podcast.

Smith said of James, “He said, ‘Yo, you gotta stop talking sh*t about my son. You gotta stop f*cking with my son – that’s my son. That’s my son.”

In his comments on First Take, Smith said the initial confrontation with James centered on what the NBA star thought Smith had said about his son. However, after watching James’s interaction with Jefferson, Smith realized that James’s beef was with Smith’s critical comments about his push for the Lakers to draft his son, Bronny. Even though Bronny, in Smith’s view, was not ready for the NBA.

“I thought that he misrepresented the argument; I was glad he did,” Smith continued. “Because what he was really talking about, which was confirmed with his conversation with Richard Jefferson – is that I was talking about him as a father. Had he said that to me, I wouldn’t have been thrown off. I would’ve came right back at him — yes I was, I was talking about you, you did this sh*t.”

Bronny had a brief, undistinguished stint at USC before being drafted by the Lakers in the second round. Since being in the NBA, the Bronny has spent most of his time in the G-League and only appeared in 18 games with the Lakers.