Shannon Sharpe wants Stephen A. Smith to “let it go” where his feud with LeBron James is concerned.
During Wednesday’s installment of his “Night Cap” podcast, Sharpe encouraged Smith to move on after making the matter with James “personal” — just weeks after the Lakers superstar confronted the “First Take” host over comments he made about his son, Bronny James, on ESPN in January.
“I wish Stephen A. would’ve 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’m gonna address it,’ and be done with it,” Sharpe said of Smith’s original response to the March 6 moment with James, which took place during a Lakers-Knicks clash in Los Angeles.
“Because, as my grandma used to say, ‘Stirring up old ish, it still smells.’ So every time Stephen A. talks about it, it stirs it up again.
“Look, I see both sides of the equation, but Stephen A. just needs to let it go. He needs to let it go.”
Smith has been making the rounds discussing his feud with James amid the fallout of the face-to-face confrontation.
Back in January, Smith sent a message to James pleading with him “as a father” to stop exposing Bronny, 20, as an illegitimate NBA player.
It came after Bronny went 0-for-5 with three turnovers in 15 minutes in a loss to the 76ers.
James and Smith sparked headlines less than two months later over the heated courtside moment at Crypto.com Arena.
On Wednesday, James spoke publicly about the matter for the first time during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” expressing how Smith was on a “Taylor Swift tour run” talking about the drama.
James also explained Smith got “personal with it” and “missed the whole point” of the situation.
Later that day, Smith responded to James and brought up their face-to-face again on his self-titled YouTube show, saying he would’ve swung at James if the NBA star put hands on him first.
He also called James a “liar” and said they don’t like each other.
Sharpe went on to explain Wednesday that he didn’t believe things would’ve escalated to a physical level at the time James confronted Smith.
“Now he’s like well if he hit him — I don’t think LeBron was coming to hit you,” Sharpe said. “LeBron was coming to tell you, ‘Just stop talking about my son.’
“Because you said, ‘As a father,’ now you’re making it personal. This is how LeBron, I think, took it — ‘You’re making it seem that I’m not a good father, that I’m not putting my son in a position to be successful. You’re pushing this.’ So LeBron took it a certain way.”
Sharpe then reiterated how Smith should “let it go now.”
“You about to be 58, that ain’t even your M.O.” Sharpe said. “You ain’t gonna fight nobody. LeBron wasn’t going to swing on you so there would’ve been no need for you to swing on him. I’m glad you guys stood there. He said what he said. You seemed to be receptive to it at the time of it. You said you understood because he was speaking to you as a father and not LeBron James the basketball player… Let it go now.”
Sharpe’s co-host, Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson, said he didn’t think Smith was going to let it go.