The Stephen A. Smith-LeBron James saga just keeps getting more wild.
After their initial altercation during a Knicks-Lakers game on March 6, Smith took things to another level on Thursday when he called out James for allegedly not being at Lakers legend Kobe Bryant’s memorial service in 2020 after his death in an effort to seemingly criticize James’ character.
“I suggest that [James] be happy with the things that I haven’t brought up,” Smith said on ESPN’s “First Take.”
“I never brought up really and never really discussed why you were not at Kobe Bryant’s memorial service.”
It was later confirmed that James was in fact at the service.
Smith later corrected himself and apologized, while standing by his other criticisms of James.
“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 said.
On the other side of the beef, James trolled Smith on Instagram with a clip of Smith’s boxing skills, if you can call them that.
James accompanied the clip with a caption full of laughing emojis, clearly unimpressed with Smith’s abilities.
This comes in response to Smith saying Wednesday,“If that man put his hands on me, I would’ve immediately swung on him. Immediately. That I’m not going to tolerate.”
The drama all stems from the interaction earlier this month where James confronted Smith for speaking on a personal, non-basketball level about his son, Bronny.
While Smith has spoken on the subject extensively — arguably nonstop — since, James made his first comments after the confrontation on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday.
“Never would I ever not allow people who talk about the sport to criticize players about what they do on the court. That is your job to criticize … That is all part of the game,” James said on the ESPN broadcast. “When you take it and get personal with it, it’s my job not only to protect my damn household but protect the players.”
“I know [Smith’s] going to be happy as hell when he hears me talking about him. He’s going to get home and grab some ice cream out of the f—king freezer and sit in his chair in his tighty-whities on the couch. Relax, bro.”