Stephen A. Smith defended the media against criticism from LeBron James. Screen grab: ESPN
By Ben Axelrod on

LeBron James took to social media on Wednesday to announce that he’s taking a break from social media.

But before doing so, the four-time MVP curiously shared a nearly month-old post from Rich Kleiman, in which the Boardroom co-founder spoke out regarding the state of the NBA media.

“With so much hate and negativity in the world today, it confuses me why some of National sports media still think that the best way to cover sports is through negative takes,” Kleiman posted on Oct. 24. “We can all acknowledge that sports is the last part of society that universally brings people together. So why can’t the coverage do the same?”

Stephen A. Smith didn’t think that Kleiman’s post, which James co-signed, was specifically about him. But the First Take star also didn’t believe he was excluded from the criticism considering the role that both he and his show play in shaping the NBA discourse.

Thursday’s episode of First Take began with Smith and Molly Qerim being joined by Brian Windhorst to address James’ social media departure and use of Kleiman’s comments. And while Smith conceded that they raised valid points regarding social media, he took issue with James and Kleiman conflating all aspects of media and negative coverage.

“You’ve got a lot of people out there, Windy, that literally will pass gas and want you to say it’s perfume, literally, in today’s sports world. And that’s where it becomes a bit egregious,” Smith said. “So when you take that into consideration and you just label the national media in that regard without being specific about who you’re talking about, that’s a negative stigma that I think should be challenged.”

Smith proceeded to point out that several former NBA players are members of the media, while Windhorst reiterated his belief that the industry lacks the same emphasis on storytelling it previously possessed. And while Smith didn’t disagree, he did seemingly grow more enraged as he continued to discuss what he believes to be a hypocritical stance from James and Kleiman.

“How did you become successful? It wasn’t just playing. It was learning to feed off of the narrative to build your own brand and your cache, so you can disseminate,” Smith said. “Windy’s right. Windy’s genuine. He’s talking to us about storytelling. About recapturing the balance. No problem. Windy, my brother, I got you. You’re totally right. I don’t want to hear that nonsense from them. Who the hell y’all talking to with your hypocritical asses? You ain’t getting away with that. You feed off of this. You profited off of this.”

Smith went on to point out why he found James complaining about the amount of negativity in the current NBA landscape to be especially ironic.

“He’s a master. He ain’t coming in front of the camera and saying all of that. But behind the scenes, oh my lord. You talk about somebody who knows how to stir the cup,” Smith said. “The things that I could say. Oh my God. I’m not going to do it. Trust me.”

While you’d be hard pressed to find anyone satisfied with the current state of the media — this is a site called Awful Announcing after all — it would be tough to argue that Smith didn’t raise some valid points in his response, especially when it comes to conflating the media with negativity on social media.

Is the NBA media perfect? Of course not and Windhorst hasn’t been shy to voice his own criticism on multiple occasions in recent weeks. But to Smith’s points, James likely isn’t the best messenger here, for a multitude of reasons.

[First Take]

About Ben Axelrod

Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.

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