Los Angeles Lakers’ star LeBron James has seen plenty of criticism from many at ESPN over the years. That’s intensified recently, including with Stephen A. Smith using Friday’s First Take to go at some of James’ comments on the media generally. But, in the wake of James’ response Friday night on ESPN, there’s now some further drama from Smith.
On Friday, James got an extremely-friendly ESPN platform thanks to a postgame interview with a noted fan of his. That would be Scott Van Pelt, who proclaimed James’ greatness “unimpeachable” in 2016 and told critics “time to find a new axe to grind” at that time. James then used that platform to particularly fire back at Smith’s comments. Well, Smith saw that, and had his own response Saturday, quoting ESPN’s post of the segment:
No disagreement here from @KingJames. He’s right about that. What’s messed up is the other b.s. he’s been spewing: that folks who cover the game are (bleeping) on the game. Critiquing the game, pointing out who’s doing and who’s not doing is NOT (bleeping) on the game. It’s… https://t.co/bZNp3gzdlZ
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) March 1, 2025
Here’s the full text of that:
No disagreement here from @KingJames. He’s right about that. What’s messed up is the other b.s. he’s been spewing Critiquing the game, pointing out who’s doing and who’s not doing is NOT (bleeping) on the game. It’s covering the damn game. Greatness is not only measured, it’s compared to other greats. That’s the way it’s always been, some can take it. Some can’t!
Part of what’s notable here is the way this illuminates some divides at ESPN. The debate side of the company, and First Take in particular, is becoming more and more removed from the discussions on their other coverage. And it’s pretty obvious that Smith and Van Pelt have very different takes on James, and that’s probably extendable to many at the company; it’s not hard to imagine there being a lot of ESPN employees who don’t just endorse whatever Smith says on First Take.
But the subjects of those First Take debates are often showing an awareness of what’s being discussed there. And some of those players are taking that to their appearances on other ESPN platforms, including in postgame interviews like this. And while once–banned ESPN-on-ESPN crime has escalated in recent years, especially with Pat McAfee’s comments about longtime exec Norby Williamson (who wound up ousted shortly afterwards), it’s interesting to see it cropping up here with James using an ESPN interview to complain about Smith, and Smith then shooting back at that ESPN interview.
There’s a larger conversation to be had about the idea that “folks who cover the game are (bleeping) on the game.” And, of note, a lot of that doesn’t involve ESPN at all, but rather TNT Sports’ Inside The NBA (although, that is moving to ESPN next year under a sublicensing deal). But Smith has thoroughly introduced himself into that conversation with his various remarks here. And it’s significant to see him firing back at James’ remarks on ESPN.
