For anyone who has followed the bizarre feud between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith and wondered how two grown men can act that way, Dan Le Batard shares your bewilderment.
Not that he doesn’t like what he’s seeing.
“You can’t resist it,” Le Batard said on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz Thursday.
Le Batard discussed the weeks-old SAS-LBJ feud, calling both men out for their “childishness” and acting like “7-year-olds.” (If that sounds a bit redundant, don’t worry, Le Batard’s analysis worked.)
The James-Smith feud kicked up another notch Wednesday, after James appeared on The Pat McAfee Show. James called out Smith for comments he made about Bronny James, which sparked the feud. Smith’s original thoughts on Bronny led to a viral confrontation between SAS and LBJ during a Lakers game earlier this month. That incident was followed by online sniping, and Smith repeatedly addressing the situation in the media.
Le Batard said both men have acted immature.
“But the childishness in it beyond, ‘I would have swung at him and he would have kicked my a**,’ and all the nonsense that men do when they’re being silly around the soap opera,” Le Batard said. “The idea that LeBron is mad and that Stephen A. thinks he’s mad and keeps coming at him with, ‘You’re not my G.O.A.T. You’re not the best, you’re the second best Shannon Sharpe thinks you’re the best,’ it’s 7-year-olds.
“That’s how 7-year-olds would do all of this, and it is passing for content I cannot resist. You can’t resist it.”
Le Batard pointed out that such situations have become almost inevitable in sports today, and help drive TV ratings.
“It’s interesting to me,” Le Batard said, “because we have seen over the years, sort of the morphing of sports reporting and sports entertainment and big stars merging, so that whatever the entity is, in this case it’s ESPN and Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James, and I cannot resist the sirens’ call. This is all great content for the machine.”
Amin Elhassan, co-hosting Thursday’s show, begged to differ with Le Batard on not being able to resist the feud.
“I was ashamed yesterday. All of it, all of it, both of them, everybody,” Elhassan said. “And seeing the reactions. This is quite possibly the biggest journalist who covers the sport, and the biggest name player … (if) I’m Adam Silver, you get ’em on the phone and say, ‘Enough. Enough.’ This is embarrassing. This does not represent our sport.”
