LeBron James confronting Stephen A. Smith in public was surprising, but nothing surprised Charles Barkley more than seeing Larry David get a front row seat to the incident.
By now you’re probably aware that James confronted Smith in-person during a Los Angeles Lakers game against the New York Knicks from Crypto.com Arena last week. LeBron approached ESPN’s new $100 million employee, demanding that he stop talking about his son Bronny James, Smith has since used his platform to respond several times.
The entire feud is absurd. LeBron James nearly having his Will Smith moment when he decided to approach a media member during a game is ridiculous. And Stephen A. Smith now using it as endless fuel for content has already grown tiresome. But Thursday night was finally Charles Barkley’s opportunity to address the incident, and nothing caught his attention more than Larry David sitting next to Smith for the entire ordeal.
“You gotta be careful talking about LeBron…He can whoop your ass and curb your enthusiasm! He’s enthusiastically whooping your ass. You can’t even write that! Larry David is there when he started yelling at Stephen A.” – Charles Barkley pic.twitter.com/1kVhLILQQb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 14, 2025
“You gotta be careful talking about LeBron,” Barkley said as he Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Adam Lefkoe discussed James’ injury recovery.
“Why?” Smith asked to appease Barkley.
“I don’t want him running up on me,” Barkley said with a chuckle. “LeBron, get well soon. We love you, LeBron. I don’t want you whipping my ass or anything like that in the stadium. Ain’t nothing worse than getting your ass beat in front of 20,000 people…He can whoop your ass and curb your enthusiasm! He’s enthusiastically whooping your ass. You can’t even write that. Larry David is there when he starts yelling at Stephen A, you can’t even make that up.”
What everyone really needs is for Stephen A. Smith to stop celebrating the fact that he is important enough to warrant being confronted by LeBron James, and to give Larry David some space to share his recount of the incident. Or what if Barkley is wrong and you can write this? Maybe there will be a season 13 of Curb Your Enthusiasm and this was all one big giant setup.
