The feud between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith went from amusing to absurd on Wednesday.
Appearing on ESPN airwaves for an hour-long interview with Pat McAfee, it was only a matter of time until James addressed his ongoing feud with the First Take star. And the 4-time MVP didn’t disappoint, taking aim at Smith for his prolonged responses to their on-court confrontation earlier this month.
“It started off with, ‘I didn’t wanna address it. I didn’t wanna address it. I wasn’t going to address it, but since the video came out, I feel the need to address it,’” James said, mimicking Smith’s initial comments about the altercation. “Are you, are you kidding me? If there’s one person that couldn’t wait for the video to drop so you could address it, it’s your ass. Like seriously?”
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Smith to respond, with ESPN’s $100 million man doing so on Wednesday’s edition of The Stephen A. Smith Show. And over the course of a lengthy rant regarding James, who he called a “liar,” Smith made the curious claim that if the Los Angeles Lakers star would have put his hands on him during their on-court confrontation, he “would have immediately swung on him.”
It’s unclear how this entire ordeal escalated from a war of words over Smith’s coverage of Bronny James to threats of hypothetical violence nearly three weeks after the fact. In any event, James took to Instagram after hitting a game-winning shot to beat the Indiana Pacers to respond to Smith’s latest salvo with an old video of the former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist’s less than impressive boxing skills.
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“WHOMP WHOMP WHOMPPPPPPPP,” James wrote along with a series of crying laughing emojis.
Under most circumstances, this would qualify as the last word, although we know that almost assuredly won’t be the case here. As such, we’ll await Smith’s inevitable response on Thursday’s episode of First Take amid a feud that appears to be getting more bizarre by the day.
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.