The story of LeBron James’ attendance at Kobe Bryant’s funeral is getting weirder

Stephen A. Smith might be the only person to publicly accuse LeBron James of skipping Kobe Bryant’s memorial service, but nobody seems to remember the Los Angeles Lakers star being there.

Last month, at the height of their ongoing feud, Smith accused James of being absent from Bryant’s memorial service following his death in 2020. During the same episode of First Take, Smith later corrected himself to note James was there, adding there was a specific reason he wasn’t shown or photographed at it. Smith addressed the accusation again with a social media post apologizing for broaching the subject, claiming he “misspoke” when he “intimated LeBron did not attend Kobe Bryant’s memorial.”

But Smith didn’t misspeak, and he didn’t just intimate LeBron wasn’t at Kobe Bryant’s memorial. He very clearly said, “You were not at Kobe Bryant’s memorial service.” And this wasn’t the first time he made the accusation. During an episode of his podcast in November 2023, Smith said, “Remember when the memorial service took place for Kobe Bryant? I can’t believe I didn’t see him there… the NBA community was in attendance, we didn’t see LeBron James.”

After Stephen A. Smith very clearly and intently accused LeBron James of skipping Kobe Bryant’s memorial service multiple times in recent years, only to walk it back last month, Pablo Torre Finds Out attempted to fact-check the allegation.

And while researching the claim, Torre struggled to find any evidence suggesting James was at the service.

We fact-checked Stephen A. Smith’s allegation that LeBron James did not attend Kobe’s memorial, with 8 sources:

“There’s no f–king way he was there. If he was there, he was Casper the Ghost.” pic.twitter.com/iu9BrP0DxO

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) April 4, 2025

Previously, one of the most significant pieces of proof was Diana Taurasi seemingly pointing to James during her speech at Bryant’s memorial. But after checking every camera angle, Torre found no evidence that Taurasi was looking at James. Additionally, Torre checked with multiple sources who confirmed Taurasi never saw James at the memorial that day. Multiple newspapers reported that James was there, even though there were no photos, and he did not confirm his attendance with the Los Angeles Times.

There has also been a claim, which even Smith fostered, that James requested to be left off-camera at the service. Torre asked the lead producer of the memorial, Renato Basile, about that supposed directive from James and was told, “The off-camera thing is bullsh*t.” Two other “high-level sources” involved in planning the event told Pablo Torre Finds Out that they did not see James at the memorial and don’t know of anyone who saw him in the building that day, including Lakers owner Jeanie Buss.

It really shouldn’t be a story whether LeBron James attended Kobe Bryant’s funeral. In fact, if he had been there and prominently on camera, there would have been people criticizing James, in just his second season with the Lakers, for using Bryant’s memorial to seek the spotlight. But the fact that there have been so many conflicting stories and narratives around his attendance is bizarre.

If LeBron James weren’t there, it would have been weird for Stephen A. Smith to attempt to hold against him. But even weirder is this apparent mass cover-up surrounding James’ attendance, or lack thereof.