Speaker 1: Now let's get to a subject that's apparently gone viral
Speaker 1: on social media today and it also involves yours truly.
Speaker 1: Last night, I was in attendance at the Knicks Lakers game,
Speaker 1: or sitting courtside where during a time out, I believe
Speaker 1: it was in the third quarter, I was confronted by
Speaker 1: none other than Lebron James himself. Lebron had some choice
Speaker 1: words for me in regards to comments I've made prior
Speaker 1: about him in regards to his son, Bronnie James. Before
Speaker 1: I get any further, let me just put to bed
Speaker 1: a couple of things that have been reported that are false.
Speaker 1: People was talking about Lebron called me out my name
Speaker 1: or somebody else saw. Somebody said he called me a bit,
Speaker 1: somebody said he called me a punk, and all this
Speaker 1: none of that is true. He was fiery. He approached
Speaker 1: me during the game and he said, stop effing with
Speaker 1: my son. That's my FFing son. Stop effing with my son.
Speaker 1: I said, but nah, nah, nah man, straight up man,
Speaker 1: the man real talk stop efing with my son. And
Speaker 1: I saw how furious he was, and I said, we
Speaker 1: can talked about nah that f that, stop effing with
Speaker 1: my son. That's my son, that's my son. I said,
Speaker 1: all right, fine, and he walked away. That's all he said.
Speaker 1: I knew what he was talking about. I've spoken about
Speaker 1: this before. Matter of fact, I heard that not many,
Speaker 1: not all, but a few players were upset at me
Speaker 1: about that. I think one Perilla player in particular was
Speaker 1: Draymond Green, who I haven't spoken to since and has
Speaker 1: no desire to speak to me, primarily because of this,
Speaker 1: I suppose. And I found out the way that I
Speaker 1: found out, which was last night while I was at
Speaker 1: the game. I was a guest of Ari Emmanuel, owner
Speaker 1: of William Morris Endeavor found of William Morrison devor rather
Speaker 1: found of Endeavor, I'm sorry, before they merged with William Morris,
Speaker 1: and I was a guest of his, sitting at the
Speaker 1: game with him and Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Speaker 1: I was sitting courtside and the next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: out of the blue, Lebron came in my face. Obviously,
Speaker 1: since he brought up his son, he was piggybacking off
Speaker 1: of what I had said weeks ago. And what I
Speaker 1: had said weeks ago is that when Ronnie James was
Speaker 1: struggling and I threw out some stats and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I said, he's not ready. And then I came on
Speaker 1: this podcast and I reiterated that point. Clearly. It was
Speaker 1: something that was on Lebron James mind that he was
Speaker 1: aching to confront me about, and so it happened the
Speaker 1: way that it happened. Now, before I get into anything else,
Speaker 1: let me say that Lebron's agent, who is Rich Paul
Speaker 1: his boy, has my number. Maverick Carter, who's universally respected
Speaker 1: and is a big player in the industry these days,
Speaker 1: he has my number. It's very easy for Lebron James
Speaker 1: to have called me. It's very easy for one of
Speaker 1: them to have called me and to say Lebron wants
Speaker 1: to see he wants to talk to you face to
Speaker 1: face man, the man. That's not what happened last night
Speaker 1: at the Lakers game. Happened. Now, I get and people
Speaker 1: have said to me today that I'm looking pretty damn sad.
Speaker 1: I'll fess up I am, because something like that is
Speaker 1: not something that should make any of us comfortable. I
Speaker 1: didn't anticipate it. I don't know why I didn't anticipate it,
Speaker 1: but I'm not here to blame Lebron James. That wasn't
Speaker 1: a basketball player talking to me last night. That was
Speaker 1: a dad. He rolled up on me as a father.
Speaker 1: That's what he did. That was not a basketball player
Speaker 1: talking to me. We talk about Lebron James all the time,
Speaker 1: practically everybody does. That's not what Lebron James does. So
Speaker 1: for him to confront me, obviously, it was something that
Speaker 1: he was incredibly passionate about, put off about, and felt
Speaker 1: necessary to confront me about. And what better motivation could
Speaker 1: there be than to be protective of his son. I
Speaker 1: understand it. I respect it as a parent. I'm a
Speaker 1: father two daughters, and in all honesty, I couldn't definitively
Speaker 1: tell you that if I were Lebron James, I would
Speaker 1: not have done the same thing. I would hope that
Speaker 1: I would not have. I would hope that I would
Speaker 1: have picked up the phone and caught the person instead,
Speaker 1: or got arranged to see that person face to face instead,
Speaker 1: rather than walking up to me in the middle of
Speaker 1: a game courtside. That was not the end of the game,
Speaker 1: that was not the beginning game. That was in the
Speaker 1: middle of the game that this happened. But that's what happened,
Speaker 1: and there's really not much you can do about it.
Speaker 1: I have a lot to say about it, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to address a couple of things. Number One, because
Speaker 1: I saw this tweet from Kevin Love he was responding
Speaker 1: to my tweet. My tweet was I had no intentions
Speaker 1: of talking about it. And the reason I had no
Speaker 1: intentions of talking about it is because that's what men do.
Speaker 1: You handle it privately if you can. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to address it as I tweeted here. I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: either had it not gone viral. But it did go
Speaker 1: on viral because when I got up, my social media
Speaker 1: person informed me that it was over fifteen million views
Speaker 1: and it had gone viral. It was number one. It
Speaker 1: was the number one sports story going. And regardless of
Speaker 1: everybody wanting to walk around acting like they don't have bosses,
Speaker 1: I don't deny the fact that I have bosses. I
Speaker 1: worked for ESPN, and ESPN called me this morning, said,
Speaker 1: what you mean you ain't talking about it? You most
Speaker 1: certainly have to talk about it. This directly involves you
Speaker 1: and Lebron James is the biggest story in the country
Speaker 1: right now in sports. There's no way for you to
Speaker 1: escape it. Talk about it. You got your platform. Do
Speaker 1: what you gotta do. I said, fine, Well, when I
Speaker 1: tweeted out to let everybody know that I will be
Speaker 1: talking about it, Kevin Love, Lebron's former teammate in Cleveland,
Speaker 1: throws out this tweet. You have no choice laugh out
Speaker 1: loud because it went viral, laughs out loud. You didn't
Speaker 1: want to have to laugh out loud. You wouldn't have.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't have laugh out loud. Hold that tweet up.
Speaker 1: Let's go over the list. And I like Kevin Love.
Speaker 1: I'm very fond of him, right, I have nothing negative
Speaker 1: to say. I have no choice because of what I
Speaker 1: just told you about my boss is Kevin, because it
Speaker 1: went viral. Kevin, which I just explained, I didn't want to.
Speaker 1: Why would I want to. I take no pleasure in
Speaker 1: something like this, And I guess it's the implication that
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't have, you know, laugh out loud on
Speaker 1: all of those things. You see, stuff like that dilutes
Speaker 1: the seriousness of the discussion. So let me explain this
Speaker 1: to Kevin Love in simplest terms. First Take has been
Speaker 1: the number one morning show for thirteen consecutive years and
Speaker 1: on this particular morning. It's the day after I was
Speaker 1: in the news for a lucrative contract extension. So if
Speaker 1: I said that I didn't have any intentions of doing it,
Speaker 1: I don't have to lie, and I'm not starving for ratings.
Speaker 1: And respectfully, Kevin, you should know that I mean what
Speaker 1: I say. I don't have to lie, so I'll just
Speaker 1: leave it at that. Outside of that, feel free to
Speaker 1: support your boy. Let me go back to me and
Speaker 1: lebron James. Ladies and gentlemen. Any alluding to Bronnie James
Speaker 1: in this is either accidental or just a reference point
Speaker 1: to articulate me and lebron James, because I'm not here
Speaker 1: to talk about Bronnie James. Bronnie James, by all the
Speaker 1: counter as a wonderful kid who went into the G
Speaker 1: League has been tearing it up, and I personally think
Speaker 1: it is going to be an NBA player. You can't
Speaker 1: root against Bronnie James. He's a great kid. I've never
Speaker 1: met anybody that said otherwise, okay, and I'm genuinely rooting
Speaker 1: for him. Having said that, at the time that I
Speaker 1: was talking about him and his stats in the aftermath
Speaker 1: of the Philly game, that's when things have gone Haywhy
Speaker 1: because that's when you start hearing that a few players
Speaker 1: don't want to talk to you, or folks felt you
Speaker 1: crossed the line or whatever. Here's what they thought I
Speaker 1: did that crossed the line By pointing out how he
Speaker 1: was struggling. I wasn't really talking about Bronni James that much.
Speaker 1: He's a rookie and I think that he'll just get
Speaker 1: better and better and be in the NBA. Wasn't really
Speaker 1: about him. It was about Lebron. And the reason why
Speaker 1: it was about Lebron was because the heat that Bronni
Speaker 1: was taking and the stories that were going viral. I
Speaker 1: was making the point he didn't have to be in
Speaker 1: this predicament. Three things could have happened. He could have
Speaker 1: got drafted by Golden State. He could have got drafted
Speaker 1: by the Boston Celtics, or he could have got drafted
Speaker 1: like he did by the Lakers Open Night Opening Night,
Speaker 1: have that moment with his dad, and then go to
Speaker 1: the G League and Wreek hab it wreck shot, and
Speaker 1: then come to the league after a year's experience in
Speaker 1: the G League. If any of those things did not happen,
Speaker 1: one surmised that It was because of Lebron James, in
Speaker 1: my mind, the second greatest player who have ever played
Speaker 1: the game of basketball, who is a basketball savant. And
Speaker 1: if we know that his son was struggling, then he knows.
Speaker 1: And what I was saying was I was focused on him.
Speaker 1: It was other people that was focused on Brownie James.
Speaker 1: Show that Magic Johnson quote. Please, this is Magic Johnson
Speaker 1: at the time. Jimmy, kimme alive. It's September. If I'm Brownie,
Speaker 1: I would tell my dad just let me play in
Speaker 1: the G League all season so that I can develop.
Speaker 1: He needs playing time. He doesn't need to be sitting
Speaker 1: on the lake of bench and not playing. That's not
Speaker 1: a knock against him. He's just not ready. That was
Speaker 1: irving Magic Johnson. There were other articles that were written
Speaker 1: as the season was progressing and people were talking and
Speaker 1: I'm rooting for the kid, and I didn't want anything
Speaker 1: too negative to come his way. So I'm looking at
Speaker 1: Lebron James and saying, all right, you had the moment.
Speaker 1: You don't need this because you remember, it's not just
Speaker 1: the Lebron's greatness that we're talking about that can be
Speaker 1: somewhat burdensome. Because when you're a son of arguably the
Speaker 1: greatest player who has ever lived in a lot of
Speaker 1: people's eyes, the expectations for you come with that. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't even just that, It was the quotes that
Speaker 1: was associated with Lebron James. Was Lebron James that said
Speaker 1: his son was better than some NBA players. It was
Speaker 1: Lebron James that told folks, don't even think about it.
Speaker 1: You want to draft, you want to you want me
Speaker 1: draft my son. It ain't even about the money at
Speaker 1: this point. I'll go wherever he is for one year.
Speaker 1: It was Lebron that said those things, and so everybody
Speaker 1: knew that, and as a result, what I was saying
Speaker 1: was pointing out, Yo, this is what it is, and
Speaker 1: any kind of trouble he has, they're gonna pounce on
Speaker 1: him because of the things his dad said. So the
Speaker 1: one thing that I'm thankful for last night is that
Speaker 1: when I was confronted by Lebron James about this subject matter,
Speaker 1: he didn't give me an opportunity to say what I
Speaker 1: know that I would have said, and that was this,
Speaker 1: I wasn't talking really about your son. I was talking
Speaker 1: about you, because you know the league, you know people.
Speaker 1: You know, narratives ain't always created by the media. It's
Speaker 1: created by people the media covers. So you must know
Speaker 1: what what they were saying at the time. Nobody's been
Speaker 1: talking about Bronnie now, not for months, but at the
Speaker 1: time they were you must know, and I was saying,
Speaker 1: that's you because of all the things that you did
Speaker 1: to make things happen in a way that deviated from
Speaker 1: a relatively merit based situation, which is the National Basketball Association.
Speaker 1: You're Lebron James. You are underpaid. You are Lebron James.
Speaker 1: You deserve more money than you're getting paid. You're Lebron James.
Speaker 1: Won't give a damn how much money they paid Bronnie.
Speaker 1: He could get it, he should get it for you, because,
Speaker 1: damn it, you should have gotten more because of what
Speaker 1: you've done for this league. You deserve all of this.
Speaker 1: But it's not gonna stop him from getting that heat.
Speaker 1: And when Lebron came at me the way that he did,
Speaker 1: if it wasn't on camera, if he didn't instigate something
Speaker 1: that people are allowed to take viral, if he had
Speaker 1: spoken to me, man the man privately, I still wouldn't
Speaker 1: have talked about it. If y'all I don't violate that trust.
Speaker 1: I don't have private conversations and then they go public.
Speaker 1: I don't have people talk to me off the record
Speaker 1: and then I come on here on the record. Y'all
Speaker 1: can talk all of that smack or y'all want to
Speaker 1: whatever y'all they say, whoever y'all nay says are But
Speaker 1: I got thirty years in this business. My track record
Speaker 1: is proven. I don't betray trust. I don't do that.
Speaker 1: If I have a conversation with you, it's between us.
Speaker 1: That's the way it's going down. And if Lebron had
Speaker 1: done that, y'all still wouldn't know about this conversation, which
Speaker 1: obviously has people speculating because of the savant that he
Speaker 1: is and how brilliant of a marketer he is. Some
Speaker 1: would say a manipulator and all this other stuff. They
Speaker 1: swear he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew
Speaker 1: the cameras were rolling, he knew that somebody would find him.
Speaker 1: It was a nationally televised game. It's Lebron James and
Speaker 1: he's rolling up to stephen A. Smith courtsip. He had
Speaker 1: to know that's what others are thinking. I'm not thinking
Speaker 1: about that. I'm thinking about the fact that I'm incredibly
Speaker 1: sad that it had to happen. I'm incredibly sad that
Speaker 1: a father was looking in my face vehemently and defiantly
Speaker 1: hostily telling me to stop effing with his son when
Speaker 1: I was talking about him. That makes me sad, It
Speaker 1: really does. But let me tell you why I'm most
Speaker 1: sad because I wasn't wrong. I stand by what I reported.
Speaker 1: I stand by what I said at that time. What
Speaker 1: I expressed months ago is what I felt, which leads
Speaker 1: us to a fall more expansive conversation, albeit a short one,
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a professional journalist turned commentator pundit.
Speaker 1: There's a whole bunch of people with podcasts and shows
Speaker 1: out there who talk about the NBA. I covered the NBA.
Speaker 1: There's a difference and the position that I'm in. I
Speaker 1: don't get paid to talk to folks. I get paid
Speaker 1: to talk about them. I don't want any enemies. My
Speaker 1: life is good. God has blessed me. I've been very
Speaker 1: blessed and fortunate. But I'm not here to make friends either.
Speaker 1: I have a job to do. See the difference between
Speaker 1: this show and typical show is that people do those
Speaker 1: shows hoping to get paid. I get paid to do
Speaker 1: those shows. It's different for me because there's years of
Speaker 1: work in the industry that preceded it. I've got people
Speaker 1: calling me Lebron shton that came up to you like that. Nah,
Speaker 1: that's wrong. It's very young professional. No, he knows better.
Speaker 1: This is what forget all that he did what he
Speaker 1: felt he needed to do for himself and his family.
Speaker 1: I have to respect that. It just doesn't make him
Speaker 1: right about the facts. The fact is Lebron James is
Speaker 1: a professional basketball player. So is his son. Lebron James
Speaker 1: is a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, so is
Speaker 1: his son. Lebron James has to get critiqued at the
Speaker 1: discretion of the media covering him play basketball, so does
Speaker 1: his son. He's a professional. This is not a conversation
Speaker 1: about family matters. This is not a conversation about what's
Speaker 1: going on in somebody's bedroom or somebody's backyard. This is
Speaker 1: not a conversation about what's going on secretly. This was
Speaker 1: me talking about the game of basketball. Under no circumstances
Speaker 1: do I want to throw any negativity in the way
Speaker 1: of Lebron James family and friends. I know a lot
Speaker 1: of them, all wonderful, and I sincerely apologize for any
Speaker 1: kind of pain or angst I caused them, not Lebron.
Speaker 1: Lebron is a part of the job and by virtue
Speaker 1: of the decisions that he made. So are his teammates,
Speaker 1: one of them happening to be his son. Now, I
Speaker 1: understand that that rubs a lot of people the wrong way. Okay,
Speaker 1: when I think about somebody like Draymond Green, and I've
Speaker 1: kept my mouth shut about this for a while, but
Speaker 1: without getting into too many details, Draymond Green has felt
Speaker 1: the need to go to other people to say how
Speaker 1: he felt about how he feels about me, and I
Speaker 1: got mad love for Draymond. Draymond is a good brother.
Speaker 1: They're quite frank. I've always tried to be good too,
Speaker 1: and this shift and his feelings about me, I got it.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna get to a bigger level. You see.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons that I had so many great
Speaker 1: relationships in the world of sports over the years is
Speaker 1: because if Kats had a problem, they called me silly me.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that if you get along with people and
Speaker 1: you talk with them, if they have an issue with you,
Speaker 1: at least they'd call you and confront you, man the
Speaker 1: man before something's resolved. I'm talking about Draymond here, I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about Lebron. The reason I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: Lebron is because, excuse my language, Len and I don't
Speaker 1: really fuck with each other. It's been primarily been high
Speaker 1: and by for more than a decade, and I'm fine
Speaker 1: with it, and so is she, and so is he. Okay,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't the relationship with me and Draymond. That
Speaker 1: wasn't the relationship with me and quite a few cats.
Speaker 1: And one of the biggest reasons that I loved the
Speaker 1: kind of relationship that we had is because I always
Speaker 1: got the impression, Yo, if they got an issue with you,
Speaker 1: they'll call you. You talk it out as men, and if
Speaker 1: you disagree, you part ways. Even if you part ways
Speaker 1: not speaking to one another, or you can be agreeable,
Speaker 1: or you can agree to disagree. It could be a
Speaker 1: boatload of things. But the blind sidedness of it all
Speaker 1: is what throws me off, because you see, if I
Speaker 1: got a problem with somebody, I'm not hard to find.
Speaker 1: You called me, I'm gonna pick up the phone. You
Speaker 1: want to come, you want to see me. I'm a
Speaker 1: rap to you, and we can hash it out and
Speaker 1: we'll reach a resolution, or we don't. That's not what's happening,
Speaker 1: and so it is what it is. You know. I'm
Speaker 1: sorry it had to be that way. I'm sorry the
Speaker 1: look of it all. But I was sitting courtside, mind
Speaker 1: of my damn business, watching my next try to beat
Speaker 1: the Lakers. I didn't know that the greatest player this
Speaker 1: generation was going to walk in my face the way
Speaker 1: that he did. But that's what happened. So I get it.
Speaker 1: I understand it, and I want to defend Lebron on
Speaker 1: this point. That was a dad talking to me. That
Speaker 1: was not some basketball player that was just pissed off.
Speaker 1: That was a father. And I'm sensitive to that because
Speaker 1: I'm a dad. And if I had a son and
Speaker 1: I felt like somebody had brought negativity to their world,
Speaker 1: I can't say I wouldn't have reacted the way Lebron
Speaker 1: James did. I don't think I would have, but I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know, but I want to emphasize
Speaker 1: I wasn't really concerned about Bronnie. I think Briannie's gonna
Speaker 1: be an NBA player. I think he's got potential, and
Speaker 1: what he was doing in the G League, I think
Speaker 1: he's got a lot of promise. And I just interviewed
Speaker 1: Genie bus Right on this podcast and she was raving
Speaker 1: about them, and they wanted them to be a part
Speaker 1: of the Lakers organization for a long time. That's where
Speaker 1: it starts. I get it. I'm root for this kid.
Speaker 1: I wish him nothing but the best. My issue was
Speaker 1: with what he is going through. Nobody best knows how
Speaker 1: to alleviate the problem at the time, and nobody had
Speaker 1: the power at the time as well to alleviate it,
Speaker 1: more so than Lebron James, and I was simply suggesting
Speaker 1: that he alleviate that problem. I didn't know what would
Speaker 1: be taken as I'm coming after his son, because that
Speaker 1: is not what I was doing. That is not the
Speaker 1: intent that I wanted to put out there. So I
Speaker 1: get it. I'm sorry. I'm also sorry that this all
Speaker 1: had to happen on a day my new contract extension
Speaker 1: was announced, but it is what it is, So that's
Speaker 1: all I can say about that. That's all I have
Speaker 1: to say about that. Lebron's entitled to his feelings but
Speaker 1: I'm also entitled to mine. I cover the sport, I
Speaker 1: did not get personal. I talk about players every day.
Speaker 1: I talk about teams every day. I talk about organizations
Speaker 1: every day. I talk about news items every day. I
Speaker 1: talk about it all. It's my job, and that's what
Speaker 1: I did.