Speaker 1: Stephen A Smith versus Lebron James. You gotta pick a side,
Speaker 1: But the real winner is not who you think it is.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you who it is and what's really
Speaker 1: going on behind the scenes here on the Unafraid Show.
Speaker 1: Make sure that you like, subscribe, get notifications, and tell
Speaker 1: a friend about the show.
Speaker 2: Let's get to it.
Speaker 1: For over a week now, stephen A Smith and Lebron
Speaker 1: James have been going at it and people have picked Usie, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's Lebron being too sensitive, steven A Smith's being too sensitive.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna tell you who it is.
Speaker 1: ESPN is the only winner in this situation because they
Speaker 1: just paid stephen A. Smith a boot pool load of
Speaker 1: money some speculate up to one hundred million dollars and
Speaker 1: on a night when Lebron hit the game winner, you
Speaker 1: are in a playoff run in the NBA. Great players
Speaker 1: doing great things. We're talking about steven A. Smith and
Speaker 1: Pat McAfee and this the whole network. Brian winhors everybody else.
Speaker 1: ESPN is like yes, ratings gold, So they are the
Speaker 1: biggest winner in this situation. But the question is who's
Speaker 1: at fault? And you know who's the person to blame.
Speaker 1: So if you're not familiar with what happened. Obviously a
Speaker 1: few weeks months ago, Steven A. Smith goes on First
Speaker 1: Take and he pleads with Lebron Lebron as a father,
Speaker 1: as a.
Speaker 2: Father, you can't keep sending your son out there. And
Speaker 2: as a man who's very, very protective of maturans, if
Speaker 2: you come at me like that, the insinuation is, I
Speaker 2: don't know what I'm doing as a daddy. I don't
Speaker 2: know what I'm doing as a father.
Speaker 1: And by all accounts now, mind, I have had the
Speaker 1: personal privilege of watching Lebron James up close and personal,
Speaker 1: Savannah up close and personal for like five years because
Speaker 1: my kids and his kids went to the same school,
Speaker 1: so had the privilege of seeing them up there, how
Speaker 1: they interact with the faculty, how they interact with everybody.
Speaker 1: And the dude is absolute gold in terms of how
Speaker 1: he's acting as a parent. He's not trying to stampede
Speaker 1: the coach, not trying to do none of that stuff.
Speaker 2: So as a dad, I.
Speaker 1: Would be hot if you came at me like that,
Speaker 1: like I'm doing something wrong to my kid. When there's
Speaker 1: all this nepotism out in the world and my kid
Speaker 1: I believe is actually talented, because every parent believes that
Speaker 1: their kid is special, talented and everything else.
Speaker 2: And Bronnie started to prove it even for all you haters.
Speaker 2: Oh look at them moving the gold post box score,
Speaker 2: box score, box score, look at the BLUs minus honest stuff. Right.
Speaker 1: But here is where Steven A. Smith has won because
Speaker 1: he got to avenge. He got to avenge his boy,
Speaker 1: Skip Bayless. By that, so Skip Bayless spent you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen years banging on the Lebron drum just oh he's
Speaker 1: not the go, don't have the clutch, gen and everything else.
Speaker 2: Lebron just refused to respond to him. So now Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith got what nobody has really gotten from Lebron James
Speaker 1: in terms of like direct shot. He got a response.
Speaker 1: So now that magnifies everything that Stephen A. Smith says.
Speaker 2: So Stephen A. Smith is winning in that aspect.
Speaker 1: He's proving his worth in terms of drumming up content,
Speaker 1: drumming up interest in what he has to say about whatever,
Speaker 1: whether it's politics, whether it's sports.
Speaker 2: Anything like that. The man's engaging. You cannot say he's
Speaker 2: not good at his job.
Speaker 1: And also on a side note for all you people
Speaker 1: that be like, oh he's a clowns.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, Steven A. Smith has put a lot
Speaker 2: of folks on.
Speaker 1: He is not a guy who just hoards his fame
Speaker 1: and opportunity and all of that. No, he's a guy
Speaker 1: who tries to consistently help other people raise up. Now
Speaker 1: with that, that does not mean that he's not being
Speaker 1: Ralph Transmitt right now, I want a man.
Speaker 2: With sid steevity. Right now. Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith is taking himself way too seriously because this is
Speaker 1: the first time that he has been the butt of jokes.
Speaker 1: He spent years and times on television being hypercritical of players.
Speaker 1: Look at the Kwame Brown situation. Oh he's a bump,
Speaker 1: small hands, not one post move that he can recite
Speaker 1: from memory two times.
Speaker 2: In a row. That whole thing. It ain't no fun
Speaker 2: when the rabbit got the gun. So yes, stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith, you could have just took the l right, and
Speaker 1: then people actually have manipulated something else that Stephen A said.
Speaker 1: And this one got banged out yesterday. This one got
Speaker 1: circulated yesterday. So before y'all say, but I know y'all
Speaker 1: want to say, I caught myself. So here is what
Speaker 1: the clip that circulated yesterday was that man put his
Speaker 1: hands on me, I would have immediately swung on them immediately.
Speaker 1: So he was like, yo, if he's come at me,
Speaker 1: I'm swinging at him. You're like, are you sure? But
Speaker 1: prior to that, to his credit, he did say I'll
Speaker 1: probably get my ass what by six eight two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty pounds man? So that clip hits a little
Speaker 1: bit different and people aren't sharing that because it's funny
Speaker 1: and the internet has no chill and black folks got
Speaker 1: no chill on the internet. They are gonna make jokes
Speaker 1: out of everything. And then Lebron did the ultimate middle
Speaker 1: finger back. Because Lebron don't really do interviews. He don't
Speaker 1: sign cards like he hasn't had a what a signed
Speaker 1: card until recently, since like twenty fourteen. He don't do
Speaker 1: card deals like that, sign deals, don't do none of
Speaker 1: the stuff that people would traditionally do. Access to Lebron
Speaker 1: for interviews is very very difficult, and Lebron is like cool.
Speaker 1: He went on a New Heights podcast, then he went
Speaker 1: on then he went on Pat McAfee yesterday, and there
Speaker 1: is famous beef between Pat McAfee and Steven A.
Speaker 2: Smith.
Speaker 1: There's work beef about who's the top dog at ESPN,
Speaker 1: So that's kind of a slap in the face of
Speaker 1: And he didn't just come on for five minutes, ten
Speaker 1: minutes like bro was on for like an hour. So
Speaker 1: that was a slap in the face of Stephen A.
Speaker 1: And this is where I say Steven A. Smiths taking
Speaker 1: himself way too seriously right now, because at some point
Speaker 1: in time.
Speaker 2: You gotta just laugh at yourself.
Speaker 1: Listen when the clips were circulating about the boxing and
Speaker 1: then people were laughing, it's okay.
Speaker 2: Because look at this.
Speaker 1: I don't know how we can look at that as
Speaker 1: anything but comedy and hilarious because it don't look like
Speaker 1: you could fight it all coupled with.
Speaker 2: What it said.
Speaker 1: So this is where sometimes you gotta let stuff roll
Speaker 1: off your back. And he's a veteran, he knows that
Speaker 1: people clipped it that way on purpose. And then he
Speaker 1: fell literally into the sinkhole. And then after Lebron confronted
Speaker 1: him at the game, then he went on the Press Store,
Speaker 1: went on Gilbert Show, went on other shows, talking.
Speaker 2: Big and bad and you know, like that ain't it, man,
Speaker 2: That is not it.
Speaker 1: And the fact that we have two of our most
Speaker 1: prominent black figures out here beefing on the media.
Speaker 2: Then you got Kendrick Perkins adding into it, this.
Speaker 1: Ain't it and it is petty, and it has turned petty,
Speaker 1: and it has turned more than personal.
Speaker 2: And this is and this actually has led to Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith saying something today that he had to retract that
Speaker 1: was a flat out lie. And this is a debate
Speaker 1: that I've had with people before. If you know something
Speaker 1: is true and then you say the opposite, that's a lie.
Speaker 1: If you are ignorant of information and you say something,
Speaker 1: is that a lie?
Speaker 2: You guys comming.
Speaker 1: Down and is that a lie? Or is that I
Speaker 1: just didn't know what the hell I was talking about?
Speaker 1: So what happened today is Steven A. Smith he got
Speaker 1: up on there and he said, oh, well, I'm not
Speaker 1: even I haven't even talked about why you weren't at
Speaker 1: Kobe's memorial or why you weren't at d Wade's Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame thing. And I'm like, I know for a
Speaker 1: fact it has been verified by the La Times, Entertainment Tonight,
Speaker 1: other outlets that lebron was absolutely at Kobe's memorial after
Speaker 1: he passed away. And look at Diana Tarassi, and here's
Speaker 1: what she had to say. Does this look like a
Speaker 1: man who's not at the.
Speaker 3: Building, I mean, who has a turner rate fadeaway jumper
Speaker 3: at eleven Lebron barely got it today.
Speaker 2: No, that looks like a man that she's pointing at
Speaker 2: because she sees him. And then Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith realized because the fact checkers got him and he
Speaker 1: was on air, and he says, oh, yo, I wasn't
Speaker 1: saying that he wasn't there. I was saying that he
Speaker 1: wasn't on camera. And there's a reason for that.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: You should have just got up on camera, taking yourself
Speaker 1: too seriously and said listen, I messed up. I said
Speaker 1: something wrong. I screwed up. That wasn't true. That's the
Speaker 1: part that we gotta get to. And this is the
Speaker 1: part where we have lost it in politics. We've lost
Speaker 1: it in relationships, We've lost it in everything. When you
Speaker 1: know the truth or you know you screwed something up,
Speaker 1: just say, hey, yo, I blew it.
Speaker 2: I was one hundred percent wrong. I thought this and
Speaker 2: I was wrong.
Speaker 1: But instead they try to spend it, try to make
Speaker 1: it be something else, when all that's gonna do is unravel.
Speaker 1: It's gonna unravel and cause more issues for you. And
Speaker 1: then you got Lebron James airing out. Oh sorry, steven A.
Speaker 2: Smithtoma.
Speaker 1: When you retired, Let's see how much I talk about you.
Speaker 1: Then you won't matter much, I promise you. I mean
Speaker 1: he might. Michael Jordan is still mattered, Kobe is still mattered.
Speaker 1: The all time greats, Magic Johnson is still mattered. The
Speaker 1: all time greats still matter. Like the the top three, one, two, three, four,
Speaker 1: five guys always matter. So yes, you're still gonna talk
Speaker 1: about them no matter what. But here is where Lebron
Speaker 1: James was dead wrong. He was one one hundred percent
Speaker 1: wrong on the Pat McAfee show for the way he
Speaker 1: kind of talked about Brian went Windhorse, because Brian Windhorst
Speaker 1: has essentially had to dedicate his life to following Lebron
Speaker 1: around since he went to Cleveland and Miami then out
Speaker 1: to La getting scoops and everything else. And at one
Speaker 1: point in time, Bron said that he's probably the guy
Speaker 1: that knows him the most in the media, and then
Speaker 1: to kind of take a shot at Brian Winhurst. I
Speaker 1: think Bron got caught up in a moment and that
Speaker 1: wasn't cool because I guarant damn t you that Brian
Speaker 1: Winhorse has kept some secrets, not even necessarily like nefarious stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm saying like stuff that went on in the locker room,
Speaker 1: stuff that was sad, stuff that Lebron did anything that
Speaker 1: would have painted him in an unfavorable light. And Brian
Speaker 1: Windhorst was like, nah, I'm not gonna say that I
Speaker 1: will protect the access. I'm going to say it up
Speaker 1: to a line and then we gonna chill there. So
Speaker 1: I didn't think that that was cool. And then Kendrick Perkins,
Speaker 1: who I just saw my daughter's birthday at Fixing Soul
Speaker 1: Kitchen down there in La. Shout out Kevin Johnson, former
Speaker 1: NBA player, former governor of Marrisach, Sacramento, owns fantastic soul
Speaker 1: food spot. Amazing if you go to sac or La,
Speaker 1: absolutely go. But anyways, he took a shot at Lebron.
Speaker 1: He was like, why didn't you go on you know,
Speaker 1: Channing Fry's podcast or this guy's podcast. Oh, but you
Speaker 1: went on with with Steve Nash and you went on
Speaker 1: with JJ Reddick, like kind of trying to imply that Lebron, oh,
Speaker 1: he's caping for the white man, when in reality is
Speaker 1: like the there's a portion of the white populace that
Speaker 1: don't like Lebron at all. He's never been caping for anybody.
Speaker 1: He's been trying to do his best at at trying
Speaker 1: to spread spread whatever are his passions out in the world. Now,
Speaker 1: has he made some missteps, Yes, nobody's purtracked, but the
Speaker 1: intent has been good. But now this has turned into
Speaker 1: like super personal and we've gotten to a point where,
Speaker 1: like our sports media personalities have gotten so big that
Speaker 1: instead that you know that it becomes more about being right,
Speaker 1: because you got to say it with force. You gotta
Speaker 1: say it with conviction, you gotta say it with passion,
Speaker 1: you gotta say it. That's what they teach you. So
Speaker 1: where's the human side of this? And this is where
Speaker 1: Lebron is wrong to like criticize me. Oh, how you
Speaker 1: cover the NBA. Well, there's stuff that's broken in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Players not playing hard all the time, the whistles, the
Speaker 1: load management, the NBA is trying to reel it all
Speaker 1: back in. It's okay, But for stephen A to take
Speaker 1: a shot at that man's son, I'd have turned up
Speaker 1: to well, why didn't George, George, George, why didn't he
Speaker 1: approach him?
Speaker 2: Man to man?
Speaker 1: Well, just a few weeks prior what happened, prior to
Speaker 1: the incident at the at the court, what I happened?
Speaker 1: Stephen A went on TV and was like, Yo, Maverick
Speaker 1: Carter and Lebron's can't hit me up about what I
Speaker 1: said on TV?
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: I thought this was a private conversation, fam, So now
Speaker 1: ain't no point in reaching reaching out to you. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pull up on you and have a conversation. That's
Speaker 1: all I got for you. And if you come at
Speaker 1: my family, you've gone too far. But who do you
Speaker 1: believe is winning this beef? Who do you believe is
Speaker 1: the is the is on the right side of things
Speaker 1: because Lebron's getting the internet memes they're cooking stephen.
Speaker 2: A on AI.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, don't take yourself too seriously, Lebron,
Speaker 1: stephen A Smith, y'all gonna be in twenty years probably
Speaker 1: doing doing an interview talking about this and making making
Speaker 1: up because you can't come for a man's family. You
Speaker 1: come for a man's family, you're gonna get roughed up.
Speaker 1: Usually that's just the facts.