Speaker 1: Let me transition to a serious topic, because I want
Speaker 1: to put an end once and for all to this
Speaker 1: discussion about yours truly and Lebron James. The light of
Speaker 1: what happened last week, Dwayne Wade to came Melo Anthony,
Speaker 1: both of whom know Lebron very well, wade in on
Speaker 1: the situation between me and Lebron when Lebron rolled up
Speaker 1: on me court side last week of the Lakers game.
Speaker 1: They weighed in on the situation on Melo's podcast seven
Speaker 1: PM in Brooklyn. Check out what the fellas had to say.
Speaker 1: Please check it.
Speaker 2: Look at this.
Speaker 3: It's dual size once again.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I think you understand both sides, if you're that person
Speaker 3: who wants to understand both sides. I told him, as
Speaker 3: a father, I'm walking up on you, right. I get
Speaker 3: it because I'm like that too, like I'm at you,
Speaker 3: of course, but also you know what I told him,
Speaker 3: I said, And I think we've never seen Lebron do that,
Speaker 3: like even we've never seen like Lebron don't even go
Speaker 3: back at players that found him too hard on the court.
Speaker 3: We've never seen him be like he's always been just
Speaker 3: even killed and level head in every aspect of you.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you want him to jump, sometimes you want him
Speaker 3: to go and he won't. And so to watch him,
Speaker 3: to watch the clip and watch him on that bench
Speaker 3: and see Stephen Ay over there. He was just he
Speaker 3: couldn't take it.
Speaker 2: He couldn't take it. I mean, not that he could
Speaker 2: not stand there.
Speaker 3: They got the membo though, ste come, he comes to
Speaker 3: the game tonight because he knew because he saw saw
Speaker 3: a one up, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It just it was burning them.
Speaker 3: But you know, I told him, I said, you know, Stephen,
Speaker 3: I think the one thing is and first of all,
Speaker 3: I take it that that's a sign of respect that
Speaker 3: Lebron did that to you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: I know he understands that, and that's all him I saying.
Speaker 3: And that's the thing. Your your microphone is the loudest,
Speaker 3: your platform is the biggest. And also you're a black man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I.
Speaker 3: Said, you know, I mean, so you got to understand,
Speaker 3: you know where he's coming from with that if he
Speaker 3: even approached you, because yes, the Skip Bayless of the
Speaker 3: world and all these guys, I've said things about him
Speaker 3: his entire career and he's been above it.
Speaker 4: There is a fine line of I am a father,
Speaker 4: but you can't separate the fact that he is your
Speaker 4: teammate as well. You you know what I'm saying, and
Speaker 4: he's in this league to be critique critique. I just
Speaker 4: think this has been a build up. We're talking twenty
Speaker 4: two years like this ain't got nothing to do with Bronnie.
Speaker 4: It's just the fact that Bronnie is a part of
Speaker 4: the conversation now. And he also got to protect his
Speaker 4: See you know what I'm saying, y'all, you gotta protect
Speaker 4: the kingdom no matter how old it is.
Speaker 2: He's Bronnie, that's my dad. So bron got to protect that.
Speaker 4: But there's also energy with that with those two and
Speaker 4: that those cruise is just as from.
Speaker 2: Over the years of just build up, y'all.
Speaker 4: This ain't no love relationship that we talked, This relationship
Speaker 4: that we talking about, these.
Speaker 2: Don't have a friendship, right, So this is this is
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 4: What it is in the sense right, just just Stephen
Speaker 4: A doing what he's supposed to do over the years,
Speaker 4: Bronnie doing bron doing what he doing over the years,
Speaker 4: and this is what happens.
Speaker 2: Some ship might get mister strued.
Speaker 4: I might not like what you said, I might not
Speaker 4: with you.
Speaker 2: I ain't gonna deal with you.
Speaker 4: But the fact that I think the energy is because
Speaker 4: we're dealing with two juggernauts in their respective feels right,
Speaker 4: Bron being who he is, stephen A being who he is.
Speaker 4: A lot of people don't know that history between those two.
Speaker 4: The only thing people know is what Steven they may
Speaker 4: say or what he may not say. Bron has never
Speaker 4: spoken on any situation with Stephen N. So if I'm
Speaker 4: sitting there for twenty plus years and I'm just taking
Speaker 4: all of this information and all the shit that you've
Speaker 4: said to me is about me over the years, now
Speaker 4: my son is the trigger.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna drop the mic on all of this right now,
Speaker 1: once and for all. Were gonna put this shit to bed.
Speaker 1: I want to think Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony for
Speaker 1: saying what they said. Some of the details were missed, like,
Speaker 1: for example, he didn't see me, you know, warm up,
Speaker 1: because I didn't get there till a few minutes into
Speaker 1: the first quarter. But when you sit in courtside, they
Speaker 1: kind of know who's gonna be there. And I'm quite
Speaker 1: sure he was alerted I was gonna be there, but
Speaker 1: that's neither here nor there. D Wade told one thousand
Speaker 1: percent truth when he said what he texts me and
Speaker 1: said to me, because we do have a relationship.
Speaker 2: I love that brother.
Speaker 1: That's my dog, and I feel the same way about
Speaker 1: Carmelo Anthey, we all go back years and I love
Speaker 1: them both. So I really appreciated the conversation that they had,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate the perspective that they both provided because
Speaker 1: for the most part, it was pretty spot on a
Speaker 1: couple of things that need to be noted. Like Mello said,
Speaker 1: it's been stewing for years. See what I've gotten pissed
Speaker 1: about with this particular subject is that too many people
Speaker 1: are not touching on the truth Melo and d Wade did.
Speaker 1: Me and Lebron don't have a relationship. Lebron don't mess
Speaker 1: with me, and I don't mess with him. I respect
Speaker 1: the hell out of him. He's number two on the
Speaker 1: list all time, and I didn't always feel this way
Speaker 1: about him.
Speaker 2: There are times I didn't like how he treated black media.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about myself because I'm on a certain
Speaker 1: level and I watched how others.
Speaker 2: Got treated and I didn't like that.
Speaker 1: But it didn't take away from his unquestionable greatness, his
Speaker 1: deified status that he has earned as one of the
Speaker 1: top two or three greatest players in the history of basketball,
Speaker 1: and I never deviate from that.
Speaker 2: I've always been coming to his family.
Speaker 1: I think his wife is the first lady of the
Speaker 1: NBA class personified. I think his mom is an absolute
Speaker 1: wonderful woman. I don't have to talk to Randy much.
Speaker 1: That's a good brother. Rich Paul and me are pretty
Speaker 1: damn cool. Riches good people, so I'm cool with mav
Speaker 1: as well and various other people. But me and Lebron,
Speaker 1: we don't roll like that Hi and BA. He ain't
Speaker 1: had much use for me, and I damn sure don't
Speaker 1: have much use for him. And that shit was cemented
Speaker 1: when he did what he did the other day because
Speaker 1: you rolled up on me knowing that I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: a chance to respond unless I was willing to make
Speaker 1: a scene, which was at court side while the national
Speaker 1: televisions were rolling on the day that my new contract
Speaker 1: had been announced.
Speaker 2: To the world.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't stop me from being fair. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna stop me from doing my job. My issue, which
Speaker 1: is why I appreciate it. Where Mello went because Melo
Speaker 1: put it where the goats can get it.
Speaker 2: We don't have that kind of relationship. So what the
Speaker 2: hell you use.
Speaker 1: Your son for. I'm shitting on your son. That's not true,
Speaker 1: Bronnie James. That is not true.
Speaker 2: To the James family.
Speaker 1: And all your close confidence and loved ones, that is
Speaker 1: not true.
Speaker 2: I have video.
Speaker 1: Documentation with me refusing to cover Bronnie, never watching him
Speaker 1: out of.
Speaker 2: Respect for the family.
Speaker 1: Because if stephen A rolls into a gym or an
Speaker 1: arena and I see him, everyone's gonna ask for my
Speaker 1: critique of him. And I have been on the record
Speaker 1: publicly stating that's not fair to that kid because his
Speaker 1: father is one of the greatest ever and they're gonna
Speaker 1: judge him harshly, and I didn't want to be a
Speaker 1: part of it. I can look into the camera and
Speaker 1: look at Brownie James and say, factually, that is not correct.
Speaker 1: I have not been shitting on that kid at all.
Speaker 1: That is factually incorrect. Now, de Wade says, when you
Speaker 1: were talking about him, but you really no, I really wasn't.
Speaker 1: The reason I say that is because, as Rich Paul
Speaker 1: pointed out what he said, I could have contextualized it better.
Speaker 1: It's not foreign to me that a second round pick
Speaker 1: will come into the NBA and it's not ready yet,
Speaker 1: and they'll just work hard, going to G league, come
Speaker 1: back and forth, and they'll get better, just like Kenyan
Speaker 1: Martin told me his son did when I was on
Speaker 1: Gilsarina last week. So that's not foreign to me. I
Speaker 1: wasn't talking about him. I was talking about his father.
Speaker 1: And why was I talking about his father because not me,
Speaker 1: but the media, some publicly, many privately, literally labeled it
Speaker 1: parental abuse that he would say, my son is better
Speaker 1: than some of these dudes in the league. Right now,
Speaker 1: you want me draft my son. It ain't even about
Speaker 1: the money at this point. I want to play in
Speaker 1: the league with my son for the year. You did that,
Speaker 1: That was Lebron James.
Speaker 2: That was not Stephen A. Smith. I did not do that.
Speaker 1: So when he came up to me, claiming, you shitting
Speaker 1: on my son, You shitting on myself, I didn't know
Speaker 1: what he was talking about because I'm the one person
Speaker 1: who didn't. I told January twenty ninth, and even then
Speaker 1: I don't believe I did it. I pointed out how
Speaker 1: his start was very, very bad, but his performance in
Speaker 1: the G League was good.
Speaker 2: Let him go there.
Speaker 1: And get himself better, because you, as the dad, put
Speaker 1: him in this microscopic spotlight and you're going to jack
Speaker 1: the stuff that's going to be too much.
Speaker 2: That's all I was saying.
Speaker 1: So we got the Draymond Green's out out there with
Speaker 1: his damn podcast for some reason suddenly.
Speaker 2: Forgetting my character and who I am, and he's talking
Speaker 2: about y'all. It was weaker stephen A to say that
Speaker 2: it Lebron was.
Speaker 1: We or to bring it up as a father and oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, where I'm from, we put hands on you.
Speaker 1: You sure you should be saying that, Tremonde. Sure, I
Speaker 1: mean you sure that's the words you want to use.
Speaker 1: We should be putting hands on somebody. Has that not
Speaker 1: worked against you? Jordan Poole, nurked, Rudy Gobier. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm just asking. I'm just asking, is that the smartest
Speaker 1: thing for you to say, particularly.
Speaker 2: When you want to be in this business when it's
Speaker 2: all over?
Speaker 1: Is that the smartest thing for you to say?
Speaker 2: But you go ahead, bro, God bless you.
Speaker 1: I understand where you're rolling now and how you're rolling.
Speaker 2: It's cool.
Speaker 1: I got nothing bad to say about Draymond. I still
Speaker 1: got love for Draymond. My point in all of this
Speaker 1: is I would never call out somebody as a father
Speaker 1: for stuff that's going on in the privacy of your
Speaker 1: life and your home. But I covered the NBA, and
Speaker 1: what I was talking about when it came to fatherhood
Speaker 1: was what we were seeing on an NBA basketball court.
Speaker 2: That's my job. That's my job.
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to ignore that while he's wearing a Lakers uniform,
Speaker 1: while he's getting money that most people wouldn't get that
Speaker 1: he deserves because Lebron, because Lebron is underpaid. I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to ignore all of this while you're in the purple
Speaker 1: and gold, while you're in an NBA uniform, while you're
Speaker 1: receiving an NBA check. When I covered the NBA, that's
Speaker 1: where I disagreed with Dwayne Wade.
Speaker 2: When he said I'm coming at you. I'm like, ah,
Speaker 2: because of Dwayne Wade that I.
Speaker 1: Know would have picked up when I was talking about
Speaker 1: d Wade, not his son.
Speaker 2: Lebron tried to say I was talking about.
Speaker 1: His son when he knew good and damn well, I
Speaker 1: was talking about him. We sit here today it's a
Speaker 1: week later, and I'm not going to talk about this anymore.
Speaker 2: But let me say this to y'all. It's a week later.
Speaker 2: I'm not backing up from a word I said. I
Speaker 2: was right.
Speaker 1: I was doing my job, and in the process of
Speaker 1: doing my job, I wasn't doing my job when I
Speaker 1: didn't talk about.
Speaker 2: Him all of those years. I cover basketball. I don't
Speaker 2: just cover the NBA.
Speaker 1: I am a sports broadcaster, which means that it was
Speaker 1: perfectly within my right to go to Sierra Canyon and
Speaker 1: cover him, to go to USC and cover him, to
Speaker 1: go to the G League if I wanted to and
Speaker 1: cover him, because I cover sports. To get on me
Speaker 1: otherwise is to get on me for doing my job.
Speaker 1: So that's where a dreamon is wrong. It's taught me
Speaker 1: talking about father. Why did I mention father because you
Speaker 1: said my son is better to some of the dudes
Speaker 1: in the league right now before he got here, and
Speaker 1: you said you want me draft my son.
Speaker 2: At this what it ain't about the money.
Speaker 1: I just want to play with him for a year,
Speaker 1: that's what you said, Which is why a whole.
Speaker 2: Bunch of people who ain't Stephen A.
Speaker 1: Smith, who don't have my microphone, who don't have my
Speaker 1: platform was talking about him behind his back and talking
Speaker 1: about Lebron.
Speaker 2: And what he was doing.
Speaker 1: As a father who happens to be the greatest attraction
Speaker 1: in the game today. Mellow's right. This wasn't about Bronnie.
Speaker 1: This was an excuse that Lebron was looking for to
Speaker 1: get at me, which, by the way, would not have
Speaker 1: been a problem.
Speaker 2: We could have met in the back.
Speaker 1: We could have I had a man a man conversation
Speaker 1: where I had an opportunity to respond and point to
Speaker 1: him about what he did to put his son in
Speaker 1: this microscopic spotlight that I personally have tried.
Speaker 2: To avoid for three years. But he didn't give me.
Speaker 1: That opportunity, just like he didn't give me the opportunity
Speaker 1: when the shop was on HBO and MAV came up
Speaker 1: to me, and Rich came up to me, and they said, Yo,
Speaker 1: we want you on a shop. Hell yeah, we want
Speaker 1: you on a shop with Lebron. It'll be box office.
Speaker 1: I said, name the time and place I show up.
Speaker 1: I only got one condition, nothing gets edited out.
Speaker 2: Nothing. Let me go.
Speaker 1: He's so right, he's so righteous. Let's do it his show,
Speaker 1: not mine. Don't come on first saying, oh, I ain't
Speaker 1: helping his ratings. Don't come on his YouTube shorts podcast. Now,
Speaker 1: I ain't helping come on your show. We know her
Speaker 1: to help numbers at the very least, we know I
Speaker 1: could do that. Nobody was hiding crickets. Never heard from
Speaker 1: them since. And I know that ain't there for because
Speaker 1: I know Mavill put me on the heartbeat, Rich Paul
Speaker 1: and the rest of the crew.
Speaker 2: All of them in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1: I'd show up by my damn self, or I'd show
Speaker 1: up with my own boys, and we could all bring
Speaker 1: facts to the table. But I was never taken up
Speaker 1: on that offer. You see, I don't run and hide.
Speaker 1: If I'm wrong, I'll say I'm wrong. If I'm right,
Speaker 1: I'm right. I was never shitting on Brownie James. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't do that to the James family. I was talking
Speaker 1: about one person and one person only. We may never
Speaker 1: speak in life again. I'm fine with it. I get
Speaker 1: paid to talk about folks, not to them. I cover
Speaker 1: the league you play, I watch, dissect, analyze, and broadcast.
Speaker 1: We ain't got to communicate. We damn sure don't have
Speaker 1: to say hello to each other. We don't have to
Speaker 1: do none of that. We don't get along. And there's
Speaker 1: a multitude of reasons why. I've alluded to some of them,
Speaker 1: but we know what the biggest reason is.
Speaker 2: I ain't shaying a shop. It ain't goat status this way.
Speaker 2: My goat is Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1: Thirty five thousand points eclips in the Kareem Abdujabal with
Speaker 1: over thirty eight thousand, ultimately forty thousand, now fifty thousand,
Speaker 1: another All Star appearance, another fifty point game. Whatever ain't
Speaker 1: my goat? I watched the game. I'm a student of
Speaker 1: the game. I know a goat when I see one,
Speaker 1: and he is a goat of this generation. But all time,
Speaker 1: it's Michael Jordan.
Speaker 2: That's who the hell it is. That's the goat you see.
Speaker 2: Kobe came into the game with a heart.
Speaker 1: Lebron developed one.
Speaker 2: First several years.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like that because he was scared to get
Speaker 1: through the free throw line. He was never scared of
Speaker 1: an opponent. I would never disrespect greatness of Lebron James
Speaker 1: like that. He was scared to get to the free
Speaker 1: throw line. That's where the fallaway jumpers came from. That
Speaker 1: was where the hesitancy to get to go to the hole.
Speaker 1: Came from anything that could finally lend himself towards going
Speaker 1: to the free throw line.
Speaker 2: He wasn't trying to do. But there's this thing about
Speaker 2: heart that you got to pay attention to.
Speaker 1: You See, when you lack a speck of it at
Speaker 1: any point, particularly back in the day, there would be
Speaker 1: impediments and roadblocks to prevent you from getting it. Why
Speaker 1: do I call Michael Jordan the goat over Lebron James
Speaker 1: because at his very best, compared to Lebron at his
Speaker 1: very best, I'm going MJ all day every day.
Speaker 2: But here's the biggest thing.
Speaker 1: It was Scottie Pippen, with the Migraine and others associated
Speaker 1: with Lebron, with Michael Jordan that prevented him from climbing
Speaker 1: that ladder over the Detroit Pistons until the or fourth
Speaker 1: or fifth try.
Speaker 2: Whenever it was. It wasn't because of MJ. And I'm
Speaker 2: telling you here right now as.
Speaker 1: God as my witness. Lebron as great and phenomenal as
Speaker 1: he is, if he were playing in that era, as
Speaker 1: I've said on many occasions, and he gone against Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan would have tried to snatch his heart right
Speaker 1: out of his chest before he ever arrived to Miami,
Speaker 1: to learn to win with d Wade and with pat Riley.
Speaker 2: That's my proclamation.
Speaker 1: I said it before and I'll say it again. That's
Speaker 1: why Michael Jordan is my goat. It's just a basketball opinion.
Speaker 2: To me. It's clearly a lot more than Lebron James.
Speaker 1: Choking in the finals against the Dallas Mavericks in twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: Fine us getting in an argument about something in black media,
Speaker 1: and fine. The only consistent blemish I've placed against Lebron
Speaker 1: James is that he is not the greatest of all time.
Speaker 1: That's the frustration that's been brewing up more so than
Speaker 1: anything else. Bring up, Bronnie, if you want to, Bronnie James,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do my job, same energy. You mess up,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna mention it. You succeed, I'm gonna be there
Speaker 1: celebrating it. That's what happens in the pros. You got
Speaker 1: nothing to worry about with me. All the best to you.
Speaker 1: I wish you nothing but the best. You're a great
Speaker 1: kid who I believe is gonna be in the NBA someday,
Speaker 1: sooner than later. On a regular consistent basis to the
Speaker 1: James family. My apologies for all that is happening. To
Speaker 1: the Draymond Greens world. I'm sad I hurt your friend
Speaker 1: or I upset your friend.
Speaker 4: Bro.
Speaker 1: Evidently that matters a lot to you. My bad to
Speaker 1: the basketball world. I'm Stephen A. Smith, demmit, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna cover the sport the way I cover the sport.
Speaker 1: Ain't nobody changing me on that. I'm gonna give it
Speaker 1: to you how you deserve it, good, bad or in different,
Speaker 1: and that includes Lebron James. Ain't nobody changing. This was
Speaker 1: not about Bronni. This was about Lebron. He did all
Speaker 1: of this with his words and his proclamations and his assertions.
Speaker 1: He also did it to show that it really does
Speaker 1: hurt 'em not to be the goat.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.