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Stephen A. Smith is still thinking about the LeBron James confrontation on the courts, and he told a former NBA star why he felt he was “looked up” by the league’s all-time scoring leader in that moment.
Smith and James went viral earlier this year during a Los Angeles Lakers game, with the latter confronting the former in his courtside seat to apparently address Smith’s criticism of how the Lakers handled Bronny James, the superstar’s son.
Smith revealed in March that the incident stemmed from his televised criticism of Bronny.
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Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James still have some beef heading into the 2025-26 NBA season. (IMAGIN)
“It wasn’t a basketball player who confronted me. It was a parent. It was a father,” Smith said on ESPN at the time. “I can’t sit here and be angry or feel slighted by LeBron James in that regard. By all accounts, he’s obviously a wonderful family man and father who cares very, very deeply about his son.
During a recent episode of “7PM In Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony,” Smith replayed the moment with the New York Knicks legend and said the circumstances surrounding the conversation with James, as well as how it looked on camera, still don’t sit well with him.
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“The day he rolled up on me on the field was the day my contract was announced that I had stayed with ESPN,” Smith explained on the podcast. “Go back and look at the camera angle…This is 2025, we have technology everywhere. TNT is a nationally televised game. How come we have an angle and the only angle you see was him and his face, but you can see the back of my peanut head?”
Smith believes that given James’ star status, there would have been many more camera angles on the courtside meeting.
“There’s no way you’re in an arena, you’re LeBron James, and the only angle that anybody sees is a direct shot of you getting in my face,” Smith added. “They see no reaction. They see nothing. And it’s an accident?”
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith said Thursday that he doesn’t think there is a Democratic candidate who could beat a Vance/Rubio presidential ticket in 2028. (Paras Griffin/Getty)
Smith dove into conspiracy territory here, but he stood his ground when he expressed his feelings that it was potentially an orchestrated confrontation.
“I damn well did,” Smith quickly responded to a question about whether or not he felt set up. “That’s how I feel. But no big deal, no problem, because I go on the air the next day and I’m like, ‘That’s a father reacting to his son.'”
And in case you’re wondering, no, Smith and James haven’t broken up. In fact, Smith made it clear how he feels about James.
Stephen A. Smith speaks on stage during the 2025 ForbesBLK Summit at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center Morehouse College on October 9, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
“I don’t like his a–, not one bit,” he said. “This goes back over a decade. I’m not going to go into detail about the things that this man has tried to do to me. You don’t understand how far this man would go… If it was up to him, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It’s some low, low things.”
The beef is real between these two, and it doesn’t look like there will be any update on it during the 2025-26 season this week.
