What an elite sports day March 27, 2025, is. Opening Day. Four games of the men’s March Madness Sweet 16. Mikaela Shiffrin competing at the skiing World Cup finals. Playoff pictures in the NHL and NBA coming into focus.
ESPN’s “First Take” had plenty of topics to lead the show on Thursday morning, today of all days. But like everything else in our society, the vision barely went anywhere, and if it did at all, it was directed at a mirror. Because Stephen A. Smith – the $100 million man himself – instead spent the first 15 minutes or so of the program once again rehashing his ongoing feud between himself and Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
That came on the heels of James’ appearance Wednesday on another ESPN program, “The Pat McAfee Show.” Over the hour-plus interview on the “progrum,” James discussed the war of words – which devolved into trendy gossip over the past month after James approached Smith courtside during the Lakers’ overtime victory over Smith’s beloved New York Knicks on March 6 – for about two minutes.
That’s all Smith needed. James mentioning Smith was the match. And Smith poured gasoline on the fire for the ensuing news cycle.
Smith ranted about it Wednesday afternoon on his YouTube show, saying he’d “immediately” swing at “King James” had LeBron put his hands on him during that confrontation. At least he prefaced it with “I would have gotten my (expletive) kicked.”
James responded by posting old clips of Smith boxing on Instagram with a caption consisting of 14 tilted-head, laugh-crying emojis followed by “WHOMP WHOMP WHOMPPPPPPPP (sic).” That’s immature, too. If James really wants to disengage from all of this, he shouldn’t have posted that.
“He’s like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,” James said of Smith’s prolific recounting of the beef.
Smith contends that all of his comments about LeBron’s son Bronny James have only been about his play. But Smith’s style always escalates things; it’s not hard to see how James could take it the wrong way.
Smith has taken to calling James a “liar” for the latter’s point that he is simply defending his son.
“He completely missed the whole point,” James said on McAfee’s show. “Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court. That is your job, to criticize.
“But when you take it and when you get personal with it, it’s my job to not only protect my damn household, but protect the players.”
James added: “He’s going to be happy as hell, he’s going to be smiling ear-to-ear when he hears me talking about him.”
Smith called James “a liar” Thursday again on “First Take.” The opening of the show should go down as one of the lowlights in ESPN’s history, honestly. And we won’t even get into the GOAT debate aspect of it all or that Smith accused James’ appearance with McAfee as being “negotiated.”
“My issue is with LeBron James,” he said. “I just want to say for the record, LeBron James is full of it.
“LeBron James went on national television (Wednesday) and lied.”
Smith went on to claim James “is in his feelings.” The level of debate in this country has been pruned down to a nub, yes, but this is really how one of the most highly paid employees at ESPN talks now?
And somehow, all of this has to do with James being Smith’s No. 2 player all-time behind Michael Jordan, Smith believes.
“He doesn’t want any pushback. He just wants to say what he wants like he did courtside and then depart … the man orchestrates stuff,” Smith said. “The man will smile in your face and he’s got something behind his back, ready to stab you.
“It’s who he has been. It’s who I’ve known him to be. It’s why he doesn’t like me. It’s why I certainly don’t like him.”
You won’t find me racing to defend the genuineness of LeBron James. But let’s extend some grace. This is a human who grew up unprivileged, became a billionaire and has been in the spotlight since he was a teenager. That’s not normal.
But James is the one who confronted Smith in the view of the public. Again, not defending James here, but it’s not like Smith is walking around with a credential and heading into locker rooms after games or showing up at shootarounds in the morning to make himself available for these conversations. But yelling at him in a public setting made this a thing. For that, he bears responsibility.
This beef isn’t even the zesty-fun type anymore. It’s become uncomfortable. The whole point of sports debate is to mimic the conversation around office watercoolers (or in this day and age, in the group Slack channel). Caring this much about two individuals, no matter how public their personas are, is unhealthy.
The airing of personal grievances – Festivus was four months ago, somebody should tell these guys – is now an expected, daily occurrence in all corners of our culture. It might even be the foundation of it at this point.
What does it say about me that I let the childishness of James and Smith become bothersome? That I’m giving it more air by writing about it now? That my bosses thought my pitch to publish this was a good idea? It’s because we know the sports ecosystem care about two grown men – extremely popular and divisive in their own rights – who can’t stop talking about each other.
Tuning it out, sadly, isn’t much of an option. I have tried to opt out of this, until the next (metaphorical) jabs are exchanged and another cycle of this all kicks off. It won’t end until Smith and James drop their swords.
That would require them to grow up and – to loosely quote Will Smith – keep each other’s names out of their mouths. But their feud is a microcosm of how we conduct discourse now. As a sports media. As a country. As a people. And we’re so much worse because of it.