Stephen A. Smith has been all over the news as of recently and particularly because of his one-on-one confrontation with the one and only, Lebron James. Bronny James, LeBron’s son, is now an NBA player and after battling various odds, he finally made his dream come true, which was to play in the NBA. His father on the other hand had made it known to the world that he wanted nothing more than to play side-by-side with his son, in the NBA.
Call it what you want, nepotism, power play, LeGM move, it doesn’t matter, the reality is that Bronny is in the NBA and is slowly but surely becoming a good NBA player. After all, Bronny wants to be more of a Derrick White kind of player than a scoring guard, which he stated some time back.
Bronny playing in the NBA comes with the good and bad. The good side in all this is that Bronny has come this far despite all the odds. He battled cardiac arrest in 2023 but he willed his way through and here he is, playing on the biggest stage. The bad is the obvious, he’s LeBron’s son and the fans, media, or even some former players will never forget about that. So how does Stephen A come in all this? Well before Bronny was drafted, LeBron put out a tweet saying, Bronny is definitely better than some of the players in the NBA in 2023.
This tweet is one of the reasons why Bronny has a big target on his back, and also why Stephen A. pleaded LeBron to stop exposing Bronny to the NBA. That led to the confrontation in the Lakers vs Knicks game between the two superstars of their respective fields, and hence the beef. However, this is not the first time Smith has pissed off an NBA player and there are countless other Superstars he’s ticked off, in the NBA. So let’s take a quick recap.
Smith has been covering the NBA for a long time, so long that LeBron wasn’t even in the NBA when he started off in sports media. Over the years, Smith has built great relationship with some players, but there are others who may hate him or simply dislike him. While he’s stated multiple times that he doesn’t care if he’s liked or not, let us look at all the NBA stars who may not be friends with him anymore.
Also Read: “We don’t get along” – Stephen A. Smith Drops another LeBron James Statement Amid Ongoing Beef
Stephen A. Smith has raved about KD’s play on the basketball court throughout, and has even been on the record to call him the best basketball player on the planet, when KD was still in his prime. We all know what KD can do, he’s arguably the greatest scorer to ever touch a basketball and play in the NBA. Yes, we are putting him over Jordan in terms of pure scoring ability. However, there are times when you look at him and question his leadership abilities.
Smith has shown a lot of admiration for Durant, but has also questioned KD’s leadership qualities. He has particularly pointed to the fact that ever since the Slim Reaper left the Warriors, he hasn’t gotten past the second round of the playoffs. While Smith is right about that, Durant, who was once Smith’s friend or at least seemed like it, called Smith a “clown.” This may have stained their relationship and as far as we know, those two aren’t in the best of terms anymore.
Kyrie Irving is box office and a player that is must-watch TV. He is one of, if not, the hardest players to guard in the NBA and his shot making ability, beautiful finishing around the rim, and of course his handles, is one of the most spectacular display of talents we’ve ever seen in any sport. During his tenure with the Brooklyn Nets, Irving made very controversial decisions. He lost his Nike contract because he posted a link to an anti-Semitic film on his social media. Irving refused to take the COVID vaccine which was, at the time, mandatory if he wanted to play NBA games. He also went AWOL because he was upset about capitol riot and continued to miss games.
Smith immediately called out Irving for leaving his team hanging and he also went on national television and asked Irving to retire from the NBA. To be fair, Smith was absolutely right to call out Irving as he may have cost Brooklyn, Kevin Durant, and James Harden an NBA championship. His unwillingness to play, despite signing a contract with the Nets, upset the entire NBA world as it looked like he didn’t care about basketball at that particular time.
Irving fired back at Smith, and the entire national media, via various social media posts, and it is clear that there is no love between the two.
The Klaw is one of the best players to ever play in the NBA. Despite being quiet, and uninterested in being a marketable player, he is some of the best two-way players we’ve ever seen and when healthy, he can dominate on the court. But health seems to always be a topic of conversation with him. While Leonard hasn’t fired back on Smith or anything of that nature, we’re pretty sure that he hears what the national media has to say, and Stephen A. Smith has called out Leonard multiple times.
Since joining the Clippers, Leonard has rarely been healthy. His first season with L.A was an embarrassment as they blew a 3-1 lead in the playoffs but since then the Clippers have never been healthy when the playoffs arrived. Leonard was always battling injuries and has always taken a lot of time with his recoveries too. Smith was absolutely sick of seeing the Clippers lose Leonard when the playoffs came around and has been extremely critical of Leonard even to this day. While there is no evidence suggesting that Leonard is raging on Smith, we believe that Kawhi isn’t a big of Smith too.
If you’ve watched Stephen A talk about the NBA since the early days, we’re sure that you’ve watched him mock Kwame Brown openly on his show. When Pau Gasol was traded to the Lakers in 2008 in exchange for Kwame Brown to the Memphis Grizzlies, Smith was asked a question about if the Lakers gave up too much in exchange for Gasol.
Smith replied “Is that a trick question… The city of Angels (Los Angeles) should celebrate. Throw a parade already whether you win a championship or not. This man was a bona fide scrub, he can’t play!… The man cannot play the game of basketball. He has small hands, he can’t catch the ball, he has bad feet and he can’t move… He doesn’t really know what he’s doing… He has no game whatsoever, does not play defense… They (Lakers) should be celebrating right now.”
To this day, even after 17 years, this is one of the most famous clips of Smith and it’s used in various memes. Brown’s reputation was significantly tarnished since that day, and he’s held a grudge ever since. Smith was recently asked about the clip, and admitted that he probably may have gone too far and had he known that Brown would be outraged even after 17 years, he wouldn’t have said it. But he also claimed that it’s his job to report the game as he sees fit.
Smith is a not liked by everybody but he brings all of the attention and there are a lot of fans who love to hear what he has to say. After all, ESPN recently signed him to a $100 million contract!