Los Angeles Lakers superstar forward LeBron James is looking to make at least one more title run before he walks away from the game and retires after a storied career. However, all of James’ success has come at the cost of the relationships with people who used to be in his life.
James confronted ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith during a Lakers game over a comment Smith made about his son, Lakers point guard Bronny James. The two proceeded to trade jabs online, culminating with James’s tearing into Smith in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
Now, Smith is addressing the state of their relationship.
“There’s no situation and there’s no relationship,” Smith said on Friday, according to Awful Announcing. “He doesn’t like me, and I don’t like him.”
Smith insisted there was more to the story than people realized.
“All I would say is people don’t know the things that have happened behind the scenes,” he said. “Things that have been said, who they’ve been said to. The kind of things that have been engaged in in an effort to hurt me, along with contemporaries and others.”
“There’s a lot of sh*t that I don’t say. And there’s a reason that I feel the way that I do. And the last straw was him approaching me and turning the Bronny thing into something about me attacking somebody’s family, when it was him I was talking about. Not Bronny. And then to go on The Pat McAfee Show, which comes directly on after my show. On the channel that I work on. To insult me. Now, people can get into all kind of components that go into it and all that other stuff. I have nothing to say.”
Fans reacted to Smith on social media.
“So weak throwing out the vague comments…either tell people what happened or don’t, but don’t pull this crap like you have the secret for who killed jfk but aren’t telling anyone. Pathetic,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“This is probably the 10th or 11th time he has said this. Loll just in case we all forgot he’s not friends with Lebron. Got it. I’m sure Lebron is not losing any sleep over this,” someone else added.
“The definition of insignificant in someone like LBJ’s life, as it should be with all clowns,” one person wrote.
It’ll be interesting to see if James addresses Smith’s latest comments.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.