March 2, 2025 • 14 mins
Stephen A. Smith is a New York Times Bestselling Author, Executive Producer, host of ESPN's First Take, and co-host of NBA Countdown.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's time to get into Lebron James, who made headlines
after the Lakers game on Thursday night their victory over
the Timberwods one eleven to one oh two at home.
Lebron led the way with thirty three points seventeen rebounds. Meanwhile,
Anthony Edwards was ejected for getting his sixteenth technical foul
and missed most of the second half, by the way,
But that's not why I want to talk about Lebron.
(00:24):
I wanted to get into what Lebron had to say
about Anthony Edwards post game and a conversation surrounding Edwards
becoming the face of the NBA. Take a listen to
this place.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Why do you want to be the face of the
league when all all to all the people that you
know that cover our game and talk about our game
on a day to day basis, Shit on, everybody had
that responsibility. That's that's just weird. It's weird.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Energy, ladies and gentlemen, excuse my language. That's some straight
bullshit by Lebron James. Straight bullshit. I'm getting sick and
tired of folks talking about everybody who covers the league
shitting on the league. How do sit on the league
because some of us don't call Lebron James the goat,
because we bring up load management because people come to
(01:08):
games sometimes and cats are sitting out and fans don't
even know until they arrive at the arena that the
Cats are sitting out. Is it because All Star weekends
arrives and folks don't learn that Lebron James is playing
is not playing rather until the last minute. Is it
because he's never participated in the Slam Dunk contest, thereby
(01:28):
ruining it, because he's the first marquee name with slam
dunking ability like that to refuse to participate in an
All Star Slam Dunk contest ever in his career. The
way Jordan did Dominique did, Doctor j did, David Thompson did,
Harold Minor did, Jason Richardson did, Tracy McGrady did, Vince
(01:51):
Carter did, Kobe did? Zach Lavine did? Aaron Gordon? Did?
Nate Robinson did? Spud Web did the way all of
these people did. He elected. That's how we're shitting on
the league. See, this is the con of stuff that
pisses people like myself off. I've covered the NBA for
(02:13):
thirty years. I'm successful in life because of the NBA
and what it's done for my life. So is Lebron.
So are thousands upon thousands of players that have come
through the league. Just recently, the league signed an eleven year,
seventy seven billion dollar deal. Well, how that come about
(02:35):
sponsors and advertisers? That's how Yet, somehow, some way, we're
gonna sit up there and say you shouldn't want to
be the face of the league because folks are shitting
on the league. Well, who are these folks? Let me
tell you who it is. It's everybody in social media.
But you see where the problem is and why I
think Lebron's comments was bullshit was because he doesn't specify
(03:03):
who he's talking about. So folks on social media who
do all of this salacious nonsense get lumped in with
the rest of the media, and nobody differentiates from the other.
Social media and in the locker room. Social media doesn't
ignore your personal life. Social media doesn't ignore your personal business.
(03:24):
Social media doesn't have the class and the decorum to
avoid touching on those different things because it has nothing
to do with the game of basketball. That's the media.
People like myself and various others. Now, to be clear
and to put myself on front street, y'all do understand
I'm under no obligation to talk about the NBA as
(03:46):
much as I do, but I do. The league is
happy with it, the network is happy with it, the
fans are happy with it. Most of the don't. When
you talk about folks who are covering your sport, did
you know that that would happen to be some former
players because they were part of the show, and they
(04:08):
were part of the ESPN network and various other networks.
Former players preside over there, current players come there, coaches
as well, league officials as well. How can we don't
bring that up? How can we don't talk about those things?
(04:30):
You see what has happened, and what has transpired and
what's sickening. Let me tell you the most egregious shit
of it all that nobody brings up. Barkley, Charles Barkley,
All Time seventy fifth anniversary play, a Hall of Famer,
one of the greatest players in the NBA history. You
(04:51):
had cats clapping at him. You've had some cats try
to clap back at shock. Four time champion, arguably the
most dominant force ever clearly the most dominant force of
our lifetime. To Wilt Chamberlain. I try to talk about him.
They talk about we don't celebrate the game enough. Really,
what's your definition of celebration? Last time I checked this?
(05:12):
Talking about the game, we gotta pedal you with roses
when you shoot two for twenty, or when somebody drops
fifty on you, or when you lose games in playoff
series that you're supposed to win. And here's the crime,
here's the crime. You know what else happens? Lebron James
(05:37):
can have a bad game against KD, or KD can
have a bad game against Steph Curry, or Steph Curry
can have a bad game against Jalen Brunton or somebody. Oh,
these dudes they always down in the brothers. Well, who
the hell were you playing against? Wasn't that a brother?
(06:00):
You're covering the game, you're talking about competition, and if
you're talking about the sport, how is that downing another
black person? If Lamart Roach steps into the boxing ring
and gets knocked the hell out by Javonte Davis and
I said he got knocked the hell out by Javonte Davis,
(06:23):
is that me down in a brother. How come it
can't be me acknowledging what Tank Davis did. What are
we talking about here? The greatest of all time is
(06:43):
Muhammad Ali. He's my idol. I know and adore and
love his daughter Layla. She's been friends with me for years.
He also called Joe Frasier gorilla, said he was too
ugly to be champion during the immediate aftermath of the
(07:08):
Civil rights movement. If we want to get real, after
Joe Frazier had intended a helping hand to help him
when he was banned from boxing and denied the license
to fight, America revered him as well you should. But
(07:28):
I'm just talking about how backwards we can be sometimes
we ignore certain things we love others. I remember when
cats were getting at me because I said, O J.
Simpson did it deserve to be acknowledged the way that
he was during some awards event, and you had cats
(07:53):
coming after me as if I was the one that
was on trial for my life for commit in double
murder time and time and time again. The most salacious,
the most ridiculous, the most egregious acts associated with human beings,
(08:16):
And I'm certainly not comparing Muhammad alaid O j Simpson
or anything like that. Please don't get me wrong. I'm
simply making the point that it's amazing in what we
support and what we denigrate. Lebron James, to me is
the second greatest player in the history of basketball. You
have people out there acting like I've hated on him
(08:42):
because I have him as number two all time, and
he co signs with it. Anthony Davis doesn't want to
be the face of the league and other players don't
want to be responsible, and he co signs with that.
Notice he did all of this after he got his money.
Bron's worth the billion dollars he got his money. So
(09:02):
now we want to take those positions. Now we want
to encourage people to have a kind of mentality that
sifts through the industry like a virus. So you can
look down upon and be dismissive of, and dare I
say hey on pundits and others because you may not
like what they're saying, and you're encouraging them to do
(09:24):
it now, knowing it ain't gonna work for them down
the line, But you don't care because you got yours
and one player after another falsefood hook line of sinker.
Remember when Lebron was in the bubble. He said, I
got mine. Y'all don't have to sihour with me if
y'all don't want to. I don't need this shit. I
don't need it. I'm cool. Remember that. Remember when I
(09:47):
told y'all when he took his talents to South Beach
and he didn't let the owner know and he had
to find out, Dan, you might have to find out
a national television like everybody else, that players were gonna
come back and pay a price for that because there
was a collective barketing agreement coming down the pike. At
least seven percent of basketball related income equating to about
two billion dollars was going to be snatched away from them.
Remember when I said that. Remember when I talked about
(10:08):
player movement, I lot Chris Paul going to the Los
Angeles Lakers and Dan Gilbert, who had nothing to do
with it, writing an open letter to the owners and
making it public to speak out against a trade such
as this. It wasn't just that Dan Gilbert was against
player movement. It's that Chris Paul and Lebron James is
pretty tight godfathers to one another's children. If I remember correctly,
(10:30):
and that was a shot that Dan Gilbert took. Remember that.
Remember when the whole George Floyd thing was going on
after he had been murdered by Derek Schauvin at police
officer in Minnesota, and everybody was talking about locking arms.
And I was ignored when I said, bump, just locking arms.
(10:51):
You got the monetary cachet to have your own lobbyists
to go up on Capitol Hill persuade lawmakers to sign
things into law, to make things easier and to provoke
real change. And I was ignored. I said all of
(11:11):
these things, one thing after another. Ignored. But we want
to sit here and because people might have questions or
point out things that they don't like, when ninety nine
percent of the time all we're doing is revering the
greatness of Lebron James and how we're going to miss
him when he's gone, And all he can remember is
(11:35):
folks shitting on the NBA. Who shits on the NBA
more than some of these players. It ain't the media
doing that. It's the players not protecting their own brand
that has made them wealthy beyond their wildness imaginations. That's
what's going on. And back to Lebron In this regard
(11:58):
Bronnie James, it's somebody that I hope will make the
NBA and I believe will make the NBA someday. He's
a good kid, and by all accounts, everybody loves them,
and everybody's rooting for him and hopes that he makes it,
and I personally believe he will. I think he will
because it's a fast learning needs a talent, and we
(12:19):
saw what he's been doing in the G League ladies
and gentlemen. The opening game of the season. Brownie James
wasn't an NBA caliber player. We all knew that, and
we all knew the only reason he was on a
roster was because his father is Lebron James. Everyone stood
(12:45):
back and paid homage and said, it's the least we
could do for Lebron James. He deserves that, and we
celebrated it. Although we knew it wasn't based on merit.
Everyone went along with it. The league went along with it,
the Lakers went along with it, the media went along
with it. Everybody did Lebron James mention that.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Did he.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
We're the bad guys And by the way, you're listening
to somebody that covered the league at a time when
all their personal shit was out there. We didn't touch it,
and neither. This is today's media. Social media might but
not us. As long as you ain't in the police blotters,
(13:40):
that's your business. Now. The players got podcast and they
talked shit about people, But the folks covering the league
is the one shitting on the league. And sadly some
of y'all going for off of that bullshit that Lebron
(14:03):
threw out there, pointing the finger in every other direction
but that of himself and his brethren. I'm so surprised.
I'm so surprised.
It's time to get into Lebron James, who made headlines
after the Lakers game on Thursday night their victory over
the Timberwods one eleven to one oh two at home.
Lebron led the way with thirty three points seventeen rebounds. Meanwhile,
Anthony Edwards was ejected for getting his sixteenth technical foul
and missed most of the second half, by the way,
But that's not why I want to talk about Lebron.
(00:24):
I wanted to get into what Lebron had to say
about Anthony Edwards post game and a conversation surrounding Edwards
becoming the face of the NBA. Take a listen to
this place.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Why do you want to be the face of the
league when all all to all the people that you
know that cover our game and talk about our game
on a day to day basis, Shit on, everybody had
that responsibility. That's that's just weird. It's weird.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Energy, ladies and gentlemen, excuse my language. That's some straight
bullshit by Lebron James. Straight bullshit. I'm getting sick and
tired of folks talking about everybody who covers the league
shitting on the league. How do sit on the league
because some of us don't call Lebron James the goat,
because we bring up load management because people come to
(01:08):
games sometimes and cats are sitting out and fans don't
even know until they arrive at the arena that the
Cats are sitting out. Is it because All Star weekends
arrives and folks don't learn that Lebron James is playing
is not playing rather until the last minute. Is it
because he's never participated in the Slam Dunk contest, thereby
(01:28):
ruining it, because he's the first marquee name with slam
dunking ability like that to refuse to participate in an
All Star Slam Dunk contest ever in his career. The
way Jordan did Dominique did, Doctor j did, David Thompson did,
Harold Minor did, Jason Richardson did, Tracy McGrady did, Vince
(01:51):
Carter did, Kobe did? Zach Lavine did? Aaron Gordon? Did?
Nate Robinson did? Spud Web did the way all of
these people did. He elected. That's how we're shitting on
the league. See, this is the con of stuff that
pisses people like myself off. I've covered the NBA for
(02:13):
thirty years. I'm successful in life because of the NBA
and what it's done for my life. So is Lebron.
So are thousands upon thousands of players that have come
through the league. Just recently, the league signed an eleven year,
seventy seven billion dollar deal. Well, how that come about
(02:35):
sponsors and advertisers? That's how Yet, somehow, some way, we're
gonna sit up there and say you shouldn't want to
be the face of the league because folks are shitting
on the league. Well, who are these folks? Let me
tell you who it is. It's everybody in social media.
But you see where the problem is and why I
think Lebron's comments was bullshit was because he doesn't specify
(03:03):
who he's talking about. So folks on social media who
do all of this salacious nonsense get lumped in with
the rest of the media, and nobody differentiates from the other.
Social media and in the locker room. Social media doesn't
ignore your personal life. Social media doesn't ignore your personal business.
(03:24):
Social media doesn't have the class and the decorum to
avoid touching on those different things because it has nothing
to do with the game of basketball. That's the media.
People like myself and various others. Now, to be clear
and to put myself on front street, y'all do understand
I'm under no obligation to talk about the NBA as
(03:46):
much as I do, but I do. The league is
happy with it, the network is happy with it, the
fans are happy with it. Most of the don't. When
you talk about folks who are covering your sport, did
you know that that would happen to be some former
players because they were part of the show, and they
(04:08):
were part of the ESPN network and various other networks.
Former players preside over there, current players come there, coaches
as well, league officials as well. How can we don't
bring that up? How can we don't talk about those things?
(04:30):
You see what has happened, and what has transpired and
what's sickening. Let me tell you the most egregious shit
of it all that nobody brings up. Barkley, Charles Barkley,
All Time seventy fifth anniversary play, a Hall of Famer,
one of the greatest players in the NBA history. You
(04:51):
had cats clapping at him. You've had some cats try
to clap back at shock. Four time champion, arguably the
most dominant force ever clearly the most dominant force of
our lifetime. To Wilt Chamberlain. I try to talk about him.
They talk about we don't celebrate the game enough. Really,
what's your definition of celebration? Last time I checked this?
(05:12):
Talking about the game, we gotta pedal you with roses
when you shoot two for twenty, or when somebody drops
fifty on you, or when you lose games in playoff
series that you're supposed to win. And here's the crime,
here's the crime. You know what else happens? Lebron James
(05:37):
can have a bad game against KD, or KD can
have a bad game against Steph Curry, or Steph Curry
can have a bad game against Jalen Brunton or somebody. Oh,
these dudes they always down in the brothers. Well, who
the hell were you playing against? Wasn't that a brother?
(06:00):
You're covering the game, you're talking about competition, and if
you're talking about the sport, how is that downing another
black person? If Lamart Roach steps into the boxing ring
and gets knocked the hell out by Javonte Davis and
I said he got knocked the hell out by Javonte Davis,
(06:23):
is that me down in a brother. How come it
can't be me acknowledging what Tank Davis did. What are
we talking about here? The greatest of all time is
(06:43):
Muhammad Ali. He's my idol. I know and adore and
love his daughter Layla. She's been friends with me for years.
He also called Joe Frasier gorilla, said he was too
ugly to be champion during the immediate aftermath of the
(07:08):
Civil rights movement. If we want to get real, after
Joe Frazier had intended a helping hand to help him
when he was banned from boxing and denied the license
to fight, America revered him as well you should. But
(07:28):
I'm just talking about how backwards we can be sometimes
we ignore certain things we love others. I remember when
cats were getting at me because I said, O J.
Simpson did it deserve to be acknowledged the way that
he was during some awards event, and you had cats
(07:53):
coming after me as if I was the one that
was on trial for my life for commit in double
murder time and time and time again. The most salacious,
the most ridiculous, the most egregious acts associated with human beings,
(08:16):
And I'm certainly not comparing Muhammad alaid O j Simpson
or anything like that. Please don't get me wrong. I'm
simply making the point that it's amazing in what we
support and what we denigrate. Lebron James, to me is
the second greatest player in the history of basketball. You
have people out there acting like I've hated on him
(08:42):
because I have him as number two all time, and
he co signs with it. Anthony Davis doesn't want to
be the face of the league and other players don't
want to be responsible, and he co signs with that.
Notice he did all of this after he got his money.
Bron's worth the billion dollars he got his money. So
(09:02):
now we want to take those positions. Now we want
to encourage people to have a kind of mentality that
sifts through the industry like a virus. So you can
look down upon and be dismissive of, and dare I
say hey on pundits and others because you may not
like what they're saying, and you're encouraging them to do
(09:24):
it now, knowing it ain't gonna work for them down
the line, But you don't care because you got yours
and one player after another falsefood hook line of sinker.
Remember when Lebron was in the bubble. He said, I
got mine. Y'all don't have to sihour with me if
y'all don't want to. I don't need this shit. I
don't need it. I'm cool. Remember that. Remember when I
(09:47):
told y'all when he took his talents to South Beach
and he didn't let the owner know and he had
to find out, Dan, you might have to find out
a national television like everybody else, that players were gonna
come back and pay a price for that because there
was a collective barketing agreement coming down the pike. At
least seven percent of basketball related income equating to about
two billion dollars was going to be snatched away from them.
Remember when I said that. Remember when I talked about
(10:08):
player movement, I lot Chris Paul going to the Los
Angeles Lakers and Dan Gilbert, who had nothing to do
with it, writing an open letter to the owners and
making it public to speak out against a trade such
as this. It wasn't just that Dan Gilbert was against
player movement. It's that Chris Paul and Lebron James is
pretty tight godfathers to one another's children. If I remember correctly,
(10:30):
and that was a shot that Dan Gilbert took. Remember that.
Remember when the whole George Floyd thing was going on
after he had been murdered by Derek Schauvin at police
officer in Minnesota, and everybody was talking about locking arms.
And I was ignored when I said, bump, just locking arms.
(10:51):
You got the monetary cachet to have your own lobbyists
to go up on Capitol Hill persuade lawmakers to sign
things into law, to make things easier and to provoke
real change. And I was ignored. I said all of
(11:11):
these things, one thing after another. Ignored. But we want
to sit here and because people might have questions or
point out things that they don't like, when ninety nine
percent of the time all we're doing is revering the
greatness of Lebron James and how we're going to miss
him when he's gone, And all he can remember is
(11:35):
folks shitting on the NBA. Who shits on the NBA
more than some of these players. It ain't the media
doing that. It's the players not protecting their own brand
that has made them wealthy beyond their wildness imaginations. That's
what's going on. And back to Lebron In this regard
(11:58):
Bronnie James, it's somebody that I hope will make the
NBA and I believe will make the NBA someday. He's
a good kid, and by all accounts, everybody loves them,
and everybody's rooting for him and hopes that he makes it,
and I personally believe he will. I think he will
because it's a fast learning needs a talent, and we
(12:19):
saw what he's been doing in the G League ladies
and gentlemen. The opening game of the season. Brownie James
wasn't an NBA caliber player. We all knew that, and
we all knew the only reason he was on a
roster was because his father is Lebron James. Everyone stood
(12:45):
back and paid homage and said, it's the least we
could do for Lebron James. He deserves that, and we
celebrated it. Although we knew it wasn't based on merit.
Everyone went along with it. The league went along with it,
the Lakers went along with it, the media went along
with it. Everybody did Lebron James mention that.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Did he.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
We're the bad guys And by the way, you're listening
to somebody that covered the league at a time when
all their personal shit was out there. We didn't touch it,
and neither. This is today's media. Social media might but
not us. As long as you ain't in the police blotters,
(13:40):
that's your business. Now. The players got podcast and they
talked shit about people, But the folks covering the league
is the one shitting on the league. And sadly some
of y'all going for off of that bullshit that Lebron
(14:03):
threw out there, pointing the finger in every other direction
but that of himself and his brethren. I'm so surprised.
I'm so surprised.
Host
Stephen A. Smith
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