New Orleans Pelicans join LeBron James in piling onto Stephen A. Smith

New Orleans Pelicans join LeBron James in piling onto Stephen A. Smith

LeBron James, Stephen A Smith (Images via Instagram)

Even with LeBron James hitting the eighth buzzer-beater of his career yesterday, the Lakers’ superstar has grabbed headlines for undesirable reasons. In Indianapolis for their exciting last-ditch win over the Pacers, James visited Pat McAfee at his home studio. What transpired there was undoubtedly a landmark moment in sports media history.

LeBron James proceeded to put virtually all of NBA media on blast during his interview with the former NFL kicker. James ended up birthing more memes on his ESPN appearance than the number of shots (4) he hit in Indiana yesterday. King James used a gloves-off approach during the interview, which can only be compared to Cristiano Ronaldo’s infamous interview with Piers Morgan after his Man United fallout in 2022.

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James essentially used those 72 minutes on Pat McAfee’s platform to completely set narratives about himself and his family straight. He also set the tone for sports media talk for perhaps weeks on end with some exaggerations and inflammatory statements. His gusto for correcting Stephen A. Smith and then trolling him with an Instagram post following Smith’s statement later has proved to be a masterstroke in narrative-setting.

The New Orleans Pelicans have also been victim to some of Smith’s crassest comments on national television. The team had posted fitting defenses of their superstar Zion Williamson after one of his rants about the Duke product’s eating habits in 2024. Their social media team has seen it fit to take advantage of this opportunity to post yet another troll at his expense.

Smith has a propensity to go extremely personal and beyond on-field criticism, a trait he’s displayed on several occasions over the years. Fans have seen his vendettas against Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Zion Williamson, Kawhi Leonard and now LeBron play out. His schtick of hating on players for reasons beyond what they do on court has been great for ESPN headlines and to keep himself in the limelight, but terrible for sports media and people involved in it at large.

Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins pile on LeBron James for choice of ‘Mind the Game’ co-hosts

Smith and Kendrick Perkins went on some heavily critical rants of James in response to his Pat McAfee Show appearance and his Instagram post mocking Stephen A. Smith’s fighting training. They may well have gone overboard with James in pushing a narrative that could be termed as race-baiting. According to Perkins, James has steadfastly refused to appear on sports media podcasts by the likes of Richard Jefferson or Shannon Sharpe, instead catering to more white audiences with his appearances

Richard Jefferson just got hired on our (ESPN’s) A-Team to cover the NBA Finals. Channing Frye, who won a championship with LeBron James who does NBA TV, he’s intelligent as hell. Phil Handy, who LeBron James won two championships with, who’s now doing his own thing, he’s intelligent as hell. Hell, Draymond Green! I know Draymond Green ruffles the feathers, but no one can ever question his basketball mind or his basketball IQ. He’s smart as hell. So what I’m getting at is, why none of those guys, LeBron? These are your guys!

Kendrick Perkins said on First Take today

It would be interesting to see how LeBron James responds to this race-coded, loaded line of questioning, or whether he acknowledges these questions at all. He made a pointed comment about players like Kendrick Perkins, who ran their course in the league after their bodies got run down. Perhaps this was a way of paying back James for his words for Perkins.