LeBron James And Stephen A Smith Got Into An All-Time Courtside Dust Up Over Comments About Bronny James
By now I'm sure that everyone has seen the clip of LeBron confronting Stephen A. Smith on the court last night over things SAS has said about Bronny. And the incident has since been confirmed by Stephen A. Smith himself, saying it was about exactly what everyone thought it was about.
I gotta be honest here...I have no idea how to feel about this one. The initial reaction is naturally to clown on LeBron here. I think everyone in the world besides LeBron understands that Bronny James simply is not an NBA player. He shouldn't be in the position for Stephen A. Smith to even talk about in the first place, considering he shouldn't be in the league. But LeBron was able to use a good ol' dose of nepotism to not only get Bronny drafted to the Lakers, but to get him some playing time as well. I'd imagine even Bronny knows he shouldn't be out there, but he just wants to make his dad happy. So the only reason Stephen A. Smith is talking about his son is because LeBron put him out there in the first place.
On the other hand--it's still his son. And technically, it's still his teammate. You'd have to legitimately hate your child if you turned on national television one day and heard Stephen A. Smith screaming into the screen about how much your kid sucks at basketball, and you were ready to rip Stephen A's head off. LeBron may have put Bronny in the spotlight, which immediately made him fair game for guys like Stephen A. Smith to talk about. But he's still going to be pissed off as a father to hear it. Nothing you can really do about that.
And from a teammate perspective, he has his guy's back. It would be nice if LeBron kept that same energy anytime any member of the media says anything bad about any of his teammates. That would certainly be a better look than just giving Bronny that preferential treatment. But that's a great teammate move to have your guy's back in that situation and make sure you stand up for him.
The more I think about it, the more I might be on LeBron's side here. I'm not saying he's in the right by any stretch. He is clearly in the wrong here because Stephen A. Smith is just doing his job. But as a father and as a teammate, I have to admit this is the right move from LeBron. But it would really help his argument here if he went after anybody else in the media who ever says anything bad about a guy like Dalton Knecht or something. Just prove to everybody that you're always going to have your teammates' backs, and not just your son's. That's all.
P.S. -- I have no idea how the hockey/lacrosse/pickleball guy ended up with this blog.