LeBron James has spent 21 seasons in the NBA and when you’ve been around for that long, you’re invariably going to have a fair few players beef with you. DeShawn Stevenson was one of those to do it and their feud began back in 2008 when he was with the Washington Wizards and James was with the Cleveland Cavaliers. An account on Instagram recently looked back on that beef and James interestingly reacted to it.
“Come at the (King). You best not Miss! By the way, I was 23 years old! Haha!”
Here is that post which details that crazy sequence of events in 2008.
Imagine if all of this had happened in today’s social media era! As for how all of this began, well Stevenson would tell you that LeBron started it. He claimed their mutual friend Drew Gooden had told him about a comment James had made about him, which he did not appreciate.
Stevenson added it was both professional and personal, and was clearly quite upset. So, after LeBron missed a game-winner over him when the Cavaliers played the Wizards on March 13, 2008, he called him overrated.
James reacted by making that comment about Jay-Z and Soulja Boy, and it was a great comeback. In response, Stevenson said he hoped the Wizards would play the Cavaliers in the playoffs and added he’d bring Soulja Boy to a home game.
Well, as fate would have it, the Cavaliers and Wizards did face off in the first round. It was the third year in a row that the teams were battling on that very stage and Cleveland had won in each of the last two years.
The 2008 series looked headed the same way when LeBron helped the Cavaliers take a 2-0 lead. The series then shifted to Washington for Game 3 and Soulja Boy did show up for that contest in a Stevenson jersey. He witnessed the Wizards blow out the Cavaliers 108-72 and it looked like we might be in for an interesting series.
LeBron and the Cavaliers then won Game 4, though, to take a 3-1 lead. It was after that contest, that James was asked if the Wizards could mount a comeback and he dismissed the idea.
Well, the Wizards did win Game 5, but the Cavaliers then closed them out in six and I’m sure LeBron would have been delighted to send Stevenson home. He was seen mocking the Wizards forward’s signature celebration “I can’t feel my face” during the series and it was clear there was some bad blood there.
While LeBron emerged victorious in 2008, Stevenson would actually get some revenge years later. He was part of that 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks team that stunned James and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
After the series, Stevenson wore a t-shirt with the message, ‘Hey LeBron! How’s My Dirk Taste?’ He had dismissed talk of any beef before and during the series, but that t-shirt made it fairly clear that wasn’t the case. Years later, though, Stevenson admitted he regrets beefing with LeBron.
“With all that stuff, it sucks because wherever I go, it feels like that’s what everybody reminds me about — this LeBron thing. You know, I got my name out there with that. Like, really out there, out there. But at the end of the day, as black men, we have to be, like, together and uplift each other. We both did the same things. So, now that I’m older, it’s just like basically, we was both making a fool of ourselves.”
Stevenson realized he was being a bit immature during that whole saga. It appears he’d have done things differently if he could go back, even if it meant his name wouldn’t get out there the way it has.
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