The feud between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith was a weird midseason detour that saw analysts prioritize discussing a feud between the two parties instead of discussing basketball for a week.
With the embers of that feud cooling, former LeBron teammate Patrick Beverley weighed in on what went down. He openly stood with LeBron, comparing the Los Angeles Lakers forward to Barack Obama and calling him the Black Captain America.
“It got kinda girly and tattletale-ish. Players usually don’t say anything. You could have a reporter staring you down for four to five years, you say one thing, and it’s the biggest thing. After it went down, it seemed like everyone just wanted a piece of him. It was a slander LeBron day. I was watching everyone talk about LeBron James.”
“He (Stephen A.) was saying s**t that was wrong. Nobody even speaks about it, they just let it happen. He’s the Black Captain America, bro. He is literally the Black Captain America. He’s probably the most powerful African-American alive. Besides Barack Obama – one of the most powerful men alive.”
Things got messy fast 😅 pic.twitter.com/VthWDCVY3X
— Pat Bev Pod (@PatBevPod) April 7, 2025
That’s a lofty comparison for James. Even though he’s arguably the most known active basketball player in the world, comparing his influence to a former President might be excessive. What’s not excessive is pedestalizing LeBron as one of the most influential African-American people in the world.
His beef with Stephen A. started when the ESPN analyst claimed to speak to the father in LeBron by begging him to put an end to Bronny James’ NBA career. LeBron was clearly angry about this and confronted Smith courtside during a game against the New York Knicks.
This led to Smith and former players like DeMarcus Cousins slamming LeBron for confronting a media member. Smith would go on something LeBron would later term a ‘Taylor Swift media tour,’ discussing the clash with James on multiple podcasts and networks in the same week it happened.
James made the Taylor Swift comment on an appearance on Pat McAfee’s show on ESPN, so LeBron slammed Smith and Brian Windhorst on-air on the network they’re employed by. This led to a furious response from Smith, although Windhorst had a gracious reaction where he essentially agreed with the assertion James made about the two never having a personal relationship.
The worst thing to come out of this was a bold-faced lie by Stephen A. where he claimed LeBron chose to skip Kobe Bryant’s memorial in 2020. This was really beyond the pale as it was easily verifiable that James did attend the event but had asked to be off-camera at the time. This brought so much hate on Smith that he had to retract this claim, making enemies in former NBA players for lying on Kobe’s name.
LeBron has faced a lot of criticism from former players like Charles Barkley, Cousins, and Gordon Hayward over this situation. He’s now backed off even acknowledging it as the Lakers prepare for a Playoff run, but this was a major midseason distraction the Lakers forward has had to deal with.
