ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith continues to show no interest in mending fences with Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. Smith appeared on the latest episode of The Pivot Podcast, where he fired a shot at James for choking in the 2011 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks when asked about media members not holding him accountable.
“You don’t like me because you see me calling it like I see it,” Smith said. “You’re not Michael Jordan. You’re not the GOAT. You did choke in an NBA Finals. Four consecutive fourth quarters in an NBA Finals, this man was scoring four points. One game, he scored zero points in an NBA Finals fourth quarter. With Jason Terry or JJ Barea guarding you.
“There is no explanation for that,” Smith added. “To anybody who knows basketball, that’s a choke job.”
James has lost in the NBA Finals six times in his career, but 2011 is really the only occasion when you can point the blame at him for his team not getting over the line. He came up short for the Miami Heat, and that series remains the biggest blemish on his career.
As Smith pointed out, James disappeared in the fourth quarter on multiple occasions against the Mavericks. He only managed to score two points in the fourth in Games 2, 3, and 5 and went scoreless in the period in Game 4.
James’ performance in Game 4 might well be the worst of his career. The Heat entered that game up 2-1, and he recorded just eight points (3-11 FG), nine rebounds, seven assists, and two steals on the night. That allowed the Mavericks to come away with a narrow 86-83 win to tie up the series.
If James had even put in a mediocre performance, the Heat would have come away with a win and gone up 3-1. Instead, the tide turned, and the Mavericks would go on to stun that Big 3 of James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh by winning the series in six games. It is one of the greatest upsets in NBA history.
James averaged just 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.7 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game in the 2011 NBA Finals. He has claimed that the Heat didn’t have enough complementary pieces to win it all that year, but that’s nonsense. They should have won that series, but didn’t because of him.
Smith did acknowledge that James overcame that failure and has built up a legitimate case to be regarded as the greatest. The 40-year-old has won four NBA titles, but the ESPN analyst remains on Team Michael Jordan in the GOAT debate.
“Michael Jordan was averaging 30 10 times in his career,” Smith stated. “Played all 82 games nine times. Nine times an All-NBA First Team defensive player. A Defensive Player of the Year, okay? A six-time champion, a six-time NBA Finals MVP, a five-time MVP of the league. And in your 22nd or 23rd year, you still chasing. Now, I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I think it’s obvious who the GOAT is in my estimation.
“Having said that, let’s appreciate the fact that a GOAT conversation is nothing denigrating anybody because I’m still acknowledging you as being in the conversation as the greatest of all time,” Smith continued. “So, we understand that, right? So, we get that out the way. But I also never looked at Michael Jordan and said he choked in an NBA Finals.
“I also didn’t see Michael Jordan joining D-Wade and Bosh and then [Anthony Davis],” Smith added. “So, I didn’t see that. I’m sorry. Kyrie [Irving] and Kevin Love before that. I ain’t see that.”
James was a big talking point in this episode, and Smith also called him out for not challenging White media members the way he went after him. The 21-time All-Star had confronted him during a game between the Lakers and New York Knicks in March 2025 over comments that had been made about his son, Bronny James. Smith is still going at James over that, and it will be interesting to see if the latter responds to these latest comments.
