Stephen A. Smith Brings Up Late Kobe Bryant to Make False Claim About LeBron James in Heated Rant
Stephen A. Smith falsely claimed LeBron James did not attend Kobe Bryant’s memorial service during a wildly personal rant on First Take.
On Thursday’s episode of the sports talk show, Smith was given the floor for more than 15 minutes to air his grievances with the Los Angeles Lakers star forward. The rant came after James mocked Smith on The Pat McAfee Show the day before while he explained why he confronted Smith during a recent game.
In that interview, James offered pointed criticisms of Smith and the sports media landscape as a whole — continuing an ongoing discussion about the NBA’s ratings and the media’s supposed role in it.
Smith first responded to the interview on The Stephen A. Smith Show on Wednesday night. After hurling a slew of personal shots on his own show, he did more of the same on ESPN the next morning.
“If LeBron James wants to see me continue to cover the sport, or he wants to have a problem with me continuously covering the sport, I suggest that he’d be happy with the things that I haven’t brought up,” Smith said. “I never brought up, really — and never really discussed — why you were not at Kobe Bryant’s memorial service. I never really brought up and discussed why you did not attend Dwyane Wade’s Hall of Fame induction when that man was directly responsible for you capturing a championship for the first time in your career. I brought up none of that.
“I didn’t bring up the fact that, even though when people had asked, you had alluded to what had happened, tragically, to your son — and thank God he’s OK with his heart condition — I didn’t bring up the fact that even though you couldn’t go to the Hall of Fame induction of Dwyane Wade weeks later, weeks earlier, you were out of the country on business. I didn’t bring that up. That’s your personal business, OK?”
Those comments were incorrect for a number of reasons. Firstly, multiple outlets confirmed James’s presence at Bryant’s memorial service. He wasn’t shown during the broadcast of the event, but there was speculation that he requested not to be shown. Additionally, WNBA great Diana Taurasi made a joke about James during her speech and appeared to look directly at him — though he wasn’t shown.
Secondly, Wade’s induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was roughly two weeks after his son Bronny James suffered cardiac arrest — not weeks earlier as Smith claimed. In the days leading up to the Hall of Fame ceremony, James and his family were still making hospital visits to monitor Bronny’s recovery.
Later in the show, Smith revealed that his phone was “blowing up” in response to his comments about Bryant’s memorial. He then claimed his words were misinterpreted.
“I didn’t mean to say he wasn’t in the building,” Smith said. “I was told he was in the building, you understand, but we saw a whole bunch of players out there. We didn’t see him. Why? I’ll let him answer that one day if he so chooses.”
Watch above via ESPN
