For what it’s worth, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith wasn’t the only sports figure to question Bronny James’ NBA credentials.
Yet, when Bronny’s father — NBA legend Lebron James — decided to confront someone over the criticism, who did he choose to single out?
Stephen A. Smith.
On national television.
Against the New York Knicks.
On the same day that Smith signed a $100 million contract.
Don’t think for a minute that was a coincidence.
But that wasn’t even the worst part of the confrontation heard ‘round the league. The worst part was that it happened in the third quarter.
During a time out.
In the middle of a game.
Even the most casual of basketball fans have heard this story by now: NBA superstar and his much less talented son make history as teammates on storied franchise.
As a duo they have scored more points than any two players in NBA history. Never mind that the father has carried about 99.3% of the load.
The son is called out as the poster child for nepotism. The father is condemned for orchestrating the spectacle.
The drama climaxes with a courtside confrontation between superstar father and self-aggrandizing sportscaster, who just happens to make nearly as much money as many of the players he’s covering.
But let’s not even make this about the money. James and Smith are worth every penny for being the best at what they do.
And let’s not make this about feeling sorry for Bronny. Last year, he signed a four-year contract with his father’s Los Angeles Lakers worth nearly $8 million.
He’s not riding the bench for free.
What this is about is a superstar putting his son on the sport’s biggest stage, then being upset because he doesn’t like the reviews.
“Yo, you gotta stop talking s–t about my son,” James said during the timeout, according to Smith. “‘You gotta stop f–king with my son. That’s my son, that’s my son!’”
Smith said he initially blew off the brouhaha because he felt that James was coming to him as a father, and not as a player.
But after James mocked his empathy, according to Smith, that gave him the green light to go off.
“I thought it was weak, I thought it was some bulls–t,” Smith said during a podcast hosted by former NBA player Gilbert Arenas.
Smith said he wasn’t criticizing LeBron’s son. He said he was criticizing LeBron.
James, who had nothing left to prove in the game, had said that one of his remaining goals was to play alongside his son. While Bronny was still in college, LeBron made it clear that the team that drafted his son had the best chance of retaining his services.
Up stepped the Lakers, who drafted Bronny and helped the father and son make history.
But it didn’t stop there. Bronny has inexplicably remained on the team, bouncing between the Lakers’ bench and the team’s minor league affiliate, where he really belongs.
James said he is proud of his son for pursuing his dream and overcoming various obstacles, including a cardiac arrest in 2023 that was brought on by a congenital heart defect.
“People don’t understand how hard that is and the commitment for him to be coming out of heart surgery less than a year ago, for him to be able to be in the NBA,” James said last year. “The kid, he’s special.”
James has made it clear that his other kids are just as special. Sidelined with a groin injury last week while Bronny and the Lakers played in Denver, James ditched the game to watch his other son, Bryce, and his team win a California state high school basketball title in Sacramento.
James, the proud dad was caught on camera celebrating the win like his own team had won the championship.
That’s the video that should be going viral.