The NBA world has been hit by the ongoing drama between Los Angeles Lakers star forward LeBron James and longtime ESPN journalist Stephen A. Smith. Now it’s trickling over to the UFC world as well. First things first, how did this bizarre crossover feud start? Well, everything began when Smith went on his ESPN morning show on January 28th to implore James and criticize his son, Bronny’s performances in the NBA.
He outright blamed James and said, “I am pleading with LeBron James as a father, stop this. Stop this. We all know Bronny James is in the NBA because of his dad…you’re exposing your son like this.” The basketball GOAT confronted him about this at a Lakers game, and things seemed to be in control. However, the simmering fire is still afoot about this whole ordeal.
But now, things are more heated than ever as Smith chose to keep his rant about the whole ordeal going, bringing up incidents from the past. He even mentioned that if James had touched him during the Lakers game confrontation, he would have thrown hands. But the question is, would the ESPN analyst be able to succeed against the NBA legend? The Schmo’s Chase Rogan decided to involve Michael Chandler in the whole conversation and asked his opinion on this feud.
‘Iron’ was candid about what might happen if there was a fight between the odd duo. He said, “Listen, we have seen Stephen A. Smith’s hands. I haven’t seen LeBron’s hands, but LeBron being an athlete currently competing, still even though it’s in the sport of basketball, there’s no way Stephane A. Smith touches LeBron. But we’ll see Stephen A Smith needs to come down here and train with us to work on those hands.”
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When the NBA star approached the ESPN analyst at the Lakers game, and lambasted him for targeting his son. Smith acknowledged that he realized it was not LeBron James the basketball player talking to him but a father, concerned about his son. Nonetheless, he did not stop slandering James and called him ‘weak’ for his actions.
The feud was almost over, however, James decided to reignite the fire at The Pat McAfee Show and smeared Smith to dust. “He’s like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now… It started with ‘I didn’t want to address it. I wasn’t going to address it, but since the video came out, I feel the need to address it.’ Motherf****r are you kidding me?” As for Smith’s wild hypothetical scenario of threatening to ‘swing’ at James? Well, the latter had a series of social media posts with Smith’s old boxing highlights, trolling the ESPN journo.
Now ‘Iron’ Mike did have one solution for Smith and offered him a training invite. The former Bellator champ knows that Smith cannot win in a fight against James. This feud was so bizarre that fans could not help but comment things like, “If I ever see a boxing match between LeBron James and Stephen A Smith, I’ll be fully convinced that we are living in a simulation. ” Now, how is the 4X MVP dealing with this almost odd pay-per-view challenge from ESPN’s own?
LeBron James fired back at Smith with memes
The NBA GOAT did not need words to punch Smith and let social media do the talking. His latest post was a hilarious one with two video clips where Smith’s awkward boxing ‘skills’ were noticeable. The first video showed Smith punching training pads not very skillfully, with the help of a trainer. The second video was of the Whomp Whomp meme, putting a final nail in the troll coffin. LeBron James even garnished the post with a scathing caption of crying laughing emojis and a “WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP.”.
Funnily enough, this is not Smith’s first time being trolled for his remarks on television. Smith was dragged like a ragdoll over his comments after Conor McGregor’s win over Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC 246. The ESPN analyst said, “I’m quite disgusted,” he said, clearly unimpressed. “I expected more than 40 seconds. I figured McGregor would handle business, but Cerrone didn’t even show up.”
MMA fans were ready to attack him since he spoke harshly about Cerrone, after not stepping inside the Octagon himself. Cerrone is an illustrious UFC star with 36-17 (2 NC) record in MMA, 15 first-round finishes, and many post-fight bonuses. Fans were swift to pull up a video clip of Smith hitting boxing pads awkwardly. Just when he thought people forgot about it, the NBA star emerged with more videos to remind the world of Smith’s fighting skills. So will this feud end on social media or inside the boxing ring? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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