“You Don’t Take A** Whoopings Personal?!”: LeBron James’ ‘Even-Keeled’ Comment Agitates Stephen A. Smith

LeBron James and The Los Angeles Lakers are locked in against the Denver Nuggets in the first round of this year’s playoffs. Denver, who eventually went on to win the NBA championship last year, thrashed the Lakers in the Conference finals. Nikola Jokic-led side didn’t put a break on the momentum, destroying the Lakers in the regular season, and extending their streak to 8 games. As expected, due to their inability to get past the defending champions, LeBron was flooded with the Lakers-Denver rivalry questions during the pre-game match conference.

James appeared to be indifferent and calm about the team’s upcoming matchup. However, his comments didn’t sit well with veteran analyst Stephen A Smith. Talking about the game, LeBron said,

” I’ve been in the postseason way too long in my career to know that you don’t get too high off of Game 1 or get too high over whoever the matchup is. You gotta just stay even-keeled…They’re a great team. We know what we’re capable of. But the game is not won in the transcripts. The game is won in between the four lines. And that’s all that matters.”

LeBron on Denver: “… I’ve been in the postseason way too long in my career to know that you don’t get too high off of Game 1 or get too high over whoever the matchup is. You gotta just stay even-keeled. There’s gonna be a lot of swings throughout the course of the game,…

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) April 18, 2024

SAS was livid after hearing LeBron’s pre-game comments as the media sensation took to his talk show, ‘ The Steph A Show’ to clap back at the Lakers star,

“The Denver Nuggets have whipped their a*s. They swept them last year in the Conference Finals. They’ve beaten them eight straight… you sitting there talking about ‘we can’t take it too personal’, you don’t take a** whoppings personal?!”

Stephen A further insinuated that James’s calm demeanor isn’t helpful when it comes to the ‘theatrics’ of the game. The ESPN journalist even called King James out for not selecting a rival, a true nemesis, often avoiding beef with the opposition stars. Smith pointed to both Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant as being two marquee players that James could have gone after, as the Warriors stars collectively cost James over 3 Championships. 

“When has LeBron ever embraced a nemesis? When has it happened? Even when we are talking about the Finals with him and Steph Curry…your going up against a team, in the Golden State Warriors, the Splash Brothers, they were special, but your LeBron James, your build differently, but what did you do?”

While Steph A does have a point about James never publicly acknowledging another player as his nemesis, everyone knows that James has only chased after a singular player his whole career, and that is Michael Jordan. For someone of James’s caliber, regular superstars aren’t worth the beef, but when it comes to competition, James has shown that he can turn it up whenever.

As for now, Jordan seems to be the only other player James is concerned with, as LeBron inches closer to making a real argument for dethroning No.23 as the greatest player in the sport’s history.