LeBron James confronting Stephen A. Smith continues to be a big story in the NBA universe. Fellow players, analysts, podcasters, and the rest of society have weighed in on the incident, which transpired immediately after the Lakers defeated the Knicks in an overtime thriller on March 6. Now Gilbert Arenas is adding his name to the list, and shockingly, he’s kind of on team SAS.
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In case you missed it, LBJ approached Smith about Bronny, and let him know that he was sick of hearing him criticizing his 20-year-old son. “I’ma tell you one time, bro. Keep my son out of this sh**, bro,” stated LeBron according to leaked audio. SAS later addressed the viral confrontation on ESPN First Take.
Smith acknowledged that LBJ was just stepping up on behalf of his son. “That wasn’t a basketball player that confronted me, that was a parent,” SAS somberly stated. “I can’t sit here and be angry or feel slighted by LeBron James in any way in that regard.” The story seemed to have finally died down, but that was before the latest edition of the Gil’s Arena podcast.
Gil is clearly Team LeBron, but had some fun on behalf of his listeners by taking sarcastic shots at LBJ. “I’m in the middle of this, and I got to take my side,” the three-time All-Star joked.
He would go on to threaten James and claimed that “all hell would break loose” if he ever tried to pull that move on his “potential boss” again. “Don’t you ever in your mother f*****g life walk up on a $100 million man during his celebration,” Gil laughingly stated.
Arenas calling SAS his boss was another silly jab since the now 43-year-old veteran recently appeared on First Take. The reality is that Gil and LeBron are close friends. After all, the Lakers superstar employed Arenas’ help to gauge his sons’ talent while they were still in school so there is a clear trust and working relationship between the two.
Gil also thinks the nonstop media criticism of Bronny is rather strange. “You have to go out of your way to criticize a 55th pick,” Gil said later on the program. What about the #1? Just the lottery itself. No one has criticized the lottery. But we know everything about Bronny James.”
Another strong point made by Gil was that the bottom picks of the draft typically don’t even make it to the NBA, so to criticize a player that is not on the same level is ridiculous.
The problem is that LBJ and SAS are two figures who are constantly attracting haters due to the nature of their success. Was either guy right or wrong? That depends on your position as a parent. But despite four days of nonstop coverage, the story does not seem to be able to lose any steam due to new angles popping up across the timeline every couple of hours.
