In what was definitely one of the quirkier moments in NBA history, Game 5 of the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat saw Lance Stephenson blow into the ear of LeBron James. Eleven years later, he explained what led to the now-viral moment.
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It should be noted that this isn’t the first time Stephenson has spoken about what happened. He’s been asked to address it on multiple occasions and previously chalked it up to the heat of the moment.
“I didn’t have it prepared. It was all in the flow of the game. Being out there, competing … Sometimes you do whatever it takes to win the game. That guy is a tough guy to guard, so you got to bring your all, and that’s what I did,“ he had claimed. Well, it definitely worked out for him. James only managed to score 7 points and saw the Pacers run away with the game.
Interestingly, Stephenson, at the time, didn’t think anyone would see what he did, especially on TV in front of millions of viewers. “I didn’t expect it to be shown. I didn’t think it was going to be captured. They caught that right in the act of it. That was crazy,” he noted in a 2021 interview.
Stephenson asserted that a lot of people who go against LeBron are terrified of him and, as such, they weren’t too keen on taking him on. Not really, at least.
“So, I always took it as a test, ‘Let me see what he can really do. Is he really that good?’ You know how sometimes you see somebody and you’re like, ‘Man, if I put pressure on him, what is he going to do? If I push him, what is he going to do?’” he said.
Stephenson wanted to test the uncharted waters to see how hard James would go, whether “he would bow out or bow down,” so to speak. “And guys like that with that type of talent never bow down. It was a learning experience, playing and competing against the best,” Stephenson added.
Now talking about it like it was ancient history and part of NBA folklore that will live forever, Stephenson has broken down exactly what he was thinking in that moment.
“LeBron is like 6’9″ – 6’10”, strong, athletic, and I was just trying a lot of things to get him like, not focused, so [we] can win the game. It worked because we won the game! But I was just trying to frustrate him, trying to get that win. I do whatever it takes to win,” he told CBS.
“It’s crazy because if someone did that to me, I would be like, ‘Yo, what’s [going on] with that guy, man?'” he admitted. Stephenson and James would eventually become Laker teammates, but according to Stephenson, nobody ever brought the incident up.
“No one ever even talked about it. Like, I was waiting for somebody to bring it up, but we just stuck to winning games and focused on getting to know each other,” he noted, reiterating in an almost-disappointed tone, “Nobody brought it up.”
While it did throw LeBron off that one time, overall, King James has triumphed over Stephenson in head-to-head scenarios and held a 13-7 record against him in playoffs, where he has averaged 27.4 points, 7.8 assists and 6.5 rebounds.
