Stephen A Smith Claims He Hates Pissing Off Gloria And Savannah En Route To Criticizing LeBron James And Son Bronny

Stephen A. Smith has found his calling, and that is to live forever in his feud with LeBron James. The analyst has been taking shots at the NBA superstar ever since LeGOAT publicly confronted him during the Knicks/Lakers game earlier this month. LBJ asked SAS to stop smearing his son Bronny. That should have been the end of it. But the story caught fire, and the war officially began.

LeBron went on the Pat McAfee show earlier today to discuss his tiff with SAS. He mentioned that the $100 million man has been on a “Taylor Swift tour run” smearing his name, and was even happy when video of their dispute went viral.

“If there’s one person who couldn’t wait for the video to drop, it’s you. He’s gonna be smiling ear to ear when he heard me talking about him,” said James, who specified that he had to “protect his household.”

Well, Smith didn’t take too kindly to that. On the latest edition of his podcast, SAS spoke about his personal relationship with the James family, specifically with LBJ’s wife Savannah and his mother Gloria. “I think Savannah is the first lady of the NBA. I think she is an absolutely wonderful human being,” he stated. “You think I like the thought of pissing her off?

“Gloria James, an absolutely wonderful person that I have seen over the years and has never been anything but the most pleasant person in the world to me. I don’t like the thought of upsetting her.” Smith wasn’t done there and brought Bronny back into the conversation.

“I certainly don’t want to hurt Bronny. I’m rooting for the kid. But the news is the news. The sport is the sport, and the story is the story,” Smith claimed.

SAS is aiming to win clever courtesy points by showing respect to everyone but LeBron. However, the only people who will buy it are the ones who are already on the LBJ hate train.

Stephen A. Smith claimed that once LeBron retires, he’ll never speak on him again

One viewpoint that Smith always drives home in any argument, but specifically in his James beef, is his job. On the same podcast the 57-year-old New Yorker reiterated that his bosses at ESPN forced him to speak on the incident with James since it was the top trending sports story.

“You have to talk about it. The boss says, ‘you have to talk about it, what you mean you ain’t talking about it? It’s a sports story, and it directly involves you,” SAS claimed. He added that James could think that he was happy that the video surfaced, but mentioned that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Fortunately for James, Smith has agreed to stop talking about him altogether- once he retires. “When you retire let’s see how much I talk about you then. You won’t matter much. I promise you,” threatened Smith. “But as long as you playing I’m gonna talk about you, because that’s my job.”

The noise from this feud has certainly clouded the airwaves from what’s happening on the court. James and the Lakers are currently on a three-game skid, and with the playoffs coming up, shouting from SAS isn’t gonna help the team get back to the chip.

If there was ever a time for LeBron James and company to silence the haters, it’s now.

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

Read More