Was LeBron James Present at Kobe Bryant’s Funeral? Debunking Stephen A. Smith’s Questionable Statement

The feud between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith is escalating at a rapid pace, and for once, it looks like Stephen A. has picked the wrong dude to buttheads with. ESPN’s $100 million man is spiraling out on live TV, with his accusations against LeBron getting wilder and wilder.

The relationship between the two fractured when Stephen A. criticized LBJ for getting Bronny into the NBA too early. The L-Train stood up to him when the analyst questioned his parenting, and the row quickly escalated into an all-out verbal war.

Recently, Stephen A. even claimed that he would have taken a swing at LeBron if LBJ had put his hands on him when he confronted him courtside earlier this month! Of course, SAS admitted that the six-foot-nine-inch LeBron, clocking in at a mere 250 lbs, would have flattened him if they did try to duke it out.

Meanwhile, even as Stephen A. was trying to impress with his tough guy act, LeBron went on ESPN, Stephen A.’s own network, and roasted him on The Pat McAfee Show. He said the network’s star NBA analyst was “on a Taylor Swift-like tour run right now” as he goes after LeBron every day. He also said that Stephen A. was probably “happy as hell” and “smiling from ear-to-ear to hear me talking about him.”

There is more than an element of truth in LeBron’s charge that Stephen A. is carrying on a personal vendetta against him. For instance, the sportscaster went a bit off the deep end on Thursday, claiming LeBron didn’t attend Kobe Bryant’s funeral and Dwyane Wade’s jersey retirement ceremony. The only problem is that, according to the Los Angeles Times, LeBron was in attendance.

According to reports, he simply requested that his photo not be taken, probably out of respect for Bryant and not wanting to take attention away from him and his daughter Gianna.

Another inaccuracy in Smith’s statement was how he claimed he had never brought any of this up before. But in reality, Smith has brought up LeBron’s absence from the funeral and from Wade’s jersey retirement on his podcast earlier, too.

Many fans say whether or not LeBron attended Kobe’s funeral was irrelevant — what was not acceptable was Stephen A. trying to exploit Kobe’s tragic death and the grief of his fans in his beef with LeBron.

Fighting LeBron, physically or through the media, is a battle that Stephen A. can’t win

Besides, Stephen A.’s accusation was just plain nasty. LeBron has praised Kobe effusively over the years, and from his on-court speech honoring the Black Mamba to his Instagram post in remembrance of the Lakers legend, he’s shown nothing but love and respect.

He and the Lakers even dedicated the 2020 season to Kobe’s memory, and they went on to win the title.

This isn’t even the first time Stephen A. has brought this topic up, which begs the question: Why does it matter so much to him? Is he genuinely concerned about Kobe being given the proper love and respect, or is he just clout-chasing? So far, fans are pretty clear with their answer to that.