Stephen A. Smith Said He Would Have ‘Swung’ On LeBron James

Stephen A. Smith is not letting his beef with LeBron James settle.

The ESPN personality continued to speak on the feud on Wednesday (March 26) night on his live YouTube show where he got some thighs off his chest. On the show, Smith claimed that he would have swung at James if the Los Angeles Lakers star had hit him during their confrontation on March 6.

“Let me state for the record that while we bring up that, let me assure you it wouldn’t have gone down like that,” Smith said.

“I would have gotten my ass kicked because had that man put his hands on me, I would have immediately swung on him. Immediately. That, I’m not going to tolerate. But I knew he wasn’t going to do something like that.

On First Take on Thursday (March 27), he opened the show by sharing his thoughts on James who shared a video of Smith boxing on social media.

“He puts out some page about me boxing and all of this other stuff from a decade ago with two torn rotator cuffs, fine, no problem. It’s very, very embarrassing video, I’ll be the first to say and all that stuff,” Smith explained. “Even though I like it to be left up there because if people think I want to throw hands like that, that’s how I throw hands, knock yourself out. I’m good with that. I know that the man today is not the man that I was a decade ago, physically and beyond. I can tell you that.”

He also stated that James was “butt-hurt” because he does not consider him to be the greatest player in NBA history.

“So, we get that out the way. Why do I bring that up? Because that’s how petty you’ve become? You’re LeBron James. You’re that butt hurt over the things that I’m saying that you would post that video,” he continued. “When has LeBron James ever done something like that? But suddenly you’re doing that as it pertains to me. This man is in his feelings. I wonder why?”

Smith is responding to James’ comments that he made during a rare interview on The Pat McAfee Show. The NBA superstar claimed that Smith was using the incident to continually speak about him.

“He’s like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,” James said. “It started with, ‘I didn’t want to address it … but since the video came out I feel the need to address it.”

James said, “[Smith] couldn’t wait till the video comes out so [he] can address it. [Smith]’s gonna be smiling from ear to ear when he hears me talking about him. I know he’s gonna be happy as hell.”

James noted that he took offense to Smith criticizing him as a father.

“He completely missed the whole point. The whole point. Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport and criticize players about what they do,” James continued. “That is your job to criticize, or to be in a position where if a guy’s not performing, you know? That’s all part of the game. But when you take it and you get personal with it, it’s my job to not only protect my damn household but protect the players.”