The ugly feud between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith last month over Smith’s commentary on James’ son got big enough that it drew a rare response from Pardon the Interruption host Michael Wilbon, who took James’ side and excoriated ESPN for its coverage of Bronny James.
This week, as the James-Smith beef appears to be petering out, Wilbon joined the Waddle & Silvy show in Chicago, doubling down on his criticisms to OutKick and daring ESPN to take issue with them.
“(James) and Stephen A. are big boys, they’re sort of equals in this,” Wilbon said. “They’re guys of stature … I’m not getting involved in their stuff. I don’t care about their stuff. I don’t consume it. I don’t give a damn about their back-and-forth with each other.”
Wilbon said wasn’t the podcast jabs thrown by James or Smith that bothered him, but the original sin from ESPN of constantly harping on the Bronny story during last year’s NBA Draft and since.
“My objection is to everybody talking about Bronny all the time for about three months. I found it disgraceful,” Wilbon added. “I found it less than the professional-level standard that I became accustomed to personally at Northwestern, at The Washington Post. Just talking about Bronny James, for what?”
Here’s a clip of Wilbon’s appearance on that show shared by OutKick’s Bobby Burack:
Wilbon shined a light on how PTI approached the story of Bronny being drafted to the Lakers, clarifying that he and cohost Tony Kornheiser adamantly refused to touch it.
“Producers would ask Tony and me to talk about it, and not only would we say no, we’d say no colorfully and forcefully,” Wilbon said.
Asked whether ESPN management took issue with his comments to OutKick and criticism of the network’s editorial agenda, Wilbon said no.
“That’s how I feel. I’ve said it (before), I wanted to say it,” Wilbon said. “I knew OutKick with Bobby, he was going to print it the way I said it, which was raw. And since certain shows on our network, at least one person, on our network is allowed to speak that colorfully anyway, I don’t want to get pushback on that.”
If anyone has earned the mantle to criticize ESPN from within ESPN, it’s the veteran duo hosting PTI. But usually, “ESPN on ESPN crime” is a no-go. If there’s any way to avoid punishment, Wilbon’s strategy of alluding to Pat McAfee is a good trick to try given McAfee’s penchant for burning ESPN from its airwaves since he was hired in 2023.