Brian Windhorst has already said that he had no issue with LeBron James over the unprovoked shot that the Los Angeles Lakers superstar took at him during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show last month.
What the ESPN NBA senior writer was worried about, however, was how James’ comments might have affected his relationship with other players in the league.
“I would have preferred that it didn’t happen. But I kind of feel like everybody who knows what’s going on knew, but everybody who didn’t know will forget,” Windhorst said during a recent appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “So I actually felt like my concern was that it would damage me with players because he’s so influential with players.”
Much to Windhorst’s surprise, however, that hasn’t been the case. In fact, the longtime NBA reporter said he was caught off guard by the amount of support he’s received from current and former players alike in the wake of James’ dig.
“I’ve had more players come up and — not that all of them are — but I’ve had more support from players current and former than I thought I would get for that,” he said.
For the uninitiated, LeBron James’ swipe at Brian Windhorst came during an hour-long interview on The Pat McAfee Show. During a conversation regarding comparisons to Michael Jordan, James took aim at Windhorst, a fellow Akron, Ohio, native who has covered him throughout the majority of his 22-year NBA career.
“I see a lot of s**t too. Like I see Brian Windhorst on one of these shows not too long ago,” James began before being cut off by McAfee.
“You guys played together in high school, right?” McAfee asked jokingly in reference to James and Windhorst’s shared alma mater of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron.
“Yeah, this guy who says he’s like my f**king best friend,” James said. “These guys are just weird.”
Windhorst also speculated that James’ comment may have been inspired by a Photoshopped picture of himself playing alongside the 4-time NBA champion in high school — a running bit on The Pat McAfee Show, which displayed the photo during the interview.
“I don’t know what LeBron was thinking. But I kind of think when he saw that photo go up, he thought that was weird,” he said. “Well, maybe he thinks I’m weird. Maybe he does. Let’s put it this way: there’s probably 15 things. LeBron could be angry at me about that I’ve said or written over the years that he could legitimately be like, ‘that was wrong. That was unfair. You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ And he could have hit me with any of those and I’d have been like, ‘you’re right. Shouldn’t have done that. I was outta line.’ But what he accused me of was not one of them.
“But I almost kind of think he saw the photo and he thought that was weird. And that’s what he was reacting to, as if I made the photo or something.”
While Brian Windhorst responded by saying that the 4-time MVP didn’t owe him anything (and that he owes LeBron “a lot”), James’ jab resulted in an outpouring of support among his media brethren. As it turns out, that support wasn’t just limited to Windhorst’s colleagues, but also some of James’, which perhaps speaks to how out of line his comments actually were.