Stephen A. Smith foe LeBron James joining ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ this week

LeBron James will be featured on an ESPN show later this week, but it’s not Stephen A. Smith getting the interview. It’s Pat McAfee.

McAfee’s Monday afternoon show, which was interestingly co-hosted by NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport, began with college basketball. And after watching some college basketball this past weekend, McAfee noted that he was reminded of its lesser level of play than the NBA.

“We’re talking airballs, we’re talking throwing layups through the backboard, we’re talking about passing it out of bounds, dribbling out of bounds, we’re talking about some madness still happening on the court,” McAfee said before teasing the big news. “Obviously, we follow the NBA a little bit closer and I don’t want to give anything away, LeBron James is gonna be on the show this week…he’s gonna be on this week. We follow the NBA, we don’t follow college hoops as much.”

McAfee previously complained about struggling to book any ESPN NBA analysts on his show. This week, he’ll have an NBA guest who is much bigger than anyone ESPN can offer.

We don’t yet know the exact date James will be joining The Pat McAfee Show. But we do know James will be joining McAfee’s show just weeks after he infamously confronted Stephen A. Smith during a Los Angeles Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena. Smith has since milked this story for all it’s worth, seemingly relishing the opportunity to address being confronted by one of the most well-known athletes in the world.

Even though they’ve reportedly had their own tense bouts, it’s hard to accuse McAfee of attempting to needle Smith by booking James on his show. No one would or should pass up the opportunity to interview James. But it’s interesting to see James opt to join the show that directly follows Smith’s First Take on ESPN.

James hasn’t fostered his feud with Smith the same way ESPN’s $100 million talent has attempted to do in recent weeks. And it would seem likely that James will continue to leave his controversy with Smith on the court. But if he’s going to address his relationship with Smith, doing so on ESPN, by way of The Pat McAfee Show, would be a notable place to do it.