There’s not a lot of love lost between Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James at this current juncture.
Recently, the First Take star claimed that James’ camp at Klutch Sports tried to silence him over his criticism of Bronny James, in which he tried to appeal to LeBron as a father. But, according to Smith, feathers were ruffled when he seemingly critiqued LeBron’s parenting of his eldest son.
That wound hasn’t exactly healed, but it hasn’t stopped Smith from voicing his opinions on ESPN’s airwaves. And while his latest rant only indirectly touched on Bronny, it was more about what LeBron should tell Rich Paul in the wake of the Lakers pulling off a blockbuster deal for Luka Dončić.
“I go to Rich Paul and tell him I’ll waive my no-trade clause for one of two teams,” Smith explained. “It’ll either be to join Steph Curry in Golden State or to go to New York with the Knicks, one of the two. Now, the Knicks will obviously be more difficult because they traded away five first-round picks to get Mikal Bridges. And I love Bridges, but damn, five first-round picks? But, I’m not gonna belabor that; they did what they did.
“But, obviously, they had an abundance of assets — and, clearly, the Lakers are in need of them because they’ve only got one pick left, which is like 2031, for crying out loud. And so, I look it from that standpoint. If I’m LeBron James, I use that as an option, or I go to Golden State and I join Steph Curry. And I go out with the greatest shooter God ever created.”
For Smith, the fit in L.A. is a clunky one.
“You have to remember, in Los Angeles, both LeBron James and Luka Dončić essentially are ball hogs — they need the basketball. They’re not secondary options,” Smith says. “LeBron has shown the ability to adjust when he had Kyrie [Irving]. Obviously, when he had D-Wade, [he] had to force him to really take the mantle, and really take the bull by the horn(s) and be aggressive with all of that stuff. But we’ve seen this from LeBron James before. Could he do it? Sure.
“But Luka really holds the ball; neither of them really move a lot without the basketball. And that’s why Charles Barkley, [Michael] Wilbon, [Brian Windhorst] and everybody else was absolutely right when you talk about the difficulty, potentially, of them playing together in Los Angeles. That would not be the case with Steph Curry. Steph Curry moves without the ball. He’s the greatest shooter God ever created. You gotta keep your head on a swivel constantly. You got to get migraine medicine and all this other stuff. You gotta go and get Oxygen after the games because you gotta chase Steph Curry around, OK? Because that’s how he moves without the ball.
“You have an exceptional passer, who is a basketball savant, with an IQ of a LeBron James, and you’re able to feed that dude the ball. And Draymond Green is your teammate, as well, and you know how fiery he’s going to be playing with LeBron, playing with Steph Curry. Oh my lord, that would be absolutely something special. And if I’m LeBron James, I sit there and waive my no trade clause to try to get to Golden State, that would be my No. 1 option, personally.”
But is it LeBron’s No. 1 option?
Who knows.
“Everybody keeps saying that he wants to stay in L.A.; he’s settled,” said Smith. “And my response is if he’s settled with being in L.A., that’s because of a lifestyle decision, it ain’t because of a basketball decision, ’cause the Lakers ain’t winning no championship as presently constructed, I can tell you that.”
If LeBron is content with Hollywood over hardware, that’s his choice — but Smith isn’t buying it as a winning move. And this is the same Smith who, just last February, was dreaming about the Knicks trading for LeBron. A year later, he’s telling him to leave L.A. for Golden State.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.