Stephen A. Smith: ‘That was LeBron James coming up to me unexpectedly I might add, to confront me about making sure that I mind what I say about his son. Can’t repeat the words because they ain’t suited for FCC airwaves, that’s what he was doing. I thought long and hard about this over the last few hours because I had no intentions, Molly, of talking about this at all, and the reason why is because it was a one-on-one… I wouldn’t say a conversation, but it was a one-on-one confrontation. But then I woke up and everybody from ESPN, my agent, and everybody else were telling me that this thing had gone viral and so ultimately it was unavoidable and that is why I have to discuss it now. That wasn’t a basketball player confronting me, that was a parent, that was a father and I can’t sit here and be angry or feel slighted by LeBron James in any way in that regard. By all accounts he’s obviously a wonderful family man and a wonderful father who cares very deeply about his son and based on some of the comments that he had heard or shall I say I think he thought he heard, he clearly took exception to some of the things that he heard me say and he confronted me about it. For the record, his agent and friend Rich Paul has my number, Maverick Carter who works on him has my number, LeBron James knows how to get in contact if he wants to. He never called, because he wanted to talk to me I would have accepted that call had he wanted to see me I would have flown out and I would have seen him and I would have had a conversation man-to-man but that is not what he elected to do. Instead, he elected to confront me while I was sitting courtside.’ -via YouTube / March 7, 2025
