In an interview that is sure to reignite one of the NBA’s most talkedabout offcourt stories, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith made it unmistakably clear that his relationship with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James remains fraught.
Weeks into the 202526 NBA season, Smith revisited a moment that shocked the basketball world, a courtside faceoff between the two men, and offered a candid, unvarnished assessment of where things stand now.
Appearing on In Depth with Graham Bensinger this week, Smith offered one of the clearest and most candid assessments yet of his fractured relationship with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, a saga that has captured the NBA’s attention for nearly a year.
Rather than cooling off, Smith doubled down on his belief that the two men are fundamentally at odds, even as he acknowledged James‘ colossal impact on basketball.
“We don’t like each other. The world needs to know that,” Smith said during the interview, making no attempt to soften the tension that boiled over during a now-viral courtside confrontation in March 2025.
What happened between Smith and James?
That incident took place at a Lakers game against the New York Knicks, when James approached Smith, then sitting courtside at Crypto.com Arena, after the analyst’s repeated public criticism of James‘ son, Bronny James, and his readiness for NBA competition.
What might have been a standard critique between media and athlete instead turned personal when James, speaking as a father, challenged Smith over his comments.
Smith insisted during the Bensinger interview that the moment crossed a line. “I think he crossed the line with the incident involving his son,” he said, adding that he does not believe he was guilty of what James accused him of and called the encounter “unfair and a low blow.”
James, for his part, later framed his actions as those of a parent defending his family, something he suggested was beyond the realm of basketball criticism.
Smith‘s comments this week make it plain that, more than 10 months after the initial clash, he has not smoothed over the disagreement, even if he no longer speaks of it as obsessively as before.
“But I don’t talk about it anymore,” he said, a concession that suggests he’s attempting to move forward, though not bury the issue.
Despite the personal strain, Smith was careful to balance his critique with an unmistakable acknowledgment of James‘ greatness. “It’s important everyone knows that I know how great he is,” Smith said, “He’s one of the greatest ever.”
James, now deep into the 202526 NBA season and still performing at an elite level, has largely stayed out of the public eye on this topic in recent months, leaving Smith‘s comments as one of the few ongoing reminders of the feud.
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