Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James recently garnered a lot of attention for his exchange with Stephen A. Smith at a game, and during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, he addressed that incident, firing a “Taylor Swift” jab in the process.
“He’s like on a Taylor Swift tour run right now,” LeBron James said on The Pat McAfee Show. “He literally, it started off with, ‘I didn’t want to address it. I didn’t want to address it, I wasn’t gonna address it. But since the video came out, I feel the need to address it.’ Motherf***er, are you kidding me? If there’s one person that couldn’t till the video had dropped so you could address it, it’s your a**. Like, seriously.”

“Stephen A Smith is on a Taylor Swift tour run right now 😂😂

He completely missed the whole point..

He got personal with it and it’s my job to not only protect my own household but also all the players” @KingJames #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/LKKFmvtFWM

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 26, 2025

James went on to say that criticizing players for what they do on the court is fair game, but it crosses a line when it gets personal. He said he believes many media members, including Smith, cross the line at times.
“And another, he completely like, missed the whole point. The whole point,” James said. “Never would I ever not allow people to talk about the sport, criticize players about what they do on the court. That is your job to criticize or to be in a position to, okay, if a guy’s not performing. That is all part of the game. That’s all part of the game. But when you take it and you get personal with it, it’s my job to not only protect my damn household, but protect the players.”

Certainly, James was very honest in this appearance, opening up about the media as the Lakers are making a push ahead of the playoffs. When talking about the media in general, James said that he believes a lot of personalities do not know the game, including former players, saying that the reason he is still able to play at a high level at 40 years old is because of his mind.

“There’s so many guys out there talking about basketball that don’t know the game..

That’s why I’m still able to play at 40 years old because of my mind” ~ @KingJames #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/3sHby3DUMG

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 26, 2025

It was certainly a moment of honesty from James, and he made his approach very clear during the appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. It will be interesting to see if Smith responds in any way.