Steve Mason: There Are People in Media Who ‘Cower’ When Talking About LeBron James

Stephen A. Smith recently addressed the courtside confrontation in which he found himself involved when Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James approached him coming out of a timeout in the midst of a game. Smith, who was ostensibly nonplussed by what took place in the moment, explained that James was criticizing him over what he presumed to have said about his son, Bronny. On the contrary, Smith clarified that he was talking about James and proceeded to call what occurred at the game “weak” during a recent podcast appearance. These events resulted in a discussion with Steve Mason and Andy Kamenetzky on the latest edition of Mason & Ireland airing on ESPN LA 710.

Kamenetzky explained that Smith had criticized James as a father following a difficult performance by his son against the Philadelphia 76ers. Within these remarks, Kamenetzky explained that Smith pleaded with James to stop what was going on and said that Bronny James was not ready for this. In interpreting the situation, he surmised that Smith was implying that Bronny James had played in the game because his father had pressured head coach JJ Redick. In reality, he explained that the team was missing several guards due to trades and injuries and subsequently short handed.

“Obviously LeBron leaned on the organization to get the organization to draft Bronny, that’s no question, but [he] didn’t lean on them specifically to get him into that game,” Mason said. “That was a JJ decision.”

Kamenetzky shared that Bronny James has played 76 minutes throughout the NBA season thus far, articulating that LeBron James is not making anything happen beyond his son being a member of the team. After playing audio from the podcast appearance, Mason extrapolated that Smith’s argument was in James trying to censor the media and trying to shape a certain narrative that he likes more. When Kamenetzky admitted that Smith may be correct in this instance about the power of James and Klutch Sports, Mason added that there are people in media who “cower” in discussing the superstar.

“There are people like that because they are entrenched NBA reporters, they need to maintain connections and sources and all of that stuff,” Kamenetzky said. “Does that exist? Yes.”

Kamenetzky proceeded to guarantee that Smith holds back certain intel or opinions to which he has been made privy. Nonetheless, he still feels that Smith is misunderstanding why James is upset with him and acceded that he believes the ESPN commentator is “out of bounds” in this particular situation. When asked by Mason to identify who was correct in a binary choice, Kamenetzky affirmed that it was James, a sentiment with which he agreed.

“Of course LeBron and every star does attempt, and sometimes very successfully, to shape a narrative,” Mason said. “LeBron and his people do a great job of shaping narratives, and a lot of people are afraid of the Klutch thing and LeBron and all that stuff. Thankfully, we’re in a world where we can just say whatever. I’m not – [John] Ireland says what he sees through his purple and gold glasses and purple and gold paycheck, but we just talk, and in this particular case, I’m going to come down on the side of LeBron.”

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