Stephen A. Smith Slams LeBron James Over Not Coming At 'White Boy' Reporters Like He Does Him

Stephen A. Smith is continuing to open up about his beef with Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. During an appearance on "The Pivot" podcast, Smith, known to many from the popular sports talk show "First Take" on ESPN, criticized James after their fallout from earlier this year and seemingly accused him of only picking fights with him because of his race.

While speaking with the co-hosts of "The Pivot" podcast, Smith shared his observation about how James deals with him compared to other people in the media. As he continued, he claimed the NBA legend appears to fire back at him only because of his race.

"You ever see LeBron go at a white boy? Let's call it what it is," Smith said. "You ever see him do that? You saw him come at me. Closest you ever came to seeing him do something like that [to a white journalist] was when he called out Brian Windhorst."

Smith continued, "What you calling out Brian Windhorst for? The man covered you since junior high school and has praised you repeatedly and you used the Pat McAfee situation to go at him. [T]hat's the only time you ever seen LeBron James really go at somebody white. I'm going to call it what it is."

Smith's recent comments about the way he believes James handles the media come months after the two made headlines following their heated conversation on the sidelines of a Lakers game. According to a previous report from The Blast, James approached Smith while heading back to the locker room, and appeared to tell the media personality to "keep my son out of this sh-t, bro."

Before that, Smith went on record to criticize James for advocating for his son, Bronny James, to be in the NBA despite lacking the needed talent. “I am pleading with LeBron James as a father: stop this. Stop this,” Smith said. “We all know that Bronny James is in the NBA because of his dad."

Smith opened up about his conversation with James, revealing the Olympian was "very upset" with some of the things he said. However, according to Smith, James' handling of the situation was out of line. He also explained that he has to share uncomfortable takes on trending topics in sports as part of his job.

"That’s what I do for a living. And if you’re in the NBA, that applies to you," he said. "I don’t want enemies. I live a very good life. I like to make people laugh and smile and have a good time and all that other stuff, but I also get paid to call it like I see it. And what I said at the time, I stand by what I said."

James also addressed the situation with Smith on McAfee's ESPN show, accusing Smith of relishing in the drama. He also explained his reasoning for confronting Smith, saying the analyst took it too far with his statements about his son.

"He completely missed the whole point. Never would I ever not allow people who talk about the sport to criticize players about what they do on the court. That is your job to criticize... that is all part of the game," James said. "But when you take it, and you get personal with it, it's my job not only to protect my d-mn household but protect the players."

Smith later ripped James and slammed the baller for hiding "behind his son." He said boldly, "... we don't like each other. I don't like him, and he don't like me."

According to another report from The Blast, James got extremely candid during an episode of his wife's podcast, "Everybody's Crazy," where he spoke about preferring death over being single.

"I know I don't want to be alone, that's for d-mn sure," LeBron, 40, said. "If I have to fight, crawl, scratch, bite, whatever to keep mine. I got to keep it. I gotta do what I gotta do. I don't want to be alone. I'm [from] an only child, single-parent household."

As the conversation continued, he shifted gears and called out the "cutthroat, ruthless a-s b-tches out here right now," making things complicated for today's generation of men. "Listen, I'm in locker rooms," he said. "It's a lot of women out here who have now kinda flipped the script. Some homies out here that's trying to be good, too, and trying to figure it out. Now they're looking in the mirror saying, 'D-mn, what did I do wrong?' Homies, it ain't you."