{"id":1877,"date":"2025-03-27T09:07:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-27T09:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=1877"},"modified":"2025-03-27T09:07:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T09:07:33","slug":"stephen-a-smith-defends-brian-windhorst-after-lebron-james-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=1877","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith defends Brian Windhorst after LeBron James\u2019 remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James stirred controversy during his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, taking an expletive-laced jab at ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst. The remarks quickly drew a fiery response from ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith, who came to Windhorst\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n<p>James, speaking on the show, dismissed Windhorst\u2019s long-standing coverage of his career, saying, \u201cYeah&#8230;This guy says he&#8217;s like my f&#8212;in&#8217; best friend&#8230;These guys is just weird.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Windhorst has covered James since his high school days, documenting his rise from a teenage prodigy to the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer.<\/p>\n<p>Smith, in a video posted to social media, pushed back on James\u2019 comments, highlighting Windhorst\u2019s professionalism and deep knowledge of the Lakers star.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have worked with Brian Windhorst for years. Never once did he say that LeBron was a best friend,&#8221; Smith stated. &#8220;A matter of fact, years earlier it was LeBron who sat in front of the microphones and said, probably nobody knows me better than Brian Windhorst, who&#8217;s been covering me since I was in junior high school.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Smith also pointed out that Windhorst has consistently covered James in a fair and balanced manner, often leaning towards the positive aspects of his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>View this post on Instagram<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A post shared by Stephen A. Smith (@stephenasmith)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nobody digs deeper, maneuvers through the crevices to find the positive about LeBron James, no matter what the story is\u2026 But that&#8217;s how LeBron talked about him,&#8221; Smith concluded.<\/p>\n<p>After Lakers win against Pacers in which LeBron scored a buzzer beater, he went on social media trolling Smith. Earlier, Smith had said he&#8217;d have &#8216;taken a swing&#8217; at LeBron if their confrontation early on in the month turned physical.<\/p>\n<p>The exchange has fueled discussions on social media, with fans and analysts debating James&#8217; remarks and the broader relationship between athletes and the media.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James stirred controversy during his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, taking an expletive-laced jab at ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst. The remarks quickly drew a fiery response from ESPN\u2019s Stephen A. Smith, who came to Windhorst\u2019s defense. James, speaking on the show, dismissed Windhorst\u2019s long-standing coverage of his career, saying, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}