LeBron James being at the center of sports news is no new thing. But with the media’s role in the coverage of sports these days, the reasons why he is of interest vary more. Last week’s marquee match-up between the Lakers and the Knicks led to more than fireworks on the court. They also led to fireworks courtside as the four-time NBA champion confronted Stephen A. Smith.
By now we’ve surmised that Beef’s beef was with Smith critiquing his parenting. Smith had expressed that he felt James shouldn’t have put his son in a position to play on a stage that he deemed he wasn’t ready for. To be fair, Smith isn’t the only pundit who feels that Bronny wasn’t ready to get minutes in the NBA. Bomani Jones, for instance, is noted as feeling similarly. However, how one goes about expressing these thoughts makes all of the difference. For what it’s worth, the optics of how Smith has covered Bronny has seemed a bit harsh. His delivery, maybe not so much, but addressing LeBron while showing a montage of lowlights from Bronny just rubbed many the wrong way.
What’s the real issue here?
Bronny isn’t the first kid of a player to make it into the NBA. That sentiment is dismissive of the reality of this circumstance. For the record, there are many NBA players whose fathers weren’t as talented as they were. You have Kobe Bryant, Al Horford, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson for starters. The critique of these players was without less fanfare, because their parents were stars in their roles rather than just stars in general. Tim Hardaway Sr. and Gary Payton are fathers of current NBA players. And these guys were NBA All-Stars in their day, but they were never the face of a league or era.
What makes this situation different?
The attention cast on LeBron’s kids are just different. And if his kids choose to play in the NBA, that still applies. It’s even more applicable if you’re choosing to play in the same league as your dad during the same time as your dad and on the same team as your dad! Can’t you imagine the immense pressure there? Of course you can.
That’s why there are so many different schools of thought on this issue. There’s one side believing that knowing the pressure that does exist, we should be more sensitive to how we cover Bronny. Then there’s another mentality that believes that James should understand the nature of the beast that he created.
From my vantage point, I always felt that we didn’t get to see the full confrontation between these two people. But it was James’ conversation with former teammate Richard Jefferson that changed things. From the audio that was picked up, James is heard commenting on Smith’s parenting comment as the thing that set him off.
Now, I’m no parent yet, so I wasn’t particularly bothered by Smith’s words. However, other folks who are parents seem to at least understand where James is coming from. Some pundits who are more familiar with James’ past also cite the superstar’s upbringing. They speak about how absent his own father was and how important he views his role as a dad. I totally get that, and I’m sure those feelings are magnified with the success that he has earned.
It’s my hope that all of the hoopla ends here. These two entities feed off of one another. It’s sort of like that André 3000 bar, “If you don’t move your feet, then we don’t eat, so we like neck to neck.” Without the media, the game doesn’t grow. But without the game, we have nothing to cover. Somewhere along this primrose path, we need to find some middle ground to be able to sustain. I don’t think it’s impossible, but egos on both sides need to take five.
