Stephen A's Take: LeBron slams ESPN's Brian Windhorst and Stephen A comes to his defense.

wasn't gonna be participating an NBA All Star Weekend. I don't know whether it was because he didn't like its

new format or not. Wasn't it Lebron James who were reportedly sitting in the locker room with players and Doctor j and Larry Bird talked to the players about playing hard and giving the fans what they want to see and how important All Star Weekend was, And the NBA thought that the players really really had bought in until Lebron James gave them, gave the players a side, and then all of a sudden they went out and allowed almost four hundred points to be scored in the last

All Star game before this just passed before. This one just passed in twenty twenty five. Wasn't that Lebron I told y'all when he took his talents to South Beach, and nobody gonna say I had a complain about that. My complain was about Kevin Durant going to Golden State after being up three to one, losing the series to them, and then joining them a month later. But we've been passed that. We've been over that, and I wish Kevin Durant nothing but the best clownish comments about me at all.

But Lebron James. I certainly never had a problem with Lebron James going to Miami. Nothing's more special than South Beach, and that brother had me in South Beach four consecutive Junes.

I was grateful to Lebron James. I wasn't mad. But when he decided to take his talents to South Beach and did so without showing the corner in respect of at least giving Dan Gilbert a heads up that that was what he was going to do, because he decided to, you know, run an event essentially with Jim Gray sitting down and he called he talked about generating over two and a half million dollars for a worthy cause, fair enough, but it being televised on ESPN, and ultimately making his

announcement that he was taking his talents to South Beach. Did y'all remember what happened in the aftermath of that, Remember a collective bargaining negotiation that followed where players were stripped to seven percent of basketball related income. I mean commissioner at Stern and those guys were coming forward anyway, but nevertheless there angs to do so definitely was heightened

after that. Remember when Chris Paul got moved and got traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, But Dan Gilbert, who had nothing to do with the deal whatsoever, wrote an open letter to the league going absolutely ballistic as to how the Lakers could get the very very best player in that trade, which was Chris Paul, and basically come out with not even having to pay but so much for it. They were actually making money while trading for

Chris Paul and acquiring Chris all in the process. And David starned to the facto owner for the New Orleans Pelicans at the time, because obviously they didn't have new ownership, so the league, the facto owned it for the moment in time Nicks the deal well, while was Dan Gilbert so insistent on not minding his business and speaking out against this so vociferously because he was still pissed off

at how he was treated by Lebron James. See, Lebron gets his money, but this collateral damage that he leaves in his wake all over the place, and other players don't usually see that until it's too late. But we don't talk about that because he's box office and he's phenomenal, and he's on the Mount Rushmore basketball and where he goes, ratings follow and because of that, we gloss over those facts.

But those ain't the only facts we gloss over. When Lebron talked about the media weeks ago, what does he do now? He comes on Pat mcfee's show to Get Again today and listen to what he had to say. Listen closely, check it out. See a lot of shit too.

He is one of the elite people covering the NBA in this world. And nobody, I repeat nobody defense Lebron James more than that man. And look at what Lebron James did. Y'all have watched Wendy report for yours. Tell me one time, tell me one thing that Brian went to us has done to negatively impact Lebron James. One take your time, I'll wait. Nobody is more fair. Nobody digs deeper, maneuvers through the crevices to find the positive about Lebron James, no matter what the story is. But

that's how Lebron talked about it. You uns stopped that, though he also went into today's players compared to yester year. I thought that was a subject he didn't want to touch. I thought that we should just have an appreciation for the game and not really really compare Lebron James is one of the people that told us that until he had the platform event, and look at what he.

the world. When you think about Jerry West, when you think about somebody like that, the COB's of the world, the MJ's of the world. There was no elgend Beala or Oscar Robinson before them. You see, the point is you use previous greatness to measure what the level of greatness is currently as times have evolved, and you show an appreciation for it, you don't get upset because people

are out there comparing one to the other. You're talking about championships, you're talking about leadership, you're talking about durability, which obviously Lebron is tops at, not only capabilities, which he's on a Mount r That's why he's on the Mount Rushmore. I could simply sit up there and say, you know what Jannis would have got is Jiannice would have been great, but he also would have got knocked on his ass a lot, and he would have went to the free throw line, and the Feith throw line

was his achilles heel. With the exception of that game six closed out against Phoenix in the finals, free throws have always been his achilles heel, but he's phenomenal. We're able to look and we're able to say, as we look at the great Alan Iverson and we look at some of the great great small guards in NBA history, we also have to take tom to pause and remind them about this dude named Isaiah Thomas who was phenomenal with a heart and guts and the leader of the

physical bad boy Pistons. We look at the game, we talk about Steph Curry, the greatest shoot of God has ever created. Oh, by the way, he plays a point guard, and oh, my lord, the greatest point guard. And then a guy like Eddie Johnson for NBA Today or NBA Radio on SyRI Exem reminds us, oh, wait a minute. My definition of a point guard is a quintessential floor facilitator, a flower general who facilitates for others, facilitates opportunities for others.

That's why Steph Curry can't get that. That's got to be magic Johnson. It's a crime to bring up history, to look at the game and to compare it, and I have an opinion about it. When the conversation unquestionably and undeniably involves greatness. If you're not great, you're not a part of that conversation. Nobody views that as a crime. But that man that showed up on Pat McAfee's show today because he must be to go. It can't be

anything else. You lost six NBA Finals. There is a definals against Dallas that you specifically choked in four consecutive fourth quarters of an NBA Finals series against Dirk Novisky and the Dallas Mavericks with Jason Terry or JJ Berea who resembled many me standing next to you guarding you, and you averaged two point two points in the fourth quarter.

As great as you are, had nothing to do with your skill, had nothing to do with their zone defense, had nothing to do with your capabilities, had everything to do with your heart. The rest of us didn't have the skill. You had everything, but also a ten man syndrome at that time. Once you learned to win, nothing

could stop you. If we only went about Lebron, if we only looked at Lebron James career, since he won his first championship, ladies and gentlemen, we could have the go conversation because since he started winning, My god, it is what it is but before that, that heart transplant that he needed. It is my belief Michael Jordan would have been in the hospital blocking the door every single time figuratively speaking, to prevent him from having that heart transplant.

He had just shut him down, took his heart right out of his chest, and wouldn't have allowed him to have another heart. That's the difference. That's how I feel. Others may think differently, clearly that man does, and y'all will just sit here and act like that had nothing to do with him getting in my face. No, no at all. Remember how I told you all the story about I'd look at rich Paul in them and I say, damn it, I got him on the Mount Rushball. I got him number two all time, and y'all act like

it's an insult. And Rich Paul looked at me and said, it is an insult. Where you get that from. Not to say that Rich Paul doesn't think for himself, because I know he does, but that man feels that way. No, he doesn't like me. I don't like him either. My feelings about him are what they are, and it's based on personal interactions and what I've seen. In terms of how I believe he's treated others. It's my opinion. It's

none of anybody's business beyond that. His feelings are about me talking about basketball, and y'all gonna let him get away. You're trying to classify me as somebody who would talk about him as a dad, as if I exposed something that was having happening in the privacy of their home in Brentwood somewhere, as opposed to me talking about what's going on in the Lakers' uniform, at the Crypto dot Com arena or elsewhere. Y'all go let me get away

with that. Y'all go right ahead. I don't have to approach this subject anymore, but I will broach Lebron James any damn time I please. As long as he's playing this game. He's a relevant sports news topic, and I'm going to do my job professionally and ethically. I don't have to like him to do that, and he doesn't have to like me in order for me to do it. I don't get paid to talk to him. I get paid to talk about him. But tell him he's welcome to talk to me anytime. But we all know that

ain't gonna happen. As I told y'all before early in the show, just to make sure that it wasn't something that I would benefit from in terms of ratings or anything like that. I offered to come on a shop when they confronted me. This was a couple of years ago. It's never happened because it's a little bit different when you got to say some of the stuff right in front of the person, and a person has facts to

refute what you're saying. Maybe that's why he didn't want to meet me in the back after the game to have a conversation at the Lakers game. Maybe that's why he didn't come up to me and say wait for me, and he talked to you. Maybe maybe that's why he didn't want to have to deal with a real conversation about all the things that he's done to create this whole brew. Ah, I get it. I'm not going away, ladies and gentlemen. I don't have to talk to Lebron James.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm doing fine. There are beat writers and other reporters that have to talk to him. I don't, and to be quite honest with you, at this point, don't much want to. I wish him well. I'm looking forward to covering him as his career slowly crawls to a end, and I'll be one of the first thanking him for the greatness he's put on display as a basketball player. I, like everybody else,

will miss him when he's gone as a man. In terms of how I firmly believe he elected to handle this situation with the cameraman behind him and all this other stuff, I think it's shady as hell. That's how I feel. That's where I stand, and it's little to nothing that he can do to change my mind at this point. God bless him and his family. Wish him nothing but the best. Look forward to talking y'all about other NBA topics as well. And I don't give it

damn what y'all said. It was no way in hell I was gonna let that man talk to bs that he spewed today have a response to it. That was not gonna happen. M m