NEVER HAVE JOURNALISTS LOOKED SO GOOD WHEN BASKETBALL PLAYERS ARE SO BAD
LeBron James was reckless in calling out Stephen A. Smith at an arena but not nearly as wrong as Draymond Green, who should retire from media when he never double-checked a funeral in a false report
If LeBron James thinks he’s a journalistic master, he first should improve his late-game shooting. Not long ago, ESPN ran a galling stat: He is 1 for 29 when trying to tie a game or give the Lakers a lead, an embarrassment in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime. He can stare down Stephen A. Smith, who is 6 feet 1 and 17 years older, when he should be practicing for nerve-wracking moments.
This is how James made Smith look good, not easy after the sports opinionist signs a $100 million deal and wants a Democratic run at the U.S. presidency. It was an ugly week, in fact, for NBA players who think they have a clue about the media’s dignity. All Smith did was explain why Bronny James doesn’t belong in the league, thanks to daddy and merely supplemented by painful numbers — 1.4 points per game in 76 minutes while making 25.8 percent of his shots. I’ve said it. You’ve said it. Who hasn’t said it? Bronny should play for the South Bay Lakers, not the Los Angeles Lakers.
Yet when Smith sat at courtside Thursday night, beside Larry David and Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel, LeBron was loud and boisterous in staging a confrontation. He could have picked up a phone, which is what Ozzie Guillen should have done — don’t we all have stories? — instead of calling me “a f—ing fag” for national consumption. This should have been done privately, yet Smith stood there and took the heat at Crypto.com Arena.
“That was LeBron James coming up to me, unexpectedly I might add, to confront me about making sure I mind what I say about his son,” Smith said. “I can’t repeat the words because they aren't suited for FCC airwaves.”
As for Draymond Green, would he like to retire from his broadcast/podcast career after miserably not double-checking why Karl-Anthony Towns missed a game against Golden State? There was Green, always a bully, turning into a cad when he said Towns wouldn’t play against Jimmy Butler after previous practice tensions as Minnesota teammates. “Some would say he didn’t play because Jimmy was in the building,” he said. “I don’t know. You know him and Jimmy had the infamous practice in Minnesota. … I don’t know (if Towns was) hurt. I didn’t look that deep into it to figure out what his injury was.”
Turns out Towns and his girlfriend were at a funeral for Sarah Holtzman, a family friend, after she lost a cancer battle. “This is one of those moments where I had to be there for my family and there for the kids who lost somebody really special to them,” Towns said. How did Draymond respond to mind-rotting reality? As sickly as he does when he attacks other players and his own teammate, Jordan Poole.
“Oh, man, That’s unfortunate. I’m sorry to hear that. That sucks,” Green said. “But my comments that I made was that ‘what I heard was this. And that’s what I heard.’ So I do send my well wishes to him and his family. We all experience death in one way or another, and we’ll all experience it the same way one day. So it’s unfortunate. You never wish that on anybody. But the Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis must go on.”
The show should permanently vanish. Warriors coach Steve Kerr, despite his career defense of Green, must end to his media fraudulence. What’s next? Once, Green was known for grabbing LeBron’s crown jewels and earning a suspension that cost Golden State a title. Now they’re media morons in the same week.
At 40, James still has a way of acting like a spoiled kid. Everyone understands he is defending his son, yet many of us ask why he chose intimidating experiences for a 20-year-old. That’s how Smith wanted to respond, by pointing out, “C’mon, man, this is the situation you are putting him in.” Smith was professional in hearing him out when, of course, Larry David might have been ready to respond.
“He and I don't necessarily vibe. We don't see eye to eye,” Smith said. “Neither of us loses sleep over it. It's been that way for years. It was like he was saying, ‘Keep that between me and you.’ As a father, I get it. If I was in his position, I cannot say definitively that I wouldn't have done the same thing. I don't blame him one bit. What I was saying about LeBron is fact-based because of what he said and the things that he said leading up to his son being drafted and ultimately being in the NBA on the same team.
“There is no way around that. When you’re raised as a journalist professionally, you don’t want enemies, but you ain’t paid to make friends. You’ve gotta call it like you see it.”
He is right. If only Smith would abandon his political plans and truly be an abiding journalist. And James? He must speak about the world on social media, a path chosen by Green, who has no credibility about anything except swatting at faces and stomping on chests. Broadcast executives are at fault, too, because they want hotheads on the air and offer big money.
Draymond wants to be Charles Barkley. Stop him.
LeBron wants to have the final say. Stop him.
Focus on improving as basketball players. Both are bad reporters.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.