The Stephen A. Smith-LeBron James beef that has been percolating for months, now boiling over on ESPN’s airwaves, sums up everything that is wrong with basketball discourse nowadays, but it’s not either of their faults.
Money talks. In today’s era of social media clicks, that means engagement talks. Likes talk. Shares and reposts talk. Comments talk, regardless of what they say.
So when Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James get into a heated back-and-forth while the former should be previewing playoff matchups and the latter should be preparing for them, don’t act shocked.
ESPN’s Personality (Stephen A) Strategy
ESPN’s new strategy is to funnel nearly all of their media budget into their few biggest personalities. They laid off many of their most popular, insightful analysts, including Zach Lowe, in 2024. Just this week, they announced they’re downsizing their Los Angeles office, including by cutting Sportscenter Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Stephen A. Smith was given a new $100 million contract this month, eclipsing the $85 million deal Pat McAfee signed back in 2023.
But ESPN executives aren’t fools. They’re not just signing these two massive media personalities to these contracts for no reason. They’re investing heavily into McAfee and Stephen A. because they’re making the company more money than everyone else. They simply generate the most views.
As fans, commenting hate feeds into their agenda. Sharing tweets with group chats triples their views. Watching Stephen A.’s 15-minute rant is exactly what they want you to do.
Fortunately, for fans who find themselves irritated by this convoluted system, there’s a solution to all the madness: simply stop engaging.
Breaking the Mold
If you want to participate in thoughtful, detailed, fair, and forward-thinking NBA discourse, then do it.
There’s an endless fountain of content on the internet. Besides us at The Lead, who cover big and small markets equally and give voices to real, diehard NBA and NFL fans, many accounts on X and beyond analyze the game the right way.
Brett Usher has seen tremendous growth throughout the 2025 season for his unbiased, pure-hoop takes and highlight mixes.
Point Made Basketball is a relatively unknown account that sheds light on primarily underrated stars and storylines with analytics and highlights.
And it’s not like ESPN is devoid of thoughtful analysts who don’t panhandle to clickbait storylines. Just from the NBA side, Tim Legler, Jonathan Givony, Brian Windhorst, Chiney Ogwumike and many of the bright minds they work alongside at ESPN are sharing analytical basketball content, just on their side platforms.
Don’t let yourself fall into the Stephen A. Smith cycle. Make the push to branch out and seek out new opinions, insightful ones, that teach you something you didn’t know. It’s better than listening to two 40+-year-old men beef about who said what.
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