Stephen A. Smith calls out ESPN colleague Charles Barkley to ‘do better’ amid LeBron James saga

Stephen A. Smith has fired back at Charles Barkley over comments he made about LeBron James.

Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar made some comments about what it’s like to travel around the country playing in the NBA at 41-years-young.

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“I’m f****ing 41 years old, you think I want to do that s*** being in Memphis on a random a** Thursday. I’m not like the first guy even to talk about in the NBA,” James said during the interview he held while out on a golf course.

“Like, we all like you guys have to move. Go over to Nashville… their only chance for me to play there was in 2003 if they would have won the lottery. And I might have pulled an Eli Manning and not showed up.”

James also made suggestions that there shouldn’t even be an NBA team in Memphis, proposing the idea of relocating to Nashville, Tennessee instead.

“[NBA players are] all like, ‘You guys have to move. Go over to Nashville.’ You got Vanderbilt over there,” James said. “You got NASCAR. You got a stadium. Don’t they got a hockey team, too?”

As expected, these comments went viral and media personality Smith weighed in with his own views, accusing the all-time great and future Hall of Famer of being insensitive.

“When I spoke, I spoke about what this city needs in order to look out for the vast majority of its citizens who happen to be Black that are living there. I did it right here, on the mic with the cameras rolling. Dead serious as hell,” Smith said on the April 3 episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show.

“Because I ain’t trying to let nobody off the hook on that. I wasn’t dressed in shorts, lolligagging on the golf course with a bunch of peeps that don’t look anything like the folks that reside in Memphis. That’s where it was foul.

“Optics matter. Appearances matter,” Smith added. “And words coming out of LeBron James’ mouth about such a sensitive subject required a little bit more seriousness to the subject.”

Just last summer, Smith had made claims in regards to the city of Memphis that NBA players “don’t feel like it’s the safest environment,” before taking aim at the local authorities to “clean some of that stuff up.”

NBA icon Barkley gets involved

In response of the ongoing conversation around Memphis as a basketball city, in which Smith used to invoke race into the conversation, NBA legend Barkley weighed in.

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Taking particular offense to Smith’s comments, Barkley called out his fellow ESPN broadcaster said to Ernie Johnson on the latest episode of The Steam Room podcast.

“LeBron said he didn’t like Memphis or Milwaukee. And for some reason, everybody went crazy on the Memphis part because then they turned it into race, which is the best way to get idiots and fools talking about anything,” Barkley said.

“Every loser in the world wants to be racist. And Stephen A. jumped in, Jason Whitlock jumped in, Cam Newton jumped in, Ryan Clark jumped in, and Matt Barnes dropped in. Oh, these are all brothers. Yo, man. What the f*** are you all doing, man? LeBron don’t like Memphis. Okay!”

“LeBron said something about Memphis and the world took over, they made it about race, which is what anybody does when they want to stir up controversy. Y’all are successful!” Barkley continued.

“Stephen A., you’re one of the most successful people we have in television. Come on, man. Y’all got to do better, man.”

Those who are familiar with Smith’s work know that he is unafraid to express his opinions, no matter how controversial they may be.

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He also doesn’t back down, so it was natural to expect that he would fire back at the Inside the NBA analyst in a rant.

“You know, you’re my brother. I love you to death. You know that. But if we going to sit up there and talk about we got to do better, that applies to you,” Smith declared on Wednesday during his show on SiriusXM.

If you disagree, Charles Barkley, that is your entitlement. It does not make you right. And in this case, I believe you’re flat…You need to do a hell of a lot better.

“Why don’t you listen to the substance of what’s being said before you have a comment about it and really dissect it?”

“He didn’t just say, ‘I don’t like the city of Memphis.’ He went into detail about how the team should leave. How the NBA should relocate it to Nashville.”

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