← Straight Shooter with Stephen A.
Straight Shooter with Stephen A.
Stephen A's Take: Don't blame media! Lebron ditches social media, Bronny is not even G League ready.
00:10:31
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- [00:00]
A
What's up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101, free agents will have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:31]
B
What's up everyone? Julie Swerbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson.
- [00:36]
C
We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go.
- [00:38]
B
The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb.
- [00:42]
C
Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right?
- [00:47]
B
Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us.
- [00:51]
C
Julia's pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe.
- [00:55]
B
Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:06]
D
I want to take a moment to address LeBron James and the public reaction to the Lakers superstar stepping away from social media now. There are many opinions on the topic, from journalists to athletes and beyond. I'm going to address it all in a moment, but did y'all see what Cowboys linebacker Michael Parsons said to the Athletic when asked if he was going to follow LeBron and step away from the media? For those of you who didn't see it, please check this out. Quote lebron was on social media for 20 years. So what are you saying? I've been in the league for four years now. I need to get off social media. Four championships later, LeBron was on social media when he won an NBA title. What are we saying here? Michael Parsons continued, LeBron also tweeted six months ago that his son was better than NBA players. Did you say he was on Twitter then? You know what I'm saying? We can't play that type of game. Amon Ross St. Brown has his podcast. Why doesn't anybody talk about his podcast? There's a bunch of people doing podcasts. Don't bring that up about Michael Parsons podcast. That's why you get paid the big bucks. I don't know everyone's contract, but I get paid pretty well. End quote. I get what Michael Parsons is saying. He's sitting there talking about having a podcast is not a distraction. Et CETERA et cetera. He had the podcast when the Dallas Cowboys were 12 and 5 and projected to make a deep run into the playoffs. So we can't bring it up now that they stinking up the joint. I get that part. But there's a bigger story and the story extends beyond Michael Parsons, to be quite honest with you. I think Michael Paulson is having his own podcast. I don't have any problem with it whatsoever. He has interesting things to say. I don't agree with everything, but that's my man. And I wish him nothing but the best. And I think that he's going to continue to grow and grow in this industry. I wish him nothing but the best. Keep doing your thing. The issue is LeBron James and to a lesser degree, the person responsible for the original tweet that LeBron James ultimately retweeted to make all of this noise. Rich Kleinman, partner with KD. Kevin Durant 35 Ventures and Beyond brought that up because he brought up a tweet about negativity and what this world has turned into. And sports used to bring us together. You know, sounded like the second coming of Gandhi. Basically, we understand that. There he is, Rich Kleiman with Kevin Durant. He wasn't entirely wrong. There are trolls on social media, weak ass people who hide behind computers and keyboards and, you know, stuff on their phone to say and spew anything that they want because their definition of success and positivity is. Is lowering you to their level rather than elevating themselves to yours. Fair enough. But there's another side to all of this that everybody needs to pay attention to. Number one, Rich Kliman shouldn't be talking like he's somebody that's removed from the media. Like everything he said wasn't applicable to him and his partner, Kevin Durant 35 Ventures is involved in a lot of different ventures, no pun intended. And a lot of it has to do with the media, them influencing minds and what have you. Not to mention profiting it. Profiting off of it all exponentially. I don't see Rich Kleiman pointing that out. I don't see him pointing out KD having a burner account just so he could clap back at people without them knowing it's him. I don't see him saying anything when KD wants to come after me or somebody else using words like clown and fools and all of this other stuff in a very derogatory fashion, I might add, to insult people that falls under that category. So those who live in glass houses shouldn't Throw stones. Let me get to the bigger point about LeBron James. LeBron James choosing to step off of social media. And I was hesitant to bring this up because I didn't want to, because LeBron James is approaching age 40. He is on the Mount Rushmore basketball, one of the top two players in NBA history, and we will miss him when he is gone. He's a special, special dude on all fronts, but none of us are perfect. And LeBron James electing to get off of social media, is that because of you, LeBron James, or is it because of your son, Bronny James and his struggles in the D League and the NBA Prior to that college basketball, prior to that high school basketball, when he was in all American averaging 14 points a game, and people said, no, all American averages 14 points a game. It's probably the latter. You know, Greg Anthony alluded to this earlier, and that's why I asked him the question. When you think about LeBron James and what LeBron James had to say, Greg Anthony made a very valid point. The level of vitriol that LeBron James has experienced throughout his career, he's one of the most scrutinized superstars in history. It's not because he's LeBron James. It's because when he came along is when social media shortly followed. Imagine what scrutiny Charles Barkley and MJ and Isaiah and others would have received had there been so the existence of social media. Had there been Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter and Facebook and TikTok and all of this other stuff. Imagine what it would have been if they played during that time. So we understand that LeBron James has received a heightened level of scrutiny, but we also understand that he's fully capable of taking and absorbing it and stomaching it. So why step away now? Truthfully speaking, it only makes sense that it's Bronny James not to be redundant, but it's necessary to be that way. Bronny James doesn't belong in the NBA. Not yet. Some people say never. I don't believe that. I believe the kid has a chance, and I think that he's going to do. I believe in him. I believe in his work ethic, his faith, et cetera, et cetera. But he's not ready yet. Which brings us back to LeBron James. We. We don't have to scrutinize Bronny James in terms of points per game average and all of this other stuff. Please. He's a kid. He'll come along, he'll work on his game. Hopefully, he'll earn his stripes. Respectfully, this is all LeBron's fault. It was LeBron James that told the world. Sitting next to his wonderful wife Savannah for an interview, asked the question, what does he want for Bronny? What do they want for Bronny? She said, I just want him to be happy. LeBron James said, I want to play with him in the NBA. I want him in the NBA. And then because he's LeBron James, he greased the skids and facilitated it happening, ensuring through Rich Paul, that nobody would draft Bronny James before the Lakers grabbed him because they were teams tempted to do it just to keep him away from the Lakers and LeBron. Most importantly, LeBron James was caught saying publicly that Bronny James was better than some players in the NBA. Did you think people were gonna forget that? See, I'm not getting into LeBron James. Cause none of this is Bronny James fault. He's just a kid out there working hard, trying to be the best that he can be, who is very blessed and fortunate to have a father like LeBron James who loves him and had no ill intent whatsoever. But just because you didn't have ill intent doesn't mean that your intent didn't end up being ill fated. Because you put this kid behind an eight ball, and now he's a target for everybody. And whatever level of scrutiny he's experiencing and whatever difficulty he's having in stomaching and dealing with all of it is because his father couldn't keep his mouth shut. His father couldn't just play and say, I want my son happy, no matter what he wants to do. It would be a dream come true to play in the NBA with them. But we can't have everything we want. Hopefully someday it happened and just left it alone. You didn't do that. And as a result, in all likelihood, Bronny James is experiencing an elevated level of scrutiny that would be difficult for anybody his age with his experience and with his unfamiliarity in being associated with this kind of critique. It's been difficult for him. That doesn't make LeBron James the worst person in the world. He's a damn good father. He's a family man. He's an iconic figure that we all should revere, not just respect, but in the same breath. Rather than say, I'm stepping off of social media because of the negativity, how about adding especially some of the negativity I unintentionally brought on my own son. I need to take a step back. I'M not saying you should have done it automatically, but since you felt the need to do what you did in terms of retweeting Rich Kleiman's tweet and stepping away from social media, and since you refrained from just stepping away quietly and basically piggybacked off of Rich Kleiman to blame the national media, could you blame yourself? Because in the end, nobody is more guilty of making times hard for Bronny James the basketball player than LeBron James. That's just a fact. There's no way around it. Still rooting for you, Bronny. Keep working hard. Keep making things happen. You got a chance. No matter what the critics say to LeBron James, Respectfully, I know you had the best of intentions, but the national media ain't the problem, bro. Not in the case of Bronny James. That would happen to be you.
- [11:34]
A
What'S up everyone? It's Greg Rosenthal and I'm teaming up with the King of Spring, Daniel Jeremiah. He requires me to say that we're going to be bringing you 40s and free agents, the only podcast you'll need this NFL draft season. From DJs mock drafts to my top 101 free agents, we'll have it covered for you with all new episodes every Thursday, keeping you up to date as we head to the NFL Draft. Listen to 40s and free agents starting on March 6th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [12:05]
B
What's up everyone? Julie Swerbinks here along with former NHL player Nate Thompson.
- [12:10]
C
We're doing a new podcast together. Here we go.
- [12:13]
B
The name Energy Line with Nate and jsb.
- [12:16]
C
Each week we'll get together and talk about hockey life. All topics are fair game, right?
- [12:21]
B
Exactly. And you'll never know who will drop by to join us.
- [12:25]
C
Julie is pretty well connected. She has text threads going that you wouldn't believe.
- [12:30]
B
Listen to Energy Line with Nate and jsb on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.