Former ESPN Host Michelle Beadle Exposes “Fake” Beef Between LeBron James And Stephen A. Smith
Michelle Beadle (Photo via Twitter)
Michelle Beadle has had enough of the beef between LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith.
The former ESPN sports reporter and host, who had previous issues with LeBron, stated that the entire situation appeared to be fake.
She felt even more like that after the Lakers star appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” Wednesday to address it.
The drama surrounding James and Smith stems from an on-court confrontation in early March during a game between the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers.
LeBron has been upset over Smith’s words about him and his son, Bronny.
From there, there has been a war of words over the internet between the two. James took things to another level when he made a guest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
The animosity between Smith and James elicited a response from Michelle Beadle.
The former host of ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” said Thursday on the “Run It Back” show on FanDuel TV that “This feels like a WWE situation at this point.”
“There’s no coincidence. It’s Pat McAfee who’s now one of the faces of WWE, alright, he’s hosting this. LeBron James goes on there for over an hour on the very network, where the dude he confronted in public is also the highest-paid guy on the network.
Michelle Beadle GOES OFF on LeBron’s interview with Pat McAfee and the Stephen A. Smith saga 🗣️
“This feels like a WWE situation…you’re asking me to chose between two people I don’t want to choose. … It’s laughable but not in a fun way.”@MichelleDBeadle | @ChandlerParsons pic.twitter.com/F5a4UhG5MD
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) March 27, 2025
“All of it feels fake to me. Within 5 minutes of this thing becoming public, Stephen A. Smith is now putting out videos.”
Michelle Beadle had two separate tenures with ESPN. She originally hosted SportsNation from 2009 to 2012 before taking a job at NBC. She returned to ESPN and SportsNation in 2014 and became a host of NBA Countdown as well as Get Up at its launch.
She negotiated a buyout with ESPN in 2019.
Michelle Beadle Previously Accused LeBron James of Trying To Get Other Media Members Fired
Michelle Beadle (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
Michelle Beadle and LeBron are certainly not friends.
Back in 2021, Beadle said LeBron James tried to get her fired while she was working at ESPN.
“He tried,” Beadle said. “He did try to do that. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m honored that I’m even on your mind. Thank you very much. That’s a weird place for me to be.’”
“My stuff with him started off not personal. I made fun of The Decision like 400,000 other talking heads did at the time. I think for some reason that was it. It wasn’t personal to begin, obviously now it will always be personal. It is what it is. I’m very comfortable with not liking people.”
While speaking on The Sessions with Renée Paquette, Beadle added that the Lakers star even tried to get other media members fired.
“Of course, I took it personal. It was personal – he wanted me fired,” Beadle told Paquette. “But then I found out after the fact that when all this came out, I would get messages from people saying ‘That kinda s— was happening to me too.’ He was super petty and trying to have an effect.”
Michelle Beadle added that she was surprised that James was “sweating the small things” with the media.
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