When LeBron James confronted Stephen A. Smith in front of the Crypto.com Arena crowd, he probably wouldn’t have guessed what the consequences would be. The ESPN analyst may have been quiet during their meeting, but since then, he hasn’t stopped. Now, he’s going through the vault, trying to find anything to get back at LeBron. After testing out all his options, he finally pulled the ace, hitting LeBron where it hurts the most — his son, Bronny James. A classic Stephen A. move!

Remember LeBron’s viral tweet before Bronny was drafted into the NBA? The proud father boasted, “Definitely better than some of these cats I’ve been watching on league pass today,” accompanied by his signature laughing emojis. Well, that backfired, yet again. Bringing that up on Outta Pocket with RG III, Stephen A. said, “This is one of the greatest players who have ever lived, who is a basketball savant, opening his mouth about his son and shining a spotlight on him and, oh, by the way, putting the media in a compromising position.” What was the difficult position?

Well, according to Stephen A., LeBron put the media in a tough spot when it came to covering Bronny. Why? “Because now we got one of two choices: do we cover him fairly, or do we say, ‘That’s LeBron James’ son’?” he explained. Then Smith blamed the 4x champion, saying, “This man put us in a position where, when we didn’t cover Bronny, we’re giving him a pass because of his dad. Why would you do that? You can’t be quiet.”

Smith pointed out that, on one hand, they could treat Bronny fairly like any other rookie in the league, but on the other hand, there’s the temptation to give him special treatment because he’s LeBron James’ son. The issue here is that this created a situation where the media could be seen as biased, either giving Bronny a pass or covering him unfairly due to his famous father.

Stephen A. also made sure to list Bronny’s accomplishments in a sarcastic tone, mentioning that he’s an All-American, averaging 14 points per game, and was a McDonald’s All-American. Then, his tone shifted to seriousness when he spoke about the 20-year-old’s heart ailment, expressing gratitude that he is now healthy.

Stephen A. Smith acknowledged that Bronny James didn’t have the best college season due to health issues, which he thought was fair. However, what he took issue with was LeBron using his influence to get Bronny drafted by the Lakers. Speaking about Bronny’s heart issue, LeBron opened up about it, revealing the true details.

LeBron James opens up about Bronny James’ cardiac arrest

On the Pat McAfee Show, LeBron had a lot to discuss. He touched on everything from his beef with Stephen A. Smith to sharing his thoughts on the league and the players. He also opened up about his eldest son, Bronny James, and revealed the details of his cardiac arrest that had the whole family break down.

“That came out of nowhere,” LeBron said. “It was a, it was a birth defect that quite honestly, if he never played sports or he never like started to become strong and run fast and all those stuff, we probably would have never have to worry about it. But as he got stronger and things of that nature, it was just something inside his heart that was just pounding at his heart and pounding at his lungs that, unfortunately, we had the incident.”

LeBron explained that his son’s health issue was a birth defect that probably wouldn’t have been a concern if he hadn’t started playing sports and becoming stronger. As his son got fitter, the condition affected his heart and lungs, leading to the health incident they experienced. At least, he is glad that the health issue was caught in time and that Bronny is now healthy. While he might not be as skilled as some of the players in the league, one thing is for sure– Bronny has the fighting spirit that helped him get back on the court.