Otherwise known for his bombastic arguments and fiery takes, Stephen A. Smith probably outdid himself this time. On his show, First Take, A. Smith was pretty adamant about his shooting abilities lined up against the legendary LeBron James. Yes! The ESPN analyst feels that he can easily take a score on LeBron James. Just to reiterate, he said on national TV for the entire world to witness this statement.

His co-hosts, for obvious reasons, had zero faith in him, which he tried to manipulate around, trying his best to convince them of his “skill set” in a hypothetical matchup of 1-on-1 to a hundred points. He says he can get a head-start of 99 points, and then James will have to score a full 100, without fail. So, all Smith has to do is win this matchup in theory and score just once. Just to give you a little more perspective: Lakers’ Forward James, even when he’s close to 40, still has a historic career stat line going on with 27.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists each game. Along with that, he is a 4x MVP and 20x All-Star.

On the other hand, Stephen A. Smith has had his share of basketball experience too. He played as a Point Guard and a Shooting Guard during his time at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. He received a basketball scholarship to attend the University, where he graduated in Mass Communication. But, in his brief period playing for the college team, he could score 1.5 points per game.

His co-hosts did try to ground him, but Smith kept arguing that he could luck out and make a jump shot, at least. Ryan Clark responded to Smith by asking him, “How are you gonna get the shot up? Like, you gotta get it up!”. Soon enough, Damien Woody joined in too, saying that this isn’t going to be a celebrity game and that LeBron James will actually be playing in his defensive form. But nothing could bring Smith’s spirit down. He was adamant he could do it.

Well, at least he’s ambitious. We’ll give him that. But his ambition did not sit well with the fans. Some of them demanded the standards for First Take going down and some demanded justice for soon to depart beloved show Inside the NBA.

Fans skeptical of Stephen A. Smith’s bold claims against LeBron James

Fans couldn’t help but berate not just Smith but ESPN on a new level because of his claims against King James. Some say that there are plenty of sports topics to cover, while others add that NBA media is going down the drain. A fan couldn’t help but say that we all need justice for Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley, since Inside the NBA on TNT is going to shut down forever, while Smith’s First Take with these comments will continue.

This newfound hatred comes from the recent news developments where there are chances of the beloved NBA duo, Shaq and Chuck’s show on TNT getting shut down because of an upcoming NBC or Amazon Prime deal. Though no major details are out officially, but of course, fans will need justice for Shaq and Chuck. The TNT show does give brilliant insights on game plays, while First Take often takes these routes to gain more traction.

Another fan was agitated, saying “First Take downfalls need to be studied”, with another one commenting “who watches this garbage?” followed with a laughing emoji.

To be honest, with segments like these, of course, religious fans aren’t going to take the network or the sport seriously since fans feel that these comments are baseless and lowering the standard of the NBA.

Yet another fan feels if this happened, assuming LeBron was actually seriously playing, Stephen A. Smith wouldn’t have a chance. He said, “If Bron was taking it seriously you wouldn’t score one point.” The fan also claims that Smith you “gas out” after just 10 possessions.

Well, the fan isn’t entirely wrong. Our argument? Smith’s career-high 1.5 points average!

Yet another fan couldn’t help but share an Avengers meme, where Thanos can be seen taking away Vision’s soul (in the form of a stone), saying the Bron could do the same to Smith.

As funny as this is, another fan feels Stephen A. Smith wouldn’t say the same thing if it were Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan.

As legendary as those players are, LeBron James gets the media a lot of revenue, even if they talk about him negatively. If it were about Bryant or Jordan, fans would give him the time of his life on social media, berating him more than they are right now. No matter what James does, people are interested in, which works well for media houses like ESPN.

But then, another fan is having fun thinking of a scenario where if Smith can shoot a score against Bron, they “could be a NASCAR driver! LOL”

Well, the fan isn’t entirely wrong. Scoring against LeBron is going to give Smith a really tough time. Probably because Smith has probably been out of touch with actually playing basketball, unlike LeBron who is still playing at the age of 39, when most people just retire.

What’s your take on the scenario? Do you really feel Stephen A. Smith could score even 1 point against LeBron James? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.