Remember when Charles Barkley called out Michael Jordan’s management skills with the Charlotte Hornets? That friendship ended right there. Now, something similar is brewing, only this time, it’s LeBron James and Stephen A. Smith. Smith has been vocal about Bronny James, and let’s just say, LeBron wasn’t having it. But what happened next? It might just top the MJ-Chuck fallout.

Of course, Smith and LeBron were never best buddies, but when the Lakers superstar got the chance, he made sure everyone saw where he stood. In front of a packed arena, LeBron confronted Smith, turning the moment into a viral spectacle. And just like that, the debate snowballed, dragging in analysts, former teammates, and now, one of LeBron’s closest allies—Dwyane Wade.

Interestingly, Wade didn’t see this as a heated dispute. Instead, he called it a sign of respect. Speaking on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Wade shared his perspective.

“We’ve never seen LeBron do that. Like even we’ve never seen, like LeBron don’t even go back at players that follow him too hard on the court. We’ve never seen him be, like he’s always been,  just even keel and level-headed in every aspect,” Wade explained.

Still, Wade acknowledged that this time was different. LeBron, usually unfazed by criticism, couldn’t let this one slide. “[I] watch the clip and watch him on that bench and see Stephen A over there, he was just, he couldn’t take it,” Wade said, describing LeBron’s visible frustration.

Yet, Wade assured Smith that LeBron wasn’t coming from a bad place. “But it just, it was burning him. But, you know, I told him, I said, you know, Stephen, I think the one thing is, and first of all, I take it, that’s a sign of respect that LeBron did that to you.”

However, in this whole saga, we can say D-Wade took LeBron’s side, and he also admitted it.

Dwyane Wade feels LeBron didn’t cross the line

During the Lakers’ showdown against the Knicks on March 6, LeBron’s intense exchange with Stephen A. Smith right by the court set social media on fire, leaving fans scrambling for details. And soon enough, Smith himself stepped up to address what went down.

He wasted no time taking to multiple platforms—First Take, his personal show, and beyond—to call out LeBron’s approach. “Weak” and “unnecessary” were the words he used to describe the public confrontation. But while Smith didn’t hold back, he also admitted that the entire ordeal left him feeling “sad.”

And just recently, Dwyane Wade weighed in. “I love both guys. I had a conversation with Stephen A. [Smith] about it and I told him I’d have walked up on him the same way. But also, this is all love in sports,” Wade told TMZ when asked about the viral moment and whether there was any real beef to squash.

Wade’s loyalty to LeBron made his stance somewhat predictable, but his words made it clear—this wasn’t a feud. Instead, he brushed off the confrontation as nothing more than “love in sports,” shutting down any talk of an ongoing rift between LeBron and Smith.