Stephen A. Smith: “LeBron James is a lot of things, but to call him a ‘leader’ at this particular moment in time? That would not apply. When you talk to people inside the Bubble, let me tell you what I’ve heard. I heard he was speaking out of pocket, and was talking to the players in a fashion that really turned some of these young cats off… The younger generation of players were not having what they were hearing from LeBron James because of the fashion in which he spoke to them. When he stormed out of there, I was told because it was in-part because of that, and he sort of came off as ‘I got mine and I don’t need this’ and walked out… When everyone thought the meeting was over, LeBron James grabs the mic, and what from I’m told, talks for about 15 minutes. He was talking for 15 minutes in a fashion that turned everybody off because they had already agreed to what they were going to do moving forward, and he was talking about ‘The guys beneath me’ and ‘I have to look out for the guys beneath me.’ To the point where you had people saying ‘what the hell do you mean BENEATH you??’ Now, they didn’t say that to him, but they certainly said it to people like myself, Woj, and others who are covering that meeting. He came across as if he was the king with some crown, and it was a real turn-off… He turned a lot of people off by the way he tried to come across as if he were ‘big-time.’” (Full Segment Above)
Listen to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith explain some of the more intimate details regarding the NBA’s critical ‘do-or-die’ meetings that occurred the last 48 hours in a last ditch effort to save the season, and how Smith’s sources told him that LeBron James was turning off a lot of players with his pretentious attitude.
Check out the video above as Smith details how the younger players were put off by the arrogant demeanor LeBron had, as if he was trying to ‘big-time’ them every time he entered the room in key moments where unity was ideal.
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