“I Would Have.. Begged”: Stephen A. Smith Makes Shocking LeBron James Confession

Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James have had plenty of ugly moments. In March 2025, James walked over to Smith courtside during a Lakers-Knicks game to confront him over his coverage of Bronny James, a confrontation so public that Smith later called James a liar on national television over it.

Now, more than a year later, Smith has revealed just how far he was once willing to go to put that feud aside.

"I have a confession to make on national television. This is how desperate as a New York Knicks fan I was getting," Smith said on First Take. "If the New York Knicks had not gone to the NBA Finals, I was gonna come here on national TV and beg LeBron James to come to New York."

The Knicks reached the 2026 NBA Finals and won the franchise's first championship in 53 years without James, which is exactly why Smith felt safe admitting the plan at all. Had New York fallen short again, Smith said he was ready to publicly campaign for a player he has criticized for years to join the team he covers as a lifelong fan.

Smith didn't pretend the idea made basketball sense. "And everybody knows, that's the last d*** thing I wanna do, but I was gonna beg LeBron James," he said, before conceding the pitch likely wouldn't have worked.

He pointed to one detail that at least made the conversation possible: James would have entered free agency unrestricted. Meaning that the Knicks wouldn't have had to gut their championship roster in a trade to create the opening.

Smith's confession lined up with what James' own camp said at the time. Agent Rich Paul admitted that James would have signed with the Knicks that summer had New York not just won the title. "If the Knicks wouldn't have won, there'd be no board," Paul said. "He'd be going to the Knicks."

Once the championship banner made that option moot, James' camp reportedly reached out to New York anyway during free agency. The Knicks passed, as they were content with the roster that had just won it all.

James ended up picking the Philadelphia 76ers instead, agreeing to a two-year, $8 million deal after the team's trade for Jaylen Brown played a role.

He'll still get to play many of his home games close to Manhattan. Marc Stein reported that Philadelphia's proximity to New York, along with the Sixers' training facility across the river in Camden, New Jersey, was an unexpected selling point in James' decision.

Smith has been an outspoken James critic for years. At one point, he said there was no scenario and no relationship between them. A Knicks fan first and a media analyst second, Smith was prepared to set that aside publicly if the alternative was another season without a title.

The Knicks never needed to find out how serious the offer was. New York beat the odds and won it all without James, which is the only reason Smith felt comfortable telling the story afterward.