“Weak would’ve been tweeting it out or having somebody from your management company or agency reach out to Stephen A.”
.” He might be the only one in sports media who sees it that way.
“OK, first of all, it’s not weak,” Patrick said on Wednesday’s The Dan Patrick Show, “because weak would’ve been tweeting something out. He confronted you. So, that’s not weak. He didn’t push him or anything; there were words exchanged.”
Patrick also revisited his previous criticism of Smith’s diatribe about LeBron James’ parenting — the one that started this whole media spectacle.
At the time, Patrick scoffed at the idea that this was akin to LeBron sending his eldest son off to war, quipping, “You’re not sending him to Afghanistan.”
“It’s not like LeBron sent his son to Afghanistan,” Patrick said. “His son is on the Lakers, acting like he’s the 55th player drafted. He’s a bench player. He goes back and forth to the G-League, and oh, by the way, how many guys have been embarrassed by Tyrese Maxey in an NBA game? Quite a few. It felt like it was over and above what needed to be said. We all understand. Bronny’s not going to be in the league when LeBron retires. He’s just not good enough to play. He can be a G-League guy. Should’ve stayed another year at USC, but his dad is probably saying, ‘I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna play. I want to play with you.’ This has been his goal.
“He was able to pull strings, and he was able to make this happen. People had a problem with that. A son wanting to play with his father, ‘I’m gonna use all my cache,’ and he was able to do that. He wants to be around his son. By all accounts, his son was raised properly and seems like a really, really good kid. But when you start talking about someone’s parenting, like, that’s where it felt like it was — if I’m LeBron, that’s a trigger point.”
“Where you’re like, ‘OK, now you’re questioning me as a father?’ That would be the problem that I would have with this,” says Patrick. “And he’s saying it in such a dramatic way… I mean, come on. Bronny’s doing OK. He’s gonna get his ass kicked a bit, so what? Do I blame J.J. Redick for putting him out there? Do I say to LeBron, ‘LeBron, I don’t want him out there on Tyrese Maxey.’ I mean, there’s culpability here; there’s blame to go around.
“But Stephen A. showing up, and LeBron is going to say something to you in person. That’s not weak. Weak would’ve been tweeting it out or having somebody from your management company or agency reach out to Stephen A.”
“Did Stephen A. say to Michael Jordan, ‘I’m pleading with you, be a better father. Your son got pulled over for Driving Under the Influence, and he’s a 30-year-old man?’ No, he didn’t,” Patrick adds.
That’s all to say that Patrick’s point was — if confronting someone face-to-face is “weak,” what does that make lobbing shots from behind a microphone?
