The honor of being sports media’s staunchest LeBron James defender isn’t something that Nick Wright takes lightly.

You can think of FS1’s First Things First star as the Ra’s al Ghul of LeBron James discourse, determined to bring balance to a sports media world he sees as “wildly and insanely out of balance.” And Wright is doing exactly that, as LeBron pokes the bear and forces talking heads to debate his future, as if he didn’t just opt into a $52 million player option.

“I am enraged at the LeBron James discourse,” Wright said on Wednesday’s The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “And, by the way, it’s a lot of people that I actually really like and respect. Here’s the timeline of it: two months ago, ‘This is going to be the wildest offseason in NBA history. Buckle up, everybody. Get ready!’ The offseason starts, Durant gets traded. That’s cool. More on that in a moment, but we all knew that was coming. Since then, the only thing of note is Norman Powell, [the Miami Heat] stealing him away.”

“Then, in the middle of all of it, the greatest — or at worst, second greatest player of all time — who’s never been traded, who’s never been the subject of trade rumors because he honors his contracts,” Wright continued. “And no team would ever trade him, even when they were offered prime Kobe Bryant for him when he was 22 years old; they would never trade him. He might be available. And the collective media has either been a shrug or open annoyance.

“‘Ugh, I guess we’re going to do this again. Another summer of LeBron.’ I’m sorry, would you rather talk about the second apron some more? Would you rather talk about Jonathan Kuminga’s restricted free agency offer? I’m interested in LeBron for Karl-Anthony Towns. Who says no? I’m interested in are the Lakers being derelict of responsibility in allegedly prioritizing cap space in two years when they have Luka Dončić and LeBron James on their team?”

LeBron James was voted the sixth-best and sixth-most valuable player in the NBA last season — and that’s without Nick Wright having a ballot. Unless you’re Nikola Jokić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, or Giannis Antetokounmpo, you don’t have a better case.

So, Wright is unsure why the idea of him being available is met with eye-rolls.

“We just saw an old player, who he is better than, Kevin Durant, be traded for a decent amount of stuff,” said Wright. “And the universal reaction, myself included, was what a great trade by the Rockets. They could win the title. And then a player who’s better than him might be available, and people are like, ‘Who would really want him? Like, really, you’re going to change things up for a guy who at this point is, I don’t know, the seventh best player in the league? And by the way, doesn’t he acknowledge that him making $52 million is part of the problem when Jimmy Butler makes the same, when Karl-Anthony Towns makes more, when it’s roughly what Zach LaVine makes. It’s all nonsense.”

Wright has a lot of respect for Howard Beck, The Ringer’s senior staff writer, who’s hardly known as a flame thrower. Still, Wright was surprised to hear Beck express annoyance that this even qualified as a story. He also wanted to make clear that it was Le Batard who brought up Beck’s reaction; Wright himself never named names. He was addressing the general atmosphere surrounding the coverage, not targeting individual reporters he actually respects and likes.

Le Batard pushed back, arguing that without naming names, Wright’s argument felt like a strawman. Wright, then, accused Le Batard of fishing for a viral clip, or, as he put it, an Awful Announcing article (which, well, here we are). And yes, it worked. Wright even called out Bill Simmons by name. But it was a light jab. Nothing that qualifies as a sports media beef, because trust us, we would’ve written it up.

And, well, we did write this article.

That said, Wright’s frustration isn’t just with the media’s surface-level coverage, but also with a persistent, decades-long narrative that treats LeBron like a nuisance rather than the legend he’s.

“When everyone, for the 15th straight year, ever since The Decision…acts like he’s an annoyance, I think it’s outrageous,” said Wright.