Brian Windhorst finally has a theory for why LeBron James took a swipe at him on ESPN\u2019s airwaves, and it involves a doctored photo.<\/p>\n
Appearing on The Press Box<\/a> with Bryan Curtis, Windhorst addressed LeBron\u2019s unprovoked shot at him<\/a> during his March 2025 appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, in which LeBron dismissed ESPN\u2019s senior NBA reporter as a \u201cweird\u201d guy who goes around claiming to be his best friend.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just angry at Stephen A., and he had seen me say something on First Take,\u201d Windhorst said. \u201cI\u2019ve never once said I was his best friend, ever. I\u2019ve never, ever claimed to be a LeBron expert. Many, many people have attached that to me. I\u2019ve never said those words \u2014 I don\u2019t think \u2014 and if I did, it was not a sincere way to say it. I\u2019ve never seen myself as anything but a journalist covering a great athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n From there, Windhorst floated what he believes may have been the actual trigger.\u00a0Whenever he appeared on\u00a0The Pat McAfee Show, there was a running joke about Windhorst being LeBron\u2019s high school teammate, which, technically speaking, was never true. Windhorst did attend St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, the same school LeBron attended, but he was seven years ahead of him. As part of the bit, The McAfee Show created a doctored photo of Windhorst\u2019s face plastered onto one of LeBron\u2019s high school team pictures. Windhorst\u2019s theory is that LeBron saw the image and may not have understood that it was The McAfee Show that made it, not Windhorst himself.<\/p>\n [The Press Box] Brian Windhorst on LeBron calling him \u201cweird\u201d: \u201cHe was just angry at Stephen A. I\u2019ve never once said I was his best friend, I\u2019ve never claimed to be a LeBron expert. I\u2019ve never seen myself as anything but a journalist covering a great athlete.\u201d<\/a> \u201cI do wonder about when he saw that picture if he thought I put that picture out or something,\u201d Windhorst said. \u201cI doubt he had watched The McAfee Show and seen my appearances and seen how Pat and the guys. They have conceits that they joke around with. I doubt he was aware of that. I\u2019m not sure he knew the origin of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Additionally, LeBron took specific issue with something Windhorst said about his Nike signing out of high school in 2003, disputing Windhorst\u2019s framing \u2014 that Michael Jordan was one of the reasons the future 4-time MVP signed with Nike \u2014 as the main reason for his choice of the Swoosh.<\/p>\n \u201cI do wear number 23 because of Michael Jordan..<\/p>\n I signed with Nike because I got a hell of a signing bonus and moved my mom outta the hood the day after I signed that contract..<\/p>\n I also wanted to wear Nike off the court\u201d @KingJames<\/a> #PMSLive<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/BNyQ8Lfhpu<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 26, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Windhorst said he couldn\u2019t remember the specifics of what he said, but remembered standing by it. The time and place of it \u2014 LeBron was deep in his war of words with Stephen A. Smith, and Windhorst had been appearing on Stephen A.\u2019s show \u2014 likely didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the last time LeBron took a shot<\/a> at him. In June 2025, LeBron responded to a video of Windhorst casting doubt on his Mind the Game podcast, telling co-host Steve Nash that they \u201cknow nothing about basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n As we noted<\/a> at the time, the repeated nature of the attacks was off-putting given how long Windhorst had been in LeBron\u2019s orbit. He covered him at St. Vincent-St. Mary, followed him to Cleveland for the Akron Beacon Journal and later the Plain Dealer, and then made the jump to ESPN as LeBron\u2019s profile grew into something no single market could contain.<\/p>\n Windhorst told Curtis that LeBron\u2019s people reached out after the McAfee incident, but they never told him that LeBron didn\u2019t mean it.<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t stop Windy from taking the high road<\/a>. In his initial response two days after the diss, Windhorst claimed during an ESPN Cleveland appearance that \u201cLeBron doesn\u2019t owe me anything, I owe him a lot,\u201d and expressed concern that the comments might damage his relationships with players around the league. As it turned out, the opposite happened. Windhorst said he was caught off guard<\/a> by the volume of support he received from current and former NBA players in the weeks that followed, more than he ever expected to get.<\/p>\n \t
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