The 2025 NBA Playoffs are still very much going strong, as the conference finals are in full swing. While the Eastern Conference Finals and Western Conference Finals have been one-sided — the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City hold 2-0 leads in their best-of-seven matchups — fans have been treated to plenty of great basketball in the penultimate round of the playoffs.
There are plenty of interesting storylines to follow with the four teams still kicking in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, as each organization is trying to win either its first championship in decades or its first in franchise history.
Still, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith recently made headlines lately for more critical words about a player who’s long been eliminated from the playoffs in Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
He directed blame at James and his camp for adding toxicity to the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) debate, which many believe is between James and former Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan. On Instagram, actor and comedian Jamie Foxx questioned why people like Smith are talking about James instead of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at this juncture.
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Foxx has defended James from critics on social media before. Earlier in the year, he argued that there are some folks who find ways to criticize the 40-year-old no matter what he does and claimed that if James found a cure for cancer, people would give him flak for not finding a cure for diabetes.
Jamie Foxx on LeBron James:
“If he came up with a cure for cancer, they would say yeah but what about diabetes?”
💯💯💯 pic.twitter.com/pc23gKKmHS
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) March 2, 2025
James’ NBA future is somewhat in limbo at the moment, as he’s the league’s oldest player and has 22 NBA seasons under his belt. He also hasn’t publicly revealed if he’s looking to play a 23rd season in the best basketball league in the world just yet.
However, if he does opt to suit up in the 2025-26 season, all signs point to him carving out yet another highly impressive NBA campaign. He just recently averaged 24-plus points, seven-plus rebounds and eight-plus assists per game in the 2024-25 regular season for a Lakers squad that won 50 games.
