Last year, Michelle Beadle claimed that LeBron James wanted her fired from ESPN, dating back years. Beadle hosted SportsNation on the network with Colin Cowherd for three years from 2009 to ’12, and she returned as the host of NBA Live a few years later.
While appearing on “The Sessions” podcast with Renee Paquette, Beadle explained she thinks James’s animosity for her dates back to The Decision.
“I made fun of The Decision, and I was one of about a bazillion people that did,” she said. “This was a long time ago, I guess when I followed him, and I got a DM that was, ‘Why are you so mean to me on television?’ And I just sort of laughed it off, I didn’t even think about it.”
Beadle mentioned that while it confused her why James was so upset, she learned that this wasn’t the first time he let negative opinions impact him.
“Of course I took it personally, it was personal, he wanted me fired, he tried to do that,” she said. “But then I found out after the fact, when all of this sort of came out, I would get messages or texts or videos from people being like, that kind of s*** was happening to them too. He was super petty and he would try to have some sort of an effect, whether it would be small or whatever, just an effect.”
While she was most critical of The Decision, Beadle added that she never agreed with the way James presents himself to the public. That opinion drove the way she talked about him publicly on television.
“I have been vocal because my job entailed opinions on television, and I’ve never really cared for the way he conducts himself in most things,” she said. “I find it to be very fraudulent and passive aggressive, which is not my cup of tea.”
Still, Beadle doesn’t really understand why someone in his position would care about someone in her position.
“I think he’s just a very successful, very wealthy man who still sweats dumb stuff, and it’s unfortunate because if I was him, I wouldn’t even hear the voices,” she added.
Despite the James feud, Beadle made it clear that it wasn’t her big issue at ESPN. She also went into detail about her issues with “suits” at the network that ultimately led to her departure.
