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Brian Windhorst Responds to LeBron James' Viral Comment to Pat McAfee About NBA Media


After Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James called out the media's coverage of the NBA, a longtime reporter is responding.

James said during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday that he started the Mind the Game podcast last year because he was displeased with the state of the NBA media. ESPN's Brian Windhorst said during Thursday's episode of First Take that while he understood James' perspective, he believes it's not as one-sided as the 40-year-old perceives it to be.

"I think there are times when the media is out of balance, and I encourage NBA players to hold the media accountable when they can, as long as they're OK with being held accountable by the media," Windhorst said. "I think at times our big challenge in the game in the modern era is to find that balance. Let's not have 125 threes a game, but let's not ban the three-pointer. Let's have a balance."

James announced the second season of the Mind the Game podcast and introduced new co-host Steve Nash on Wednesday. Windhorst suggested that mainstream coverage is just as important as James' detailed breakdown of the sport on his own platform.

"When people talk about the game of basketball, they want to talk about the drama, they want to talk about the X's and O's, but I'm telling you, if you do a full show that's all X's and O's, that's not gonna be any good either," Windhorst said. "You'll have basketball coaches who want to do it, but if he sits with Steve Nash and all he does is X's and O's for an hour, people aren't going to like that either."

Windhorst added that he believes James' overall assessment of the media is misguided.

"I think there's room for all of it and there's room to hold each other accountable, but the finger-pointing, I don't think that benefits anybody," Windhorst said.

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