Radio host Craig Carton and actor Michael Rapaport used the premiere of Carton’s new OutKick show, “The Craig Carton Show,” to air a shared grievance: neither one can stand LeBron James, though for very different reasons.
The episode released Tuesday, with Rapaport joining Carton as a guest. Both men are self-described die-hard New York Knicks fans, and both said their dislike of James has little to do with basketball itself.
Carton said his issue traces back to 2017, when spray-painted racial slurs were found on the gate of James’ home in Brentwood, California, while James was still playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Associated Press reported at the time, citing police, that the slur was discovered around 6:45 a.m. local time and was covered up by property management nearly three hours later. No arrests were ever made in connection with the incident.
Carton said he believes James fabricated the story to insert himself into a national conversation about race.
“In my opinion, he invented a story that the people spray-painted racial epithets on the gate leading up his driveway,” Carton said.
He went further, arguing that the episode has been largely forgotten and that no one has pressed James on it.
“For a guy who’s such a prominent African-American to try to get in on the conversation by inventing something that never took place. Dead to me,” Carton said. “No one talks about it. It’s been forgotten because it never happened. No one has the balls to ask—ask him about it, and I’m like, how do we forget the fact that he intruded himself into this serious conversation about race?”
Rapaport’s falling-out with James was far more personal. He said the two had been friendly since James’ rookie season with the Cavaliers, but that changed a few years later when Rapaport brought his children — then 5 and 7 years old — to see James and the kids asked for a photo.
“I don’t know what he got up bug up his a– about Michael Rapaport. I had never said anything bad about him. Never said anything,” Rapaport said. “I brought my little kids. They were like five and seven, right? And he like Heismaned.”
Rapaport said he was never publicly critical of James before that moment, and chalked the snub up to a possible rumor involving a mutual acquaintance.
“I never said anything bad about him. And I think it was a rumor that a friend of mine might have a girl with a friend, and I was like, that has nothing to do with—these are little kids. And that was when I was like, ‘You’re done,'” Rapaport said.
The two men will get plenty of chances to watch James this season now that he has joined the Philadelphia 76ers. The team’s season opener is against the defending champions at Madison Square Garden.
“The Craig Carton Show” launched Sept. 8 and is expected to feature a rotating lineup of high-profile guests weighing in on sports and current events.
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