Michelle Beadle Blasts ESPN’s LeBron James Bias

Michelle Beadle, who experienced it firsthand, is thrilled when Charles Barkley criticized ESPN for promoting LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on their programming.

Barkley made one of his many jabs at ESPN last week, notably criticizing Kendrick Perkins for criticizing “the fools” on the network for their seeming fixation on James and the Lakers. Perkins and Stephen A. Smith both offered rebuttals in the ensuing back and forth. However, Beadle, who worked at ESPN for over ten years from 2009 to 2019, recently backed Barkley.

Beadle talks about working  for ESPN and the LeBron James bias they had

Beadle said to Cody Decker, her co-host on Mad Dog Sports Radio: “I worked there. We had to just always talk about the Lakers,”

“We always talked about the Cowboys. It’s brain-numbing formulated bullsh*t. There were days it was like, ‘How are we forcing a story about this? There are actually stories that people might care about.’

“Because here’s the thing about that place, it is national, it is global in some places. I get it, you think that’s what moves the needle, but Barkley’s right and this is what we’ve been trying to say all damn season. There are fun stories happening right now.”

“It is not the job of one network, although I guess you could argue that it is, to just constantly suck off one player in the league and only talk about that,” 

“This is what we’ve been trying to say all damn season.”@MichelleDBeadle agrees with Charles Barkley for calling out ESPN for their lack of national NBA coverage.

For more ‘Beadle and Decker:’ https://t.co/GCyc3QmyM0@Decker6 | @SiriusXMSports pic.twitter.com/dmh7xbTMMn

— Mad Dog Sports Radio (@MadDogRadio) March 7, 2025

Beadle is not the only former ESPN employee to claim that the network is pressuring people to talk about James. In the past, Paul Pierce claimed that while he was employed at ESPN, he was compelled to discuss LeBron. At one point, Beadle even claimed that LeBron was attempting to have her fired from ESPN for making fun of The Decision. LeBron James and ESPN would most likely be that one player and network.

Beadle stated that ESPN ought to take pleasure in the transfer of talent to younger players and concentrate more on the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder than the Lakers.

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