Photo: Peter Baba

Things have soured between Stephen A. Smith and LeBron James, and according to Smith, there’s no repairing the relationship.

Appearing Friday on former NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas’ “Gil’s Arena” podcast, the longtime ESPN personality revealed that he no longer has any contact with the Lakers star – nor does he ever plan to.

“There’s no situation and there’s no relationship,” Smith said bluntly. “He doesn’t like me, and I don’t like him.”

The tension between the two has been simmering for months. Earlier this year, Smith and James traded barbs on different ESPN platforms, with disagreements escalating to the point of a face-to-face confrontation during a game in March.

But Smith suggested that what fans saw publicly only scratches the surface.

“All I would say is people don’t know the things that have happened behind the scenes,” he explained. “Things that have been said, who they’ve been said to. The kind of things that have been engaged in in an effort to hurt me, along with contemporaries and others.”

One flashpoint for Smith was James’ reaction to comments involving Bronny James, LeBron’s son.

Smith clarified that his criticism was directed at LeBron himself, not his family, and he took issue with how James framed the situation.

“There’s a lot of s–t that I don’t say. And there’s a reason that I feel the way that I do,” he said. “And the last straw was him approaching me and turning the Bronny thing into something about me attacking somebody’s family, when it was him I was talking about. Not Bronny.”

Smith also pointed to James’ appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” – which directly follows First Take on ESPN – as another line crossed.

“And then to go on ‘The Pat McAfee Show,’ which comes directly on after my show. On the channel that I work on. To insult me,” Smith said. “Now, people can get into all kind of components that go into it and all that other stuff. I have nothing to say.”

Despite the personal animosity, Smith emphasized that he intends to remain professional in his coverage.

Moving forward, he said he will only discuss James strictly in the context of basketball analysis.

“I’m never going to denigrate any employer, any partner, or myself by getting into anything excessively, unnecessarily, when it comes to him or anybody else,” Smith said. “I’m going to do my job. I’m going to cover the game of basketball.

“But if I never, ever speak to him again in life, that will be OK. And I’m good with it.”

Stephen A. Smith says he and LeBron James have ‘no relationship’ after bitter feud https://t.co/O3k1CJ0jjo pic.twitter.com/3MqAO4Uixj