LeBron James has had no shortage of rivals over his two decades of dominance in the NBA. But while his iconic matchups against the likes of Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Paul Pierce will be the ones remembered in the history books, it’s possible no opponent was more committed to getting under LeBron’s skin than Lance Stephenson.

Stephenson, already a pretty committed antagonist to other players in the league in general, took special pride in matching up against James, and did his best to troll, bother, and generally discombobulate James whenever they met on the floor.

Things boiled over when Stephenson comically blew into James’s ear in a 2014 playoff series. James did his best to smile and shake off the attempt to rattle him, but it was clear that he was not too pleased with the situation.

Speaking more than a decade later as a guest on the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, Stephenson admits that he sometimes wishes he hadn’t blown in James’s ear, but not for the reason you might think.

“I ain’t gonna lie, I regret it sometimes,” Stephenson said. “I was at a club. I came in the club late, I didn’t want to get no section, I ain’t wasting no money. So I go to the bar, and some drunk dude comes up and [blowing sound]. Yo, are you crazy boy?’”

“That’s how LeBron felt!” the fellow bar patron replied. “How you like that?”

Whatever animosity was between James and Stephenson was presumably put behind them, at least for the most part, when the two were teammates on the Lakers through the 2018–19 season.

While the hatchet might be buried, the stories remain extremely delightful.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Lance Stephenson Regrets Blowing in LeBron's Ear for Such a Funny Reason.

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