Former NFL player accuses Carmelo Anthony of betraying LeBron James after Stephen A. Smith’s blistering attack

The NBA season hasn't started yet, but we already have the first rivalry of the year. Stephen A. Smith is still keeping receipts and sparing no victims after his run-in with LeBron James, and he's not going to hide how he feels about him.

The ESPN pundit recently admitted to not liking James on Ryan Clark's podcast. Then, he doubled down on that in a sitdown with Carmelo Anthony for his "7 PM in Brooklyn" show.

Among other things, Smith claimed that James set him up in that viral clip of them arguing on the sidelines, stating that he knows how the show business works and that it was all staged by the four-time NBA champion:

"There’s no way that you’re in an arena, you’re LeBron James, and the only angle that somebody sees is a straight up shot of you getting in my face," Smith said. "They see no reaction. They see nothing. And that’s an accident?"

That's why former NFL player Doc Holliday took offense at the fact that not only did Anthony, a well-known lifelong friend of LeBrons, had Smith on his show, but that he didn't even call him out for any of the things he said:

"Carmelo betrayed LeBron, in my opinion," Holliday said. "And all the reason I say this is that he allowed Stephen to come on his platform, his podcast, and sit across from him, and talk mad trash about his boy LeBron and not say anything."

Anthony and James go a long way, so this position is understandable. Then again, perhaps he just wanted Stephen A. to share his side of the story.

Stephen A. implies LeBron James tried to have him fired

Smith has never minced his words about any controversial subject, but he takes pride in covering athletes fairly.

He said that he's done that with James, even though he's found out from multiple sources throughout the course of the year that he's tried to get him fired:

"I don’t like his a--, not a little bit," he said. "This dates back more than a decade. I’m not gonna go into detail at the stuff this man has tried to do to me. You do not understand the lengths this man would go to… If it were up to him, I wouldn’t be where I am today. It’s some low, low stuff."

Of course, that's nothing but hearsay at this point, but with the way this beef has escalated dating back to the end of last season, this won't be the last time we hear about this.