Le Batard & Friends Presents: The Step Back – Details, episodes & analysis

As our exclusive new series on LeBron's legacy continues, Dan, Amin and Izzy re-live the awkward silence — and alternate history — of a made-for-TV moment that altered the course of Miami sports and player empowerment forever. More from "The Step Back": Episode 1: The Chosen One Don't miss an episode — subscribe here Homework for this episode: "The Decision" (ESPN, 2010) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afpgnb_9bA4 Homework for next week's episode: "I'm Coming Home" by LeBron James, as told to Lee Jenkins (Sports Illustrated, 2014) - https://www.si.com/nba/2014/07/11/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers Optional homework for next week's episode: "Return of the King" by Brian Windhorst and Dave McMenamin (2018) - https://bookshop.org/p/books/return-of-the-king-lebron-james-the-cleveland-cavaliers-and-the-greatest-comeback-in-nba-history-brian-windhorst/9390251 Encouraged homework for next month's season finale: "There's Always This Year" by Hanif Abdurraqib (2025) - https://bookshop.org/p/books/there-s-always-this-year-on-basketball-and-ascension-hanif-abdurraqib/20204172 From our guest: "Talking to GOATs: The Moments You Remember and the Stories You Never Heard" - https://www.talkingtogoats.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the season premiere, Dan, Amin, and Izzy go back to the Sports Illustrated cover that turned a teenager into an industry, re-reading the prophecy with the very people who helped craft it. Plus: a resplendent Sonny Vaccaro joins us to re-live his failed $100 million offer to bring The Kid from Akron to Adidas. All that AND real talk about LeBron's untold origin story. Homework for this episode: • "Ahead of His Class" by Grant Wahl (Sports Illustrated, 2002) https://vault.si.com/vault/2002/02/18/ahead-of-his-class-ohio-high-school-junior-lebron-james-is-so-good-that-hes-already-being-mentioned-as-the-heir-to-air-jordan Homework for the next week's episode: • "The Decision" (ESPN, 2010) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afpgnb_9bA4 From our guest: • "Legends and Soles: The Memoir of an American Original" by Sonny Vaccaro with Armen Keteyian https://www.harpercollins.com/products/legends-and-soles-sonny-vaccaroarmen-keteyian Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Step Back is back — and this time, it's personal. Or at least, it's financial. After a brief hiatus, Dan, Amin, and Izzy return with Pablo Torre to dig into his landmark 2017 ESPN feature on LeBron James — not the player chasing rings, but the architect quietly building an empire. What Phil Jackson famously dismissed as a "posse" — a word that told you everything about who was really threatened — turns out to have been a boardroom in disguise. Maverick Carter, Rich Paul, Randy Mims: ridiculed first, respected later, inevitable in hindsight. This is the episode where The Step Back steps sideways — from flashpoints to foresight — to ask how a kid from Akron turned loyalty into leverage, and a group of friends into a seat at the table that nobody wanted to give them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan, Amin and Izzy go behind the scenes of LeBron's loyalty, from Pat Riley's frustration to LeBron's Vegas hotel room and the Cavs' huddle in Game Seven. More from "The Step Back": Episode 1: The Chosen One Episode 2: The Decision Don't miss an episode — subscribe here Homework for this episode: "I'm Coming Home" by LeBron James, as told to Lee Jenkins (Sports Illustrated, 2014) - https://www.si.com/nba/2014/07/11/lebron-james-cleveland-cavaliers "Return of the King" by Brian Windhorst and Dave McMenamin (2018) - https://bookshop.org/p/books/return-of-the-king-lebron-james-the-cleveland-cavaliers-and-the-greatest-comeback-in-nba-history-brian-windhorst/9390251 Homework for next week's episode: "LeBron: The Sequel" by Pablo Torre (ESPN The Magazine, 2017) - https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/18686205/the-second-chapter-lebron-james-career Optional homework for next week's episode: "LeBron, Inc." by Brian Windhorst (2018). - https://bookshop.org/p/books/lebron-inc-the-making-of-a-billion-dollar-athlete-brian-windhorst/7395291 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

LeBron James didn't just become the most famous athlete on Earth — he became one of its most careful, and occasionally most explosive, political voices. In the most contentious episode of our LeBron series, Dan, Amin and Izzy trace the moments that turned a basketball player into a lightning rod: The Trayvon Martin hoodie photo — and Dan's own take on it at the time, warts and all. The killing of Tamir Rice, and the "I Can't Breathe" shirt that, in the moment, didn't include his name. The ESPYs speech. The White House years, plural. The Bubble. And the legacy that's still being argued over, for better or worse. With firsthand memories from Jemele Hill and Cari Champion, plus a LeBron teammate history conveniently forgot. Homework for this episode: • "Reaction to tragic killing shows growth of LeBron" (The Miami Herald, 2012) • "Kevin Durant x LeBron James x Cari Champion" (Uninterrupted, 2018) • "Trump Attacked Black Athletes — and Paid for It in the End" (The Atlantic, 2020) • "LeBron James Doesn’t Talk About Politics Anymore" (New York, 2022) Encouraged homework for next week's season finale: • "There's Always This Year" by Hanif Abdurraqib (2025) More from "The Step Back": • Episode 1: The Chosen One (feat. Sonny Vaccaro) • Episode 2: The Decision (feat. Jim Gray) • Episode 3: I'm Coming Home (feat. Iman Shumpert) • Episode 4: LeBron Inc. (feat. Pablo Torre) • Don't miss an episode — subscribe here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices