Stephen A. Smith believes Cleveland Cavaliers and one other team will retire LeBron James' jersey

Throughout his career, LeBron James has brought championships to three cities. After coming up short of ending Cleveland's championship drought in his first stint with the team, James joined the Miami Heat, where he went on to win two titles alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh before making his return to Cleveland.

There, he and Kyrie Irving led the team to its first NBA championship in franchise history, however, James parted ways with the team and joined the LA Lakers before the 2018-19 season. After struggling with injuries his first year with the team, LeBron James and the Lakers captured the 2020 NBA Championship.

Given that James ended Cleveland's championship drought, and brought two titles to the Miami Heat alongside Wade and Bosh, it seems incredibly likely that he gets his jersey retired in both cities. The way Stephen A. Smith sees things, however, James doesn't have much of a case for having his jersey hang in LA's rafters.

During Wednesday's episode of his Stephen A. Smith show, the outspoken pundit weighed in on the situation:

"I don't think he gets his jersey retired in LA. ... I will tell you this: he doesn't get his jersey retired in LA. It's the Lakers. You just got one championship. One. One? COVID-shortened season or COVID-interrupted season.

"Look, in the bubble, it's hard. He deserves a lot of credit for it, but I don't think you get your jersey retired because of that."

You can see his comments in the video below beginning after the 2-minute mark.

"I don't think anybody would sneeze at that" - Stephen A. Smith opens up on LeBron James' chances of getting his jersey retired in LA

While LeBron James may have only captured one championship for the LA Lakers, as Stephen A. Smith pointed out, he has a number of impressive accolades that give him a case for having his jersey retired in LA.

Namely, in addition to his championship win with the team in the bubble, LeBron James also became the NBA's all-time leading scorer while wearing purple and gold. In addition to surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record, James also became the first player to eclipse 40,000 regular-season points.

Because of his career accomplishments and milestones achieved while competing for the Lakers, Stephen A. Smith pointed out that James has a case for having his jersey number retired in LA:

"LeBron is LeBron. He's big time, became the all-time leading scorer in NBA history wearing a Lakers uniform. You could make the case for that. He's a champion in the Lakers uniform. You can make a case for that. ...

"I can't rule it out, but if you didn't retire his jersey in Los Angeles, I don't think anybody would sneeze at that."

As Smith went on to explain, however, when comparing James' resume in LA to players like Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry West, it simply doesn't stack up as well.

With LeBron James' current extension set to run through the 2025-26 season, it will be interesting to see if the future Hall of Famer can build on his legacy in LA before riding off into the sunset.