Dan Le Batard

Le Batard & Friends Presents: The Step Back

Sports EN ↓ 5 episodes

Hosted by Dan Le Batard, Amin Elhassan, and Israel Gutierrez, this limited series is part nostalgia machine, part media autopsy—pulling apart the biggest athletes of our time through the moments that made them unavoidable. Season one belongs to LeBron James. From the Sports Illustrated cover that anointed him before he could legally celebrate, to The Decision that broke the internet before we even used that term, to “Shut Up & Dribble,” a phrase that accidentally defined an era—this is the story of how one athlete bent the relationship between sports, media, and power into something new. Each...

Author

Dan Le Batard

Episodes

Shut Up & Dribble (feat. Jemele Hill & Cari Champion) 01.07.2026 59:38

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...

Lebron Inc. (feat. Pablo Torre) 16.06.2026 37:03

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 threatene...

I'm Coming Home (feat. Iman Shumpert) 27.05.2026 47:40

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....

The Decision (feat. Jim Gray) 19.05.2026 57:08

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/...

The Chosen One (feat. Sonny Vaccaro) 12.05.2026 44:40

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:...