LeBron James is widely known as one of the best basketball players in the history of the NBA, but a recent tweet of his seems to indicate that he has an interest in going back to college to play another sport.
“Do I have college eligibility if I went to play another sport besides basketball? How does that rule work,” James tweeted on Saturday.
Do I have college eligibility if I went to play another sport besides basketball? How does that rule work?
— LeBron James (@KingJames) September 24, 2022
The Los Angeles Lakers star got his answer on Sunday, with Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith responding to James’ question on social media by letting him know that he would be eligible to play another sport.
@KingJames – If you never enrolled full-time in college and didn’t compete in the sport that you want to play after HS graduation, you could have eligibility remaining. If you professionalize in one sport, you can still be considered an amateur in another.
Would love to help you!— Gene Smith (@OSU_AD) September 25, 2022
“If you never enrolled full-time in college and didn’t compete in the sport that you want to play after HS graduation, you could have eligibility remaining. If you professionalize in one sport, you can still be considered an amateur in another. Would love to help you!”
While James ultimately decided to play basketball professionally, James was also a standout high school football player as a sophomore and junior in high school.
LeBron was widely known as the top ranked high school prospect in the state of Ohio, and many have questioned what James would look like in the NFL given his sheer athleticism at his size.
A professional athlete going back to college for athletics is very rare, but one of Lebron’s former teammates did exactly that recently.
J.R. Smith enrolled at North Carolina A&T in the fall of 2021, and walked on to the program’s golf team where he has been playing ever since.
It still seems very unlikely that James would ever actually play collegiate sport at this point, but it seems like the possibility is at least on his mind if his tweet is to be taken seriously.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.