LeBron James has come a long way in terms of public perception. He was anointed “the greatest basketball player that ever was, is, or will be” while he was still in high school and, somehow, lived up to the hype. He took a lot of (warranted) flak for the way he decided to “take my talents to South Beach,” leaving the hometown Cleveland Cavaliers to chase championships in with the Miami Heat. By the time he returned to Cleveland and won a championship, all was forgiven. He’s even since gotten himself involved in the kind of political and social issues that stars like Michael Jordan always avoided, transcending his status and putting to bed any concerns about his ego overwhelming his desire to be a true role model.
But of course, you don’t get to be LeBron James without that old LeBron resurfacing every so often.
James currently sits at 29,993 points in his NBA career. Tonight he will almost certainly cross the 30,000-point mark, joining an elite group of current and future Hall of Famers that includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, and Dirk Nowitzki. He’ll soak up well-deserved congratulations and adulation from around the league, no doubt.
But LeBron wanted to beat everyone to the punch, so he took to Instagram on Tuesday to congratulate himself for what he was about to do. Ricky Henderson would be proud.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BeTAoFBBxbG/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_legacy
Here’s what LeBron wrote to LeBron:
“Wanna be one of the first to Congratulate you on this accomplishment/achievement tonight that you’ll reach! Only a handful has reach/seen it too and while I know it’s never been a goal of yours from the beginning try(please try) to take a moment for yourself on how you’ve done it! The House you’re about to be apart of has only 6 seats in it(as of now) but 1 more will be added and you should be very proud and honored to be invited inside. There’s so many people to thank who has help this even become possible(so thank them all) and when u finally get your moment(alone) to yourself smile, look up to the higher skies and say THANK YOU! So with that said, Congrats again Young King! 1 Love! #striveforgreatness #thekidfromakron”
As one commenter noted, “Find someone who loves you as much as LeBron loves LeBron.” And over on Twitter, well, you know what happened…
Wanna be one of the first to Congratulate you on this accomplishment/achievement tonight that you’ll reach! You’re going to tweet about basketball tonight. That’s a lot of tweets. Only few have done it, only a few seats are there (about a million) and #NBATwitter would be proud. pic.twitter.com/YXhdkCNMaw
— Oliver Maroney (@OliverMaroney) January 23, 2018
Wanna be one of the first to Congratulate you on this accomplishment/achievement you'll reach! Only a handful has reach/seen so many pageviews in one day. So many people to thank who has helped me. Congrats again Young King pic.twitter.com/SMzCFlpSYC
— T🐢 (@TiBrault) January 23, 2018
Get ready to see a few more LeBron Congratulates LeBron memes on your Twitterfeed today. Thankfully, everyone will have it out of their system by tomorrow.
Then again, it’s unlikely but not entirely possible that LeBron doesn’t score the requisite seven points needed tonight. Though, for that to happen, he’ll have to snap an 836-game streak in which he’s scored at least ten points. The last time he scored less than seven points in a regular-season game? December 29, 2004, his second season in the league.
[ESPN]
