You can go back through history and look at wild examples of people lying. Brian Williams lied about being in a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq in 2003. Bernie Madoff lied to people who invested money with him. Those are lies on a broad spectrum.
Now narrow it down to the sports world. George O’Leary falsified his education in order to be hired by Notre Dame as their head football coach. A handful of MLB players in the 90’s such as Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, and Mark McGwire lied about using steroids. When you look at those lies, you realize that even those are massive on the sports landscape. For LeBron James, he lies about the smallest and most minute things. He’s been doing it for years now and it doesn’t seem like there is an end in sight to his fibs.
LeBron Is The Original Migos Fan
On Sunday in a press conference, LeBron spoke about recently deceased rapper Takeoff who was a member of the Migos. Takeoff was killed on November 1, 2022 in Houston, Texas.
James claimed that he’d been listening to the group since his first year in Miami with the Heat in 2010. Many people would say, “Wow, he’s been on these guys for a while now.” Even I thought that initially. There is one issue with the statement though that Twitter quickly sniffed out.
The Migos first mixtape, Juug Season, dropped on August 25, 2011. LeBron signed with Miami on July 8, 2010. That season, Miami made the playoffs and played their final game on Sunday June 12, 2011 against the Dallas Mavericks. This is approximately 74 days before Juug Season was released. It would have been impossible for LeBron to have played Migos in the locker room at any point that season. It’s a bald-faced lie.
While this is a pretty innocuous lie, it’s weird that LeBron told it in the wake of Takeoff’s death. This also isn’t the first time LeBron very clearly lied.
Avid Reader Or Pretentious Faker?
When it comes to this lie, I must make a confession. I’ve one hundred percent pulled this before when it came to a book report in high school. I definitely spark-noted a novel that I was supposed to read and described the book as “very interesting”. What sets myself apart from LeBron is that he lied about reading a book to seem like an intellectual. In 2020, LeBron entered a press conference holding The Autobiography of Malcolm X. A reporters asked him how he liked the book and he couldn’t come up with anything.
All LeBron came up with is that Malcolm X was an “intelligent man”. Well, no shit. It doesn’t take pretending to read his biography to figure out that he’s intelligent. Over the years, there was a thread of pictures that went around Twitter of LeBron reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, but in every photo, LeBron was still on page one. These pictures were taken on different occasions on different nights when LeBron was walking into games, in the training room, or in the locker room. I think it’s safe to say that LeBron hasn’t read The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
LeBron Knew Kobe Was Going For 80
This lie feels so outlandish and unnecessary to tell that it just makes me think, “Why?”
LeBron claimed that prior to Kobes legendary 81 point game, he told his friends that Kobe was going for 70. Lie. Just why are you lying about this? I’ve never believed that you can look at a guy and say “I knew he was going to (insert crazy stat line that night)”. Much like the Takeoff lie, LeBron literally gains nothing from it so I don’t know why he told it.
Leave The Lies, Take The Cannoli
When it comes to some of my favorite movies, I can quote you lines and tell you specific scenes. It’s not hard when it’s your favorite or you’ve seen it over six times. That’s how many times LeBron claimed to see the Godfather Trilogy. He was asked during a press conference when he was with Cleveland about his favorite line or scene from the Godfather: Part II and sputtered when trying to give an answer.
I mean come on. The Godfather films are such a staple in society that even people who haven’t seen the film can rattle off a line or a scene. Had LeBron mentioned anything from the films like “leave the gun, take the cannoli” or “sleeping with the fishes” then the media would have eaten it up. He couldn’t even do that. If you’re going to claim that you’ve seen a film a handful of times, you should at least be able to remember scenes. This lie is clear as day. His attempt to suppress the journalist asking was saying “all the movies are like nine hours long.” Okay? That just means there are more scenes and lines to recall.
What I find most interesting about LeBron’s lies is that they are never huge lies. They are only told so that LeBron looks smarter in odd ways. He wants to appear like he has keen insight about people and their talents like Takeoff and the Migos and Kobe going for eighty. At some point during one of his lie-pervaded press conferences, he needs to be called out.