Featured Image Credit: ruthlesssrich/TikTok
Topics: Celebrity, Sport, TikTok, Viral, Basketball
Emily Brown
Topics: Celebrity, Sport, TikTok, Viral, Basketball
LeBron James looked like he wanted to make a basketball out of a guy's head after he ruthlessly heckled him from the crowd at a Lakers game.
The standoff went down as James was leaving the court during halftime at the Lakers v Clippers game at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Tuesday (24 January), when the Lakers were down 77-54.
The basketball star probably just wanted a rest and a drink of water, but instead he was taunted and jeered at by a member of the crowd, who could be heard in footage shared on TikTok by user @ruthlesssrich.
Hear his jibes below:
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The now-viral clip showed James following his teammates off the court before the onlooker called out to him, saying: "Hey Bron!"
Rather than any encouraging words, the heckler told the basketball star he better 'get [his] sh*t together'. The comment was enough to make James stop in his tracks, but it was what the attendee said next that prompted a member of security at the game to put his hands on James and encourage him to keep moving.
Getting personal with the 38-year-old, the heckler shouted: "With that receding-a** hairline!"
James glared at the heckler with a look of pure fury while the security guard put his hands on him, seemingly in an effort to prevent him from approaching the member of the crowd.
The athlete ignored the security guard's efforts and instead continued to stand and stare at the heckler, who obviously wasn't afraid of pushing some buttons as he shouted: "Look, he mad! Look at him! You sick!"
He could be heard chuckling as he moved the camera off James, probably smug with the knowledge that he'd managed to catch footage of himself insulting James enough to stop him in his tracks.
It's unclear whether the heckler was approached by security or faced any repercussions for his behaviour, but his actions have since been shared far and wide across the internet.
On TikTok alone the clip has racked up 7.9 million views, and it's also been shared across Twitter.
The trolling obviously wasn't enough to throw James entirely off his game as he managed to score a total of 46 points in the game, making him the only NBA player to score 40-plus points against every team in the league.
Unfortunately though, his efforts weren't enough to earn a win for the Lakers, and the game came to an end at 133-115.