LeBron James turned 40 weeks ago, and as the oldest active basketball player in the NBA, he’s not sparing anyone. Throughout his 22 seasons in the league, the 20-time All-Star has been intensely scrutinized on and off the court.
So much so that one dedicated LeBron hater on X has spent the past decade trolling the Los Angeles Lakers forward over his age.
James took the social media jab in stride when he addressed the X user for the first time on Jason and Travis Kelce’s weekly “New Heights” podcast.
“Have you seen this tweet from 2015?” Jason asked the fellow Ohio native during the interview.
The retired NFL star then read the tweet from May 2015 which stated, “Lebron is 30, this f—ery won’t go on for much longer, thank god.”
After all three men broke out in laughter, James responded, “Yes, I saw that tweet throughout all my 30s, and I laughed at it so hard.”
The 4-time NBA champion continued, “When I turned 40, the same f—ing guy said, ‘Lebron turned 40, this f—ery won’t go on for much longer.'”
Lebron is 40, this fuckery won't go on for much longer, thank god https://t.co/hq9rbcrNgR
— POA (@urkle91) December 30, 2024
As a clip of James’ remarks spread across social media, the @urkle91 account on X got wind that the target of his 10-year-old tweet has responded.
“Lmaooooooooooooo,” @urkle91 posted as a quote-tweet in reaction to the snippet of Lebron on “New Heights.” Other X users chimed in on the light-hearted clash.
One person posted, “You getting laughed at, and his name feeds your family. It’s a win-win I guess.” A second person joked, “Urkle, why are you giving that man motivation to go on until 50?”
Additionally, someone tweeted, “Being in Bron’s head for 10 years is craaazy. Lmfao.” Another X user sarcastically suggested Urkle could go into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, writing, “They might put you in the Naismith for this.”
Over on Instagram, followers of the “New Heights” page had a lot to say about James acknowledging his longtime agitator while talking with the Kelces.
“Don’t give the king bulletin board material,” warned one comment. A fan of King James wondered, “How anyone can dislike LeBron is just so weird to me.”
Another supporter of the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA draft wrote, “The Twitter trolls really outdo themselves sometimes.”
A similar comment expressed, “That Twitter guy spent a decade wondering if LeBron gonna keep balling instead of diversifying his hate tweet with more than an age gap.”
Apparently, James is expecting a third 10-year-anniversary hate tweet from @urkle91, as he told the Kelce brothers, “He’s gonna be real upset when I turn 50.”
LeBron’s pro basketball career will likely be over by the 2034-2035 season. He has already spoken about bringing his time in the NBA to a close.
“I’m not gonna play that much longer, to be completely honest. I don’t know how many years that is, if it’s one year or two years,” James said during a postgame conversation with the sports media in November 2024.
He added, “I’m not playing till the wheels fall off. I’m not gonna be that guy. I’m not gonna be the guy that’s disrespecting the game because I just wanna be out on the floor. No, that won’t be me.”
James turned 40 years old on Dec. 30, 2024. He first joined the NBA when the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him as an 18-year-old rookie directly from Akron’s St. Vincent–St. Mary High School.
Throughout his two-decade run in the league, James scored over 41,000 points. The 2004 Rookie of the Year surpassed fellow Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 2023 to become the all-time scoring champion.
The 2024-2025 NBA season has seen James average 23.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 8.8 assists per game, as of this writing. The father of three is currently shooting 50.9 percent from the field.
LeBron’s oldest son, 20-year-old LeBron “Bronny” James Jr., made history when the Lakers selected him in the second round of the 2024 NBA draft. They became the first active father-son duo to play together.
