As the USA men’s basketball team prepares for the Olympics, they’ve been signing a lot of autographs, and while they’ve been signing those autographs, they’ve been talking about… well, autographs.
The players have discussed everything from how they settled on their signatures (“When I was coming to the NBA, I had to sign all these trading cards,” said Tyrese Haliburton, “so my signature was whack. So me and my mom sat there for like an hour and wrote up signatures until we found one that we liked.”) to who they’ve asked for autographs (“Drew Neitzel,” said Devin Booker, “Grand Rapids legend.”). The latter topic brought out an interesting fact: at least two of LeBron James’ USA teammates asked him for his autograph when they were kids. However, one had more success than the other.
At the end of this video, Anthony Davis, who is also teammates with James on the LA Lakers, shares that he secured an autograph at a basketball camp when he was younger.
But in this video, Jason Tatum shares a more tragic tale.
JT got his revenge on LeBron 😂 #USABMNT pic.twitter.com/9shcJ87uaM
— NBA (@NBA) July 16, 2024
“Crazy thing is, Bron told me ‘no,’” Tatum says.
“He ain’t tell me ‘no,’ but he kinda told me ‘no,’” he then kind of clarifies. “In Memphis, a long time ago, Larry Hughes is my dad’s best friend, they played on the Cavs together. My mom took me to a game in Memphis, I wanted to meet LeBron, and I wanted to get a picture with him and an autograph and there was a lot of people back there. He was like, ‘I’m out. I gotta go.’ And I got in the car and started crying. But we cool now.”
Tatum later says that he was about 11 years old when this happened, which means it was around 2009.
James’ response to Tatum’s story?
“That’s why you dunked on me though?”
James was referring to when Tatum dunked on him in Game 7 of the 2018 Easter Conference Finals.
“It’s the get-back!” Tatum replies.
Tatum did get his picture with James at some point, though. When a 14-year-old Tatum tweeted at him in 2012 looking for a follow back, he included a photo of them together in which he was wearing a Kobe Bryant 2006 All-Star jersey.
@KingJames Follow back it’s Larry Hughes nephew from st. Louis and Abe and Rj Lil cousin and Justin Son Follow Back pic.twitter.com/AnOnb7E8
— Jayson Tatum (@jaytatum0) April 13, 2012
Now 39 years old and preparing to play alongside his son Bronny in the NBA next season, James is definitely the elder statesman of Team USA. But way back in 2005, he was the one asking his teammates to autograph his shoes as he prepared to play in his first NBA All-Star Game.
When did James sign his first ever autograph? He claims in 1996. When he was 11 years old.
No wonder he was over it by the time Tatum asked him for one 13 years later.
(Photo: Ryan Stetz/NBAE via Getty Images)
