‘That’s why you dunked on me?’ Jayson Tatum, LeBron James laugh about autograph snub.
If you needed a reminder of just how long LeBron James has been at the top of the basketball world, Jayson Tatum provided a good one this week.
Fresh off his first NBA title, Tatum has been enjoying his time with Team USA ahead of the Olympics this summer, and he shared a story of when he tried to get an autograph from James — then in his first stint with the Cavaliers — as an 11-year-old.
“Larry Hughes is my dad’s best friend, they played on the Cavs together,” Tatum explained. “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. There was a lot of people back there, and he was like, I’m out, I gotta go.”
“And I got in the car and started crying,” Tatum said with a laugh. “But we cool now.”
Nearly 15 years later, Tatum finally got to share that story with James — now 39 and heading to his fourth Olympics — at Team USA camp.
“That’s why you dunked on me, though?” James asked, referencing Tatum’s poster in Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, which Tatum jokingly called “The get-back.”
“That’s the last time you had that haircut,” James told Tatum, who arrived in Las Vegas sporting a much shorter look than he has in recent years.
Tatum and Team USA open Olympic play in Lille, France, against Serbia on July 28.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com