The King’s innocent mix-up has gone viral online
It’s hard to imagine a crowd never not cheering for LeBron James, but to everyone’s surprise, it seems that the King may not always be the main character.
During Team USA’s basketball quarterfinal against Brazil on Tuesday (August 6), James found himself in a hilariously awkward moment where he appeared to completely misunderstood who the crowd was exactly cheering for.
Upon seeing attendees in the stands give a standing ovation and applaud, the King naturally waved back and pretended to put a crown on his head — his signature gesture.
But apparently the cheers weren’t for the basketball legend.
Crowd started cheering and LeBron thought it was for him, but it was for gold medal french swimmer Léon Marchand in the crowd pic.twitter.com/Z0e5lHMrQ0
— ᗩᑎT ᗯᖇIGᕼT (@itsAntWright) August 6, 2024
The warm rally was, in fact, meant for French swimmer Léon Marchand, however, who was in attendance watching the game and has so far won four gold medals and one silver during the Olympics in his homeland.
As well as winning four gold medals, he also broke a new record in the men’s breaststroke event – even if he fell behind by six seconds.
According to the Olympic’s website, his winning time of 1:54.06 smashed a record set by Michael Phelps 16 years old – so he’s a big deal.
Marchand, who was in attendance with two other people, then stood up in order to show the crowd his appreciation, The New York Post reports.
According to Larry Brown Sports, James was apparently shown on the jumbotron around the same time the crowd started cheering for Marchand, which might have caused the confusion.
The clip has since been viewed 3.7 million times, according to The Daily Express.
Naturally, users on social media are having a field day with the hilarious moment.
The crowd was actually cheering for Marchand. (Marvin Ibo Guengoer – GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
“Bro really thinks he is the main character all the time,” one user on Twitter wrote.
“Muscle memory at this point, understandable confusion,” another user added.
Evidently, many users are also coming into James’ defense saying it was only natural for him to assume the cheers were his after having his face on the jumbotron.
“He looked up on the big screen to see what it was and these idiots had him on there for a good minute, what else was he supposed to think,” one social media user wrote.
James was under the impression the crowd was cheering for him. (Christina Pahnke – sampics/Getty Image)
“I mean if they was showing the man on the big screen what else he supposed to think,” another chimed in.
James has so far had a triumphant run in this year’s Paris Olympics, helping Team USA secure a spot in the semifinals in basketball on Thursday (August 8).
For the quarterfinal match against Brazil, James finished off with 12 points, nine assists, three rebounds, and three steals.
Team USA won with a score of 122 to 87.
