After winning his first NBA Championship on Monday night against the Dallas Mavericks, Jayson Tatum, the star of the Boston Celtics, found an old social media post from over a decade ago gaining attention. The post features a teenage Tatum requesting a ‘follow back’ from LeBron James, who was then playing for the Miami Heat.
Fast forward twelve years, James, now considered one of the greatest basketball players ever, is nearing the end of his illustrious NBA career. Meanwhile, Tatum has emerged as one of the new faces of the league, a position James has held for the past two decades.
The original tweet, dated April 13, 2012, was posted when Tatum was in eighth grade: “Follow back it’s Larry Hughes nephew from st. Louis and Abe and Rj Lil cousin and Justin Son Follow Back.” Hughes, who played alongside James on the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2005 to 2008, was one of the NBA veterans who influenced Tatum, now a four-time NBA Champion.
Tatum achieved stardom at Chaminade High School in St. Louis before spending a season under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University. James, drafted as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, paved the way for Tatum, who was selected third overall by the Boston Celtics fourteen years later.
Both Tatum and James have faced each other numerous times in the NBA and will become teammates outside of exhibition games for the first time this summer. They were both chosen for the American Olympic team set to compete in the 2024 Games in Paris.
