LeBron James is one of the most important men in basketball. Not only is he arguably the greatest player of all time, but he is also the first NBA player ever to become a billionaire while still active, and only the second billionaire out of the NBA ever (behind Michael Jordan).
LeBron is a busy man outside the world of basketball, so to take up any sort of space in LeBron’s mind is a massive achievement. A player who got into a situation like that with LeBron in an extremely unlikely fashion was young Celtics forward Grant Williams.
Williams is breaking out as a modern switch big and forward in the NBA, with the capability to shoot and defend at high levels. During a Celtics-Lakers matchup, Grant was on the bench as his teammates tried to guard an inbound pass against LeBron and a hilarious exchange ensued, according to Ryen Russillo at The Ringer:
“One time, Grant Williams was on the bench… LeBron was about to inbound, Grant gets up and yells ‘Horns!’ or whatever the set was. It’s gonna be Horns! LeBron turns and looks at him and says ‘No GREG. No GREG, that’s not it GREG!’”
(via @ryenarussillo / BS Pod) pic.twitter.com/eRAa1kNWri
— . (@TheNBACentral) May 29, 2022
“One time, Grant Williams was on the bench, they were playing the Lakers. LeBron was about to inbound, and Grant gets up and yells “horns! It’s gonna be horns!”. LeBron looks at him and goes, “No GREG. No GREG. That’s not it, GREG!”
Whether LeBron actually didn’t know Grant Williams’ name is not clear, but if that was LBJ trying to indulge in gamesmanship, it definitely is a solid effort. Chris Paul pretended as if he didn’t know who Jose Alvarado was during the first-round playoffs matchup between the New Orleans Pelicans and Phoenix Suns.
With the leap Williams has taken these playoffs, it doesn’t look like LeBron James will not remember who he is. If LBJ was anyway purposely not calling him the right name, it shows that James was trying to play mind games with the youngster. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to take the fight to LeBron and have him remember your name forever.
