LOS ANGELES — LeBron James says he’s taking a break from social media.
The NBA’s all-time leading scorer and Los Angeles Lakers star posted on X and Instagram on Wednesday to announce that he will be stepping away from their pages. James has 159 million followers on Instagram, 52.9 million on X.
James began the farewell by reposting something that Rich Kleiman, Kevin Durant’s former manager, posted on X on October 24.
“We can all recognize that sport is the last part of society that universally unites people. So why can’t coverage do the same?” Kleiman wrote that day. “When you say it, it’s just click bait. When the platform is this big, you can make the switch and allow us all to escape the negativity of real life. For my part, this all seems like a waste of breath” .
James, on Instagram, posted a screenshot of Kleiman’s post and added the caption: “Amen!!” and then underneath he wrote: “What a shame where this has come!” On X, his new Kleiman post simply read, “AMEN!!”
Kleiman has posted only a handful of times since his October 24 post, and James evidently doesn’t plan on posting much, or anything, until further notice.
His announcement came a day after he said “everyone on the Internet called me a liar all the time” when he said he was watching Dalton Knecht’s college games last year at Tennessee, long before the Lakers drafted the outspoken guard.
“And with that, I’ll say hello to you all! Stepping off social media for the moment. Take care,” James posted, followed by emojis of a hand raising two fingers, which often symbolize someone leaving a place… and a crown, a nod to his nickname “King James.”
James, who turns 40 next month and is the oldest active NBA player, is a four-time NBA champion and three-time Olympic gold medalist, the most recent of whom came earlier this year in the Paris Games.
The Lakers are 10-4, have won six straight games and the next game will be Thursday at home against Orlando.
