'I Did Lie': LeBron James Admits He Wasn’t Totally Honest About His Comments on Kobe Bryant’s 81-Point Night

One of the problems with living in the age of social media is that the internet never forgets. Make one slip-up, say one dumb or false thing, and you can be meme’d for all eternity. Whereas past NBA greats like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell had no such nonsense to deal with, LeBron James came of age at a time when every word and action exists under a microscope.

LeBron isn’t perfect, but he deserves a ton of credit for successfully navigating what can be a toxic online landscape. He was ‘the Chosen One’ all the way back in high school, but despite unrelenting attention and so many people praying on his downfall, he’s come out the other side as arguably the greatest basketball player of all time.

The secret to LeBron’s success is that he’s often been able to laugh it off when people attempt to make fun of him, even when it his infamous reputation as a stone cold liar.

LeBron was on the most recent episode of the 360 With Speedy podcast, where he was confronted about it. There are entire video compilations of LeBron lying for no good reason, and it’s spawned countless memes. It all started, though, with a young LeBron once claiming that he knew Kobe Bryant was going to score 70 points, right before he actually went for 81.

“My probably all-time favorite ‘LeBron be lying’ moment is when you was like, ‘Yo, Kobe’s out there, I knew he was gonna score 70 that night,'” Speedy said.

LeBron let out a huge laugh and said, “Bro, I’m telling you! I’m telling you, I’m telling you, every time I say something everyone thinks it’s a f***** lie. I got homies that was literally at the house with me when Kobe was dropping 81. When he got 60, we watching the game, I’m like, ‘Oh s***, yo he might go for 80 tonight.'”

“I got homies that was literally in my room … we sat in this small room watching the game, and I was like, ‘Oh s***, Kobe going for 80 tonight.’ He went for 81, so I did lie, yeah I was wrong,” James concluded.

LeBron may have fooled Speedy, but his story doesn’t hold up to any kind of real scrutiny. For one thing, he changed it from originally predicting Kobe was going to score 70 before the game had started, to now saying that he knew the Lakers legend would get to 80 once he had reached 60. ‘

It doesn’t take Nostradamus to have figured that a red-hot Kobe, who hit 60 points early in the fourth quarter of that game, could continue at that pace and put up an even bigger number.

The final thing LeBron said is his real confession, as he jokingly claimed he lied because Kobe got 81 and not exactly 80 as he said he had predicted. “I did lie” will keep the polygraph from bugging out, but if we are being honest, he definitely lied again.

That said, even though his stories don’t always pass the smell test, we can’t stay mad at LeBron. Being on camera all the time can make you do funny things, and so we’ll forgive him for occasionally stretching the truth, Besides, why let the truth ruin a perfectly good story?