A young girl got the surprise of her life when she realized that LeBron James was sitting next to her at Saturday’s Lakers-Golden State Warriors game. The basketball legend was ruled out of Los Angeles’ game against the Warriors with an ankle injury, but he made a quick trip to San Francisco to watch the Lakers win.
When he made it to court, NBA’s (National Basketball Association) all-time scoring leader stopped casually next to a 12-year-old fan. The stunned girl, who has been identified as Gaia, was impressed as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as LeBron James, wearing a bright green beanie, sat down next to her. Seemingly unable to contain her excitement, the 12-year-old covered her mouth and looked away from James.
NBA took to Twitter and shared the clip with the girl’s reaction. “This young fan’s reaction to sitting next to LeBron,” the post’s caption read.
Watch the video below:
This young fan’s reaction to sitting next to LeBron 🤣❤️ pic.twitter.com/z2Jpk1aerk
— NBA (@NBA) February 12, 2023
LeBron James also shared the video of Gaia’s stunned reaction on his Instagram story. “This is exactly why I love what I do,” he wrote.
In addition, the 12-year-old girl even got to meet the basketball player and have her photo taken backstage. The Lakers captured the moment on camera, with James filming him giving Gaia a high five and the Lakers captioned the Instagram image of the two together as “wholesome.”
“Of course I’m not as tall as him, so I could only see his shoes,” Gaia said ESPN, still sitting next to James on the sidelines. “When I looked up I saw Lebron James, and what’s going through my head is like ‘oh my god. The greatest basketball player of all time is sitting next to me,'” she added.
When asked if she had spoken to the player, she said she was told not to interact with the players and she did not want to disturb him. The 12-year-old also revealed that she had asked for the tickets three months earlier in hopes of seeing LeBron James play. However, when she found out the Lakers player would be sitting out due to an ankle injury, she was “sad” and didn’t know if the superstar was traveling with the team.
The 12-year-old eventually met James backstage and snapped a photo with him after the Lakers defeated the Warriors 109-103.
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