@KingJames Follow back it's Larry Hughes nephew from st. Louis and Abe and Rj Lil cousin and Justin Son Follow Back pic.twitter.com/AnOnb7E8
— Jayson Tatum (@jaytatum0) April 13, 2012
Jayson Tatum is currently one of the youngest players in the league at 20 years old. If that doesn’t make you feel ancient already, then consider that just six years ago he was 14. And back when Tatum was a teenager dreaming of playing in the NBA, he was also on Twitter asking LeBron James to follow him back.
It’s commonplace for fans to reach out to the their favorite players online, hoping they get a follow or at the very least a response — but not many end up playing against them in a playoff series years later. With the Cavaliers facing the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, Tatum will do just that.
Tatum has averaged 23.6 points in his last five games while James, at 33 years old, hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. If anything, the only sign of James aging is Tatum being on the floor against him, but that doesn’t mean The King is losing a step in his game any time soon.
And while Tatum is obviously a fan of James, it seems as though his favorite player back then was Kobe Bryant. He’s even wearing a Bryant jersey from the 2006 NBA All-Star Game in the photo of him and James.
Kobe is the best player
— Jayson Tatum (@jaytatum0) March 5, 2012
Kobe fan but congratulations to Lebron!!!!
— Jayson Tatum (@jaytatum0) June 21, 2013
In that one tweet, he asked James to follow him back twice. It didn’t happen then, and it still hasn’t happened! To be fair, James doesn’t follow that many people on Twitter. But if James still doesn’t know Boston’s 20-year-old superstar in the making, he sure will once the conference finals begin.