LeBron James is a very strong person. You might have already known this having watched him play basketball for the past two-plus decades. At the 2004 NBA draft combine, he weighed in at 245 pounds and was less than 7% body fat. Since then he's put on a decent amount of weight and it appears to be mostly muscle.
You can see how strong he is in the way that players bounce off of him. And then to let you know that your eyes were not lying, he often shrugs his shoulders in a way that confirms yes, he really is that strong. And he can't stop doing it for Team USA.
He did a quick shrug after an early and-one in USA's blowout win over Serbia on Wednesday.
LBJ fights through the contact for the And-1 💪#USABMNT Showcase vs. Serbia on FS1 pic.twitter.com/RxD2PW3Mke
— NBA (@NBA) July 17, 2024
Then later in the game Marko Guduric, who played 44 games with the Memphis Grizzlies during the '19-'20 season, fouled James on a fastbreak. Guduric tried to get physical with LeBron and ended up on the ground while LeBron shurgged. Guduric then got up and made fun of the shurg, which was really all he could do.
Guduric imitating LeBron's shrug lolpic.twitter.com/OFnZ1p0Van
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) July 17, 2024
Finally, during the fourth quarter James threw down an alley-oop from Ban Adebayo and flexed again.
THIS ANGLE OF LEBRON RISING UP 🤯 https://t.co/brrUCHWxBV pic.twitter.com/7NoABDZIPX
— NBA (@NBA) July 17, 2024
It's only going to get worse. Bigger, more frustrated international players are going to be fouling James during the Paris Olympics. And if history is any indication, he will continue to stay on his feet. And when he does, he will shrug. As far as American fans are concerned, this might as well be a bald eagle flapping its wings and getting ready to take off. For anyone else, by the time he starts to shrug, it's already over.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The World Cannot Escape LeBron James’s Shoulder Shrug This Summer.
