A young girl couldn’t believe her luck when LeBron James came and sat next to her during the Golden State Warriors-Los Angeles Lakers game on Sunday. Although LeBron had been ruled out of Los Angeles’ game against the Warriors due to an ankle injury, he still travelled to San Fransico to watch his team’s match. When LeBron reached the courtside to cheer for his team, he casually pulled up next to a young basketball fan. It took a split second for this young fan, identified as 12-year-old Gaia, to realize that she was sitting next to NBA’s (National Basketball Association) all-time scoring leader. But when she did, Gaia couldn’t contain her excitement.
As her brother snapped photos, she put her hands over her mouth in shock and appeared to be completely starstruck at seeing the NBA legend. The heartwarming moment, captured by television cameras, has now been shared by NBA on their official Twitter handle.
While sharing the short video showing the girl’s reaction, NBA wrote, “This young fan’s reaction to sitting next to LeBron."
NBA’s tweet has gone viral with 21 million views on the microblogging site.
LeBron James also shared the video of Gaia’s reaction on his Instagram stories. “This is exactly why I love what I do," he wrote.
After the game, the 12-year-old girl even got the chance to meet LeBron as the Lakers posted a short clip of the two high-fiving on Instagram. Lakers captioned their Instagram post as “wholesome.”
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Later, Gaia opened up about watching the match alongside LeBron James. “I’m not as tall as him, obviously, so I could only see his shoes. When I looked up, I see Lebron James, and what’s going through my mind is just like ‘oh my god. The greatest player of all time in basketball is sitting next to me,'" Gaia told ESPN.
It seems that the presence of LeBron inspired Los Angeles Lakers as Darvin Ham’s side defeated the defending champions 109-103. Reports suggest that LeBron James is likely to miss the Lakers’ Monday contest versus the Portland Trail Blazers due to soreness in his left foot.
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