About

LeBron Pointing refers to a viral clip from a 2021 NBA game during which LeBron James pointed out two courtside fans to a referee and demanded them to be escorted out. In 2023, the clip gained popularity as a part of a viral Kill This Guy With Hammers GIF caption, which inspired memes and and edits.

Origin

On November 24th, 2021, during an NBA match between Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers, basketball player LeBron James pointed out two Pacers fans sitting courtside to a referee, demanding to escort them out. After the match, James implied that the fans used obscene gestures and language against him.^[1]

On November 21st, 2021, X^[2] / Twitter account @ActionNetworkHQ posted a clip of the incident. The video received over 3,100 reposts and 3,200 likes in two years (shown below).

LeBron unhappy with some fans courtside in Indiana pic.twitter.com/1Ud3B69G1E

— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) November 25, 2021

On November 25th, 2021, Redditor kidxkannin
posted the earliest caption meme based on the clip, captioning it, "25 year old me showing grandma exactly what video game console I want for Christmas." The post (shown below) received over 20,900 upvotes in /r/memes^[3] in two years.

On June 8th, 2023, Tenor^[4] user thee_arctic posted a GIF of the clip captioned, "yeah kill this guy with hammers… right here…" (shown below).

Spread

The GIF caption saw viral spread online as it was used as a reaction on Discord, X and Reddit. On August 11th, 2023, Tenor^[5] user SudoName posted another GIF caption meant for Discord use, with the GIF captioned, "@Moderators please deal with this" (shown below, left). Prior to September 5th, 2023,^[6][7] an unknown user posted another version captioned "Moderators please rape this man" which also saw viral spread (shown below, right).

Starting in September 2023, recaptioned versions of Kill This Guy With Hammers GIF captions saw spread online. On September 20th, iFunny^[8] user Exea posted a version recaptioned "yeah rip out this guy's vocal cords… right here…" (shown below, left). For example, On October 7th, 2023, Tenor^[9] user sylvie713 posted a Jollyposting edit (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Mods, Crush His Skull

Mods, Crush His Skull is a viral video of streamer LowTierGod commanding his stream moderators to ban a user in his chat, telling them to "crush his skull." In 2023, the clip achieved popularity online in the form of a reaction video and GIF and has also been used as a GIF caption meme format.

Me and My Friends Would've Killed X with Hammers

Me and My Friends Would've Killed X with Hammers is a phrasal template that originated from a viral tweet by Twitter user @HelloCullen in 2021 that read, "me and my friends would've killed E.T. with hammers I can tell you that much." The phrase went on to become an ironic phrasal template meme in which "E.T." is replaced by a victim of one's choosing.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References