LeBron James vs. Mewtwo

Submission 1,563

Part of a series on LeBron James. [View Related Entries]

About

LeBron James vs. Mewtwo refers to a series of memes imagining a basketball matchup between NBA player LeBron James and Legendary Pokémon Mewtwo. Spawned by a viral X / Twitter post and popularized by basketball analyst Stephen A. Smith reviewing it, the meme went viral in May 2024, inspiring fan art and discourse online.

Origin

Prior to May 2024, several posts imagining Legendary Psychic-type Pokémon Mewtwo, who is 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 269 pounds, as a basketball player were made online. Notably, on November 19th, 2018, X^[1] user @ChaosDunked made a post about Mewtwo's potential in the small forward position, which gained over 23,000 reposts and 70,000 likes in six years (shown below).

On May 20th, 2024, sports media personality Stephen A Smith asked his followers on X^[2] to send him questions that he could answer on an episode of his The Stephen A. Smith Show_. On that day, X^[3] user @lmPrexx posted a question about who would win in a game of 21, LeBron James or Mewtwo. The post (shown below) received over 170 reposts and 4,000 likes in three days.

On May 20th, on his show, Smith earnestly analyzed the matchup, judging that Mewtoo might have a chance to beat LeBron due to comparable height and weight and his psychic abilities giving him an advantage. The clip from the show was uploaded to X,^[4] where it accumulated over 14,6 million views, 15,000 reposts and 103,000 likes in three days (shown below).

Spread

Following the viral spread of the clip, memes about LeBron opposing Mewtwo on a court and about Stephen A. Smith's analysis of the matchup saw spread on X. For example, on May 20th, 2024, X^[5] user @TAHK0 Made a post imagining Pokedex being voiced by Smith, with the post (shown below) garnering over 6,900 reposts and 36,000 likes in three days.

The clip also inspired fan art imagining a basketball match between LeBron James and Mewtwo. For example, on May 20th, X^[6] user @KOLSANART posted a drawing that received over 1,600 reposts and 10,000 likes in three days (shown below, left).

Later that day, X^[7] user @jjeanlll posted a Venom Dunking on Spider-Man redraw that garnered over 5,100 reposts and 43,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).