Sports Fans Joking About LeBron James After New Pope Announced

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It’s been 24 hours since American Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope and became Leo XIV. Since then, people have been doing all kinds of research into his life – and making plenty of jokes along the way.

One recent joke about Leo XIV came at the expense of another man known around the world: LeBron James.

Yesterday ABC News interviewed Pope Leo’s brother John Prevost, who revealed that even in the first grade he was told that he would be the pope one day.

“When Robert Prevost was in the first grade, his neighbor told him he would be the first American pope, one of his brothers told ABC News,” the outlet said.

Basketball fans noticed that particular quote and quickly made some comparisons to James, who claims to have received a similar message about his own basketball greatness at a very young age.

Many have jokingly declared that LeBron was the neighbor who told Prevost that (even though Prevost was born in 1955 while LeBron wasn’t born until 1984).

That neighbor? LeBron James. https://t.co/1xUdoiIqAY

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) May 8, 2025

“So I see this guy and I tell him ‘you’re gonna be the first American pope one day.’ Idk, I just had a feeling,” one user wrote, pretending to quote LeBron.

“Just a kid from Chicago,” another wrote, using a play on LeBron’s “Just a kid from Akron” catchphrase.

“I knew that, I knew it will come to him, I just feel it the moment I saw it, yeah of course,” another mockingly quoted LeBron.

“before the conclave even started, when I seen, uh… I said he was probably gonna be elected pope tonight. I don’t know what made me say that…my friends was with me, and they was like, ‘okay,'” a third mocked.

A worker at the Catholic Diocese of Lubbock looks on at a photo of the newly selected Pope Leo XIV at a news conference hosted by Bishop Robert Coerver on May 8, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas. Pope Leo XIV is the first American-born pope.

© Mateo Rosiles/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Robert Prevost was raised in the Chicago suburbs until going to seminary and then Villanova University for college. After graduating he went on a church mission to Peru.

Over the past 25 years he has risen through the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church, culminating in his being made a cardinal under the late Pope Francis in 2023.

Prevost was elected pope on the fourth ballot during the papal conclave following Pope Francis’ death several weeks ago.