On Monday, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James took to social media to announce that he would be releasing the ‘second decision' on Tuesday. The video was billed as a spoof of his infamous 2010 ESPN special when he joined the Miami Heat, and had many fans speculating that James might be announcing his retirement at the conclusion of the upcoming 2025-26 season.
Instead, as many predicted, the video turned out to be an advertisement for one of James' many endorsement partners, in this case Hennessy.
The Decision has been made. Cheers to year 23.@KingJames #HennessyxLeBron #TheSecondDecision #HennessyVSOP pic.twitter.com/WnXMZTiEPS
— Hennessy (@Hennessy) October 7, 2025
Fans in the comment section were understandably not thrilled that James would build up so much anticipation just to morph into a walking billboard when the time came.
“There's no way you called it the second decision and then it's an advertisement that is over level 9000 corny. Fire the entire marketing department and just get 4 random guys from Twitter that are chronically online because this was a humongous L. If sales go up I'll be shocked,” wrote one fan.
“This is nasty work bruh I almost dropped a major bag on tickets thinking my dawg was retiring man. Who tf okay’d this!?” added another.
Indeed, ticket sales for the Lakers' final regular season game this year against the Utah Jazz skyrocked in the wake of James' tease on Monday.
“A grown ah 40 year old man baiting for attention just for an ad,” added another fan.
James certainly got the attention he was looking for, as the post quickly went viral.
A sigh of relief for the Lakers
As previously noted, many accurately assessed that James' ‘second decision' announcement was likely a marketing ploy. Still, that didn't stop some from speculating that a retirement announcement could be on the way for the future Hall of Famer.
Instead, it seems that the Los Angeles Lakers will be running things back this year with James and Luka Doncic still leading the team.
The Lakers are set to kick off their 2025-26 season at home against the Golden State Warriors on October 21.
