LeBron James had reached “unc” status before the Thompson twins, Amen and Ausar, ever made it to the NBA. In fact, the Thompson twins were born just around eight months before the Lakers star made his debut in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Thus, it's not difficult to see how the Los Angeles Lakers star would have inspired the two to do whatever it took to not just reach their dreams of making it to the NBA, but to also flourish once they get there. But that inspiration may have manifested in some suspicious writing on the walls of the twins' room while growing up.
As recalled by the Thompson twins in an appearance on The Young Man and The Three podcast, they wanted to be as tall as James and willed it so in a hilarious manner.
“We wanted to be tall. My mom's like 5'6″, my dad's like 5'11”. So we wrote like “69” because that's how tall we wanted to be,” Ausar, the Detroit Pistons forward, recounted. “And looking back, it looks kinda weird.”
“No apostrophe, nothing,” Amen, the Houston Rockets swiss army knife, recalled with a cheeky grin on his face. “Just 69.”
“It's all over the bed,” Ausar added.
“We thought LeBron was 6'9″ [so we did it],” Amen furthered.
Amen & Ausar Thompson wrote "69" all over their bed growing up because they wanted to be 6'9" like LeBron 🤣 🚨 NEW YM3 WITH THE THOMPSON BROTHERS DROPS TOMORROW AM!!!! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/grhMafpTOx
— TheYoungManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) September 3, 2025
It's not quite clear just how young the Thompson twins were when they furiously wrote the number “69” on the walls as some sort of prayer to the basketball gods to bless them with the height (and athleticism) that was needed to thrive in the NBA. They both stand at 6'7″, which, while two inches shorter than their dream height, is more than enough for them to dominate.
And at the very least, it looks like it worked: the Thompsons are going to be forces to be reckoned with in the league for a long time, and they certainly are two of the most athletic players in the league — not looking too far off from where James was when he was younger.
The Thompson twins manifest their LeBron James-inspired dream
The Thompson twins were older rookies compared to some of their peers in the 2023 NBA Draft class. However, this meant that they were more battle-tested and ready to make an impact from the get-go. And they've done just that for the Rockets and Pistons, respectively.
Amen became a full-time starter last season and was a one-man wrecking crew on defense, averaging 14.1 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks last year for the Rockets. Meanwhile, Ausar was able to shake off his injury problems and he was back to being a menace defensively towards the end of the year for the Pistons.
