Fan sues LeBron James for ‘cheating’ after ‘second decision’ tease.
A fan who spent hundreds of dollars buying tickets to what he thought would be one of LeBron James’ final NBA games is looking to get a refund in small claims court after it emerged that the “second decision” that sparked the Lakers star had nothing to do with his retirement.
Norwalk resident Andrew Garcia filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court stating that James owes him $865.66 for “fraud, deception, misrepresentation and any and all grounds for legal recovery.”
Garcia told the Times that he spent that amount to buy two tickets to the Lakers’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 31, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena, thinking it would be the 40-year-old NBA icon’s last game against the team that drafted him in 2003.
He and other basketball fans were under that impression afterward James posted Monday on X He would announce “the decision of all decisions” the next day. The post included a teaser video for “The Second Decision,” an apparent reference to 2010’s “The Decision,” in which James famously announced that he was going to “I’m taking my talents to South Beach“To play for the Miami Heat.
Garcia said he purchased the tickets within 10 minutes of James’ social media post.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, LeBron’s going to retire! We’ve got to get tickets now,'” the 29-year-old Garcia said. “Like, literally, because if he makes this official announcement, you know, there’s going to be some big price changes, right?”
Garcia is a huge fan of the Lakers and James, as well as a fan of basketball in general, so he thinks it will be great to see the NBA’s all-time leading scorer play for the last time against the team he started his career with and won his first title in 2016 after returning from Miami.
“Moments like this, I understand their value,” Garcia said. “There could still be some moderate value [to the tickets]But it’s not the same without his retirement. I remember Kobe’s last year, it was like what it would have been like in itself, where every ticket was worth a lot. Every match had value. …
“I missed it. I was a little younger at the time. Obviously I wasn’t in a position to buy tickets unfortunately at that age. I think I was 18 or 19 at the time. That’s one of my biggest regrets as a sports fan. I really wish I had a Kobe last year. So I see this as a possibility to make up for what I lost with Kobe.”
But the “second decision” ended up having nothing to do with retirement. It was just a Hennessy ad.
Now Garcia wants his money back.
“There’s no circumstance that he’s going to miss saying he’s retiring, and I would have bought tickets much earlier,” Garcia said. “I mean, I buy tickets, but I don’t buy tickets five months in advance. I’m the kind of person who buys tickets five hours in advance. It just kind of depended on that. That’s why I was really thinking, ‘You know, this could be grounds for a lawsuit.'”
The Times reached out to an attorney said to be working with James regarding the claim but did not receive an immediate response.
In light of everything that happened this week, Garcia said he would still be willing to pay the same amount of money to see James play during his final retirement tour.
“Of course,” Garcia said. “Maybe I’ll spend more, because life is about memories and experiences.”