Max Verstappen Defeats LeBron James in an ‘Athlete of the Year’ Contest

Max Verstappen Defeats LeBron James in an ‘Athlete of the Year’ Contest

In an end-of-the-year Instagram poll with millions of fans participating, Max Verstappen stole the show as LeBron James tasted defeat to the Dutchman’s prowess. In 2023, both James and Verstappen have been on the top of their respective games. Whilst the latter won his third consecutive F1 world title on the back of a record-breaking season, his NBA counterpart became the leading scorer in the history of the sport in February.

In the first round of voting between the followers of ‘PUBITY SPORT‘ on Instagram, James and Verstappen faced Michael Smith and Shohei Ohtani, respectively. Despite Smith’s World No. 1 ranking in the sport of Darts and Ohtani’s massive $700 million/20-year contract with The Dodgers, both James and Verstappen triumphed over their rivals.

They then came face-to-face with each other in round two of the voting poll. Over 2.2 million followers of PUBITY SPORT voted to decide who would prevail to the next round. James won the accolade of the highest-scoring player in the history of the NBA with a whopping 38,387+ points. That being said, Verstappen still beat him after the fans decided to give preference to his epic 19 Grands Prix win season.

In the end, Verstappen lost out to Indian cricketer Virat Kohli in the very next round. What’s more, the ‘Athlete of the Year’ award’s final round pits Ballon D’or and World Cup winner Lionel Messi against Kohli. As for James and Verstappen, they are also expected to square off in 2024 as well.

LeBron James and Max Verstappen tipped to dominate 2024

LeBron James is enjoying a pretty solid season with the LA Lakers in the new NBA season. On the other hand, Max Verstappen is tipped to break the records he set himself in 2023. With the RB20 being rumored to be even more dominant than the 21-race-winning RB19, many expect the Dutchman to continue his domination next year.

This year, Verstappen won an unprecedented 19 races in a 22-race calendar. Many are now tipping the 26-year-old to do even better in 2024.

However, the chances of that happening with a really competitive grid closing in on Red Bull seems unlikely. Only if Red Bull are able to open a gap as big as they did in 2023 will they likely be able to replicate a kind of domination as seen this year.

This social-media battle between LeBron James and Max Verstappen is interesting as the former is a huge supporter of Lewis Hamilton. On the other hand, the Dutchman barely watches the NBA.

Post Edited By: Vidit Dhawan
LA Lakers LeBron James Max Verstappen Red Bull

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

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