Men of a certain age sure love to golf. It’s almost like a rite of passage if they missed out on learning the game in their youth. Once they hit 40, the clubs come out, often at the expense of everything else in their life. The golf bug is real.
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LeBron James has been afflicted by the golf bug, and any NBA fan with a social media account got a good glimpse at it this summer. At any given time, the odds were good that LeBron was out on the links, working on his swing.
LeBron is one of the greatest athletes of all time, but the great thing about golf is that anyone can play, even if they’re very, very short. Kevin Hart is just a few years older than LeBron, and although he’s but a tiny man, he too has gotten into the game.
Hart is famous for pairing with The Rock in numerous movies, deriving comedy from the sheer size difference and the on-screen chemistry the two have. The two often have a frenemy vibe in their roles, and on his recent appearance on the 360 With Speedy podcast, Hart revealed that he has a bit of the same thing with LeBron in real life.
Both men took up golf just a few months ago, and so a sort of rivalry has developed. “I don’t think you should put me and LeBron in the same conversation,” Hart said. When Speedy asked, “How badly do you think LeBron would beat you?” the diminutive comedian took offense. “I don’t know how we got there,” he said. “Because I think LeBron is behind me.”
Hart felt so strongly about it that he turned to the third person. “LeBron James, in the sport of golf, is not on par with Kevin Hart,” he declared. Hart’s lack of size would make him essentially useless against LeBron on a basketball court, but with a golf club in his hand, he says it helps.
“I’m smaller, so it’s easier for me to navigate that club and make the club work for me. Golf is a harder game for taller people.” It sounds like a bit that Hart would do on one of his many funny DraftKings commercials with LeBron. It’s easy to picture the two of them on the course needling each other.
There are actual stakes to this rivalry, as Hart revealed to Speedy. “I’m actually playing LeBron at the end of the year,” he said, “in a very, very serious heads-up match.”
Hart has been posting videos of himself on golf courses on Instagram for weeks now, taking shots at LeBron in two different posts. In a six-week-old post, he warned The King of a major a** whooping, and more of the same a few weeks ago as well.
As far as what’s on the line, Hart initially told Speedy that it was none of his business, but he soon let it slip that they were playing for a charitable contribution and a personal bet between them. He played it coy, saying, “I don’t think the numbers are important,” as Speedy pressed him for details, but then said, “We have a nice little six-figure bet.”
That would be life-changing money for most people, but for LeBron and Hart, they could probably find that in their couch cushions. Whoever wins, we all have to hope that the match is televised in some way, because it’s definitely going to be entertaining.
