Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Twitter has started getting rid of legacy blue checks for those who don’t pay up. Well, unless you’re LeBron James.
The Verge has confirmed that an employee at Twitter emailed James, who has previously said he wouldn’t pay for verification, to “extend a complimentary subscription to Twitter Blue for your account, @kingjames, on behalf of Elon Musk.”
We contacted James’ longtime media advisor, Adam Mendelsohn, who confirmed that James hasn’t paid to be verified.
James has perhaps been the most famous hater of paid verification on Twitter, insisting that, like Martin Lawrence’s TV show character, “I ain’t paying the $5.” But if you check his profile right now, he still has a verified badge. Once you hover over the badge, it says that…
