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NBA legend LeBron James recently exchanged words with former World Series champion Martin Maldonado during a Lakers practice session.
The Los Angeles Angels power forward is considered one of the best NBA players of all time. Maldonado, meanwhile, has represented five clubs in Major League Baseball, namely the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, and Chicago Cubs. He is the only catcher in MLB history to catch multiple combined no-hitters.
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The two greats in their respective sports met at courtside where LeBron indulged in a short conversation with the former Astros catcher. Later, both were seen sharing a frame in an official post on the X account, formerly known as Twitter, of MLB.
Martin Maldonado is a free agent this offseason. With a career batting average of .207, Maldonado does not boast an exceptional batting career. In his vast 13-year career, he's managed to hit 111 home runs and has recorded 685 hits.
MLB fans critiqued King James' gesture towards Martin Maldonado
MLB fans were quick to pass their judgments on the courtside meeting of the two stars. One of the fans raised the question as to why King James did not indulge in hugs and handshakes, and also called Maldonado an intangible.
"No hug, handshake or fist bump?"
Ari Alexander, the MLB insider, confirmed all the formalities happened, but he missed shooting those moments on camera.
"There was all that, I just missed it by 5 seconds."
Some asserted that LeBron does not know who Martin Maldonado is and questioned the 2022 World Series Champion's success. However, Ari Alexander defended Maldonado with facts and figures in his post on X.
He wrote on X, "Martin Maldonado isn’t a good hitter. We know. Martin Maldonado is also a World Series Champion, a Gold Glove winner, has 10 years of MLB service time (less than 10% of MLBers achieve this), and has made $51 million in his career. By any reasonable measure, the guy has had success.
