"Joe Burrow called him NFL Embiid': NBA fans react as Lamar Jackson drops cryptic LeBron James tweet

NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson dropped a LeBron James GIF on X, formerly known as Twitter, on X. The post seemingly came out of left field, without an accompanying caption to provide context.

Despite that, the fact that the Baltimore Ravens quarterback used a GIF of the LA Lakers star was enough to get the NBA community talking. Additionally, the GIF showed the future Hall of Famer pretending to be scared, which only added more fuel to the fire as fans wondered what the post meant.

Without any context from Jackson, fans spread rumors and threw out their own theories, with one fan offering a baseless theory that the GIF was in response to Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.

"Joe Burrow called him NFL Embiid," the fan wrote.

Others offered their own theories.

"He prolly saw the lebron lebron lebron James song and someone else made Lamar Lamar Lamar Jackson on tiktok," one wrote.

"Good gif goat," another replied.

"LEBRON X LAMAR???" one added.

As it turns out, the whole thing was one big social experiment. In a follow-up, Lamar Jackson shared a screenshot of an Instagram story post he made two hours prior, where he said that he was going to post a random gif on Twitter just to see what kind of narratives fans create online.

Looking back at the time Lamar Jackson and LeBron James spoke about how they lock in before game time

While there was no particular reason that Lamar Jackson shared a LeBron James GIF on social media on Wednesday, the two have a pretty good relationship.

In October, Jackson appeared on James' show "The Shop," where the two spoke about their game-day routines.

Jackson told the future Hall of Famer that he doesn't relate to his pregame routine and prefers to arrive just an hour before kickoff. Additionally, he carpools with one of his teammates, saying that the routine has become somewhat of a game-day tradition for them.

On the flip side, LeBron James shared his routine, saying that he arrives at the arena five hours or so before tipoff. He then immediately goes to the locker room to get a lift in while listening to some hip-hop to amp him up.

After that, he listens to some more mellow music to unwind before then jumping into his pregame routine with the team.

While the two have wildly different game-day routines, it's hard to deny that both have seemingly found something that works for them.