Elon Musk pays for blue tick on Twitter for LeBron James

Twitter has started getting rid of legacy blue checks for those who don’t pay up. Well, unless you’re LeBron James and a couple of other celebrities.

The Verge has confirmed that an employee at Twitter recently 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. However, after we first published this information, Musk said that he’s paying “a few” subscriptions “personally,” including for the accounts belonging to Stephen King and William Shatner.

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, he still has a verified badge. Once you hover over the badge, it says that “this account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”