“Bullies are straight up wack, corny, cowards, chumps, etc, etc!” The remark made by LeBron James in support of a sixth grader highlighted that the NBA star himself has dealt with his share of bullying. After all, one does not serve and excel in the NBA for over 21 years without developing some haters. Unfortunately, in the cases of many NBA players, the bullying often affects family members. With the advent of social media, this issue has only increased. For instance, LeBron’s wife and children are often subjected to hate comments in the digital space. Fortunately, an ‘Internet Aunty’ has now assured Savannah that she and her children are not alone in the fight to squash this bullying.

In a segment of her Everybody’s Crazy podcast, Savannah James and co-host April talked with fans. One of the callers described herself as a member of an “Internet Aunties Club for Bryce, Zhuri and Bronny.” Her role as a member of this group involved replying back to any “reckless” comments against the James children, within 30 seconds. As the ‘Internet Aunty’ credited Savannah for making the celebrity family so relatable, which in turn caused her to see the James children as her own “blood nieces and nephews”, the 38-year-old couldn’t help but be grateful for the support.

“That’s so sweet. I want to say thank you so much because it be…. It’s hard out here,” said Savannah.

Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Lakers star’s wife experienced her own share of bullying. Ironically, it was in regards to the very same podcast on which she recently expressed her thankfulness for someone taking action against the spread of hate. Back in March, just as the announcement was made about the launch of ‘Everybody’s Crazy’, Dr. Maliek Blade, a self-described author, highlighted how Savannah was getting criticized over concerns that she would tarnish her own image through the podcast. Other social media users also highlighted this issue, with one of them describing the hate as nothing more than “nasty work.” With complaints reportedly running rampant that Savannah would “ruin the illusion”, the same would have been enough for any excitement about the podcast to be diminished.

Fortunately, Mrs James did not let any of the criticism get her way. Within a span of four months, ‘Everybody’s Crazy’ has released over 13 episodes spread over two seasons. While Savannah did use the platform to highlight some unknown personal details, the episodes also featured some wholesome moments like Bryce James prank-calling his mother to the 38-year-old sharing details about her mental health struggles. Now, with the message from the ‘Internet Aunty’, Savannah knows that her determination in continuing through with the podcast has also helped her children.

While not much has been known about any cyberbullying faced by LeBron James’s youngest children, his eldest son, Bronny, has certainly been subjected to quite a noticeable amount of hate. The spotlight on the 19-year-old only increased as he attempted to follow in his father’s footsteps and make it to the NBA. As he struggled during his tenure at the University of South Carolina and only recorded abysmal stats, the social media world did not choose to be merciful. As a result, the NBA All-Time scorer himself came to his son’s defense on several occasions. In now-deleted tweets, he would reply back to ‘haters’ with remarks like “Let the kid be a kid” and “Let’s talk REAL BASKETBALL PEOPLE!!” As for Bronny himself, LeBron stated in a July interview “He doesn’t care. I actually care a little bit. When I came in (as a rookie), I wanted people to like me and some of the things that people were saying about me kind of bothered me early on in my career. … He doesn’t give a f**k.”

Standing up to bullies is something that the James family seems to have adapted as the four-time NBA champion’s career progressed. As for Savannah, she had some earlier experience to help her along the road.

Savannah James revealed having to deal with bullies during her school days “I had to defend myself”

Given the trouble that she faced during the launch of the ‘Everybody’s Crazy’ podcast, there would have been no better for Savannah to share her previous experiences in dealing with bullies. That is what she ended up doing in an episode published back in May. Before she met the future NBA star, Mrs James revealed that she got into a lot of fights during her high school days. Not because she enjoyed doing so, but because the alleged hate she received didn’t leave her with any other choice.

“I had to defend myself,” said Savannah. “I had a lot of that. I had girls who didn’t like me and couldn’t tell anybody why they didn’t like me. My whole group of friends, it was tough. It was a lot.”

Describing herself as a ‘nice’ person, Mrs James believed that the majority of the fights she got in was simply to support any bullying being faced by her group of friends. While she “got along with a majority, everybody” it was tough to avoid that experience that every high schooler has to go through at least once.

Even today, Savannah continues to stand as a pillar of support, to her husband and her three children. With Bronny James set to make his NBA debut a couple of weeks from now, fans will have to wait and see whether the long-running bullying will continue to haunt the young star even on the biggest stage of his professional career.

Before you go, remember to check out this crossover between BG12 and Georgia Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr.