LeBron James is off the hook for $865.66 after fan calls off ‘Second Decision’ small-claims suit
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- A Lakers fan dropped his small-claims lawsuit against LeBron James after a fantasy sports app gave him $865.66 — the amount he had spent on tickets — in promo funds.
- Andrew Garcia had sued for fraud after buying tickets believing James was announcing his retirement, but the “Second Decision” teaser was selling Hennessy.
- Lakers ticket sales surged 25-fold after James’ social media post, with average prices jumping from $280 to $399 before returning to normal.
LeBron James no longer has to worry about appearing in small-claims court over the nearly $900 a Lakers fan spent on tickets while under the impression that the superstar player was retiring at the end of the season.
Norwalk resident Andrew Garcia asked the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday to dismiss without prejudice a claim he had filed earlier this month seeking to recoup money he laid out after an announcement teased by James on social media ended up having nothing to do with his NBA career coming to an end. James is going into his 23rd season with the league.
Garcia said Monday that he decided to drop the case after he accepted an offer from the PrizePicks fantasy sports app. The company deposited promo funds worth $865.66 — the full amount Garcia spent on two tickets to the Lakers’ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 31, 2026 — into Garcia’s PrizePicks account, according to documentation viewed by The Times.
A fan is taking LeBron James to small claims court after spending $865.66 on Lakers tickets thinking the NBA icon was retiring. James’ teased ‘decision’ was a Hennessy promotion.
Garcia said he was told he would be able to cash out any winnings he receives off those transactions. In addition, he said, PrizePicks will be giving him tickets to a Lakers game of his choice and some other merchandise.
“I didn’t have to dismiss the case” to receive the deal from PrizePicks, Garcia said, “but I chose to, because I was like, you know, you guys are fully compensating me for my loss, and then some. There’s no reason for me to further pursue this, because then it would look like I’m double-dipping, you know?”
PrizePicks’ vice president of communications, Elisa Richardson, confirmed the deal in an email to The Times.
“We reached out to Andrew after seeing the news and finding out he was a PrizePicks player,” Richardson wrote. “We’re always looking for ways to surprise and delight our players.”
With The King’s record-setting 23rd NBA season stalled by a sciatica issue, the franchise falls squarely on the Slovenian’s shoulders.
Garcia didn’t waste any time before putting the promo funds to use. He bet the entire amount on Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold and Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud tossing at least one touchdown pass each on “Monday Night Football.” The two signal callers ended up throwing for one score apiece, and Garcia cashed out at $1,125.36 — a net gain of $259.70.
“So the LeBron case ended up being profitable for me,” Garcia said via text message Tuesday morning.
On Oct. 6, James posted on social media that he would announce “the decision of all decisions” the next day. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer also included a video clip teasing “The Second Decision,” a reference to 2010’s “The Decision,” in which James famously announced his intention to play for the Miami Heat.
Garcia wasn’t the only person who thought a retirement announcement was imminent — and he also wasn’t the only one who wanted to be sure to see James on his farewell tour. According to Victory Live, which analyzes verified ticket resale data across the secondary market, ticket sales for Lakers games jumped 25 times higher than usual after James’ teaser post, and the average price for those tickets increased from $280 to $399.
Ticket sales and prices returned to normal soon after it was revealed that “The Second Decision” was nothing more than a Hennessy ad. In his lawsuit, Garcia claimed James owed him the amount he had paid for the tickets because of “fraud, deception, misrepresentation, and any and all basis of legal recovery.”
