LeBron James has bid farewell to his millions of followers on social media saying he was taking time off.

LeBron, the all-time NBA points record holder, said on X: “And with that said I’ll holla at y’all! Getting off social media for the time being. Y’all take care.”

The 39-year-old, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest players ever, had earlier reposted a tweet by Rich Kleiman, the long-time manager of fellow NBA player Kevin Durant, which criticised the negative coverage of sports.

“We can all acknowledge that sports is the last part of society that universally brings people together. So why can’t the coverage do the same?” Mr Kleiman wrote on 24 October.

“It’s only click bait when you say it. When the platform is so big, you can make the change and allow us all an escape from real life negativity. I for one find it all a waste of breath.”

The LA Lakers star, the NBA’s oldest active player, posted a screenshot of Kleinman’s tweet on X, where the star player has 52.9m followers, saying “AMEN!!”.

On Instagram, he included Mr Kleiman’s words in a story to his 159m followers where he added: “Damn shame what it’s come to!”

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LeBron, who turns 40 next month, is a four-time NBA champion and a three-time Olympic gold medallist, the most recent of those coming earlier this year at the Paris Games.

The Lakers are 10-4, winners of six straight and next play Thursday at home against Orlando.