LeBron James' dirty secret revealed: 'Worst diet ever'

The man is a freak of nature. Photo / Instagram.

LeBron James business partner Maverick Carter once claimed the NBA superstar spends $1.5 million a year on his body.

It's a staggering amount that covers the cost of personal chefs and trainers and recovery equipment like cryotherapy and hyperbaric chambers.

A glimpse at the LA Lakers star's incredible physique — and his position among the very best basketball players in the world at age 35 — appears to back up the suggestion James takes perfect care of his body.

But former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate Tristan Thompson is here to bust the myth.

The Athletic asked 30 NBA players, coaches and other people who have known James since childhood for their favourite stories about the 16-time All-Star and Thompson dropped some inside info.

"He has the worst f***ing diet ever," Thompson said. "Ask him what he eats for breakfast. He has like five french toast, drowns it in syrup with strawberries and bananas. Then he has like a four-egg omelette and then he goes and just f***ing dunks on somebody. It doesn't make sense.

"He eats desserts with every meal. He'll come with his one-week diet, vegan crap, but he literally eats like it doesn't make sense. He's really a specimen. He eats like s***. I remember one year I tried to eat like he ate and it just didn't work out. I started gaining weight and said, 'F*** this'. I mean it works for him. He loves sweets. He loves sweets. He eats desserts and French toast. It's crazy how his body just burns it."

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If that's legit, another story by another former Cavs teammate, Kyle Korver, offered insight into how James keeps looking like this.

Korver fancied himself as the king of the Versaclimber — a total body cardio workout machine — until he met James.

"One of the years in the playoffs, we'd always do those things, the Versaclimber, because there would always be seven to 10 days between series," Korver said.

"We'd do these team cardio challenges, like relay challenges. That's kind of my thing. Like, I can go. I can't go that fast all the time, but I can go for a really long time.

"So we do this challenge, and I have never thrown up from doing cardio. And I am just, I feel like I might throw up. There's those benches on the side of the court, and I'm like keeled over. 'Bring the stretcher'. LeBron walked off the Versaclimber, onto the court, gets the ball, looks at the far basket, full sprint goes at it, jumps from outside the charge circle and windmill dunks it. And I'm like keeled over, trying to breathe, doing something that's like what I do. And this dude windmill dunks it.

"That is the most amazing thing I have ever seen anyone do. It was unbelievable. I was like, 'This guy is from a different world'. His team might've won the relay. He went hard, and he worked before that, too. Everybody was gasping. I looked at Channing (Frye) like, 'That was amazing'."

Long live the King.