LeBron James compared himself and a rookie teammate to Iron Man and Spider-Man after viral footage of him giving the confused youngster advice

• Austin Reaves was extremely confused by LeBron James on-court instructions on Tuesday.
• James saw the funny side, comparing their viral interaction to a scene from a Spider-Man movie.

LeBron James and rookie Austin Reaves instantly became a meme after their hilarious on-court encounter during the Los Angeles Lakers' win over the Brooklyn Nets.

Now, James has joined in on the fun himself.

Reaves, a first year shooting guard, was left visibly confused as James attempted to give him what looked like a set of complex instructions during the fourth quarter of Tuesday's game.

The 23-year-old pulled a series of hilarious faces before eventually throwing his hands in the air in an apparent acceptance of whatever James had told him.

On Wednesday, James compared his and Reaves' interaction to a similar interaction between Iron Man and his protege Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In a scene from the movie "Spider-Man: Homecoming," Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr. tells Tom Holland's Spider-Man: "Don't do anything I would do. And definitely don't do anything I wouldn't do. There's a little gray area in there and that's where you operate."

James shared a photo of his and Reaves' interaction to Instagram next to a snap of Downey Jr. and Holland, using the quote as the caption.

Reaves replied to the post with a series of laughing emojis, while the former NBA star Channing Fyre commented: "Deep Marvel reference. Unknowing that in the Marvel comic universe, Spider-Man is stronger and smarter than Iron man! Big compliment."

James scored 33 points as the Lakers beat the Nets 106-96, meaning he is now less than 2,000 points away from surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the highest points scorer in NBA history.

Adbul-Jabbar scored 38,387 points during his two-decade long career with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers. As of Tuesday night, James has now scored 36,420.

In December, Adbul-Jabbar publicly criticized James after he shared a meme about COVID-19 to his Instagram which incorrectly suggested the virus was the same as both the flu and the common cold.

Adbul-Jabbar wrote a lengthy essay on his Substack page entitled "Dear LeBron" addressing the meme.

"To directly address LeBron's confusion, no one thinks colds and the flu aren't serious," he wrote. "Experts agree that COVID-19 is at least 10 times more lethal than the flu. As for the common cold, death is extremely rare."

Adbul-Jabbar added that the post was "a blow to [James'] worthy legacy."

Despite criticizing James, however, Adbul-Jabbar said earlier this month that he wanted to be in attendance when the Lakers star eventually breaks his NBA scoring record.

"If he can keep up his consistency I'll gladly be there to congratulate him if and when he breaks the scoring record," he wrote on Twitter.