LeBron James joked on Twitter that he will not be paying $8 per month to keep his blue checkmark

• Twitter is set to retire legacy verified accounts this weekend, making the site's blue checkmark all but meaningless.
• Users that wish to keep their checkmark can subscribe to Twitter Blue for $8 a month.

On the eve of the next era of Twitter, LeBron James is taking a stand.

According to Elon Musk, Twitter plans to retire legacy verified accounts this week, meaning that the only people who will hold onto their blue checkmarks are those that elect to pay for Twitter Blue.

As Twitter has been a free website for the entirety of its existence (save for the mental toll it takes on its users), many tweeters have sworn against paying a monthly subscription in exchange for a blue check that has lost any of the value it used to hold.

On Friday, James counted himself amongst them.

Despite his millions, James has proven himself quite frugal when it comes to frivolous spending over his career.

James was far from alone, as many sports fans on Twitter echoed his sentiment, while also noting what a poor business decision it seemed to be from Musk.

Many other celebrities voiced their displeasure with Musk, and fellow sports superstar Patrick Mahomes also got in on the jokes.

Ironically, James was recently identified as one of 35 VIP users whose tweets were being boosted by Twitter's algorithm. But while Twitter might have an interest in promoting James' tweets, James appears to have no interest in paying them for the pleasure.

Thus far, Twitter's pivot to get more people to start paying for Twitter Blue has been underwhelming.

While one of the main appeals of the premium service was giving paying users their very own checkmark, the blue check has shifted from a symbol of status to one that simply communicates, "I paid for Twitter." Users may even soon be able to hide their checkmarks if ashamed.

The push for Twitter Blue initially extended past individuals to include businesses as well, with Musk saying organizations would be charged $1,000 a month to keep hold of their checkmarks. Businesses collectively balked at this demand, so much so that Musk backed down from the requirement, later stating that 10,000 of its most-followed organizations would keep their checkmarks without a monthly payment.

Given Twitter's decision to back down from forcing businesses to pay for their checks, as well as Musk's continual delay of the fateful day that legacy verification badges would be removed, it's possible that little comes from this weekend's deadline.

But as things stand, the new world of Twitter verification is set to go into place on April 1, 2023. Should be completely normal.