Looks like Shohei Ohtani has officially run out of new ways to amaze people as he’s got the entire sports world talking, again. And even if anyone somehow still wasn’t paying attention, his 2025 postseason numbers surely caught them up.

Take LeBron James, for example. He’s now focused on trying to push the Lakers toward a title, and even showing some hometown love to the Dodgers. But he’s just as blown away as everyone else by what Ohtani pulled off in NLCS Game 4. On a recent podcast, LeBron opened up about how he felt watching Ohtani take over that game.

Sure, Ohtani gets praise all the time… But hearing that kind of admiration from an all-time great in a completely different sport hits a little differently.

“LeBron James reveals he and his friends were raving about Shohei Ohtani in a group chat after his NLCS Game 4 performance that saw him record 10 strikeouts and 3 home runs,” DodgersNation shared via Instagram.

Well, Ohtani’s NLCS Game 4 performance was the kind of thing people could talk about forever, and for good reason. He went 3-for-3 with 3 HRs, drew a walk. Then took the mound and punched out 10 hitters over six scoreless innings. One player doing that? It barely sounds real!!!

Even LeBron pointed out that if two different guys—one hitter and one pitcher—pulled that off, it would still be a massive story. But one person doing both? There’s really no proper reaction except pure disbelief.

“If I sent y’all a message and said that a guy struck out ten batters in an NLCS, you guys would be like ‘Oh, that was a hell of a game by that pitcher. Wow.’ And if I sent a separate text and said that in that same game. Another guy came in and had three home runs in that same game… The same guy did that. He did both of those,” said James, via the Mind The Game Podcast.

So it wasn’t just fans who were left speechless. Even LeBron, who just became the first NBA player ever to play in 23 seasons after the Lakers’ 140–126 win over the Jazz on Tuesday, couldn’t help but marvel at what Ohtani did.

Ohtani is touching heights unheard of earlier

Ohtani’s one-of-a-kind talent on the field is matched pretty perfectly by what he’s doing off it. For instance, most of Ohtani’s $700 million deal is deferred, and he’s only making $2 million in salary right now. But he’s still the second-highest earner in MLB behind Juan Soto. Why?

He’s on pace to pull in about $100 million this year from endorsements, merch, and licensing.

That number says everything about how massive his popularity has become.

Notably, before Ohtani, the most an MLB player could expect in endorsements was around $10 million from Derek Jeter or Ichiro Suzuki.

This year alone, Ohtani added about six new companies to his endorsement roster. This got boosted even more by his first season with the Dodgers. And with the way he keeps rewriting the record books on the field, don’t be surprised if MLB starts seeing some firsts that only Ohtani could deliver.