The American Lakers self-media Lakers Lead forwarded an update from Vanderbilt in September 2016. At that time, Vanderbilt posted a photo of himself and James. He jokingly wrote: "James and the GOAT (Lebron and the GOAT) Goat.)."

At the time, Vanderbilt was still a high school senior. He entered college in the fall of 2017 and entered the NBA in 2018.