No joke, Malcolm Gladwell just challenged LeBron James to a mile race. Gladwell tweeted this suggestion on Wednesday afternoon and now his followers are freaking out. Clearly, we are too and we’re crossing out fingers hoping that this race materializes. Please let this become a thing.

As the Canadian literary king puts it, he wants to race LeBron James anywhere, anytime. See for yourself.

Gladwell is quite the runner and makes his interest in the sport known. He started distance running in his town of Elmira, Ont. when he was growing up. Actually, he was even an OFSAA champion is his day. Recently, he also told Outside Magazine that he thinks listening to music while running is soft. (Pro-music runners were rather outraged to our amusement.)

His latest murmurings about running have already caused quite the stir among his followers. Of course, a storm of tweets ensured. This one was our favourite:

Gladwell vs. LeBron > Mayweather vs. McGregor Make it happen, @CitiusMag https://t.co/DpkOaha3jy — Stanley Kay (@citizen_kay) August 23, 2017

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The highly regarded author of Tipping Point, Outliers, What The Dog Saw and many others has run the 5th Avenue Mile three times in his racing career. He ran in 2013, 2014 and 2015 running 4:54 in 2014.

So far, LeBron James hasn’t acknowledged Gladwell’s challenge. This is him if he wins:

We’re not going to lie: we’re monitoring twitter with hawk eyes. Here’s some snapshots of the Gladwell versus LeBron discussion so far:

Malcolm already wrote the book on beating Lebron in a race: David vs Goliath — Chichen Pizza (@Chichen_Pizza) August 23, 2017

If you win he has to start shooting free throws underhand — Matthew Jacobson (@MattRJacobson) August 23, 2017

I’d pay green money to see that. Heck, I’d even pay Canadian money to see that. — John Jansen (@johnjansen) August 23, 2017

I’d donate a good chunk of change to a worthy charity to see this. — Tim Snell (@tj_snell) August 23, 2017

Please LBJ, accept this! I never asked you anything before! — Bot pastoral (@Emiliogarofalon) August 23, 2017

This was our least favourite tweet. This guy is just wrong. We care.

Except, i dont think people care to see you run. No offense. — Sid Mathur (@smoothdelicious) August 23, 2017

Go Gladwell, you got this. Running books nerds got your back!