Live microphone exposes LeBron's "Karen" sledge

The heated incident between NBA star LeBron James and a courtside Karen has been captured on a live microphone.

An extraordinary scene of spectators and James exchanging verbal barbs in the middle of Tuesday's NBA game between the Atlanta Hawks and Los Angeles Lakers resulted in the game being halted for several minutes.

Reports claimed after the game that four people were ejected from the State Farm Arena — and it was later revealed that one was the wife of Atlanta businessman Chris Carlos.

Juliana Carlos then went on a foul-mouthed tirade in a video posted to her 65,000 followers on Instagram where she claimed James "talked s***" to her husband.

The incident was the talk of the NBA world on Tuesday and James addressed the incident after the game saying Chris Carlos' "went out of bounds" with his coutside heckling.

An audio recording of the entire incident has now emerged, exposing some of the ugly sledges exchanged between the couple and the NBA superstar.

A video posted by NBA YouTube channel Jomboy Media shows a detailed breakdown of the heated exchange.

In the video, Juliana can be heard saying: "You f*** off. Don't talk to my husband like that."

James has also been caught by the microphone appearing to tell the referee that heckling from Chris Carlos started the entire war of words.

"It was the husband first though. It was the husband first," he told the referee before he was sledged by Juliana again.

"Shut up. Ranky a**. Shut the f*** up. Old steroid a**, they never shut the f*** up."

The video claims the "ranky a**" comment was directed at Juliana.

James didn't mention Juliana directly when speaking to reporters after the game, but had a laugh about it on social media.

"Courtside Karen was MAD Mad!!," he posted on Twitter.

Juliana Carlos was less conciliatory when she uploaded an expletive-filled video to social media after the incident.

But the squabble took another turn on Wednesday (AEDT) when she uploaded another post on Instagram to apologise for her behaviour. She did not apologise to James directly.

She was on the war path earlier.

"Just got kicked out of the game for talking s**t to LeBron James for talking s**t to my f***ing husband. This is such f***ing bulls**t," she said in a video.

"LeBron James looked at my husband during the game and cussed him out. And I stood up and I go, 'Don't f***ing talk to my husband. Talk to my husband one more time and I will f**k you up.'

"And he started fighting with me and he goes, 'Shut your mouth, dumb b***h.'

"And I go, 'You shut your mouth, dumb b***h.'"

She continued her rant in another Instagram video later that day: "LeBron, you're a f***ing p***y. Get the f**k out of here.

"You're going to let a 25-year-old girl intimidate you during a game? Bye b***h."

James spoke to reporters about the incident after the 107-99 victory, saying: "I don't want to say he went overboard but he went a little bit out of bounds, a little too close for comfort for me.

"It was so close to the officials that I think the official heard it as well, what he said. And it kind of got blown out of proportion.

"And it's like sometimes on the floor, when two guys get into a scuffle or get into a little jostling and refs come in and try and break it up really fast and it looks bigger than what it really it is. That's what it pretty much was tonight.

"The difference is we're on the court and we're not having any alcoholic beverages. They might have had some alcoholic beverages on the side, so that could have – it made him feel tougher than what they really are, I would say.

"I don't feel like it was warranted to be kicked out. There was a back-and-forth between two grown men."

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission