A new study compiled using geotagged data from social media posts has found that National Basketball Association player Lebron James is the most reviled NBA player in the United States. James has received much mockery over what critics see as the frequent ignorant and nonsensical political statements he makes on social media.
Sports betting site Sports Insider compiled a geotagged map that found James was viewed as the most unfavorably viewed player in the NBA in a staggering 24 of 50 states, or nearly half of the country. The runner-up to James was an NBA player named Kyrie Irving, who has also verbally attacked basketball fans as “racist” in 2021.
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James, who ardently posts about his support for Black Lives Matter on social media, was most recently castigated for a since-deleted post that appeared to many critics to call for violence against a police officer who shot a knife-wielding assailant that had threatened the life of another teen in Columbus, Ohio:
NBA player LeBron James threatened the Columbus police officer involved in the shooting of the knife attacker teen, Ma’Khia Bryant, in a post on Twitter. After the full bodycam video was released showing that the officer had actually saved a black life, James quickly deleted the tweet.
In the now deleted post, James put the officer’s picture up for the world to see with the caption “YOU’RE NEXT” in all caps next to an hourglass emoji with the hashtag “#ACCOUNTABILITY”.
Despite the Ohio situation appearing to have nothing to do with “systematic” or “systemic” racism, an angry mob of Black Lives Matter supporters swarmed police and screamed profanity outside of the police headquarters in Columbus. The Biden administration also weighed in on the Columbus incident, attempting to tie it in to their notion of widespread systemic racism in the United States.