LeBron James recently posted a COVID-19 meme, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went after him for it. Right before Christmas, James posted the famous Spider-Man meme which shows three Spider-Men pointing at each other. But what made the meme interesting was one Spider-Man was labeled cold, one was labeled flu and the other was labeled COVID, with James captioning, “Help me out, folks.”
Abdul-Jabbar called out James for the member on his latest SubStack column. “The meme’s implication is that LeBron doesn’t understand the difference among these three illnesses, even after all the information that’s been presented in the press. Well, since he asked, let me help him out by explaining the difference—and how knowing that difference might save lives, especially in the Black community,” the NBA legend wrote.
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Abdul-Jabbar went on to report facts about getting vaccinated. “As is evident by some of the comments that cheer LeBron’s post, he’s given support to those not getting vaccinated, which makes the situation for all of worse by postponing our health and economic recovery,” he wrote. “The CDC reports that those who are unvaccinated are 9 times more likely to be admitted to the hospital and 14 times more likely to die from COVID than those vaccinated. The number rises to 20 times more likely when compared to someone who’s gotten a booster shot. By posting the uninformed meme, LeBron has encouraged vaccine hesitancy which puts lives and livelihoods at risk.”
James, who received the COVID-19 vaccine, was hesitant about getting vaccinated at first. “I don’t talk about other people and what they should do,” the Los Angeles Lakers star said. “We’re talking about individual bodies. We’re not talking about something political or racism or police brutality. I don’t think I personally should get involved in what other people do for their bodies and livelihoods … I know what I did for me and my family … But as far as speaking for everybody and their individualities and things they want to do, that’s not my job.”
According to Fox News, there are 100 players in the NBA’s health and safety protocols before Christmas. The league recently mandated each team to organize a booster-shot event for players, staff and family members by Dec. 31. There are no plans to pause the season due to the surging COVID-19 cases.
