LeBron James is being called out for a now-deleted tweet he posted on Wednesday for the shooting of Ma’khia Bryant, a 16-year old Black girl in Columbus Ohio. In the tweet, the Los Angeles Lakers star showed a photo of the police officer who shot Bryant, Nicholas Reardon, who is White. In the caption, James wrote, “YOU’RE NEXT,” followed by the hashtag “Accountability.”
James later revealed why he deleted the tweet. “ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself!” James wrote on Twitter. “Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!” He also said: “I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer. It’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.”
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“YOU’RE NEXT”
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) April 21, 2021
This post by @KingJames could be read as an incitement to violence against a @ColumbusPolice officer who responded to the attempted stabbing attack by #MakhiaBryant. LeBron James has deleted the tweet. Here is an archive: https://t.co/6Dn4LnS22M #BLM pic.twitter.com/epH7EQFjuf
People on Twitter went after James for the tweet. One person wrote, “LeBron James is a massive racist,” while another person added, “Am I the only one so damn tired of LeBron James?” Currently, James is dealing with an ankle injury and hasn’t talked to the media about the shooting, which comes right after a jury in Minneapolis found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter for the killing of George Floyd in May 2020. James’ teammate Anthony Davis shared his thoughts on the outcome.
They cancelled James O’Keefe for telling the truth but LeBron James still has his Twitter account.
— Rising serpent 🇺🇸 (@rising_serpent) April 22, 2021
“I think a lot of people in the world are happy with the verdict and just being able to give that family peace, [and] a peace of mind,” Davis said Wednesday per ESPN. “I think that it was a first step for justice. I think it was a good day, just for the world, to be able to get justice, because you see so many times where it doesn’t happen.”
