Los Angeles Lakers’ forward LeBron James, who many believe is the best basketball player in the world and even the greatest player of all time, on Sunday apologized for lyrics he posted on his Instagram account over the weekend, which went:
“We been gettin’ that Jewish money, everything is Kosher (On God) Bought myself a ‘Ventador and bought my bitch a Roadster (Straight up) Drive my Lambo to the store, I’ma wave with my doors.”
James was quoting the song “ASMR” by hip-hop artist Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, stage name “21 Savage.” He has since removed the post from his Instagram account, but he is still the focal point of a controversy.
Attempting to evade the scandal, James spoke to ESPN after the Lakers’ 107-99 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, and said, “Apologies, for sure, if I offended anyone. That’s not why I chose to share that lyric. I always [post lyrics]. That’s what I do. I ride in my car, I listen to great music and that was the byproduct of it. So, I actually thought it was a compliment and obviously it wasn’t through the lens of a lot of people. My apologies. It definitely was not the intent, obviously, to hurt anybody.”
Back in 2016, when James was playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was instrumental in getting the team’s Israeli head coach David Blatt fired. James publicly disagreed with the coach, called the timeouts on his own, and even made the substitutions. James’ animosity towards Blatt came to a climax in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, when LeBron shamed Blatt into wiping a play off the board during a timeout and drawing up a new one.
As Fox News reporter Teddy Mitrosilis put it, “At that point, you just knew this wouldn’t last. Blatt was done in Cleveland.”