*LeBron James is speaking out about the controversial tweet he posted last month regarding the fatal police shooting of 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio.
We previously reported that James caught major heat for posting a photo of Nicholas Reardon, the Columbus police officer who fatally shot Bryant, and captioning the image “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY,” along with an hourglass emoji. His post was in reference to former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin being found guilty on three counts in the murder of George Floyd.
James’ tweet pissed off the white supremacists and their Black bootlicks like Candace Owens, who responded by calling the Lakers star a “loser” and Reardon a “hero.”
“If America was a country that believed in justice, Lebron James would be stripped of all of his sponsorships,” Owens tweeted, noting her support of the cancel culture movement.
James deleted his initial tweet and explained in a follow-up post that he reacted out of “ANGER.”
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I fueled the wrong conversation about Ma’Khia Bryant and I owe it to her and this movement to change it. Thank you @fabiolacineas for educating us about Ma’Khia and her story and why this needs to be about her. https://t.co/Owh1vDJWXi #sayhername #Blacklivesmatter
— LeBron James (@KingJames) May 3, 2021
“ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself!” he tweeted. “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!”
On Monday, the Los Angeles Lakers star tweeted the link to a Vox article titled, “Why they’re not saying Ma’Khia Bryant’s name, along with a caption addressing his original Twitter post.
“I fueled the wrong conversation about Ma’Khia Bryant and I owe it to her and this movement to change it,” James said, before giving props to Fabiola Cineas, the writer behind the article. “Thank you @fabiolacineas for educating us about Ma’Khia and her story and why this needs to be about her #sayhername#Blacklivesmatter.”
In her Vox article, Cineas wrote: “Bryant’s death has become a debate that questions a child’s actions – and worthiness to live – instead of another example of the racism of policing and the institution’s failure to provide wholesome support, care, and safety for the communities it serves.”
She also noted, “it’s worth considering whether the police officer would have fired shots if Bryant or the people involved in the altercation were white.”
Bryant was fatally shot just before Chauvin’s guilty verdict was announced for the May 2020 murder of George Floyd.
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