NBA star LeBron James found himself in hot water over the weekend after sharing song lyrics about “Jewish money” with nearly 46 million Instagram followers.
The three-time NBA champion told ESPN on Sunday that quoting hip-hop artist 21 Savage’s “ASMR” on his social-media feed was supposed to be a “compliment.”
“We been getting that Jewish money, Everything is Kosher,” the Los Angeles Lakers forward originally posted.
“Apologies, for sure, if I offended anyone,” James said. “That’s not why I chose to share that lyric. I always [share 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.”
James’ post came less than one week since making headlines with a separate round of political commentary — accusing the National Football League of having a “slave mentality” toward players.
“In the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality,” the athlete said on a recent episode of his HBO Sports series The Shop. “And it’s like, ’This is my team. You do what the f— I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all. … The players are who make the ship go. We make it go. Every Sunday, without Todd Gurley and without Odell Beckham Jr., without those players, those guys, there is no football.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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