LeBron James takes to Twitter to say that he fueled the wrong conversation when it came to the shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant.
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LeBron James has always prided himself as being one of the most outspoken athletes in North American sports today, with a major focus on bringing to light the racial injustices that take place in the United States, to the forefront.
James strongly condemned Derek Chauvin and his very public murder of George Floyd in 2020 and led the NBPA alongside Chris Paul and George Hill in the Bubble, to use it as a platform to voice their disapproval of various police shootings across the country.
Fast-forward a year later and merely 20 minutes after Chauvin was convicted on all 3 charges that were pressed against him, there were reports of yet another person of African American descent being gunned down in America.
16 year old Ma’Khia Bryant was in a fight with two other girls and all 3 were armed with knives at the time. Upon seeing the potential escalation of the situation, officer Nicholas Reardon fired off shots at Bryant which resulted in her losing her life.
LeBron James didn’t waste any time and took to Twitter to boldly plaster the face of the officer who fired off the shots and captioned it with, “YOU’RE NEXT”.
LeBron James admits that he approached the Ma’Khia Bryant situation a bit too hastily
Following an incredible amount of backlash on this tweet of his, James ultimately decided to delete and tweet out that he sent out the message due to the amount of anger he felt upon hearing of Bryant’s death.
Now, after nearly 2 weeks having passed since the shooting, LeBron James takes to Twitter to admit that he was at fault for tweeting out his initial response to the Ma’Khia Bryant shooting in Columbus, Ohio.
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
The article highlights the negligence of the officers to properly assess the situation and decipher whether or not Bryant was the attacker in the moment or if she was merely defending herself while being armed with a knife.
LeBron was called out by several right-wing personalities such as Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro who profusely claimed that Bryant was the aggressor here and that the parents of the other two girls involved should be thanking Nicholas Reardon for taking swift and necessary action.
