LeBron James is not even playing for USA Men’s basketball team in this year’s Tokyo Olympics, yet he is getting all the blame for the squad’s lackluster performance against inferior opponents.
Longtime King James critic Jason Whitlock says the Lakers superstar is culpable for the current team’s seeming apathetic approach to the Olympic games.
“It’s not all LeBron’s fault,” Whitlock wrote for The Blaze. “He’s just the face of the me-first, social media athlete. He decided to wrap himself in the Black Lives Matter flag. He gets the lion’s share of the blame because he’s the one athlete who could have made a difference pushing back against the anti-American tide. Instead, he sold out. He accepted all the checks for lending his name to bad TV projects and political campaigns built on race-baiting.”
Interesting take when James was simply speaking out against chronic police brutality and repeated instances of racial injustices throughout the country. Because of LBJ’s stances over the years, Whitlock claims he will not be remembered in the same vein as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Muhammad Ali — though Ali spoke out about the same issues a half-century ago.
“He’ll be a billionaire soon. But his legacy will always be polarizing and less than what it should be,” Whitlock continued. “His disingenuousness has harmed his likability. His Space Jam movie isn’t half-bad. No one cares. It’s a box-office disaster. LeBron sacrificed half of his domestic appeal to serve Nike’s China interest.”
American indifference to basketball and the Olympics falls at the feet of one man. LeBron won't be remembered the way we remember Ali, Jordan and Magic. pic.twitter.com/1KlvWUeCSL
— Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) July 26, 2021
