LeBron James jumped to Twitter this weekend to mock an Ohio bar owner refusing to show NBA games until James is expelled from the league.
James responded to the bar owner, Jay Linneman, in the captioned portion of a news story that showed him yawning.
“I was headed there to watch our game tonight and have a drink! Welp.”
Linneman decided to boycott NBA games after James tweeted and then deleted a post picturing one of the officers present at the Ma’Khia Bryant shooting. The caption for the post read, “YOU’RE NEXT.”
Linneman, the owner of Linnie’s Pub in New Delhi Township, took to Facebook to let everyone know they’d have to go elsewhere to watch the NBA.
“If anyone wants to watch an NBA game, don’t come to Linnie’s Pub,” the post reads. “We will not air them until LeBron James has been expelled from the NBA.”
Following a torrent of backlash on social media, James deleted the tweet targeting the Columbus cop within hours of posting it. Later Wednesday evening, he posted his explanation for deleting the tweet, but no apology for tweeting it.
“ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself!” James said. “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!”
“I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police,” James continued. “I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer. it’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.”
The NBA did not punish James for his tweet targeting the Columbus police officer.