Thursday, ESPN “First Take” co-host Max Kellerman defended Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James for his now-deleted “YOU’RE NEXT” tweet in response to the Ma’Khia Bryant shooting in Columbus, OH.
Although Kellerman acknowledged James jumped the gun in his tweet showing the image of the police officer involved, he said it “obviously” was not a call for violence. He added that politicians who are accusing James of inciting violence are either “stupid or corrupt.”
“First of all, LeBron’s tweet, let me be very clear about this, obviously means to anyone with even a below-average I.Q. and any semblance of education at all — like, you have to be living on another planet or not understand basic language to know what ‘you’re next’ means,” Kellerman emphasized. “Are we coming out of a situation where there was vigilante mob justice against police? No. We’re coming on a situation where a cop who murdered someone on camera was tried and convicted of all charges. So, obviously, clearly, duh. That is what LeBron is referring to. Number one, that is what he is referring to. And a politician who is would use this for political gain — or let me rephrase that. Politicians who instead would lead people to believe that what LeBron was doing was attempting to incite violence either suffer from extremely low comprehension or are lying to their constituents to curry political favor. One or the other. Stupid or corrupt, right? That’s what it is.”
He added, “[W]hat is happening now, it seems to me, Stephen A., it is that LeBron reacted before the facts were out, admitted that he did so, and now it is being used as a political football in bad faith. That is what seems to me to be happening.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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