NBA News: Lakers Star Deletes Cryptic Tweet On Police Officer Who Shot Teen

LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers has been known to speak in mind, especially if it involves issues on race.

The 36-year-old, who is currently sidelined with an injury, recently responded to news about an Ohio police who shot and killed a 16-year-old girl named Makiyah Bryant.

Through bodycam footage, the Columbus police officer could be seen shooting the girl multiple times as she allegedly threatened another black woman with a knife.

But according to Ben Crump, the attorney for the George Floyd family, the teenager was unarmed.

James had originally tweeted “YOU’RE NEXT” with the hashtag “ACCOUNTABILITY.” The post drew mixed reactions, but the NBA superstar ended up deleting the tweet.

The multiple-time league champion put up a new one and explained why he decided to do so.

“I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because it's 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,” James’ Twitter post read.

It appears that James is aware that tweeting about such incidents is not addressing the issue of hate crimes. He clearly explained that in his social media post, stressing that the racism issue is not tied to only one officer.

This comes not long after the Las Vegas Raiders drew criticism for their social media post tied to the verdict on Derek Chauvin.

As mentioned in a previous article, Raiders’ owner Mark Davis apologized for any inconvenience that the tweet made but added that the post would not be taken down.

Like James, the Raiders’ post was not spared from divided criticism. Some believe that this is not the proper way to resolve the issue, pointing out that there is a lot of work to be done to address the racism issue.

One of those who was on point with this is four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka.

“I was going to make a celebratory tweet, but then I was hit with sadness because we are celebrating something that is clear as day,” Osaka wrote. “The fact that so many injustices occurred to make us hold our breath toward this outcome is really telling.”