LeBron James has apologized after an Instagram post that mentioned “Jewish money”.
The Los Angeles Lakers star regularly posts song lyrics to his Instagram account, and on Saturday he quoted asmr by 21 Savage, which includes the line “We been gettin’ that Jewish money, everything is kosher”.
Surprised LeBron, who makes very few mistakes, put this out. Does quoting lyrics from a song absolve the person quoting from the responsibility behind the words? I’d argue no, especially with a following of 45 million. pic.twitter.com/efv9gkXres
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) December 23, 2018
Business reporter Darren Rovell brought attention to the post and lyrics, which brings up an old stereotype surrounding Jewish people and materialism. James apologized for the post after his team’s game against the Memphis Grizzles on Sunday night.
“Apologies, for sure, if I offended anyone,” James told ESPN. “That’s not why I chose to share that lyric. I always [post lyrics]. That’s what I do. I ride in my car, I listen to great music, and that was the byproduct of it. So I actually thought it was a compliment, and obviously it wasn’t through the lens of a lot of people. My apologies. It definitely was not the intent, obviously, to hurt anybody.” He added that he thought the lyrics were a tribute to the strength of the Jewish community.
James is not expected to be fined by the NBA for the post but it is an embarrassing incident for someone who is a prominent voice on social issues. On Friday’s broadcast of his HBO discussion show, The Shop, he attacked the NFL’s ownership group. “In the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality,” James said. “And it’s like, ‘This is my team. You do what the fuck I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all.’”
