LeBron James Apologizes After Sharing Rapper’s Lyric About Jews And Money

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By Sam Sokol December 24, 2018

(JTA) — Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James has apologized in response to an outcry by Jewish groups following a social media post in which he appeared to endorse an anti-Semitic trope regarding Jews and money.

In a since-deleted post captured and shared by sports journalist Darren Rovell, James quoted lyrics of a song by 21 Savage in which the rapper sings “We been gettin’ that Jewish money, everything is Kosher (On God)” and then boasts about buying Lamborghini and Tesla cars.

“Apologies, for sure, if I offended anyone,” James told sports network 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.”

James also made waves this week when he compared NFL franchise owners to slavers, stating that “in the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality. And it’s like, ‘This is my team. You do what the f**k I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all.”

Correction, December 26: A previous version of this article stated that LeBron James compared NBA teamn owners to slave owners. In fact, he compared NFL team owners to slave owners.

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