LeBron James, the star forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, came under fire Sunday after he posted rap lyrics some have claimed are anti-Semitic.
James, 33, posted a line from rapper 21 Savage’s new song over the weekend on his Instagram account.
The lyrics, taken from the newly-released song “Asmr” off of the “I Am Greater Than I Was” album, read “We been getting that Jewish money, everything is Kosher.”
The post quickly drew criticism, and was later deleted from James’ account.
The Action Network sports reporter Darren Rovell chided James over the post, saying the fact that the line was taken from a song did not absolve James of responsibility for spreading it.
“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,” tweeted Rovell.
Just days earlier, James drew criticism for comparing sports team owners to Antebellum-era slave owners.
“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 f--- I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all.’ ”