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Flashback: LeBron James Warned About The Impacts Of ‘What We Tweet’ Back In 2019

"Yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times, there are ramifications..."

   DailyWire.com
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

NBA star LeBron James came under fire on Wednesday when he tweeted — and deleted — a picture of the white Columbus, Ohio, police officer who shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant.

“YOU’RE NEXT. #ACCOUNTABILITY,” he tweeted with an hourglass emoji.

After receiving widespread pushback from users on Twitter, James followed up with two additional tweets, attempting to explain his initial post.

“ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself!” James tweeted in the first follow-up. “Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!”

“I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police,” the NBA player said in the second follow-up tweet. “I took the tweet down because its 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.”

The problem, however, is James failed to acknowledge Bryant was wielding a knife at another teenager when the officer arrived at the scene.

The officer responded to a 911 call from a distressed individual saying multiple women were attempting to stab her, The Daily Wire previously reported. Bodycam footage from the incident showed officers arriving to find Bryant wielding a knife at two girls, at which point the responding officer stepped in and fired his service weapon as Bryant appeared to be attempting to stab one of the victims.

“She came at her with a knife,” an officer said in the video.

Bryant was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead.

Even though James’ tweets were tone-deaf, the basketball player seemed to forget something he said in 2019: that Americans – especially celebrities – need to watch what they say on social media.

“We all talk about this freedom of speech. Yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others, when you only think about yourself,” James said in an interview at the time.

He was referring to a tweet Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey posted in support of Hong Kongers demanding autonomy from China.

According to James, Morey “wasn’t educated” on what was taking place in China and Hong Kong.

“I don’t want to get into a word or a sentence feud with Daryl, with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke. So many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually,” he said.

James did, however, make one thing clear: freedom of speech is a powerful tool that can bring “a lot of negative” along with it.

“So just be careful what we tweet, what we say, what we do, even though, yes, we do got freedom of speech, there can be a lot of negative that comes with it too,” he concluded.

Where was LeBron’s “care” when he sent his initial tweet targeting the officer? He clearly knew he had clout, especially with supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, when he sent the tweet. His goal was to use his influence to reach NBA fans — and Americans as a whole — when he made it known the officer would be “next” to be prosecuted. There’s no way he posted those tweets to his almost 50 million followers without knowing he would ruffle feathers.

What James said in 2019 applies to the Ma’Khia Bryant situation as well. Blue check marks on Twitter are sounding off on how wrong the officer was for using lethal force. They paint Bryant as a “peaceful” 16-year-old who loved to do her hair and makeup, but they conveniently leave out the most important piece of the story: that she was going after another teenager… with a knife. 

These reporters, athletes, activists, and other influential people are talking about the Ma’Khia Bryant case but they’re not providing all the facts surrounding the case. They’re not using their freedom of speech in an informed way. And, the result of that, is there’s a “negative” that James warned about. In this case, an officer is being targeted in an arguably justifiable shooting. And it’s likely impacting the cop not just “financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually.”

Beth Baumann is a Political Reporter and Editor at The Daily Wire. Follow her on Twitter @eb454.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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