Ten days after LeBron James’ tweet-and-delete regarding the fatal police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, the NBA champion is owning up to his poor choice of words.
James made headlines after he tweeted out a photo of the officer who fatally shot Bryant and said YOU’RE NEXT #Accountability,” WKYC reports. The tweet came after James tweeted the word “ACCOUNTABILITY” in response to Derek Chauvin being found guilty of killing George Floyd. After leaving the tweets up for a few hours, James deleted the tweet and claimed it was being used to spread more hate.
On Monday, James returned to Twitter and admitted to sending out a poorly worded tweet after Bryant’s death. “I fueled the wrong conversation about Ma’Khia Bryant and I owe it to her and this movement to change it,” the four-time NBA MVP wrote. His tweet included a link to writer Fabiola Cineas’ Vox News article entitled “Why They’re Not Saying Ma’Khia Bryant’s Name.”
“Thank you @fabiolacineas for educating us about Ma’Khia and her story and why this needs to be about her. #sayhername #Blacklivesmatter,” James wrote before adding an additional tweet that read “Protect our Young Black Women & Men!”
James was under fire for his since-deleted tweet that included a photo of Nicholas Reardon, the officer who fatally shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant amid
her physical altercation with a group of young girls. In the aftermath of James’ tweet, the Akron native faced public scrutiny from conservative pundits and law enforcement officials who took issue with his message.Detective James McBride appeared on Fox News and called James a “hypocrite” who was “inciting violence…towards police officers.” There was also a union letter that asked NBA commissioner Adam Silver to launch an investigation into James’ tweets.
Disgraced NFL champion O.J. Simpson even called James out and told him he should have done more research before speaking too soon. But it looks like LeBron is taking accountability and turning the since-deleted tweet into a teachable moment.