As the most polarizing and recognizable figure in sports, LeBron James attracts a lot of attention from fans — both good and bad.
On Wednesday night, we saw a bit of the latter from a “fan” on Instagram. In a disturbing and completely unnecessary post, an Insta user went into detail about his “plans” to shoot LeBron James in an upcoming game against the Nets.
“On Thursday, February 19th, I will be going to a Nets vs Lakers game. I will sneak this gun showed in the picture into the arena and shoot @kingjames in the head during a timeout. You have been warned @kingjames.”
https://twitter.com/KendrickPBurner/status/1346633606228279296
The post has since been deleted and the user has responded, calling the comment a “joke.”
“I’d like to publicly apologize for threatening LeBron AS A JOKE. I’ve come to realize things like these aren’t jokes and can be taken very seriously. I have over 500 requests after going private because someone posted it on Twitter. Y’all can hate on me all y’all want but I truly apologize and if I could go back in time and think before posting something like that I would.”
https://twitter.com/KendrickPBurner/status/1346665558356471808
Sometimes, the internet can get pretty toxic. In this case, there’s just no excuse for making a threat towards a player, no matter how much you might hate his game.
It’s good that the fan has apologized and he doesn’t seem to be serious in his threat. Still, it’s a reminder of just how dark things can get online…
