NBA star LeBron James, disliked by many for his on-court flopping, obvious hubris, and woke politics, got brutally booed by the crowd at the Super Bowl last night when shown on the Jumbotron. As the crowd booed, “King James,” LeBron put an imaginary crown on his head. Watch the wild incident here:
LeBron James is shown on the Jumbotron at the Super Bowl and the fans boo him 🗣️#NBA pic.twitter.com/RwOjyA9ZUN
— 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧' 𝐍𝐁𝐀 (@_Talkin_NBA) February 13, 2023
Sports Illustrated, commenting on the incident, said:
LeBron James is used to being booed at arenas around the NBA.
On Sunday, he experienced the same while attending the Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. When he was shown on the Jumbotron during the game, the fans in Arizona began to boo.
James, who played for the Miami Heat from 2010-14, is no stranger to criticism, took the ribbing with ease. He responded by putting an imaginary crown on his head. The gesture was reference to his nickname of “King James.”
This isn’t the first time that LeBron has had to deal with hecklers recently. During a recent NBA game, a heckler mocked his receding hairline and LeBron stopped and glared at the fan before being hustled along by his security, as we reported, saying:
During the recent Clippers-Lakers game, which the Clippers won 133 to 115, a fan managed to trigger LeBron, king of the on-court flop, with a joke about his receding hairline. Watch that here:
LeBron James had to be held back because he was taunted over his hairline.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 26, 2023
As you can hear in the clip, the guy shouted “Hey Bron! Hey Bron! You better get this s*** together! With that receding-ass hairline!”
Continuing, the guy shouted, while laughing at his own joke, “Look, he mad! Look at him! You sick!”
LeBron then stopped and menacingly started toward the heckler before the security team stopped him and got him moving again, de-escalating the situation.
At least he didn’t try to get the booing fans kicked out of the game. At one NBA game he pointed to a booing fan and security was sent to remove the viewer. Lebron said, when asked about what happened “I mean nothing is uncomfortable for me, but there’s a difference between cheering on your home faithful, booing opponents and things of that nature or not wanting your opponents to be successful, and there’s then moments where it goes outside the line with obscene gestures and words that shouldn’t be tolerated in our game from nobody. I would never say it to a fan and a fan should never say it to a player.”
LeBron was one of the more outspoken athletes during the Brittney Griner saga. After the anthem-protesting WNBA player was locked up in Russia for smuggling drugs into the country, he said “Over 110 days, now how could she feel like America has her back? I would be feeling like, ‘Do I even want to go back to America?‘”
"*" indicates required fields
After facing some severe criticism for that anti-American comment, he backtracked a bit, saying “My comments on ‘The Shop’ regarding Brittney Griner wasn’t knocking our beautiful country. I was simply saying how she’s probably feeling emotionally along with so many other emotions, thoughts, etc inside that cage she’s been in for over 100+ days! Long story short #BringHerHome.”
By: Will Tanner. Follow me on Twitter @Will_Tanner_1
Featured image credit: screenshot from embedded video