Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rips LeBron James over his stance on vaccination

LeBron James is walking on thin air once again. While he’s used to dealing with criticism for pretty much every single thing he does, this time some of his fans and biggest supporters around the NBA have also pointed the finger at him.

The thing is that LeBron didn’t want to encourage people to get the Covid-19 vaccine despite getting it himself. Most likely, he wanted to avoid controversy, but that’s just not the way it works with prominent figures such as him.

That’s why Los Angeles Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — who happens to be a big fan of LeBron, called him out by saying that he was wrong for not sharing his vaccination status to encourage others.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Says LeBron James Is Wrong For His Stance On Vaccination

“I’m a huge fan of LeBron James, both as one of the greatest basketball players ever and as a humanitarian who cares about social injustice. I have written his praises many times in the past and undoubtedly will in the future. I admire him and have affection for him. But this time LeBron is just plain wrong—and his being wrong could be deadly, especially to the Black community,” Kareem wrote.

“I think of the situation like those old fire brigades when people stood in a line passing buckets of water to save their neighbor’s house from burning to the ground. Maybe some people were afraid to join the line. But when the town leaders joined in, it encouraged others to do their duty. Today’s celebrities and athletes are like those town leaders. You either join the line to save your neighbor’s home, or you stand by and let it burn because you don’t owe them anything,” he added.

At the end of the day, it’s not like LeBron has an obligation to advertise the vaccine. But when you build a trajectory like his, you can’t help to wonder why he refused to speak up as he does with many other delicate subjects.