LeBron James is arguably among the greatest players of all time in the history of the NBA. He has ruled the league for decades now. Despite being the oldest active player, James plays with the same level of zeal as he did during his debut game 20 years ago. However, he has recently found himself at the receiving end of a backlash after his video of sitting through the national anthem went viral.
The video was captured during LeBron’s son Bronny James’ most awaited USC debut. Notably, Bronny had a cardiac arrest back in July. Furthermore, he had to undergo surgery after he was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. The whole NBA world carefully watched and waited for Bronny’s recovery. This is largely because fans felt that his dream of making it to the league might fail.
WATCH: LeBron James sits during National Anthem
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 13, 2023
Furthermore, LeBron has spoken about how he would like to share the court with his two elder sons, Bronny and Bryce James. Ever since then, fans have been attentive to their life and journey. The USC debut was undeniably a ray of sunshine and everyone’s hopes are high again.
As much as LeBron as a father would have wanted Bronny to be the center of attention on such a big day, the opposite ended up happening. Firstly, the Lakers star’s hilarious interaction with Zhuri James went viral wherein fans had a field day. And now, his video of seemingly disrespecting the national anthem by sitting through has garnered mostly negative views on the internet.
Fans react to LeBron James sitting through the national anthem
The now-viral video was originally posted by Luca Evans who is a reporter at the Orange County Register. He posted it online and ever since then fans have been reacting to it. Evans later explained the real reason behind this, and yet fans only trolled him. In the video, LeBron James can be witnessed making an entrance while holding Zhuri‘s hands while the Star-Spangled Banner was being played.
As soon as James made an entrance, he sat on the chair and had his hat still on his head as well. This has resulted in outrage as fans found it extremely disrespectful. One of them tweeted, “What happened to patriotism and respect?” On similar lines, another said, “Shame on him! He should respect the flag of the country that made him so rich… and so insufferably entitled. Hope the fans will react…”
Furthermore, some of the fans were quick to draw an age-old comparison between Michael Jordan and LeBron James. One of them added a picture of Jordan standing during the national anthem and talked about how this is why he is the GOAT and will always be.
While a fraction of the fans stood with James as they talked about how all the other games where he was standing in respect, the majority of the fans’ reactions were outrage.