O.J. Simpson slammed NBA star LeBron James on Thursday after King James targeted a Columbus police officer on Twitter following the shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant while she was attempting to stab others. James is facing major backlash after he tweeted on Wednesday an image of one of the officers at the scene of Bryant’s shooting with the caption: “YOU’RE NEXT #ACCOUNTABILITY.”
James deleted the tweet shortly after posting it and explained that he sent it out of “ANGER.”
Fox News reported on Simpson’s two-minute-long video to his Twitter where he began by saying that while he is a “fan” of the Los Angeles Lakers star and “admires” the work he’s done to advocate against social injustices, he believes James spoke prematurely on Tuesday’s officer-involved shooting.
“You can’t fight every battle. You gotta pick your battles,” Simpson said. “It’s a war that must be fought but sometimes you need to take your time and be a little more patient before you comment on some of these bad incidents that are happening with police departments. This one, LeBron should’ve waited.”
Simpson went on to say that he’s watched the full clip, which shows Bryant appearing to charge at another female with a knife before being shot.
“I’m a little upset with most of the media because they showed us edited versions of what took place with the girl with the knife,” he said. They made it sound as if it was another police officer overreacting and killing a young Black American. Well, from what I saw when I saw the full thing, the police had no choice. He responded … in that instant, if he hadn’t done what he did — it appeared to me another young American would’ve had her life taken.”
He continued: “I can’t fault what he did. I wish it was different but I can’t fault it.”
James was slammed by critics on social media who accused him of using his platform to incite violence against the officer to his nearly 50 million followers while seemingly suggesting that the shooting was unjustified.
