{"id":1390974,"date":"2021-07-26T20:06:29","date_gmt":"2021-07-27T00:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1390974"},"modified":"2021-07-26T20:06:30","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T00:06:30","slug":"feeling-blah-over-basketball-at-olympics-lebron-james-fault-columnist-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/feeling-blah-over-basketball-at-olympics-lebron-james-fault-columnist-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeling Blah Over the Basketball at the Olympics? It\u2019s LeBron James\u2019 Fault, Columnist Says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Skip Bayless needs to step up his <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/tag\/lebron-james\/\">LeBron James<\/a> hate game. He\u2019s not the only media personality capable of finding fault in anything the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/los-angeles-lakers-now-worth-5-5-billion-after-dodgers-owners-buy-part-of-team\/\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> great does. Former ESPN and Fox Sports columnist and talk show host <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/jason-whitlock-nails-bombshell-story-espn-maria-taylor-rachel-nichols-8-words\/\">Jason Whitlock<\/a> one-upped his former colleague on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whitlock observed, probably not incorrectly, that the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/lebron-james-wont-play-tokyo-olympics-plans-suit-up-team-michael-jordan\/\">Tokyo Olympics<\/a> men\u2019s basketball tournament is a snoozefest for many U.S. fans. He assigned the blame to James with the deft touch of Magic Johnson threading a pass through two defenders to David Robinson on a Dream Team fast break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And you know what? Whitlock\u2019s case is a stretch but doesn\u2019t sound completely preposterous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-jason-whitlock-has-a-history-of-going-after-lebron-james\"><strong>Jason Whitlock has a history of going after LeBron James<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"963\" src=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/LeBron-James-11.jpg?w=1024&#038;h=657&#038;strip=all&#038;quality=89\" alt=\"Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James attends the premiere of Warner Bros 'Space Jam: A New Legacy' at Regal LA Live on July 12, 2021, in Los Angeles. | Matt Winkelmeyer\/WireImage\/Getty Images\" class=\"wp-image-1390976\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/LeBron-James-11.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/LeBron-James-11.jpg?w=300&amp;h=193 300w, https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/LeBron-James-11.jpg?w=768&amp;h=493 768w, https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/LeBron-James-11.jpg?w=1024&amp;h=657 1024w, https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/LeBron-James-11.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=770 1200w, https:\/\/sports7.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/LeBron-James-11.jpg?w=93&amp;h=60 93w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><figcaption>Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James attends the premiere of Warner Bros &#8216;Space Jam: A New Legacy' at Regal LA Live on July 12, 2021, in Los Angeles. | Matt Winkelmeyer\/WireImage\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When last we saw Whitlock commenting on James, he was putting the future Hall of Famer on blast this spring. James had tweeted out a picture of the Columbus, Ohio, police officer who shot one Black female teen to stop her from stabbing another Black female teen. He captioned it with, &#8220;You\u2019re next. #ACCOUNTABILITY.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James deleted the tweet and backtracked. &#8220;This isn\u2019t about one officer,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.\u2019&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whitlock called James out for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/whitlock-calls-out-lebron-james-for-selective-outrage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">selective outrage<\/a> for not speaking out about the violent deaths of other Black children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-lebron-james-is-not-playing-in-the-tokyo-olympics\"><strong>LeBron James is not playing in the Tokyo Olympics<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">American indifference to basketball and the Olympics falls at the feet of one man. LeBron won&#39;t be remembered the way we remember Ali, Jordan and Magic. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1KlvWUeCSL\">pic.twitter.com\/1KlvWUeCSL<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Jason Whitlock (@WhitlockJason) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhitlockJason\/status\/1419784136722632704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 26, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>James has done more than his share for Team USA, winning a bronze medal at Athens in 2004 and then golds in Beijing and London in the next two Olympics. At 36 years old and having played out the recent NBA season following a high ankle sprain, going to Tokyo was unrealistic regardless of whether there was a movie to promote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Whitlock\u2019s issue with James and the Olympics goes back to well before the United States\u2019 83-76 loss to France to open pool play this weekend. And it\u2019s more than an Olympics issue. Whitlock is charging James with crimes against American basketball in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI mostly feel indifferent. I don't care,\u201d he wrote for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblaze.com\/op-ed\/lebron-james-team-usa-olympics-whitlock\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Blaze<\/a>. \u201cThat's probably good news for our passionless Olympic men's basketball team. They're under no pressure to bring home the gold. No one cares. We just don't want to see our multi-millionaire athletes on the medal stand performing some sort of George Kaepernick Floyd publicity stunt under the pretense of protesting injustice. If that means finishing in second, third, or fourth place in these Olympics, so be it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe don't care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-jason-whitlock-lays-out-his-case\"><strong>Jason Whitlock lays out his case<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Whitlock and Broussard: A heated debate over LeBron&#039;s comments about race | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6YKu8_TkgZ0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>NBC didn\u2019t help matters by putting the game against France on Peacock, its new streaming service, instead of its over-the-air network. But the indifference that Whitlock says grips average Americans goes back to James, beginning with his abandoning Cleveland twice, first for Miami and then Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe symbolizes former commissioner David Stern's vision of the superstar being more important than the team, the individual brand taking precedence above The Logo and even the American flag,\u201d Whitlock wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From there, Whitlock, himself a Black male, went after James for his social activism, which he connects to a hatred of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt's not all LeBron's fault. He's just the face of the me-first, social media athlete,\u201d Whitlock wrote. \u201cHe decided to wrap himself in the Black Lives Matter flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cHe gets the lion's share of the blame because he's the one athlete who could have made a difference pushing back against the anti-American tide. Instead, he sold out. He accepted all the checks for lending his name to bad TV projects and political campaigns built on race-baiting.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether the public buys what he alleges or not, Whitlock sees a dismal fate ahead for James.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe also won't be exalted as a competitor and champion the way we revere Michael Jordan. Not by sports fans, at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen the Left is done using King James, his sycophants and propagandists will discard him and fetishize the next useful idiot identified by their paymasters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is that a bit over the top on Whitlock\u2019s part? Undoubtedly. But it\u2019s hard to argue that there isn\u2019t apathy out there that would exist whether the United States was sitting at 0-1 or 1-0 in Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Agree or disagree, Whitlock is on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhitlockJason\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a> if you want to express your own take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Like <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Sports7dotcom\/\"><em>Sports7<\/em><\/a><em> on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sports719\"><em>@sports719<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/lebron-james-has-officially-become-nba-first-billion-dollar-man\/\">LeBron James Has Officially Become the NBA\u2019s First Billion Dollar Man<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jason Whitlock has once again gone after LeBron James, this time connecting him to the indifference toward basketball by American fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":1390975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4898],"tags":[4828,11071,236608],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Feeling Blah Over the Basketball at the Olympics? It\u2019s LeBron James\u2019 Fault, Columnist Says - Sports7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jason Whitlock has gone all out in his latest attack on LeBron James, blaming him for ruining basketball for American sports fans.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/feeling-blah-over-basketball-at-olympics-lebron-james-fault-columnist-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feeling Blah Over the Basketball at the Olympics? 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John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.\",\"sameAs\":[\"\",\"Sports7J\",\"john-moriello-1a11743\",\"\",\"\"],\"jobTitle\":\"John Moriello | Sports7 Staff Writer, Producer - Motorsports\",\"email\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Feeling Blah Over the Basketball at the Olympics? 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