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Zlatan Ibrahimovic and LeBron James are global superstars with massive fan followings from across the world. Naturally, their recent war of words on social media has attracted plenty of attention from all over.
LeBron James has spent a significant amount of time in the recent past publicly addressing issues like police brutality and racism in the United States of America. Last week, current AC Milan and former Manchester United, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus star Zlatan Ibrahimovic singled out the NBA superstar for the same and said politics should be left out of sport.
“I like (James) a lot. He’s phenomenal, what he’s doing, but I don’t like when people with a status speak about politics. Do what you’re good at doing,” Ibrahimovic told Uefa and Discovery+ in Sweden.
“I play football because I’m the best playing at football, I don’t do politics. If I’d been a politician, I would be doing politics.
“This is the first mistake famous people do when they become famous: for me it is better to avoid certain topics and do what you’re good doing, otherwise you risk doing something wrongly.”
36-year-old LeBron James was quick to respond to criticism and comments from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and outright dismissed them. The NBA superstar stated that he would never shut up and that he will continue to preach about things that matter to him.
“I will never shut up about things that are wrong. I preach about my people and I preach about equality, social justice, racism, voter suppression – things that go on in our community,” LeBron James said.
“Because I was a part of my community at one point and saw the things that were going on, and I know what’s still going on because I have a group of 300-plus kids at my school that are going through the same thing and they need a voice," he added.
“I’m their voice and I use my platform to continue to shed light on everything that might be going on, not only in my community but in this country and around the world.”
LeBron James finished by claiming that he is someone who does his research before speaking and issued a warning to not just Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but also to anyone else who thought about going after him.
“I speak from a very educated mind. I’m kind of the wrong guy to go at, because I do my homework,” he said.
In response, Zlatan Ibrahimovic stood by his view and reiterated his opinion by saying:
"Athletes unite the world, politics divide it," he said. "Our role is to unite the world by doing what we do best. Athletes should be athletes and politicians should do politics."
Naturally, this war of words between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and LeBron James has elicited reactions from all around the world as people took to Twitter to express their views and opinions on the matter.
On that note, here is a look at some of the best tweets we found regarding the matter:
Zlatan Ibrahimovic vs LeBron James: Twitter explodes
It remains to be seen if this particular online battle will end here or if we will see another installment in the Zlatan Ibrahimovic vs LeBron James saga.
