“LeBron is just plain wrong” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar criticizes the LA Lakers superstar on vaccine stance

LeBron James has a new critic. Soon after Enes Kanter of the Boston Celtics said that he was very “disappointed” by LeBron’s statements about not advocating the COVID-19 vaccine, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came out and criticized LeBron for the same.

Kareem, the NBA’s record holder for most career points scored, penned an article on his personal website Kareem.Substack.com on Monday (October 4). In the article, he has flayed James because of the four-time NBA champion’s support for Draymond Green’s comments on player vaccination.

Green had come out in support of Golden State Warriors teammate Andrew Wiggins for not taking the vaccine for personal reasons.

“There is something to be said for people’s concerns about something that’s being pressed so hard,” Green said. “Why are you pressing this so hard? You have to honor people’s feelings and their own personal beliefs.”

LeBron James responded to Green’s comments, saying that he “couldn’t have said it better myself.” Kareem took a harsh view of LeBron’s statement. The six-time NBA champion wrote that actually LeBron couldn’t have said it any “worse”. Kareem wrote:

“I’m a huge fan of LeBron James… 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 explained the rationale behind his statements, saying:

“It appears that Draymond and LeBron are arguing for the American ideal of individual freedom of choice. But they offer no arguments in support of it, nor do they define the limits of when one person’s choice is harmful to the community. They are merely shouting, ‘I’m for freedom.’”

Kareem also added that Draymond’s argument that when people press hard for something, there is something obviously wrong, had “no logic”. He opined:

“If I press hard against institutional racism, if I press hard against police brutality, if I press hard against recent laws making it harder for minorities to vote, if I press hard against child porn, if I press hard in support of MeToo am I automatically wrong? On the contrary, the passion of those urging vaccines might suggest there’s some urgency to their opinion.”

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LeBron says it’s not his job to convince other players to take the vaccine

LeBron had initially neither denied nor confirmed whether he had taken the COVID 19 vaccine. But at the LA Lakers media day held last week, LeBron confirmed getting vaccinated. “I can speak about myself,” the Lakers star remarked.

“I think everyone has their own choice to do what they feel is right for themselves and their families. I know that I was very skeptical about it all, but after doing my research, I felt like it was best suited for not only me, but my friends. That's why I decided to do it.”

However, when pressed on the matter of advocating the vaccine to others in and outside the NBA, LeBron said that this was about individuals and their bodies. He said:

“You guys know me, anything I talk about, I don't talk about other people and what they should do. I speak for me and my family. That's what it's about. I know what I did for me and my family. I know what some of my friends did for their families. But as far as speaking for everybody and their individualities, and things they want to do, that's not my job.”