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LeBron James is facing a huge backlash after he shared support for Kyrie Irving and called for his suspension by quashed.
The 37-year-old Los Angeles Lakers star has said that the five-game ban, without pay, given to Brooklyn Nets guard Irving was "excessive" and urged basketball authorities to end the punishment early.
Irving was suspended when he met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Tuesday, and he reportedly refused to say that he had no antisemitic beliefs.
Silver described Irving as making a "reckless decision" to share a link on Twitter to a film that contains antisemitic material.
Irving eventually deleted the tweet and issued an apology on his Instagram page, but Silver was upset that it took so long for it to happen.
At that time, LeBron shared his thoughts on the controversy, and he was not in Irving's camp at that point.
When asked about Kyrie's controversy, LeBron replied: "I don't condone any hate. To any kind, any race...What Kyrie did caused some harm to a lot of people...I don't respect it."
It would seem that a week later he was changing his tune a little and he took to Twitter to say that he thinks that Irving should be given a break and that his suspension should be quashed.
LeBron tweeted on Thursday: "I told you guys that I don't believe in sharing hurtful information. And I'll continue to be that way but Kyrie apologized and he should be able to play. That's what I think. It's that simple. Help him learn - but he should be playing.
"What he's asked to do to get back on the floor I think is excessive IMO. He's not the person that's being portrayed of him. Anyways back to my rehab session."
With Twitter seemingly allowing blue ticks to be bought by unverified accounts since it was sold to Elon Musk, there were some that had to double check that it wasn't a fake account sharing the sentiments, but the star's 54 million followers seem to agree this was the real deal.
One Twitter user wrote: "I had to check like 8 times if this was the real account."
With much anger being poured in the direction of LeBron James, there were many who urged the NBA star to think twice about continuing to play.
They tweeted: "We're not reading this, just retire please."
Others were unhappy at how long it took for Irving to say sorry and the reasons why he did it at all.
One angry basketball fan tweeted: "As a Jewish Nets fan he did apologize but not the first opportunity not the second opportunity but after he was suspended so to me he only did it because he was getting suspended."
Another added: "I'm Jewish and this ain't it LeBron. @KyrieIrving hurt me & my community and so have you with this tweet. I'm devastated & can't breathe. Please apologize & delete this."
While there has been much upset and anger about Irving having the five-game suspension and whether it should have been longer, the Nets have been slowly turning their season around in his absence.
After a stuttering start, they have won three of the four games that Irving has missed. With them wanting him to complete some work to ensure that he can make more informed decisions on social media in the future, it could be that he misses more games than his initial suspension.
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