Athletes and Twitter

A popular social media network among athletes which is symbolized by a little bird is Twitter. It is fitting that a bird is its symbol considering that all any athlete does on Twitter is chirp and then claim they didn’t do it. The most recent athlete to make that claim is one of the self-proclaimed heetles LeBron James.

The Cavaliers who have had one of the worst stretches in a long time (if it wasn’t for a decent start we would be talking about them setting the NBA record for fewest wins in a season) got absolutely destroyed by the Los Angeles Lakers scoring a franchise low 57 points. Before the game ended a tweet from the account of LeBron James said, “Crazy. Karma is a b*****. Gets you every time. It’s not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!” The tweet seemed to send a jab to the entire Cleveland organization especially owner Dan Gilbert who acted as a little child when LeBron chose Miami over Cleveland (even though he was free to choose).
Someone like LeBron who has many followers has the unfortunate circumstance that he can’t just hurry and delete a tweet because thousands of people are going to have already read it and the controversy will have begun. His most recent tweet has caused a lot of people to scratch their heads and try to decipher who the tweet was intended for. Was it for the owner? The organization? The players? Only LeBron will ever know.

When confronted about it before the Heat played the Clippers Wednesday night James claimed the comment never came from him and that someone sent it to him and he then sent it out. Twitter has confirmed that it was not a retweet. So unless that mystery person sent it to him in a text or email or called him then the tweet came from LeBron and he needs to man up about it. James claims that he has moved on from the whole situation, if he truly has moved on then he would have not tweeted regardless of who said it first. By tweeting last night he just showed that he is not moving on and for some weird reason still holds a grudge even though his team has been playing magnificent as of late. LeBron needs to man up and tell the truth instead of claiming it wasn’t him.

It seems to happen a lot among NBA players, where they tweet something and then say it didn’t come from them. Then who did it come from? Why does someone else have access to your account? It is from your Twitter account then it comes from you regardless of whether or not you said it. If you let it get posted then you agree with it. Athletes act as if they are invincible until something is said that stirs up controversy and then suddenly they had nothing to do with it.

Recent Update:

Well it looks as though karma has made its way back to LeBron. James who is now listed as day to day sprained his left ankle in their game against the Clippers Wednesday night. He did have an x-ray which showed no damage but he will take it day to day (maybe the karma tweet was geared towards himself). When asked about his injury James said, “I don’t have to be a hero in the regular season if I’m not close to 100 percent.” That comment can also be a jab at the Cavs, seeming that they were only a force while he played there. With the Cavs, James would play regardless of what percent he was feeling at. LeBron needs to accept his new NBA role as a villain. He lost a lot of fans when and how he left for and took his talents to South Beach. LeBron knows he is not as liked anymore and he needs to confront it and accept it. There is nothing wrong with being a villain, if anything it is an automatic motivating force. If LeBron truly believes in karma then he better watch out for what he has coming with his recent tweet.

All athletes need to stand up and be men for what they think and say. Who cares if they say something controversial? It makes things interesting and more fun. They need to stop worrying about their reputation, because we all know they are 100 percent different off the court in the things they do in their own time and how they act.

Now for LeBron, stop trying to be a goodie good and accept your role as a villain.